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Show CAPTURE OF METEREN VIVIDLY DESCRIBED Scots and South Africans Rout the Prussians Defending De-fending the Village. By PHILIP GIBBS. (New York Times-Chicago Tribune Cable, Copyright.) WAR CORRESPONDENTS' HEADQUARTERS, HEAD-QUARTERS, July 21. -My first account of ! the capture of Meteren by the Scots and South Africans was underestimated as to , the number of prisoners. When I wrote only sixty or so .had been brought down under escort, but later in the day more than 200 others were collected from cellars and dugouts in and about the ruins of the village and added to the bag. Meanwhile, the Australians to the soutli brought their number up to about 100. They were an extremely mixed crew, as I saw for myself. Some of tliem were big fellows of 6 feet 2 or 3 inches, with heavy, hulking figures, and one or two at least looked monstrously tall beside our young soldiers who were their guards. Their big shrapnel helmets added to their height and gave them a medieval look, which strikes anew everyone who sees these men; but others are thin, weedy, undersized lads with gaunt cheekbones, deep eye sockets, sallow skins, so that they seemed, under the steel helmets which come down to their shoulders, like human caricatures of snuffed candles. Many Well and Strong. It 13 a marvel that so many looked so well and strong, for these Russians of the Eighty-first reserve division have been living hellishly since the middle of June, when they were put into the 'line at Meleren. It is a line without trenches made up of shell pits, into which they had to crawl at night, digging themselves deeper into these holes and burrowing for cover from our fire. When It rained they sat and slept In water and mud The village of Meleren gave them no comfort as shelter, because our guns pounded it to ruin above the cellars and laid ,t low, except for the stump of an old red bnc church tower which still stands. Great Craters Made. The guns pierced great craters in the bnck-strewn ground, s, that It wa, better bet-ter to be out of the cellars than in them They made their line of defense on the outskirts of the village, hiding their dwelling dwell-ing places in the shell .!!, behind hedges and in th- tall grass and flowering weed' Miserably, they tried to organize some trench system which would make life more tolerable, and did actually dig a f.-v.- bits of trench and mafca some dugouts and machine gun emplacements on the north of the village, behind one of trie hedges. (Continued oit' Page Tlirec.) I hind them. Many of them surrendered meekly. The only trouble to the Scots came from a number of machine guns hidden hid-den behind a hedge on the north of Met- , eren, and our men were held up and suffered suf-fered there most of the casualties of the day, which elsewhere had been very light. The Camerons and Royal Scots and South Africans encircling the village attained at-tained their objectives rapidly, and on the southeast of Meteren they went beyond them. No Counter-Attack. There was no counter-attack, nor was It easy to make one, in view of t he low spirit of this Prussian division. A large number of machine guns were captured, and there were seven behind one hedge, and something like one to every twenty yards elsewhere. There were six officers taken with the men, and one of them complained bitterly that the daylight attack at-tack w-as not playing the game," and said in bad French : "Jes ocossais beau coup furied." (The Scotch much furious.) Ono of the South Africans met a man who had known him well on the veldt, and one of the German prisoners has an uncle fighting in our army. They seem to have but little knowledge of what is happening on the other fronts, and utterly refuse to believe there are many American soldiers In France, though, as one of our officers said, they arc beginning to take notice of that new menace. A part from the capture of Meteren, which was a useful little gain to us, the most interesting interest-ing thing In this action seems to me the proof that we obtained inforrna t ion tha t the division holding the place had been allowed to fall so far below st reiiKth, and that no adequate drafts had come of it. Doom of Hun Army Certain. If that becomes genera I. t he doom of the German army is ceriai n, for if they cannot replace their losses not h trig ra n save them. It is too soon to expect that generally. Germany has st ill la rye, numbers num-bers of men in her depots, but wc know they fire not enough to replace the present rate of loss. Four years' drain of Germany's Ger-many's manpower is beginning to tell at last. Thouuh in tho actual field she has still great armies, our men have a healihy contempt for the divisions which have been left Ion? in the lino atrainst them. The Australians, especially In certain parts of the line, treat them with rough disdain. The other day they were asked to make a small attack at a certain hour to bring some prisoners. Two hours he-fore he-fore that time, impatient of waiting for the barrage, they were seen strolling out beyond th'-ir line with slouch bats on. rounding up Germans in the she) holes and "winkling" them nut. Ah for Scottish Scot-tish trnors. I agreed with the office,- with me yeterda y. who yn id. a -t we passed some companies of t hose who t ook .Meteren, .Met-eren, "If I were a Ger-rnari soldier f should haie to have those boys in front of me." They look'-d most gallant as they came swinging along behind their pipers. Thev had left their tunics, and their shirt sleeves were rolied up, showing brown yrms, and the;- chests were bare. Thev v.-ero mostly young recruits from S'y;;;nd. with a boyish look, but hard and bronzed and with a fine swacger In the;r kilts as they marched to trie music of the pipe.--, so that one's heart thumper nt. the s'::ht i of them. Sorr.ti German L'cn:als woi;jd rrive, their o,ils to get 8i;eh recruits as that. CAPTURE OP METEREN VIVIDLY DESCRIBED (Continued from Page One.) but they had not gone far with the work when the Spots and South Africans made it useless. Probably they could not get on with it because of the weakness of their companies. The influenza crept from shell hole to shell hole, and caught hold of those poor wrct'-he:;. Our incessant gunfire smashing into Meteren and bursting among their burrows ca used them many casualties casual-ties and apparently sufficient new drafts to fill the g;ips dil riot arrive. They he'-a me so weak that it was said some companies v-re down to thirty men and the battalions to ll'i. Hell on Earth. So this remnar.t of the Kichty-first re-, re-, servo d;v:.-kn of Prussian "guard sat ; wrl.P- ily under the.'r xU ' la lrr.ets when our g-.ms "str; d'' them at any hour of I the day ar.d rcd.t. p-ji on masks when we snat;d :. ,r g:mjnd with poison fu nvjs. and knew vhat it m'-ant to Jive in a Itf'A on oar'h. All thai nor:ra! kind of expfri- ence r;rrt" to :.'yn on FrPav morninc, so i hey t;.o-;ght -it jest ' sa me old thine. j They a: on r-s mask- vh'-n the rlo-ais of smoke roii'-d K. ,vard i:;err, ayd erou'-h'-d j low ar.d lisier'd to thr- crash, of big shells and th'- ream of 'hem. Fe-r a mo:,: , t:,;s .-..,s bn th daily roiriTie. ."Vj-i ai; houL-rr troy y---n .-d to gaos tha; o,o d-iy l;.- v would be atta-kod. tho.ro wis r.o r- on a i y it s::o;;;d happen that -:;r.'. Jn that w.:y 'r.-v wore. s,i rpr.sed . and rii.-u-.v of th'm W--w not hint: of the attack ureal fj.cy foiind U.e Scottish soldiers be- |
