FRENCH CONFIDENCE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21559, 23 January 1940, Page 8

FRENCH CONFIDENCE

CHANGED SITUATION RELISHED “In the French armies the war of 1914-18 is simply referred to as Tautre’—‘the other one,’ ” writes the London “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent on the Western Front. “Somehow or other it gets referred to in almost every conversation. Its ghost will not be laid. All who saw something of the prodigious tragedy have had their memories of it revived.

“Deep in a misty autumn wood, I talked with an artillery commandant who had begun his war service in ’the other as an infantryman in the ranks. He said: ‘There were times when I could not help despairing of the outcome. The difference to-day Is that I cannot see anything but victory as possible.’

“One simple geographical fact affords every man in the French armies, the great and the humble alike, an intimate satisfaction. It is that Germany is here, close at hand, and vulnerable. “Again and again you hear it said that if actual German soil had suffered but a fraction of what invaded France went through in 1914-18 there would be no war to-day.” The same writer states that if one arm more than another in the French forces relishes the different situation it is the artillery. When the guns speak it is a German village now that totters and crumble*. If the Germans should choose one of these days, to batter a French town there is a crushing retort in readiness. “The French artillery is in wonderful fettle, and a long tour of the gun positions supporting a sector of the Maginot Line was a singularly pleasant experience,” he continued. “After a time I bgan to lose count of the number of good fellows I had shaken hands with in my series of visits to command posts and dug-outs. “The impression made was that these gunners would have been pleased to show me every single piece of ordnance in the whole region. In some batteries every emplacement had its particular history of ingenuity expended or difficulty overcome.”