A GERMAN LAMENT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 25 October 1916, Page 2

A GERMAN LAMENT.

LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLE

•'Our losses are heavy. The enemies suffer fearful losses, but we do not blind, our eyes to the new mourning which has come to us."

This admission (says the Hotterdani correspondent. of London Dai% Telegraph in a. message on July 23) occurs in .the latest Western Headquarters despatch from Max Osborn to the Vossisehe Zeitung. He says:

That is the horror of these days. We are shaken by a burning pain- as new streams of German blood are flowing, ian3 We »ecbgnise our powerlessness over whai canflOT -03 £feSS^. Aiter two years of war the angel of aestrttff 1 tion is v passing through the ranks of German arms with a fury and mercilesstiess as if tile (tea^l dance of bat- | ties: had only"■ just' begun; Germans ,j are critical, \ clear-headed, and strong enough to look the truth in the face. Whilst the enemies suffer fearful losses, we do not blind our eyes to the new mourning which has come tjo us, nor ' over the seriousness of the fate of this decisive battle which is raging on all the fronts. We should, be unworthy of the stupendous task; 'we have to fulfil, and' of ike scarcely comprehensible' sacrificed which our heroes make, if we were 'not able to understand the whole £u*ry and burden of these weeKs. We feel as two years ago the raging storm of the united power of ' the. enemy. It is now a question of not less than J everything for the life or death of our nation. We stand differently now from what we did in August, 1914. Unexampled deeds of fame lie between, but still the concluding point has to be 'reached, and everything is in the balance of death or life. v

, Describing Thursday's %hting, Georg Qaeri writes from headquarters to the Berliner Tageblatt: The enemy seems unable to believe he is. faced by an opponent with <@&& i tempt for1 death. He appears not 'tfo understand that th.3 German infantry 2 man is not yet overcome by the terror of ,these battles. At South-west Belloy French pressure was also very great; in fact, the whole day was a bloody one,, of such a character as only occurs once or twice in history. It has given us the absolute conviction that the Allies are not able to break the German wall; v :

■,'A ■ Gferuian officer, interviewed by the Vossische Zeitung, admitted that the Germans had luck in regard to the weather, and also in saving their dugouts from destruction in the bombardment. He said:

The English fought very bravely, notwithstanding enormous losses. I don't know how, great t^eir reserves are, but upon this will depend the length of the offensive. Our positions were badly knocked about, but the dug-outs and shelters held out very well, which is lucky for us. Besides this, the upper • command knew what to expect about the attacks, and had taken the necessary measures to resist them. .Finally, rainy weather came at the right moment to our aid to help as a1 defender.