NEWS STILL KEPT BACK

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 16, 5 September 1914, Page 5

NEWS STILL KEPT BACK

Invisibility of the Foe. THE EXPERIENCE OF THE CONNAUGHT RANGERS. , • ■ ■ ' ) WHERE THE RIFLE BULLETS DROPPED LIKE RAIN. GUN FIRE TEARS HIDEOUS CAPS IN THEIR RANKS. (Received 8.10 a.m.) ; f ’■ London, September 4. A ’ lance-corporal of tbe Connaught Rangers, who was wounded; states “The disconcerting thing about the present fighting is that we iseldom see the enemy. We lay for ten hours in trenches *Jast Saturday with rifle bullets dropping like raindrops, only saw the. line of white puffs of smoke on the horizon wl}en the Germans fired. It was a big test of a man’s fitness’to ppt up, with fhis all day without losing his nerve.' We were fighting for three days before we set eyes on the Germans. Then we had plenty of hand-to-hand fighting! The Germans sacrifice the men for the sake of making an impression in an appalling fashion.

One British position dominated by a German battery clearly could not be held long, yet the infantry attacked in a long •never-ending stream. Our rifle and gun fire tore hideous gaps in their ranks, and the Red Cross men afterwards picked up, in that position alone, 1600 German dead and wounded. The British loss was only twenty. We are wondering how lemg the Germans can keep up this sort of thing.”