FROST GRIP ON THE WESTERN FRONT.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 March 1918, Page 6

FROST GRIP ON THE WESTERN FRONT.

PATROL WORK IN THE SNOW. A TELL-TALE DIARY. Correspondents' Headquarters, British Army, France, December 23.

Following on a very brief spell oi slushir.ess, the frost lias closed down again with a more intense grip than ever. One of the chief difficulties of this frigid weather lies in maintaining the supply of fresh water in the fighting line. All troop movements on both side! are restricted for the reason that tin carpeting of snow furnishes such good field of disclosure to both ground and aerial observers. To move a sistglc gun means creating a track as well tiefined as a roadway. To fire, the most skilfully camouflaged howitzer is tc blast a large patch on the glistening surface, which ab once gives away the hiding-place of the weapon. Therefore no shooting lias been indulged in by either side which was no well worth the risk of challenging connter:battery work. Indeed, most of the activity has been confined to the patrol which have occasionally come into eontact while crunching through the snow

Another recent incident has boon the bringing down of a German aeroplane with its officer pilot, who was slightly wounded. He states that he and five other officers started out on a joy-ride. In the haze caused by the frost he lost his way, as also did his companions, from whom he parted company. In order to try and ascertain his whereabouts he flew low. and a bullet struck his petrol tank and ricochetted into his leg.

|i He planed to earth, and sprawled out. JHU comments showed more irritability

i than philosophy. It certainly was rather a poor ending to a joy-ride. A SOLDIERS DIARY. The following extracts from a diary found upon the body of a warrant officer gives a fair idea of the morale of the German troops in Flanders. As the man was a candidate for a commis- ! sion, it may he presumed that he wrote | with a certain sense of responsibility:— i I "On December l,"he says, "We pa- j raded before the battalion commander, I who kept us in the bitter cold for an j hour to listen to his babbling. In the | afternoon we went forward. As we knew we were destined for the most contested bit of Flanders—Passchcndaele —a peculiar mood seized hold of j lis; some of us were tipsy with the tea with alcohol, and some full of the fear of death. "That night wc were put in an out-of-the-way farmhouse, the wealthy i owner of which had apparently just left in great haste. The next morning we all got orders to go further forward once more into ruined barns in the bitter cold. En route we met wounded of the division on the left, who told us that the English had attacked in the morning. We were alarmed and shuddered. At li in the evening, the barrage began and at 7 we were warned by telephone tliat a counter-attack without arj tillery preparation would be made. .This did not take place. Next day I went forward. The further wo went the more miserable became. "On arrival at our destination "ire quarrelled with the- 4th Company regarding accommodation- The night previous a dug-out had been hit and one officer and eight men killed. The company-sergeant-major of the company in support was killed with horror. His company had to counter-attack in full davlight. "Heard that our battalion is to go into the front line to-night. Heard from Lieutenant X that the sth Company was in front, 14 men all told, supported by the Battalion. Heard that fh6

* • '■ * r ' ' '" English had broken in and got behind the sth Company. At 9.30 p.m. our company could not oeupy the advanced posts, as there were too few men." Under date of December 4, the writer says: "The position is better than the •Honlthulst Forcgt, drier, bui just as sinister- It reeks of. battle and blood. Only the dead of yesterday and the day before are around bootless and Bockless. : There is more firing here tiian in the i Houlthulst Forest sector, and less pro- | teetion. Relief is to come on the sth at midnight." "On the 6th we are in shelters, and I were relieved at 11.15. ' On the way back an artillery officer brought us the news, 'Break through near Rheims, 90,000 French prisoners.' It was not true." j A note written on December 10 runs: "I go every day to F's grave. In the cemetery, v/hicb is only eight weeks old, there are 818 graves . from four days' i battle. Almost half of them from the ' 2nd and 3rd days of December. What .it must have cost us! Some lie un- ! buried since November."