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WESTERN ATTACK.

A WINTRY ASPECT. ENEMY ATTACKS ON FRENCH FAIL. Aus and N.Z. Cable Assoc, and Reuter. Received Dee. 27. 0.50 p.m. London, Dec. 20. Sir Douglaß Haig reports: Hostile artillery lias been active in the neighborhood of Vimy and Havrincourt, east of Yprcs. Snow has fallen on the whole of the front. A French communique states: On the right of the Meuse, despite a violent bombardment, the enemy double attack on our positions at Oaurieres Wood failed. NEW ZEALANDERS IN PARIS. A REMARKABLE SIGHT. Paris, Dec, 26. Many New Zealanders spent Xmas in Paris, The newly-established English Leave Club provided the utmost hospitality, English girls acting as guides. It was a remarkable sight when twenty colonial troopers appeared in the Bois de Boulogne with two girl .riders leading. THE CAILLAUX AFFAIR. JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS BEGIN. Paris, Dee. 20. The judicial proceedings in connection with the Caillaux affair began on Monday on. two counts of exchanging intelligence witlh an enemy organisation for the purpose of destroying France's alliances. INTENSE ARTILLERY FIRE. London, Dee. 26. A wireless German official message says that artillery fire is intense southeastward of Ypres and in the neighborhood of Moeuvres and Marcoiug. "NOTHING TO REPORT." \ London, Dec. 26. Sir Douglas Haig says that there is nothing to report. SAFETY IN FRANCE. i IMMENSE SUBTERRANEAN REFUGEES. WHERE 1000 MEN CAN LIVE AT ' EASE. "Forty feet underground you're safe against all shells, except, perhaps, the giant 17-inch, which, are as big as a man, two tons, of steel and high explosive, and make a hole in the ground as big as a house : but they'll never burst in.the roof of this place!" '•Why?" I asked. '■' Because it is sixty feet underground or thereabouts, with fifty feet of solid earth and rock above it! The Germans dug it for themselves and we are copying it aa a model." He who spoke was a sergeant who haa been everywhere up and down the front, and "this place" was one of the deepest and probably the most vast and solid, of the immense subterranean refuges which the Germans abandoned in their retreat, writes a correspondent in the Chicago Tribune. It is extraordinary!

Deep, deep,.down broad cement steps (easy to rush up or down, for safety or attack), great underground open into each other in long suites. They have vaulted roofs, heating and ventilating apparatus, and wall decorations —fresI coes which must have cost months of artistic preparations, and disclose the way that German troops, by thousands', actually lived down here, under furious bombardment, in gaiety andj safety. There was a beer hall (brasserie), a concert or cabaret, and sleeping dormitories, dining halls and kitchens. A thousand men could live at ease down there, play cards, chat over music, take in shows, smoke cigarettes, snooze, meditate, take books from the library while killing time. And perhaps 3000 men could pack in, a djjy at a time, without great inconvenience, and breathe pure air from motor pumped ventilators while the earth above them fairly rocked beneath a hell of shell fire!

Later it was up broad steps like these that the German troops rushed with their portable machine-guns—to raov down tfte infantry and certain French advances. French and British have profited by the experience. GERMAN MANIA FOR TUNNELS. The Germans have a perfect mania for j underground and concrete. At Lens [even the sewers were enlarged and coucreted. Above them (and communicating with them by cunning secret ways) the cellars of houses after houses, cellars of old time, already deep, originally strong, were revaulted by reinforced concrete. Modern brewery vaults, ancient wine cellars 'hewed in limestone, drains and old abandoned coal mines were found bolstered up with ferro-concrete. The German troops were safe in them; yet thßy surrendered—when surrounded by numbers and threatened with bombs. "It's another matter when you are surrounded!' 1 says my sergeant. General Sixt von Arnim gave an order found ot prisoners: "Henceforth the strength of German defence must be in the concealment of fighting forces!" "The war is getting to be like a moving picture mystery thriller, full of secret passages, miles long, and subterranean chambers," says my sergeant. "Do you know on what pretext the Germans wrecked and flooded the coal mines of Lens? They claimed that the natives were communicating through them with the British army eight miles distant and were clearing wide passages from mine to mine for a British infantry surprise in their rear I" At the same time the whole affair has become so business-like, so scientific, commercial and industrial in its methods that it rejoices fjlie American heart. General Persliing, it is published, has given orders for "eighty steam rollers," •270,000 shovels, 300,000 picks, 135 miles of piping, 50,000 rolls of felt lining material (against dampness), 80,000 stoves, thousands of power pumps, stationary engines, electric ventilating fans, and steam heat apparatus. What we are not told about is the arrival in France of mysterious excavating machines, results pf American mining and subway experi-

ciice and mgenuity, adapted to mysterious uses. " Even, the trenches, at the beginning of the trench war uf the Aisnc, were accidentally constructed, so to speak. The Germans were away ahead. The French know nothing about trench excavators, but scratched the earth with picks and shovels. Neither side fully appreciated the coming role of heavy artillery and the need of deep underground shelters which Would result therefrom. The Germans (scientific killers by profession) developed these deep shelters long ahead. The French had to learn what they were —by storming German lines and seeing one, hero and there, with their own eyes. It cost them dear! To-day it. is all systematised. To-day if a French general, either for attack or defence, mind you, demands subterranean shelters on certain spots of the front capable of preserving a great number of men against violent bombardment, the work does not depend exclusively on his military engineers—although these latter are, naturally, responsible for the most part of their organisation. No. the general just gives his orders. The French authorities have created a special department, which is always reajy to pierce, excavate, and solidify with ferro-cement, swiftly, as soon as demanded, and on no matter what point of the front, as many of the exact kinds of subterranean shelters as the general in chief shall call for.

It is like giving an order to a great contracting firm jfor 20,000 tents, or 500,000 shells, or 2000 packing cases of tinned beef or raincoats. They are practically contracting firms of professional sxeavators and cementers. When the order- is given the department takes the work in hand with its giant power excavators, hydraulic piercers and flushers, narrow gauge tracks and cars for the removal of dirt and rock, and blasting sticks to hurry it nil along 1 ! They they get busy with their iron rods and cement, their wooden and metal girders, lav the water pipes, electric light, "id telephone, install the ventilators, and Ml is ready for the kitchens, stoves, Beets, and tables for the troops to play poker while waiting. WORK DONE ON BIG SCALE. I This department has existed for nearly a year back, but only recently has it been permitted to speak of its work. Every month its machines have become perfected. Digging with pick and shovel (always necessary) is reduced to a minimum; and even the loading of narrow gauge cars with excavated dirt and rock is automatic.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19171228.2.24.9

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1917, Page 5

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,235

WESTERN ATTACK. Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1917, Page 5

WESTERN ATTACK. Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1917, Page 5

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