GERMANS ON DEFENSIVE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16657, 29 September 1917, Page 8

GERMANS ON DEFENSIVE

CONCRETE AND GUNS. 'ALLIED ATE RAIDS CONTINUOUS. LONDON. Sept. 17. I The c.rraßpocdenl of (he Paris newspaper Irf? Temps on the British front, writing sngarding the enemy shortage of effectives, declares there is incontestable proof that the strength of a German company of infantry in certain sectors varies irom %to 60 men. The shortage is compensated by additional machine-guns. Describing the defensive methods of the German Fourth Army opposite Ypree,. the correspondent of the Morning Post says the desire of the Germans to hide in deep dug-outs is being remorselessly killed in the training camps. The men are taught to transform a shallow crater into a machine-gun refuge and to festoon in it with wire under the very eyes of the enemy. Even the gunners are forced to leave their cemented pits and take up unprotected positions, which are quickly changed if the British artillery finds them out. General von Arnim is also covering the new battlefield* with concrete. He is transforming farmhouses into forts, and dotting " pill boxes" over the ridges and valleys behind the present front. Our guns are constantly playing upon working parties, which are bringing steel rails and girders from the wooden tramways. Concrete is the backbone of the German Army to-day, and has taken the place of infantry. The Amsterdam correspondent of the Times says thai allied bomb attacks in the north of Flanders near the coast are extraordinarily intense. Swarms of aeroplanes and seaplanes appear daily and nightly, attacking German works, billeting areas, and aerodromes, The nerviness of the German gunners is shown by a number of shells falling in Holland. The Germans are compelling civilians to construct large military works, showing their intention to retain the coast at all hazards. The population has been instructed to hold mattresses at the disposal of the soldiers, who after plundering the villas are beginning to use the homes of the settled population, whose life is already hard through lack of food and forced labour.