UNKNOWN

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 285, 2 December 1915, Page 6

UNKNOWN

——--——— — &- -_ ENEMY'S PL =\NS SHATTERED.

Writing on the night of 29th September from' Rotterdam, the special correspondent of the J^ondoii Daily Telegraph, commenting on the great attack of the Allies during the previous week, enid: — There is storm and stress behind tiie German lines in Flanders, wild coinings and goings, orders and counter-orders, night alarms for as-emblings of troops, marches and counter-marches,, the commingling of fiddiers hastening to the front, with streams of wounded -trailing bacic. The furious storms of shells that burst from French and British guns behind our lines at Ypres, and farther south, beyond the borders of Flanders, did more than shatter the German trenches. They broke into fragments the enemy's plans and dispositions. Hence the- agitation, augmented by excitement, among the civilian pop\ilation that now reigns^in Belgium. In recent weeks the enemy has been pourIng troops into points of concentration behind the western line. From the eastern front came contingents of Prussian Guards and other first lins regiments. By train and road have arrived light and heavy guns in enormous numbers, with supplies of every description. - At' the same time there were consistent reports, having their, origin partly in discussion among German officers in Brussels, that another :.-fctempt was to be made to break .through the Allies' line, and force something like a decision in Jbhe west. It was the Crown Prince, rumox'ran, with his army in the Argonne, who v/as to undertake this attack as soon. as sufficient forces from the eastern front were at his disposal. But the Allies struck first, and .struck elsewhere, and the Argonne . plans were reduced to a mere ■ counter-offensive with the object of weakening the French attacks in Champagne.

A NIGHT ALAiRM

To ascertain extent, no doubt, the ' reiterated statement from the enemy's bide that* hf has long been expecting the Allies' offensive is true But that there lias some clement of surprise in -jjoint of time or .place or vigor, is -proved by th 6 confusion which was caused at anj rate in tlte circles of the command in Belgium. Several itovns of news, all corroborative of this state o> affairs, havo leaked across the frontier in the last two days—such leakage, by the way, being facilitated by the fact that 'even • the frontiei guarda have been drawn upon as reinforcements for the firing line. Here is one instance. At Antwerp, including the fortified zone, there were on Sunday morning something like. 150,000 men. Twenty-four hours later, except for those men on garrison dutj% there was not a soldier in the whole ;ione; they had departed in the night, assembled by an alarm command;* and moved out at the greatest possible speed. This was contrary to all'--plans; For of these troops, apart from those alv/ays in garrison, in forts, "and elsev/here, the great proportion - were newly arrived from the' Eastern front, whilst a large number of the ieniaiiider" were men from, the Yosges sant to Antwerp for.a period of rest. M.J- informant, who caw both the arrival and departure, was struck by the tired and worn appearance of these troops. There was some ■cavalry, among those from th» Eastern front, and the hor-ses, he says, were in a very bad condition. But no matter. French and English were storming position after position,'and reinforcements had to be found. It was late on Sunday night when the "assembly" was sounded m .Antwerp,, and in the early hours of Monday morning the soldiers, robbed of the expected holiday, v/ere on route for the front.; Not for them the 20^000 beds, the order for the.preparation of which was received in Antwerp on Saturday. Before they left troops were told that a great -battle was in progress, and that 6000 Frencli and^British had xbeen taken prisonej's. . • 'GARIIISONS HASTILY WITIIDILAWN.

That was the extent of the news given lhem. Ifc was circulated, too, among the frontier posts," and was passed on to my informant by the German guards who kixaminod his papers ■-But," rhe Jtoki mo,; '-they didn't speak with any conviction. They had heard of the hurried departure of the Antwerp army, and wanted to know why these men should have been called upon if their comrades at-the front had been victorious." Similar scenes to those of Antwerp were witnessed, though on a smaller scale, during the \veek-ond, at Haulers, Courtrai, Ghent, and other places, in Belgium behind the enemy^s lines. From the smaller towns and villages garrisons were hastily withdrawn. At Thieifc are the headquarters of the German Yser Army Command. • On Monday this small town was the s&3ne of almost p;mic-stricken excitefent. Exhausted orderlies arrived with alarming reports from the front, obviously agitated officers were driven away in automobiles, and all soldiers were marched off in the direction of Courtrai and Brugos, at both of which points are roads branching off towards various parts of the front. At Ghent troops were assembled on Saturday. Ono eye-witness of their departure for the front says they appeared in very low spirits, and bore on their faces a look of death. Throughout this day the thunder of cannon was heard at Ghent, as. never tjefore. There was something else.'too, Tiot calculated to raise the" spirits of tne soldiers marching to the front. Irani alter train filled with wounded was arriving at the Gare St. Pierre, and throughout the city news was abroad of terrible losses inflicted by tne I< rench and British shells. It was the same at Courtrai on Sunday. The feature noticed here was that "a very large proportion of broken men had bayonet Mounds. They spoke of fierce hand-to-hand fighting with British in the Ypres district.

The ultimate issue of the fight had not been decided when these men were wounded, but they admitted the loss to the British of three farms at

Belleuaardo. On Sunday all the wounded in the hospitals at Ostcnd and Bruges were removed, and entrained tor Germany. 'Ihis was in ror-pqmnce of 'imperative orders iiom the Y-or and Ypres districts. h N EMOT lON A L MQAIENT ,

It, was Sunday morning -(2oth isentember) at 9.15 thai the groat at-tat-i by 11m AIIk , bPR.ui, Al»uirico Bui res \\nto-> in the Euio de J:nis, and ho heaid it fiom the woundoa. Here is what some said to him: it was Friday 'fifght we learned that .the attack was ■ for the next .morning. General .Toff re's order to us all was splendid. Only officers and non-com-missioned officers., were told, but you may ima«me they m turn told their moii. You see each of us had papers to barn and letters to write, and things to settle generally, * I myself on that Friday saw an old Normandy peasant wontan, who had lust received from her son at the front all his papers and all the money he had, with a? letter .saying, Dtear mother, we attack to-morrow. 1 hope to come back, but to be on tne safe side Iseiid you all the money I have with me. If 1 did not come back it would be stupid that the money should Be'lost and you not have it. Anyhow, if I do come back I will let you knoiv, and you can send me some of t,he money again.---Your loving sen, Fournier." . TT . To retorn to M. Barres. He quotes some of the "charming, gallant, witty, sometimes sublime, sayings of the soldiers in the trenches." He asked a wounded man with a medal, 'How did you win your military medal r His answer was, "Oh, easily enough. I just suddenly lost my temper, and in a fury jumped out of the trenches. "What V thing to think of," a,dds jWros, "these Frenchmen, on that night (2ith-25th), who know they are going to their death, to deliver Metz and Strasburg, and to' drive back the hordes of Huns." All the soldiers I ■saw bronchi: back from Artois and Champagne,,where they fell on Saturday and Sunday, say with one voice, "What a prodigious instant of emotion and enthusiasm all along the line when the universal attack began.

f '-'All watches had been put to exactly -the same time. At 9.15 a.m. on Saturday the platoon' commanders each gave the word fE*i avant,' repeated ad mfinijum, and leajped from the trenches, tlieir men behind them. 9.15 am. on Saturday, 25th, was the instant which bound together two parts of th<? action, the industrial part and the moral part, and which witnessed a torrent of human heroism suddenly- following a storm of shells." CROWN PRINCEfS DEFEAT. IN

THE ARGONNE,

The attack made by the Crown Prince's division in the Argonne was as furious as any delivered in this war. and is graphically described by 3n officer wounded there who has just reached: Paris (reports Renter's Paris Agency on 29th September). "The 'German artillery," he says-; "began to bombard our trenches at 3 a.m. with high explosives first, and then sheik of all calibres were -showered uninterruptedly on us. Our artillery replied, but with little effect. The German guns were so numerous that our parapets began to melt away, and one felt as if one was in some nameless hell. The din was deafening, and the air trembled. Earth dashed over us. covering our men in a grey mantle, but they did not blench under the terrible punishment, for aerial torpedoes were soon added to the other projectiles. ""Then abruptly the guns stopped, and from the German trenches gushed •a, liquid lire of a new kind. It was. a mixture of tar and petrol jets, being directed so as to form two walls of "lire with a space between, which was soon filled up with smoke. The heat was unbearable, but the men stood their ground. Suddenly German infantrymen loomed tip in the smoke between the walls of lire. We poured sheets of lead at them with rifles and machine-guns, but for everyone down | two came up. Slowly the human wave I reached the trench, and bloody hand- ; to-hand fighting followed in tlic dense i smoke, but wo Had to full back to

save ourselves from being buried by the masses of the enemy. "Meanwhile, our reserves had dashed forward, profiting by a lull in the shelling, but were brought .rip short by a curtain of*!ire and shells, which gave off a blue vapour. Iliey j)ut on respirators gaily, but they had no effect, as they were being subjected to. the new 'tear shells.' Nothing daunted, with streaming eyes, holding their breath, they dashed through the blue clouds and "fell in serried masses on the' Germans, who were quite unprepared for them. The enemy line wavered, and then -gave way. Our artillery prevented supports from coining to their aid, and after twentyfour hours' fighting they returned to uheir' trenches, having kept here and there a paltry one or two .hundred Yards."