WHAT THE ENEMY SUFFER

Evening Star, Issue 16347, 13 February 1917, Page 6

WHAT THE ENEMY SUFFER

discomfort of our own men in winter trcm-lu« is not a one-sided feature of the war, fan. is surpassed j u certain parts of Una line—moxt r.f all on the Somme—by what (.he i-iiemv has to suffer. His front lino is. for rise most part, on the Somme a broken si.retell of battered trenches and shell holes, without deep datroul«, and only a few *• funk holes,’’ 1 lordly proof against shrapnel tire, mid no r-icteetion against artillery' and morlar fire. His support lino is actually a trench, hut without duck-boards or revetting, and his reserve line is strong, provided with tunnelled <lugouts, upon which he is working industrially. His communication trenches have been made impassable by mud mid slmil fire, and all carrying and reliefs are carried in'. over the open by night without any kind of cover.

'I he, men suffer intensely from cold ami wet. Unlike our own soldiers, whom 1 have seen today, and since the hard weather began, warmly protected in their '• woolies,” the Germans have had no allowance of leather, fur, or sheepskin coats. Woollen veils, stomachers, and. mil tons have been issued io them, but nn change of socks and underclothes is taken into the trenches, and many of these men aro verminous. Th ir food is good, but they " rrouse ” hecauae such luxuries as bacon and vegetables, honey, even tobacco now, are absent from their rallona. Largo numbers- of the men are ■suffering from tho effects of cold and wet weather, being especially prone to lUmnaeh and chest, complaints; but they complain Unit ihc medical officers are harsh, and treat all the sick as malingerers. Even when i.hcvgct. cut of the misery of ihc wet trenches and tho tenor of tho shell fire, there is no comfort in many of their rest billets, where they are crowded together in damp “ Tl. is impossible to describe how awful it j s here,” writes one nam, and there are many who write like him. “I would not wish mv woxst enemy in this hell. . . . livery second is torture."

Tim seconds lengthen out into hours anil !ho hours into days, for tho divisions are lining left in the linco much longer than formerly. At one point one of tho divisions was in Um hno for Ad days, and another 21 days. “I flunk our fate is harder Hum lluii or the slave," wrilr-s one pen.- wrefeh. '• Flu cos leave the lives of gonikmeu compand with us. May it nil just, emno f,-, ; .,n end ; how, I do not carp." These letters and th>'se facta do not. prove that the spin!, r.f the German troops is broken. But thev do prove that in trenches like, those at which T looked to-day the German is not having a coivifori.ablo “ cushie ’’ time, and that Kuo rirnin of war is telling upon him montallv and bodily.