WASTED GERMAN BATTALIONS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14688, 21 August 1918, Page 4

WASTED GERMAN BATTALIONS

, ■» ■-. VERY POOR CREWS NOW. YOUNG SCOTSMEN MAKE FINE APPEARANCE. > ' •" (By Philip Gibbs.) War Correspondents' Headquarters in. France, July 22. — -My iji-st account of the capture' of ?Meteren by the .ftcots and South Africans underestimated, the number of prisoners. The gains of Thursday night were extended by further attacks on Sunday. When I wrote, only 60 or* so had beeal brought down under escort, but later in the day more j than 200 others were collected from- eel- j lars and dug-outs in and about thej ruins of the village and added to the bag. Meanwhile!, Australians to the j BOuth brought their number to about 610. They were an extremely mixed, crew, Somo of them big fellows of six foot two or three, with heavy, hulking figures, and one or two at least looked anrfnstrbusly tall, beside the British soldiers who were their guards. The big shrapnel helmets added to their height and'gave them the medieval look which strikes one anew every time oiie .'s&es ft batch df '. these men; but the others •were'thin. weedy, undersized bids, with gaunt cheekbones, deep' eye-sockets aud sallow skins, so tliat they seemed under thedr steel helmets, which came down to their shoulders, like human caricatures of snuffed candles. It is a marvel that . so many looked so well and strong, for these 'Prussians of 'the 81st reserve division have been living^' hellishly since the middle of June, when they were put. into the line at Meterten. It is a line without trenchers, made up of shell pits, into which 1 they bad to v c'ruwl at night,' digging' themselves deejber into these holes and biirroWiug for coyer from the British fire'.. When it rained tliey" sat and slept in water and mud. The village of Meteren gave them no Comfort as shelter, because the British guns pounded it "to ruin above the cellars, and having laid it low except for the! stump pf the old brick church tower which still stands, ithey pierced great craters in the brick-strewn ground, so that it was better to be out of the cellars than in them. They made their lines of defence in the outskirts of the village, hiding their dwelling-places in shell-pits, behind hedges and tall grass and flowering weeds. Miserably they tried to organise some trench system which would make life more tolerable, and 'they did actually dig a few bits of trench and make some ! dug-outs and machine-gun emplacements on the .edge of the village behind ono of j the hedges, but they had not gone far i with this work when the Scots and j South Africans made it useless. Probably they could not get on with it be- 1 cause' of the weakness of their companies. Influenza crept from shell hole to shell hole and caught hold of thegjfi^ poof wretches. The' incessant British^ gurifire v smashing into Meteren and bursting among their burrows,' caused them many casualties, and apparently . sufficient new drafts *&o fill the gaps did j not arrive. They became so weak that it is said companies were down to 30 men and battalions to 120. So this remnant of the 81st reserve division of Prussians' sat wretchedly tinder steel Helmets when the British guns strafed upon them at any hour of the day Or night, put on gas-masks when we , soaked then* ground with poison fumes, and knew -what it meant to live in a hell von earth. All that'no'rmal kind of experience came to thein on Friday' :l niorning, so ■ they thought it was just the same old ' ' thing; They put •oh gas-masks : when . clouds of smoke Tolled ttiwards thepi, ! and crouched low and listened to the rush of biff shells and the "scream -ot! them. There has been no counter-attack, daily routine, and although they., seamed to guess that one day they would be attacked, tliere was no reason why it .should happen that day: { In that way they were surprised and •. many of the^i knew nothing of the at-' A. taclcv until they found Scottish soldiers' „.-\ behind thein. . Many of them surrendered meekly. Thfe* only ' trouble to the Scots came .from ' a number of machine gQns hiddeh behind a hedge on the north bf Meteren > and they Were held up there .and suffered their casualties of the day, ..•wliic'h' elsewhere had been very light. 1 (.The Camerons and Royal Scots and' South , Africans, encircling .the 'village, attained their objectives' rapidly, and, on » the south-east of Meteren, went beyond X theniv "Thei'e has bene no counter-attack, , • : nor is' s it e&sy tb ; make : one, in viejv of ( the low spirit- '-of '-'this '"'Prussian' division, i A large number ■"'o'f 'machine-guns were I captured, as there were seven behind ! one. hedge ahd something like one to every 20 yards elsewliete. t There were six officer's taken with the *men, and one of them complained bitterly that a daylight attack wa's not flaying'the game. . OiVe of "the South Africans met a man * wh6m he had known well ort the Veldt, ' and' one elf the German prisohers had an uncle fighting in the British army. . TJi e y seem to have but i little knowledge of what , is happening ..on. other fronts, and utterly refuse to. believe tliat there area million American soldiers in France, though,, as one of the British officers says, they are beginning^ to sit Xnp , aiid take notice of that new ./nepace. x Apart from the capture of the Meteren, which was a -useful little gain /to the British, the most interesting thiilg . in this action seems to be thp 1 proof obtained that the division holding the- place had been allowed to fall so , far below strength and that inadequate j 'drafts had come' to it. I | i If ihat becomes a general necessity among German divisions, even among' a number of ..them, the doom of the German army is certain, for if the Boches teari- not replace their losses, nothing can eave them. It is too soon to expect tha.t. ' Generally Germany has, still large numbers of men in her depots, but we know that they a.e not enough tp re'- I place the preseiit rate of loss. j The four years' drain on Germany's j man-jpower is. beginning to tell at last. Thonglii in the actual .field she has still great armies, the British have a, healthy contempt for divisions; which have been I < left long in the, line against them. The Australians especially, in a cer- 1 tain' part Of the line, treat them with j rough disdain. The other dav they were asked to make a small attack at a certain hour to bring back some prisoners. Two hours before that time, impatient of waiting for the barrage, thoy were seen strolling in beyond their line with i>. slouch hats on, rounding up Germans in shell holes and "winkling" them out. \ As for Scottish troops. I agreed with one officer yesterday, who said as we passed some companies of tliese who took Meteren : "If I -were a German soldier 1 would hate to have these boys in * front of me." Tliey looked mo.'.t gallant as the^y /came 'sweeping along ' behind then* pipers. They had left even their tunics, and- their shirtsleeves were rolled up showing brown arms' and their chests were " bam Tliey were mostly young ',- recruits from Scotland, . with a boyish look, but hard and bronzed; nnd with a fine swagger in their kilts as they march?*, to thc music of pipes, so that