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Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 264, 24 October 1916, Page 4

The military correspondent of the London "Times’" on the Somme front says that one hears much talk nowadays from men who have been in our latest pushes of the various abominations which the Germans leave behind them when they are driven out of a trench. They have been driven out of so many that we arc fairly expert on the subject of vacated trenches now. From the beginning one has always been verycareful about picking up any article lying about in a trench or dug-out. Lt is wiser to move it carefully first, because all sorts of casual articles have been found fastened by strings to hidden mines. Not- only in the trenches themselves but in No Man’s Land in front of the trenches various traps have been set for the unwary'; but the unwary person among British soldiers is growing extremely scarce. The profusion of bombs and grenades lying about is always a trifle disconcerting, even though the v are merely' abandoned and contain no hidden deviltry. Even a harmlesslooking board, when you tread on it, may kick up at the other end and jerk a cord to a hidden mine. A thing known as the tortoise, which looks something like an iron hot. water dish, such as one sees on four short wobbly legs, has been found in several trenches. It must be handled with circumspection or it goes off violently, like the torpedo which the whale mistook for a fish. Now, in the soft mud the amiable enemy is burying large steel man-traps of the familiar gin ty r pe, strong enough, it is believed, to break a man’s shim bone if one caught him fairly. AYhat impresses one most about all these things,” writes the correspondent-, ‘‘is the immense amount of ingenuity and trouble which the German spends on tricks which have no possible true military' value. I feel confident that all these devices together have not cost us five lives since this battle began. I do not know for certain that they have cost us one, though 1 have heard of men being wounded by a tortoise, and of one man having his ankle dislocated in a trap. But one wonders what

kind of an enemy the German supposes the British “Army to be if these things are to be of any use against it He might as well beat tom-toms o pamt lomd on hi’ sandbag pnipet Sometimes his wdiness takes the form of evacuating a trench in the expectation that we 11-111 (tthghvdh oiiupx it Me are dis L > i-ttul <>i mndifi which are given io us as presents. Recently a patrol remitted tnat a very- considerable portion of the Aswtcli trench was deserted. So we lav low in our own lines and watched. Presently the enemy opcm <1 . frnitu bombardment on the emptv trench and then most gallantly rusned it with his infantry who mi h’ddt'i m holes close bv. Then it was that the trench began to interest, us : and we ]> omptt- wi at toi jt Hid took it and have neld it ever since.

It is a bttle amusing to listen to the introducers ot the 1 gas horror into modern warfare inveighing auam-t i - inhuman effect..— when tinned <igai Ist titinseho The snecml coiirspondc’t of the ‘lossische Zeitung ' on the Somme front conplam, b t’ciL rt the alleged effects of British gas. He says:—“l devote a special chapter to this plague of our bornme warriors —the horrid nuisance ot poison gases to which they are perpetually exnosea It is not only when systematic gas attacks are made that they have to struggle with this devilish and intangible foe. The English and French have fallen so deeply in love with this atmospheric weapon that they incessantly claim its help. Their artillery is no longer satisfied with the ordinary explosive shells ; the air also has to be made foul. Wherever one goes on the battle front, our troops have to defend themselves against the disgusting and uncanny effects of the gas shells. From the battle positions to the preparation quarters and reserve quarters, and even further back through the whole area of the enemy’s fire, this invisible and perilous spectre of the air threatens and lies in wait on all the roads leading to the front. In the trenches themselves it is particularly ifhpleasant, because here it settles down and cannot easily be dissipated by the wind. But even in the open country it pursues its course and tortures human beings.” The correspondent seems to consider that ‘ the plague” is getting steadily worse. He says that one always has tn carry a eras mask, and he eon<hof „ wit n the i< n -nk lha it would ■perhaps ■ be impossible tor the Germans on the bunin>e to bear the n nnen’i Ivrdci o f liii puns tnd tortures ’ it it were not for tne spmt ol emu ' it nd io n minify whien prevails. It- almost looks as h inz ios nwill giy learnt the lesson Horn the enemy, we have actinUv i imi >v c d on it i >i h» bene fit ivuit,.) is (i den 4 'c n-cading abroad.

In yCst-crday b nvivß i vfei envc iVUmade to the strong revival during the last week or two of French activity south of the Somme. Although the neighbourhood immediately across the river from Peronne was more particularly mentioned on account of the long previous quiesenee there, it was pointed out that the French efforts had extended southward from this locality to the vicinity of Chaulnes, the original limit of the French offensive. Our overnight cables tell us that the Germans are making furious, but ineffectual, endeavours to recover the ground recently lost near Chaulnes, a position to which they attach considerable importance. The general result of this latest push of the French right wing on the Somme has been very satisfactory, so far as our Ally’s designs upon Chaulnes are concerned. Some days back the capture of the village of Bovent, a little to the north of Ablaincourt, was announced, and the last two or three days have seen the French securing a footing in Chaulnes Wood, immediately to the north of the town of the same name. It is against this new r te ti po mon that the Germans am no i due img concentrated < o u i ’ Chaulnes, as has been said, lies opposite, the most southci'y i j nt or the section of the Allii d nont y i i «a dnee If affected b lit <ns d tip it the beginning of Julv. Veiv httie actual progics as matte in the vicinity of this town at tnat time, the main Fre ic i e, id t i" iff tt I f rther norih tow nd tl e nxci \s t is Allied dine to il I itnn extended, the hi- w t _i dual i j ashed forwaid unt I i a it ons on the north and ninth e-i t of ( h mines were in the L nd of tie li nch. Chaulnes is sn-aa 1 in a sin 11 plateau, and represents a strong defensive position, on which the enemy appears to be particularly anxious to preserve liia hold. After the drive towards Peronne had caused the Allies line to overlap Chaulnes on the north, the French suddenly delivered an attack to the south of the town, where they captured the village of Chile, and w-ere also reported to have crossed the railway running south from Chaulnes to Roye. Chaulnes is therefore being forced into a small salient in the same manner as Combles was, and the advance just reported to have taken place on the northern side of the town has helped to narrow down that salient. To-day’s messages available at the moment of writing do not disclose any definite change of the position north of the Somme, but content themselves with more or less detailed descriptions of the more recent fighting that gained and retained for the Allies their latest fresh positions. The first point that is more particularly emphasized in these is the great preponderance of the casualties inflicted on the enemy a.v compared with those suffered on our own side, heavy and all as these must inevitably have been. The next, most intimately related to the first, is the superior accuracy and effectiveness of the Allies’ artillery fire. This in its turn is said to be attributable to two factors—a manifest deterioration in the quality of the enemy’s guns (and perhaps also of his ammunition), and to his lack of aerial observation and direction. The German reports have been striving hard of late to remove the growing impression among their own people that their air service was daily losing in relative efficiency, and consequently w r e have heard much in German communiques of the . number of Anglo-French machines brought down. Doubtless these numbers are greatly exaggerated, but, even allowing them the virtue of truth, the fact does not, restore ascendancy to the German airmen, who have been cowled into subjection by the very audacious daring which brings the reported tally of Allied losses within the range of possibility. No German machine is allowed a chance to cross the Allies’ lines, and, as a consequence, the enemy’s artillery is virtually blind to the emplacements of “the British and French guns. It is growing more than over

notable, too, that the German official reports in the west are remarkable more for what they do not tell than for what they do, only such leavening of admission being allowed as is sufficient to convey an impression of complete veracity.

Such reports as come from the main Russian front continue to speak of hard, and as yet indecisive, fighting, the only really fresh development being an outburst of enemy activity in the neighbourhood of Brody, (North-eastern Galicia), for which, however, General Brusiloff appears to have been quite prepared. The Rumanian reports from the Hungarian frontier are much more cheerful, and speak of the enemy as being compelled back along several of his recent lines of advance. But on the southern front in Dobrudia, the Russo-Rumanian forces are evidently for the time being outnumbered —possibly owing to transfers to meet the northerly menace —and forced to a very substantial retreat. An American message says that the Bulgars have got possession of Constanza. While this is not to be finally accepted without confltmation, it is, if authentic, a bad piece of news, as Constanza (or Kustendje) is the seaward terminus of a solitary railway that runs across the Dobrudja province, and is of immense importance to the Russo-Rumanian army operating here. It will therefore be with some anxiety that we shall await further and more intimate news as to the actual position. There is little word from the Salonika front, where bad weather continues, and the same conditions are affecting Italy’s operations.