A SCARRED LANDSCAPE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144711, 21 June 1915, Page 8

A SCARRED LANDSCAPE.

WARFARE IN THE TRENCHES. . The following extraordinarily graphic letter from a British cavalry captain to his father, describing the in France, was published in tlio Now York Evening Rost;— “You will have heard of our first week’s serious lighting. Bet me give yon some general impressions of this astounding conflict: "First and most impressive: tho absolutely indescribable ravages of modern artillery lire, not only upon all men, animals, and buildings within its zone, hut upon the very lace of Nature itself. Imagine a broad belt, ten miles or so in width, stretching from tho Channel to the German frontier near liaise, which is positively Uttered with the bodies of men and scarified with their rude graves; in which farms, villages, and cottages are shapeless heaps of blackened masonry; in which fields, roads, and trees are pitted and torn and twisted by shells and disfigured by dead horses, cattle, sheep, and goats, scattered in every attitude of repulsive distortion and dismemberment. TERRAIN OF DEATH. 'Day and night in this area are made hideous by the incessant crash and whistle and roar of every sort of projectile. by sinister columns of smoke and liariie. by tho tries of wounded men, bv the piteous calls of animals of all sorts, abandoned, starved, perhaps wounded Along this terrain of death stretch more or less parallel to each otiier lines and lines ol trenches, some 200. some 1000 yards apart, hardly visible except to tho aeroplanes which continually hover over them, menacing and uncanny harbingers ol Ircsh showers of destruction. In these trenches crouch lines of men, in brown, or grey, or blue, coated with mud. unshaven, hollow-eyed with the continual strain, unable to reply to the everlasting rain of shells hurled at them from three, four, five, or more miles away, and positively welcoming an infantry attack from one side or the other ns a chance of meeting am! - matching themselves against human assailants, and not against invisible, irresisitiblo machines, the outcome of an ingenuity which even yon and 1 would he in agreement in considering unproductive from everv point of view. Belliud 'these trenches v a long way behind, come the guns hidden in hedgerows and copses, dug into emplacements. concealed in every imaginable way from tho aerophm-s which give their range; behind them again come tlie reserves and supports and masses of eara'rv, or at least of their hoises. for all tlie English cavalry are in the trenches; behind them again the forward supply and ammunition depots: next tho headquarters, and last tlie big base; in our case on tho coast. THE SERVICE CORPS. "Nest to the destructiveness of the thing, what most amazes mo is the number of non-combatants re uired to transport, to supply, to connect generally. and to provide and equip the paratively small fighting line. Every road between the coast and the trenches hums with motor transport, every base is the centre of converging linos of supplies, every trench, every regimental. every brigade every divisional, every army corps headquarters is connected and linked up with field telephones. motor bicyclists, and motor oars. . In fact, far more men iu uniform are seen behind than in the actual fighting lino, ami what is satisfactory is that the whole machine appoars.to work admirably. It is a very different problem to tackle from tho South African War. Here each battle is a, prolonged bombardment of a series of- carefully prepared positions ; all the appliances of twentieth century civilisation can be brought to work, and the result is good BABEL OF TONGUES. "It is wonderful to see the variety of uniforms and faces, and to hear the babel of tongues at the big centres. In or on tlie way to tho trenches people are either too tired or too frightened to talk, and all movements lake place in the dark. One night last week, beautifully starlit, I was riding up tho reverse slope of a wooded hill round which were encamped the most extraordinary medley of troops you could imagine. French Cuirassiers, with their glistening breastplates and lapcos, a detachment of the London Scottish, an English howitzer battery, a battalion of Sikhs, a squadron of African Spahis wiUi long robes and turbans, all sitting round their camp fires, chattering, singing, smoking, tho very apotheosis of pictures quo and theatrical warfare, with their variety of uniforms, saddlery equipment, and arms. Very striking it was to see the remnants of an English line battalion marching hack from the trenches through these merry warriors, a limping column of bearded, muddy, torn figures, slouching with fatigue, with wool caps instead of helmets, sombre looking in their khaki, but able to stand tho cold, tho strain, the awful losses, tho inevitable inability to reply to tho shell fire, which is what eliminations can’t do. It’s going to bo a long, long war, in spite of tho fact that wants it stopped at once.”