LORD NORTHCLIFFE ANALYSES VERDUN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLII, Issue 12823, 15 April 1916, Page 8

LORD NORTHCLIFFE ANALYSES VERDUN.

PICTURES TITANIC BATTLE LIXE. | A a<.c .u:ii <:' cr-nd:U'-ru ;:r.der v:}::..u :"!:■-• Vc-:cr.::i battle- ••vuj fcught to ;i syndicate uf American newspapers. The message was dispatched from •■before Verdun," and was in the following terms: — What are the secret motives underlying the German attempt to break the French' line at Verdun, in which the Crown Prince's army is incurring such appalling losra ? - Is it financial, in-view of the coming war loim ? Is it dynastic 1 Or" is' it" intended' to 'influence doubting neutrals 1 ! r " "™. ■•"'' ■ : " :y '- z ,'-'"-"' ■ "' . From evidence'of German deserters it is known ;that the -attack originally; was intended 'to take 'place a month or twohence, when the ground was dry. -The premature Vspring ' caused the Germans two final- delays owing to-, bad' weather and : then • the -colossal onslaught of February 21. -- -The-Germans had made a good :many of the' faults that we made at Gallipoli. They announced something, large] was pending r by closing, the Swiss frontier. The French were also fully warned' by their own astute, intelligence department. Their aeroplanes, were not idle, and if confirmation was "needed- it" was given, by deserters, who, surmising- the horrors that were to come, crep"t put of the trenches, at night, lay. down by the edge of the ATeuse until morning, and then gave themselves up, together .with information that has since* proved to be accurate. " Things went wrong with the Germans in other, ways. A' Zeppelin that was to have blown up important railway.'--junc-tions was brought down at Revigny, and incidentally the inhabitants of what remains of that much bombarded town were .avenged by the spectacle of a blazing dirigible crashing to the ground and hoisting with their own petard the thirty Huns therein. It is not necessary to recapitulate that the gigantic effort of February 21 was frustrated by the coolness and tenacity of the French soldiers and the deadly curtain of fire of their gunners. A great deal of calculated nonsense has been sent out in official communiques and dilated upon by .the, Berlin newspaper correspondents as to the taking by storm of the long dismantled fort of Donaumont. Nothing whatever has been admitted by the Germans as to the appalling pric? in blood they have paid since February last and are still paying. The French losses are and have been insignificant. I know the official figures; It has been verified by conversations with members of the British, French, and American Red Cross Societies, who obviously are in a position to know. The wounded who pass through their hands have in many cases come straight from where they have seen dead Germans, as has been described by scores of witnesses, lying as lay the Prussian guard in the first "battle of Fpres. More direct, though possibly less reliable evidence was secured by questionin? closely a number of German prisoners.

Taking into account all available indications, it may be safely assumed that during the fighting of the last thirteen day* the Germans have lost in killed, wounded, and prisoners at least 100,000 men. . What then arc the overwhelming motive* ihat impelled the attack on Verdun and the chicanery of the German reports? Is it for any of the reasons I have given above, or.is it the effect of economic pressure which leads to my calculation that the possible taking over of the French lines at Verdun.is a means of ending the war ? The Germans ore so wont to misread th-j minds of other nations that they are quits foolish enough to make themselves believe this or any other foolish thing. It cannot be.pretended that the attack has in it any military .necessity. It was urged forward at a time of year when weather conditions might prove, as they have proved, a serious handicap in such matters as moving big gune and essential observations by aeroplanes. The German staff must have known

that the sufferings of the wounded lying through the long nights and icy wind in ' "Nt- Man's Land" between the lines would be great. It did not probably disturb the Crown Prince, yet it is the most gruesome fact in the history of the war that ;he French, peering through the mo( nlight at what they thought" to be stealthily crawling Germans, found them to be wounded inen frozen to death. I': Flanders camps and in hospitals I have conversed with at least 100 German prisoners. Their talk is always to be accepted with great reserve, but the prisoners in the Verdun campaign have so plainly horror and misery depicted upon their countenances I.need no further evidence as to the tragedy .through which they have passed. Who are the men who are organising the great battle for the French side? Let m« eay they are young men. General Petain, one of the discoveries of the war, until lately was - a colonel; he is still in the fifties. Most members of his staff are miiL-V younger. The general discussed the battle as though he was merely an. interested spectator In appearance he resembles Lord Roberts, although he is of larger build. At a gathering of officers someone asked K the French did not expect the British to draw off the Germans by making an attack in the west. "It is questionable," replied one young officer, "if such an attack would not involve disproportionate losses that would weaken all of us." The same officer pointed out that although the capture of Verdun would cause great, regret, owing to the historic name it bears, it would not for many reasons be more important than pressing back the French on any other similar number of miles on the front, the fort being of little account since the introduction of the big German "hammers." He believed General Sarrail had said that the question was not one merely of dismantling forts, but of blowing them up, as whenever the Germans capture a place where an old fort happens to be they will use it as an advertisement. Could the neutrals see the kind of men whom the Germans do not scruple to use as soldiers, faith in Teutonic efficiency '.vould receive a shock. "Unluckily a pigmy behind a machine-gun is the equal of a giant.

"What a pity your Highlanders cannot meet those fellows in a. fair fight," said, a French officer as v.*e reviewed a gang of prisoners of war. To be more than a month in personal contact with . the miserable creatures who form the bulk of the German prisoners is needed to convince the observer that such specimens of humanity can really have belonged to the German army, especially to the corps d'elite, such as the .Berlin army corps. One ill-favoured youth hailing from Chariot ten burg was barely five feet four, narrow chested, peak faced. He had the quiek-wittedness of the urban recruit, but seemed far better fitted for a stool as -a railway clerk than a life in the trenches or the ordeal of attack, yet he had been taken at the end of 1915 and sent to Flanders after six weeks of training, educated in tiench making for another month, then left to fend for himself and comrades as a full-fledged Prussian aglet. This is what has happened around Verdun. To the north and- north-east the firat and second French lines were obliterated by the intense bombardment executed with guns, of which the smallest were 105 mm;, \vhile the bulk were 210 mm. Large numbers of still heavier weapons, up to 380 mm were freely used, both in direct and in curtain fire. The weakness of the French forces holding the first and second lines accounts' for the insignificance of their losses. • Ground thus having been gained by the Germans to the north the French evacuated voluntarily the- marshy ground east of Verdun and the ridges in the Woevre plain; The effect.of this action was threefold. It gave the French ,a strong defensive line on- high ground.-- It prevented the formation of a dangerous salient, and apparently it induced the-Germans to believe their enemy was demoralised. Verdnn is hot likely to be -taken. Nothing justifies the belief that the spirit or stamina of the German forces, are equal t■•> the task of dislodging the French from tho latter's present formidable position.