WAR NEWS BY MAIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 240, 19 March 1915, Page 7

WAR NEWS BY MAIL.

GLORY OF THE TRIHCHEja. Al A'!-:XT '.AiniY. NOTHING LIKF. OLPKN WAR. (T'uies anil Sydney Sun Services). London, March 10. A Time-, correspondent who had nitulc his iir-t visit, to the front writes: "Never before has there been such lighting as that in which the I'.ritisli Ar.oy h:t i pla ye.l sucli a glorious part round Ypres. "Never before was an army worthier of its dest/ny of forging the history of the world.

"It is not the old type of war, the l.rauciag -deeds, leisurely sieges, and the suspensions of operations in winter. It is dud \et it is a more glorious war ill the mud trenches, where a. man lias not only other men as foes, but Nature herself.

■•Willi cold blasts, snow, _ rain-laden clouds turning tlio trenches into canals, and the countryside into a bog, Sir John French welcomed a party of six British correspondents. In the glad eircumstaneis now made possible, journalists can IUIW see something of our armies in the field.

•'lt is not spectacular work, ITead•iimrtrr* bears the same relation to tlie oncrntions ill the field as the deliberations of the boardroom to the clangor „f -Viie workfliop. * 'Hie stair include every imaginable manifestation of human aetivity and intelligence—financier omdnoers, cartographers, flight* ! liotographers, transport managers, Oxfni'd ilnns. linguists, detectives, men from (lie diobimatlc service, journalists. and historians. "T was parlieularly impressed by the -m-cess and tlioroKglraess of the Royal I'ly'ng Corps, whose storehouses were r 'Vd with every imaginable spare part. Tailors, cross-legged, were stitching \vin!.r boles, electricians were fitting the wireless apparatus, and mechanics were adjusting tlio guns."

ARTILLERY'S IMPORTANCE. Ficivrs i'OU gun positions. TAKING CKIIXtAX TRENCHES. isini.i.iAXT British ATTACK. (Times and Sydnev Sun Services.) Tlie official Press Bureau has issued a farther narrative by Eye-witness, who_ iu dealing with recent events, writes: — "tin Saturday, some snipers posts were destroyed by our guns. The enemy's efforts at sapping have been cheeked by bomb-throwing and other offensive methods. In those eases where a-few of the enemy have succeeded in establishing themselves in line, with our trenches 'liev have s|retched wire-netting across the top of the trench, and have fixed it aslant, so that the. bombs will roll off. It may be imagined that life under such conditions must mean for the occupants of a narrow evacuation, within a few vnvds of the enemy and under a perpetual rain oj high explosives.

SUNDAY MORNING EXPLOIT. "Early on Sunday morning a battalion in the vicinity of St. Eloi delivered a brilliant attack on the German trenches. It then proceeded to fill them in and render them useless. "While doing' this another British party advanced up to the communication trenches, repelling all the enemy's efforts to interfere with the work of destruction. When the demolition was complete, the men retired, theN whole operation taking fl&out 20 minutes.

"The troops are effecting a great improvement in the trenches by employing sign-post* as warnings against snipers. Very often a kind of sporting element burn of professional rivalry, enters into a contest in sniping. "A great many of the attacks that are undertaken by both sides at tills stage of tlie Avar have as tlieir object the capture, of rising ground wliich will enable one side to command and overlook the other. The infantry does not desire a commanding 'position, but lor an artillery action it is of the utmost importance to gain a position whence the enemy's trenches, batteries, and communications are observable.

VAST EXI'EXDITURE OF AMMUNITION.

"The effect of artillery war is so great that it would ue almost true to say that in many cases infantry arc used mure as a screen for the guns than for anything else. 'All offensive action is dependent for success upon the sustained, intensely accurate fire of the artillery, necessitating a vast expenditure in ammunition. "A prisoner who was captured conlirms the demoralisation of the Germans at Gulnclly, and also the suspicions entertained against the troops in that quarter. lie stated emphatically that they had been ordered not to take English prisoners. . "COD I.'UNISII ENGLAND." "Tiie efforts made to incite, them against us succeeded so well that the I Dicers and men now evince their detestation of ns by formally saluting one another with the pllrase, "Cod punish England!" "The Germans have less bread. The civil population behind the German lines live in a state of abject servitude. They are compelled to mend roads, dig entrenchments, and thresh corn, for which they are paid with ration tickets entitling t.liem to draw army rations. Without this they would starve, for all foodstuffs have been commandeered." E\e-Witncss adds that the German recruits suffer from swollen feet, and that the older soldiers have a poor opinion of the new recruits.