MONOTONOUS FRONT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 53, 2 March 1916, Page 7

MONOTONOUS FRONT.

NO CHANGE AT CHRISTMAS. CONFIDENT GENERALS. (from H. S. GULLET, Official Australian Correspondent at British Headquarters in France.) Five hundred miles of trenches; millions of men on either side, generally within speaking distance; hostility ever growing in intensity; a ceaseless seeking after enemy life with every conceivable weapon, ancient and modern, from arrows and hand grenades to aeroplanes and heavy howitzers; men killed and mutilated on every mile every day, the •reatest, the deadliest battle-ground the world has ever known, and yet week after week and no news. The monotony of the lines is inconceivable. The accredited war correspondents with the British Army in France now work under very little restriction. They live at Headquarters within easy distance of the lines, have a staff of Press officers and a fleet of motor cars, and the privilege at a few hours notice of going anywhere and seeing anything. And yet, week after week, the correspondents, who include a number of the ablest descriptive writers in the United Kingdom, are depressed with the knowledge that they send to their papers little or nothing which satisfies or excites the public They traverse each month hundreds of miles of front line trenches, talk to thousands of men, hundreds of officers, and scores of Generals, and still they rarely have an important message for their readers. The Christmas season raised their hopes. Nothing big was expected, no great attacks on either side, but at least there might have been amongst these millions of Christian citizens of many countries who are temporarily engaged in the profession of arms, some picturesque stories of how Christmas was spent along the battleline. But the anticipation was false. Christmas only served to emphasise the depressing, stultifying monotony of trench fighting. Anywhere along the 500 miles of.the fire-trench you might have found precisely the same hideous conditions. THE ALTERNATIVE. On Christmas Eve I went out with a friend to trenches lying round a considerable French town in the North. We motored through pitiless rain falling upon swampy fields. We passed along lines of motor lorries standing beside the road in water, and chauffeurs, impelled by military habit, dipped the water at their hands and washed the bodies of the vehicles. They knew that after 50 yards of travel upon Christmas morning the lorries would be covered again with Flanders slush and their hours of cleaning wasted. But still they cleaned and polished. In the battered French town there have already been 600 civilians killed by the enemy's shell fire, but nevertheless there are thousands of dwellers still there, chiefly women, children and old men, hapless folk, who have the choice Of remaining rent free in their old homes, ..and making scanty livings, by trading with the British soldier, or becoming fugitives dependent upon charity. And so they stay, facing death, but enjoying independence. A little shop freely whipped by German metal had its windows gay with Christmas cards, but that was the only suggestion we saw of the season of festivity. Divisional and Brigade Headquarters upon Christmas Eve were as they were at any other time —a great chateau, perhaps, or a battered farm house; courteous generals, seeming to have very little to say by comparison with the less reserved generals of the French Army, and young staff officers still very little changed from the young English gentlemen we knew in time of peace. As we take tea with one of the staffs the artillery in the neighbourhood becomes very violent, but as we sit around the great fire in a room of spacious dimensions and richly furnished we feel a complete sense of safety. The General agrees. "In a dug-out," he says, "where one is much safer, there is always the thought of shells and trouble, but here one cannot quite believe that all this expression of wealth and civilisation can be wrecked in less than a second. I spent some time at in a very cosy little French house. It was about the only place in the town unhit, and its destruction was inevitable. Yet as I shut the door and settled in beside my fire I never thought of the enemy wrecking mc." We told him we were seeking Christmas in the trenches. "Well," he said, "I should advise you to seek in waders, otherwise you will find more cold water than good cheer."

CHRISTSIAS IN THE TRENCHES. Down side streets, obeying written notices to keep close to this wall or to j avoid that corner, and into a communication trench, which we found knee-deep in ice-cold water. All this Flanders country has a complete system of underground drainage, and from time to time little cascades come tumbling notßily into the trench from the red clay piping, while here and there we find our men hard at work with mechanical pumps lifting the water out again and passing it back on to the wet level plain. One was reminded of the plight of a badly leaking ship. Then came, a break in the flooring and a plunge into yellow water of uncertain depth as we made our way up towards the front line, GANGERS AND NAVVIES. In the summer oflicers, who reminded you more of working foremen over navvies than gentlemen leading citizen soldiers, told the visitors that ceaseless work in the dry season would mean an easy time in the winter. But experience has proved them wrong. This Christmas Eve we found occasional men keeping watch through periscopes upon the parapet, but the great majority were using shovel, pump and sandbag. Tbe rain and water undermine the parapet, and make the back wall of the trench unstable. Left alone for a week in December, the lines would fill up. The men work ceaselessly to maintain their shelter. But inconceivable as it seems, they work and live under conditions which are far from intolerable. With their rubber waders, they are careless of a little water, while their overcoats keep them dry during the worst of the rainstorms. Very muddy they are, and very hard at work, and towards the end of their spelL. in the trenches their faces tell of extreme physical and mental tiredness; but with mom food than they can eat, and an apparently nnlimited supply of tobacco and special clothing, they have the trenches beaten. I wish I could say there was no evidence of Christmas. Trne there was no Bign on. the Friday of the plam pudding <w the promised presents from home. ißnfc.ihejr ___ad_-becn_ jronuged. that-the

Christmas fare would arrive in time, and although a little anxious, they were confident that it would come. "I think 1 won't hang up my socks," said a young corporal, "they might get wet." Evidence of the morrow was there, and it was in the fact that the men were thinking of their homes. When you mov,. among the troops you seldom think of the men as married; they seem careless bachelors; this is essentially a game for irresponsible youth, and "not for the heads of loving needy families. But that impression is wrong; the majority of men in the British battalions are family men, and on the eve of Christmas the trenches were quieter than we had ever known them before. There was very little chaff and laughter; very scanty response to inquiries; a disposition to stand about alone and to think of Christmases which had gone before. There were men—not many—who had been in the trenches at Christmas last year, and they were proud of it. and not at all complaining. The British soldier grouses thoroughly all the time, but his outbreaks are about little things. AU up and down this great army of citizens you hear no complaint about the length of the war, or the cost of the war or any doubt as to the result of the war. It is remarkable, too. that the men seem positively to like the worst places in the line. If they must have it, let them have it at its worst, with the enemy a few yards away, plenty of bombs, and a proper accompaniment of mud and water.

NO CHRISTMAS TRUCE. I went out again on Christmas Day and found that the promises of the' Postmaster-General and the commissariat had seldom failed. The great majority of men had something in the way of Christmas fare, while those who missed did so on the understanding that they would take their little luxuries during the next period of rest. Late on Christmas night I heard a. soldiers* chorus. It was not in the power of Christmas to bring about any appreciable change in the terrible work of the battle line. As the midnight passed and the anniversary of the birth of Christ had come again with its message of peace and goodwill, British and French and Prussian and Saxon peered aerose No Man's Land at the enemy parapet showing dimly i n the moonlight, and as they stood with their unshaven faces exposed as they must at night, they did it with the full consciousness that at any moment the , feared bullet might come from rifle or machine gun, and put an end to their thoughts of homes and families. But on the British side at least there was no thought of amity. The friendly meetings which took place between tho trenches last year were not to be repeated; that was an instruction from the Staff, although so much more bitter was the feeling towards the unchivalroua Boche become that there was little likelihood of any actual suspension of hostilities. M We shall let him have a quiet day ,if he wishes it," said a Divisional Commander, doubtless moved by feelings of consideration to his men, "but if he starts we shall give him more than usual."

It is good to hear everywhere of this capacity of ours at every part of the line to give the enemy two or three shells for every one. He fires a few rounds into one of our towns, and we respond by hurling an avalanche into one occupied by him. Generally now we begin first. On Christma_i Day we gave him a chance to take the initiative—a privilege which, until a few months ago, he always enjoyed. And to be fair to his fighting spirit and capacity it must be said that he apparently took up the challenge, because there -were heavy exchanges of artillery all along the line on Christmas Day.

NEXT CHRISTMAS? On Christmas Day everyone asked his companion if we should spend next Christmas at home. We asked it of the Generals. They have been too long at the war to engage in forecast. But one of them spoke shrewdly when he replied: "If our position as compared to that of the enemy improves as much between now and next Christmas as it has between last Christmas and this, the war will be over before 1917."

We may not raise as many men in the United Kingdom during 1916 as in 1915, but on the other hand there will be within the next lew months a great improvement in the fignting value of the New Army troops as they get more field experience. Then our supply of artillery and machine guns and ammunition 'Will Bhow an enormous increase; while, although anticipation about the failure of Germany's military resources is dangerous, one may safely look for a steady diminution in her man power during 1916. Again, the German hopes of friction and disruption among the Allies is noJneaTly so well founded a3 tho hopes the Allies might well have of disagreement among the forces of the enemy. British Generals mentioned these and fifty other points which went to encourage the belief that there will not be another Christmas in the trenches.

SIGNIFICANT BOMBING ADVENTURES. The Eritish soldier in the trenches has never doubted 'his individual superiority to the German. He has always cherished the old Anglo-Saxon idea that if he could get to the enemy hand to hand the war would soon come to an end. Whether or not the German accepted that view he has seldom taken clianccs, but has been constant to lurk behind his superior machinery or to advance on'y in co-operation with it. The time haa now come when the confidence of the British is being justified in a most conclusive manner. Nearly every battalion has stories to tell of thrilling little night attacko on the German trenches, when our men, daring annihilation from the machine guns, creep across No Man's Land, leap into the enemy trench, pass fifteen or twenty minutes bombing and bayoneting and then return to their own lines. If the project be carefuly prepared [important results are obtained at a trifling loss. Recently the Canadians engaged in a successful enterprise of this kind. It took their men some time to cut through the enemy's .wires, and so completely dominant "were the Canadians that they actually served the wire cutters with hot coffee during their task, although they were working only a few feet from the Germans. The wires removed, the bombing parties leapt over the enemy parapet. Dug-outs are effectually bombed aa they pase, sometimes prisoners are taken, but as a rule moat of the casualties may be reckoned as killed. One night just before Christmas bombers from an English regiment killed 00 Germans and took a score of prisoners, and only suffered two men wounded. Among other information obtained was the fact that many Germans had recently been punished for slackness and acts of" disobedience, which, according to j British discipline, would 'be classed as serious insubordination. The line taken as a. -hole may be monotonoos- but it | teems vrxth evidence that xrars is now. the I wTTmjTtg^aidfi..