Official

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 34, 26 September 1914, Page 5

Official

The High Commissioner report; under date London, September 24tl . 10.20 p.m.

SIEGE WARFARE.

The enemy is stil! maintaining him self along the whole front, throwing into the fight units from the acfcivf army reserves and the Landwehr. Our progress is slow against the strength of the defensive positions, hut in certain directions our advance is continuous. The present battle may last some days. It is nefw ap proximating siege warfare. The Reimans are using searchlights, and are probably employing material collected for the siege of Paris. The French commander states; “We have a feeling that we have been victorious,”

On the 18th a German aeroplane was destroyed.

French cavalry demolished part of a. railway temporarily, cutting one of the lines of communication of importance to the enemy. September 19th: The bombardment is now a matter of routine rather than event. Another hostile aeroplane has been destroyed. Our aviators dropped several bombs over the

German linos, one falling with considerable effect on a transport parknear La Fere. A large buried store of the enemy’s ammunition was found .near the Aisne. INCESSANT NICriT ALARMS. On the- 20th the German attack was repulsed with loss to the enemy. The brunt of the resistance has fallen upon the infantry. In. spite of drenching rains, , with trenches deep in mud and water, there are incessant night alarms and continuous bombardment. We have on every occasion been ready and repulsed the enemy. ’file enemy is disappointed that the moral effect of the heavy guns has not depressed the British soldiers.

Considerable information about the enemy was gleaned from prisoners. 'Our bombardment on the 15th produced a great impression. Our infantry make such good use of the ground that German companies are decimated by our rifle fire before the British soldiers are sfeen. THE ENEMY’S FORCES. From an official diary captured by the Ist army corps, it appears that me German corps contains an ex:raordinary mixture of units. If the omposition of other corps is similar t may be assumed that the present efficiency of the enemy’s forces is no way comparable with what it was

rhen the war commenced. The losses of officers were especially rere. A brigade is stated to he ommanded by a major, and some companies of foot guards are commanded by one-year volunteers. After die battle of Montmirail one regiment was found to have lost 55 or 60 officers. Prisoners recently captured ippreciate the fact that the march m Paris has failed and that their forces are retreating into closer "ouch with their supports, which have -waved too far to the rear. The

■/fleers are endeavoring to encourage he troops by telling them that they ■ ill he home by Christmas. A large

umber of men, however, believe that hey are.beaten.

HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING,

The following refers to the lighting u the Aisne: Letter found on a lerman officer; Our corps has the isk of holding the heights south of erry in all circumstances till the sth. The corps on our left flank in grip the enemy’s flank. On our ight are other corps. We are fight;g with English Guards and High.hders and Zouaves. The losses on oth sides have been enormous. For ho most part this is due to tfio £OO •illiant French artillery. The, Engsh are marvellously trained in mak'g use of the ground. One never ■es them, and one is constantly un-

> r fire. The French airmen per>rm wo nderfnl feats. We cannot get id of them. As soon as an airman ias flown over us ten minutes later e get their shrapnel fire in our position. We have little artillery in ar corps, and without it we cannot cot forward. Three days ago our iivision took possession of those

.eights and dug itself in. Two days igo in the early morning we wore ittaoked by an immensely superior English force of one brigade and two lattalions and were turned nut of mr position. The British took o guns from us. It was a tremendous hand-to-hand fight. How I escaped nyself I am not clear. 1 then had to bring up supports. J hen came up the Guard ,lager battalion 4th, the lager 64th regiment, the leseive legiment 13th, and the Landwehr regiments 13 and 16, and with the help

of the artillery we drove' back the British out of our position again. Our niacin no guns did excellent work. Hie English foil in heaps. In our hat-, talion Iron Crosses were given. Outing the first 2 days of the battle 1 had only one piece of bread and no water. If we first beat the English, the French resistance will ‘ soon he broken, and Russia will be very quickly dealt with. We received splendid help from tiio Austrian Jjeavy artillery at Maubeuge. They bombarded Fort Cerfoyaiue in such a way that there was not ten metres oi parapet which did not show enormous craters made by the shells, and the armored turrets were found upside down.’ BRITISH AIRMEN’S ESCAPE. ' Recently a pilot and observer of the Royal Flying Corps were forced by a breakage in their aeroplane to descend in the enemy’s linos. The pilot managed to pancake his machine down to earth, and the two escaped into some thick undergrowth in the wood. The enemy c;junc up, seized and smashed the machine, but did not search for our men with much zeal. The latter lay hid till dark, and then found their way to the Aisne, across which they swam, ’reaching camp in safety. BRIDGE-BUILDING. I

Numerous floating bridges had been thrown across the Aisne, and some permanent bridges repaired under fire. On the S2otli a lieutenant of the Royal Engineers was, unfortunately drowned whilst attempting to swim across the river with a cable in order to open up fresh telegraph communication with the north side. GERMAN TRICKS. Espionage is still being carried oii by the enemy to a considerable extent. Recently, the suspicions of the French troops were aroused by coming across, a farm from which the horses had not been removed. After searching, they discovered a telephone connected by an underground cable with the German lines. The owner of the farm paid the penalty usual in war for treachery. It was reported by our officers that some GeAnaus attempted to approach to close quarters by forcing prisoners to march in front of them. The Germans have repeated the same trick on a larger scale against the French as if shown by a copy of the following French order: “September, 1914. During a recent night attack the Germans drove a column of French prisoners in front of them. This action is to be brought to the notice ,of all our troops in order to put them on their guard against such a dastardly ruse, in order that every soldier may know how the Germans treat their pri ,sopers. Our troops- must notAorgeF —if they allow themselves to be taken prisoners—that the Germans will not fail to expose them to the French bullets.”

An order of the 17th says: “The German ambulance waggons advanced in order to collect the wounded, and the order “Cease fire!” was con* sequently given to our guns, whirl were firing on this particular section of the ground. The German battery commanders at once took advantage of the hill in the action to climb up their observation ladders to locate our guns, which scon after came under far more accurate fire than any to which they had been subjected up to that time.”

A British officer who was captured by the Germans, but who has since escaped, reports that while a prisoner ho saw men who had been fighting subsequently put on Bed Cross Brassards. 1 Men were in the uniform of combatant units have been captured ( wearing the Red Cross Brassard hastily slipped over the arm.