GERMAN VERSION OF THE SOMME BATTLE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 10526, 2 December 1916, Page 11

GERMAN VERSION OF THE SOMME BATTLE.

I The correspondent of the Berliner II Tageblatt on the Somme sends his paper an interesting account of recent figliting, from which it. is> evident that the Anglo-French offensive lias made a very serious impression on ibis observer. Thej following paragraphs are extracted froml his report—''"We do not know anything for certain as to the events of this night. AU the telephone wires have again been shot tci pieces, and rumour is the only thing we have to depend on. One company of the Guards had to withstand a severe attack of the. Frencn after losing their machine guns. They must have suffered badly in the mud, but at last they got into :i tunnel. Wounded men brought. back confused accounts.*'

The correspondent goes on in his stac- ' cafco style:—"Evil arid hard, and one can only grind one's teeth and choke down curses. The divisional general must steel his heart, and keep the working room in hie head free from all the anguish of those days. Outside there the patient ones, the heroes! All day long the enemy worked with heavy mines. Three and four suns he played on one point. It was like the Day' of Judgment, and, indeed,. graves were bursting forth in all directions. Even in these opened graves it was almost impossible, to obtain shelter "from shell splinters. It whistled and gurgled and hailed. The enemy flying men boldly I descended and swept the positions with ! machine guns. There were no onus with which to reply to thorn.

"The soldiers must have been dull and .tired, hiding there in holes and holding out. Any one of them would have gladly exchanged this dog's life for a. visible danger where ho could defend himself. They were hungry, but for j food of all kinds they had a loathing;. They suddenly experienced an indescribable thirst. Water! No, there was not a drop of water. ... No water could be fetched, for the brave fellows behind, between Death and the Devil, could not get through with the waterbottles.

"The bitter necessity of waiting! No support could come to them. Behind them rattled the hall of the curtain fire. 'lhe German artillery replied with its quickest words. They did their best. It' only tho.se others would come, those over there! And they came. Our men curse their rifles coated with mud. and take to the bayonet and the hand grenades. And then the murder begins.'' These reports of the Somme righting, oi which there have been several lately, pitched pretty much in the same key. are hardly calculated to give the German public the assurance that all goes well in the west. One wonders, in fact, why the field censor permits such reports to pass, as it is clear that they must exercise a very depressing effect. And what a world of difference between such letters, descriptive of the calamities to which the German soldier is nowexposed, and those reports of the early months of the war when the war correspondent tickled his readers with J amusing stories of British arid French unpreparedncss and caution, and with J chatty descriptions of the easy task j before the Kaiser's armies. ;