FIGHTING IN ALSACE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 67, 18 March 1916, Page 9

FIGHTING IN ALSACE.

EXPERIENCE. f ENEMY ATTACK DESCRIBED. Mr. (A. H. Court, who is 6erving as driver of a French motor ambulance in Alsace, writing in a letter to Messrs. John Court, Ltd., dated January 13th, says:— "I am writing this letter in a draughty, ■wet log cabin on a hill, 4000 feet high, covered with snow. It is an awful day out, a regular blizzard of Minding enow, and very cold. Since writing my last letter I 'have had a most strenuous experience during the enemy's counterattack at Hartmons-weilierkoph. I was transferred to a 24-h.p. Darracq, being a better climber than mine, and Bent to a military post on top of a bill, near ■where all the fighting wae going on, four other care and ourselves -were kept buey. The sheik were whistling overhead very thickly, and I had just left with four wounded about ten minutes, when a shell landed ■where my car had been, and killed [•five Frenchmen and a mule. I got a shock when I returned and saw the men ! laid out, the mule, and the shell hole. The road up and down the hill is very narrow and rough, and so steep that at places you cannot stop the car, and with comers, where you liave to reverse to get round. I 'had five days of it on call all the time, and had no sleep at the height of the attack for two nights and three days. The day after I left, a shell went through the chanty where we ate > I and slept, but fortunately there wae j only one American inside, and the chanty : j did not offer sufficient resistance to ex-1 i plode the shell, which went through the • jToof and side wall, and exploded when i it struck the ground fifteen yards away. \\ c had some fine views from this place, and could see right into Germany acrose the Rhine, also the Black Forest, Ccrjnay and Mulhausen. At night the Ger-1 j mans have Mulhausen meet brilliantly I lighted to annoy the French, knowing! they will not bombard it, hoping to cap- I ture it without, and to keep the goodwill' of the Alsatians. W'hfle at theec out-1 posts we have at 7.30 a.m. a tin cup of thin black coffee, and can soak some stale bread in it. if desired; that is our breakfast. At noon we have lunch, very thin soup served in a tin bucket, then come carrote or haricot beans, very occasionally potatoes, then the meat which has pasßed through the soup, usually mule. For this meal we have red wine, i as much as you like, but as it is more i like vinegar than anything eke, one mug- j ful ueuaily sufffcij;. During the attack the Germans shelled the road very frequently; there is hardly a tree which is I not marked by shrapnel. It is rather uncanny driving during the shelling. It is not co bad when yon arc moving, as you only hear the explosion, but when you are stopped for half an hour by an ammunition cart being stuck, and can hear the sheik whistling, then knocking la tree over and exploding, it lets you (know you have only had a cup of coffee since 6 p.m. the night before. The straw used for "bedding is full of wild animals. A close crop, carbolic eoap. and a -water.proof sleeping-bag offer splendid protection. It has been snowing; everything ia wet .and danrp, but it is miich in the trenches. "When the men come out they are a sight, mostly covered with mud, wet through, and some just able to struggle along.

"I am keeping so well that they have given mc one of the beet cars, and with three others, (jet the more arduous work, and. naturally, the most interesting. When it is fine the vierwa are simply glorious. "We can see the Swise Alpe distinctly, and when it is stormy the doud effects are wonderful"