ECHOES OF THE WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 309, 29 December 1915, Page 8

ECHOES OF THE WAR.

STORIES FROM BATTLEFIELDS. ESCAPE AND RECAPTURE. The following narrative is taken from the letters of a British officer prisoner of war in Germany, who, in company with two French officers, attempted unsuccessfully to escape a little while ago. The letters were written from the for- , tress in which, after recapture, this officer was a-waiting his trial: — "We got past both lines of wire fence; and the sentries on the afternoon oi Sunday, August 29 v and concealed ourselves in the reeds on the banks of the Weser until nightfall. We then marched till 1 a.m. the next day, halted.- till 4 a.m., and moved on again till 7 a.m. when we hid in a forest. This was continued throughout 25 days, marching during the hours of darkness by com pass, and concealing ourselves during daylight in forests and woods. "The weather for the first five days was terribly wet, and we were nevci dry. The last three nights were frosty and, as we had only one blanket between the three of u s we felt the cold much. In spite of cold and rain I only had fcvei ■once, but one of my comrades was de lirious one night. We carried all out food with us, so you may imagine i( was not much—a little sugar, a smal piece of chocolate, and a soup tablet (divided between us) was our dai:j ration, and every second day we divided a tin of meat or chicken. Unfortunatelj the rain of the first five days destroyed a lot of our chocolate and sugar, and all my "biscuits. "We were a bit weak after two wcekt of it, and towards the end marching was a real trial. Water was also a diffi cult}, and on two days we had none. Or the night of September 22 there was -a bright moon, but we could not delay oin attempt to pass the frontier, as we onlj •had one tin of food, a small piece oi chocolate, and about lib of sugar re maining. "We avoided all villages and houses and when we used roads at night, we hid on the approach of people or vehicles This continual hiding from all humai beings was a great mental strain. Dur ing the last march we avoided even road and track and dwelling, but, it spite of this, we were surprised by a patrol on a moorland and recaptured oi September 22. We thought when recap tured that we were four kilometres fron the frontier, but the guard told us we were only about 200 yards! Our mis take -was due to our map, which wa; practically useless, being of so small a scale. The distance between our start ing place and the frontier in a straight line was about 220 kilometres, but witl detours, etc., we must have covered wel 1 over 300 kilometres. Sometimes we onlj moved at the rate of less than one kilo metre an hour. This was especially the case during our march on the night o: September 21. when we only coverec seven kilometres in eight hours, th< march being in deep sand, swamp, am forest. "The frontier guard treated u s witl every consideration, as also the governo of the civil prison at the frontier town where we spent 24 hours. We wen allowed into the restaurant a.t the rail way station at.Benthcim on our return and I don't think I have ever iieen s< ravenously hungry. "It is impossible to sit down here am do nothing When one's country is fight ing for existence. We made our effor —the utmost possible—and failed."

'■''- '; THE / ;'• * , V One of the German, war'correspondents ."with the . Turkish, army at" the Dardanelles gives the following picture of the •Turkish soldicT — . . , . . "The Turkish soldier, as I saw. him and as'he was described,to mc hy German officers,,is-a- quiet and brave man, easy 1 to lead under good leadership. Above : all,'.he is a fatalist. His belief is kismet, i as they say in Germany, or 'Kader,' as . the Khalif of all the faithful ones called it in my presence. So strong is his ' fatalism, so strong is his belief in the ' decree of unalterable destiny, that at - the beginning of the war no power could drive him into the trenches. He was accustomed to stand in the open field, I and simply a waited for tho unrolling of 1 the scroll of fate. It is therefore not - surprising that he should build his > trenches even to-day in a lethargic men--1 ncr, and heavy losses were caused at the I beginning: of the war in the Dardanelles , on account of this antipathy to taking . cover. ; "That the Turkish soldier, as has been - sa.id.is only good in defence b untrue. • On many occasions his attack has been so fierce that even English discipline has not been able to stand up against his 5 bayonet in the last four months. r Althottjrh the Turk makes Gotl partly ': responsible for what happens in an at- , tack, he is always anxious to assist the I I Deity. The hatred which the Germans I feci for the English, who are the least "! loved of their seven foes, is shared by : \ the Turks. The Frenchman puts him i into a rage, but he hates the Englishman." [ "BRINGING DOWN THE WORLD." • An Italian military critic who has I been investigating German military [ strategy during the war. has come to the conclusion that the German general 3 staff must fight henceforth without any 3 sort of programme. He thus advances his arguments. Geri many has fought with the. sole object of ! conquering and occupying territory, but f during fifteen months she has attained r no serious objective, and, abfcve all, -she f has not been able to strike one blow . at her principal adversary, England. All the German successes are but , Pyrrhic victories, and in her efforts to j obtain them she has only exhausted herj self. Her expedition to the Balkans is ~ | an act of folly prompted by desperation. J Knowing she cannot save herself, Gerj i many is carrying the flaming brand a wherever she can. She understands she t must perish, and before her own destrucx j tion she aims at bringing it upon th>: . I entire world. J But without the command of the sea c Germany, despite all her victories, will . j be always a defeated nation. Neverthe- - 3! less, under those conditions, the war may ! I last some ycara—it will last until Gcr- . I many is destroyed. t] Yet before she is destroyed by her adversaries it may well be* that she will 1 find her own ruin in her own country. A f , colossal revolution is not a Utopian -j vision. It may be nearer than th.i b' world thinks, and it may be also that this f expedition into the Balkans has been i taken with the object of keeping this c fearful bugbear' temporarily at a disi tancc. a "THE LUCKY IRISH." r The London Irish Rifles, one of the i,' Territorial corps, better known as "The c Lucky Irish" at the front, have had a I-. fine record of fighting on the western i, j front. a " You have performed one of the finest I actions of the war," was the message I! sent to them after the Battle of Loos. ,-j" Irish—up and over!" was the signalfo't t their advance, and it was discovered

Frenches had be.en-captured, that some 'bright' sparks had" brought a football : -with them! That'is the'spirit of the London Irish! jv'i-On one occasion their telephone linesman- happened' to .find two 'live cables -oh the ground' in the' rear of their trenches. Xo one happened to know to whom they belonged or whence they , came; but rumour had it that the generating station was somewhere in the j German lines. .Without, asking leave 1 i from the German authorities, the linesmen promptly fitted wires, and carried ■ them to the battalion headquarters, the • dressing station, officers' dugouts, and i other places: lamps were found in the ■ 'deserted houses of a village, and for many weeks a first-class electric installation was in full working order. The battalion was founded as far back as 1859 by the Marquis of Donegal, and maintained a high reputation among the old Volunteer Corps. In the South Afi ican War it furnished the .C.I.V. with the second largest contingent of any volunteer unit, and one of the men brought home the V.C. When the great war began the London Irish "signed on " almost to a man; the battalion was at full strength within a few days, and in another four days a BeCond" battalion had been created. The first battalion went to France last March, taking the pipers with it, and has been on active service ever since. Three riflemen have won the • D.C.M. I ■ CURED BY DRINK. I . In the "Lancet" Dr. A. P. Procter, of the Canadian Red Cross Hospital at Tapjlow (England), reports .the cure of three cases, of loss of speech caused by shell shock. In two of the cases the men were anaesthetised in the-ordinary way with ether. During the "excited stage," just before completely going under, they were encouraged to speak, and on coming out from the ether, they continued talkin" without difficulty; a The third man, who had not been able to say a word for more than two months after being buried in a dug-out by a high explosive shell, which rendered him unconscious for days, accomplished his own lanaesthetisation by getting thoroughly intoxicated while home on a visit •In this condition he "found his voice," and for two days talked and sang incessantly. As no relapse occurred when he was sober, he was discharged cured" a.fortnight later.