VERDUN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 170, 18 July 1916, Page 3

VERDUN.

THE GEBMAK VIEWPOWT,

"A BUTCHERY OF, MEN."

The following extracts from letters written by German soldiers before Verdun, and taken from their pockets when the writers were captured by the French, provide an account of the battle from the German point of view:— *"' From a letter writen by Lieut Ellin* gen, of the 6th Beserve Infantry Regiment, and intended for dispatch to another lieutenant belonging to the 202 nd Beserve Begiment:— April 3.—You can form some idea of pur position from the fact that all our officers have been renewed. The losses of the regiment are high, for its position on the plateau of Vaux is simply "disgusting." Our battalions relieve one another, hut our positions When in ; re6erve or resting receive, with few exceptions, as many shells as the first linel' From a letter, dated April 11, written* by a private soldier named Schroder, .'o# the 80th Infantry Begiment:— We arc absolutely in a hell-hole hereThe artillery fire night and day. >lnevet imagined it would be like this. Yester-day-a shell fell quite near the church; and killed three men and wounded nin« others. You should have seen us run. If only this, wretched war would come to an end. No reasonable man "can justify such a butchery of men. . .' . We are at present to the north-east, of Verdun in a position that is distinctly critical. .... This morning they have been smoking us out 'with asphyxiating shell and other diabolical inventions. It is all "knltur."-. . .-.;•. Though we have not long in the firingline -we have all had enough of it, and are longing for' peace. We should like to send to the front all these.gentlemen who caused the war, and who-profit: from it. If :we had done this we should-have had peace long ago. ■'•:•..' "From a. letter written by a; soldier named Schmele, of the 208 th Beserve Begiment, dated April 15:— ''• You can't imagine how tired we-are of life sometimes. We are .made to toil there in every possible way.. There is po rest until one falls on his nose in the mud. How absurd what they, write'in the newspapers seems. . Ouj- beloved soldiers, if you .knew what they-have : tb suffer, to say nothing of having their lives worried out of them, they would not serve us up such lies. .Yesterday the weather was still abominable, -and we were again wet to the bone. Then iwe were asked why we were not singing ;_ so in all our misery w» iliad to'sing.'MORE CASUALTIES, MORE COFFEE. A postcard written by a soldier named Keitsch,, of the 3rd Grenadier Regiment of Landstunn, to his 6bnj Fritz,!dated April' 30:— '.' ' " : ""''/ .';'. ■'_" '"'• ' .Since Good' Friday T We'been : before Verdun. It is terrible." We-have.al-ready had many casualties. We are in holes on the slopes of' a mountain and we scarcely dare put our noses out. The •bombardment is incessant; sometimes it is too awful-for words. It seems as if the mountain" was collapsing. If 17, escape alive I shall remember this Easter. Our kitchens are two 'hours' walk in. the rear. For Easter we had nothing to eat or drink except a quarter of a pint of coffee. There is not drop, of water here,'but now we get a little more coffee, as our number is, rapidly diminishing. From-time to- time-one- of-us runs to the kitchens with our bottles. •'..■'

Following are extracts fro_: letters found: on prisoners which had -been re : ceived from friends in Gepnany:'—■ .-- ---'. Ittlingen, March 2.—Vfle-suppose that you are with the rest at Verdun. Overthere it is death for everyone. There seems to be no way of getting through. The French are not the Russians, and their artillery cannot be silenced. Nobody believes any longer what is written in the newspapers. -'.. . . To. begin' with, a great fuss was made about magnificent successes, but. suddenly everything became quiet. .'■ . . A" few. noisy people believed that .Verdun would. faU.in a few days... It would be: alt right to march on Paris, if the French. artillery did not exist' and; if there were no Frenchmen -between lie and-the capital. . • i ; Dated May 2.—1 am convinced: that the Germans will not get through, for they are mistaken as to the French, and particularly as .to their -artillery;'. Every soldier who comes back says the Frenck artillery is very ours. Things are not going so easily as in Galjcia;