"JUST WAITING FOR DFATH”

Evening Star, Issue 16335, 30 January 1917, Page 5

"JUST WAITING FOR DFATH”

DESPAIRING LETTERS FROM GERMAN TRENCHES. ••IF AVE HAD ENGLISH AIRMEN AND GUNNEKS'." British Headquarters in the Field. Franc:, November 24. Lharcst. Wilhelm. —I -send you good wishes from my grave in the canh. Soon tv« shall become mad if this frightful artillery tire does not cc.-.uc. Night and day it. has never been like this before, they say. Under the earth all day we sit, having neither light nor sunshine, but just waiting for death. Any minute may bring it. I . should not write to you like this, dear AVilhelm, but I cannot, help it. Again the dreadful attack is beginning! Shall I ever see, you again? God knows. Oh. it is too horrible! A German soldier wrote that letter, and it was found by our troops. He is (or was; a member of the Goth R.gimeut of Fool, and he wrote it from In? dngont in the German trenches on this span of the Somme battlefield. Day after day of ceaseless British shell-tire, night after night of remorseless attack, had proved too much. Yet the letter, though perhaps more graphically written, is no more heart.-broken than many another message that is finding it?, way now from the Somme baDlciieki towards the inner heart of Germany. The true talc of the Somme is reaching Germany. There is no doubt of that. —Slowly Going Back.— The following i? from a man of the Morser battalion in the trenches; S-o you are coming to Camhrai. I should never have expected that you were coming so near me. I am convinced that we shaii soon meet hero, for your real destination is probably here also, and that is—to your death. Thousands are gone- and buried already. Anything like what goes on hero has not happened in this war. I nuist, tell you that. But if Fate decrees that you should come here you will sec for yourself. It is getting clearer that the German soldiery are beginning to look upon orders lo proceed to the Somme a? lacing cuuivalent to a death warrant. Something of what the Germans go through everv lime they are driven on: of their positions bv | the British attacks is shown in the following , [fitter from a man of the lllih Infantry ! Reserve:— : The English attack regularly every day. For the first few days we had to live withcover in the irenelms till wc had made :hc needful hole? for ourselves. The risk was appalling. AVe had losses a,- heavy again as those we had at Fricourt, On? single, British shell gave us 16 dead and several olhers wounded. In the front lines it was ghastly. Every day we had at. least an hour or two of the fiercest bombardment, and the fire from individual guns never ceases. You can imagine the exjoertences th-e i men go through. There is not. even a 1 trench in the foremost lines. They lie in ; shell holes. The ottgotu? we have been i toreed to make to get a bit of cover do not I faro any better. Borne are knocked in bv ‘ shell fire before they are ready. The ' trenches are constantly under fire, for in Die traverres there are gun-, in position | which, when they fire, are noticed by air- j men. V\e are slowly going back. i —Officer's Confession.— ; In case it should 1)0 imagined tint these i mournful letters are'* the outpouring? of i tnere simple German jirivales, note the fob j towing candid confession writ ten bv ait office'-' (lieutenant) of the 170 th Regiment:— Lou in Champagne are no longer in the! witches’ cauldron on the brim of whi-h we are_ sitting—always awaiting the moment, io fall tn from ope sid«>. or Die oilier. Ji ; ts turmoil hero again, 'the air has been ' alive with aviators in the pa?; few dav?. 1 and still more so with the heavy shells i that have been flying over us and on to i our poor comrade? on cur fiaiik and on 1 to our batteries. j The number of guns—and of-ihe heavies' : calibre—which the English now |)o??css is ' uncanny, and the amount oi ammunition they fire off _is fabulous, tu addition : what makes it so bad —their a;rmeu are 1 constantly over our lines. They pout; ou; : out balletic?, so (hat tit pv may be pep- i Perfid, and are always attacking our cap- j five balloons, which is tho same a? putting i our eye? out. Meanwhile the air is black I with their airrratt, whereas our airmen--- , bui of that why speak? It would be merely pouring water into the Rhine. AAY could save many thousand? of lives if wc had the English airmen and gunners. [t, makes me despair when I think of if all. —Blow Suicide.— The following is a letter from a soldie- in a unit not staled : Dear Ewald, —Aon will wonder at ; id? letter. I ciuinot properly explain to yt_u. It you think id is nonsense, burn it, Pe.rhaps it is due to ;i presentinicni. if I ! tell you it is the end. excuse nir Vo can understand who doe? „ 0 , know this ' fie d of battle. Of those out here in this held and on other front? a very sm-.tli mini- I her will ever sch their homes Vain. And your year class is not the last” that will ; fail victims to this murder begun by a , higher power. ! . Idc«’eccl l dc «’ eccl by this higher power that '■ wc shall be completely annihilated. I sav i we, not, Germany. The sooner we acquiesce ! fhe sooner will the end come, for tho cud ' will surely come. Since we shrink from confessing this, tt will he ail the longer, suicidif ftCr ali > ll bas Va merely slow j ¥ ters ’ y hicb mere samples of t ' 7'u SbOW T^ j* ' ‘ confession ” has as the field of battle. Bps’ ? . ■ * " ’’V |»l Mo„ W, AS S mg defeat m all it? bittern:-??. But m N more Germans have yet to ,a st( . ii.4ieurer; |

The most expensive feast ever (riven I >V I Loixl Mayor was not a Lord'Mavor-* Day eu j ner, but, a banquet in celebration Or the victory of the allied nations over Napoleon. It took place on June 13, 181-1 when < Lord Mayor Domville entertained tlie Tsar, the King of Prussia Pie Print” 1 Regent, Wellington, Rhicher. and a- great company of olikers and statesmen, all the guests being served on silver plate valuJd at over £200,000, with delicacies which ogst £25.000.