| OCR Text |
Show DESCRIPTION OF ! REALWARFARE London. Nov 22 G 20 p. m. Col E. D Swinton, the British official eye witness vmth the expeditionary for ces on the continent, continuing his narrative of the army operations and supplementing his account of Novem her 19. writes: "November 20 The only change to record in the military situation on our front Is an attack in force again upon our left on November 17 The four days from the 16th to the 1 9th have been unusually uneventful. Win ter has now set in In earnest. Since certain misstatements to the effect that the Germans had penetratel Ypres and had been driven out again have apparently been circulated, it Is well to state that Ypres is In the hands of the allies and (hat save for prisoners of war or possible spies, no Germans have succeeded in entering 'he town or even getting near it. The allied position there is stronger than it ever has been Quiet on the Left. "Monday, November 1G, our troops on the left passed a most peaceful day. There was little shelling and no Infantry attacks. A prisoner as seited that it had been the intention of the Germans to assault this quarter on the 15th, but the damage inflicted by our artillery on the previous da had been so heavy that it had hoc derided to postpone the operation Ul til reinforcements should arrive. I "There is no doubt that on the I5t in massing preparatory to attack, th Germans committed certain faults which our guns and maxims took ai vintage with devastating results t 1 the rear German battalions ' The fighting to the south of pre 'continued without marked advantag to either side. 1 c the French ever; where held tlx ground. On th center all was quiet. On our rigiit th enemy pushed forward the saps an throw inp, bombs from their trenchc and mortars One of their saphcad was successfully attacked during th night and an earth-boring tool wa captured. "On Tuesday on our left the Ge mans after shelling our positions t tlv east ii, direction of Ypres an to the southeast made threo attack: About 1 p m their inrantry advaiv cd in strenpth against our section o this line and took possession of som trenches out of which our troops ha been driven by shell fire. When th tiermans endeavred to press on. on infantry made a brilliant counter-ni taclc with bayonets and drove then out of ilit- trenches and for some 50 yards beyond. "A second attempt made farther t' the southwest was pressed withil five yard6 of our line before it wai broken by our rifle fire On th I occasion the Germans advanced oh llquely across our front and suffere( very severely from our rifle and gut fire. ' The number of killed left along i length of some 500 yards of our fron is estimated at about 1200. The as sault was marie b regular troop; though not by the guard One Successful Day. About 3 p m they massed for th' third assault, but being subjected tc a hot shell fire, they gave up the at tempt. On the whole it was a mosl successful day for our arms. "On Wednesday, the 18th, nothini occurred except the shelling of ou right. Owing to the high tide th inundation was extending satisfactor lly to the southeast of Dixmude ' Thursday, the 19th, also was un eventful Our trench mortars wen used for the first time with good re suits The successful resistance wt havt made lias had a very encourag ing effect In spite of the exhausting nature of the operations in the lasi month Our men show great entpr prise in making local counter-attach in cutting off the enemy's patrols am in similar aifairs of outposts. ' Around Ypres we continually an finding fresh evidence of the slaugh ter inflicted on the enemy On tin -5th one of our battalions, while ad valuing, discoxered a German trend: nianred b seventeen corpses, while tber were forty-nine more in a house close b) )n the next day a putro discovered sixty dead In front of one trench and fifty more opposite an otner. All the farms and cottage? to our front are charnei houses. "The significance of such small numbers lies only In the fact that tlr-v represent the killed In a very mail area "According to prisoners, the Ger mans attempt to take Ypres proved costly Om- stated that there were only fifteen survivors out of his pla toon which went into action fifty strong. Another reported that of 250 men who advanced with him, only nitieteen returned. It is believed that one Bavarian regiment 3000 strong, which left Bavaria for the front on October 19, only had 1200 men lefl wheu an attack was made along the Men in Ypres road on November 14 "The plight of some units of new formations is even worse, one regiment regi-ment of the third reserve corps having hav-ing 600 men out of "000. "If the period since the beginning of the war is considered, the numbers num-bers are even crater For insiance, of the Fifteenth corps, one regiment lost sixty officers and 250 men. Another An-other lost 3000 men These figures Include casua'tles of every kind-killed, kind-killed, wounded and missing "On all four dayse the weather has been bad Generally fine and frosty in the early morning. It turned to hcavy rain as the day wore on. Thurs day snow: started to fall about 1pm and continued until about 6 o'clock The state of the roads, already bad, was rendered worRe. Wretched Conditions. "The condition of the trenches became be-came wretched beyond description From having to sit or stand in a mixture mix-ture of straw and liquid mud, the men had to be content with half-irozen half-irozen slush, it is an ill wind.' however, how-ever, and one good point about the wet weather is that it made the ground so soft that the enemy's howitzer how-itzer shells sink some depth before 'hey detonate, and expend a greater part of their energy in an upward direction, throwing the mud about. "Nevertheless, the vet land could have added greatly to the hardships of the troops in the trenches, and the problem how to enable them to keep their feet reanonably dry and warm is now engaging serious attention. "At on place, owing to the kindness kind-ness of the proprietor, certain works were recently placed at our disposal as a wholesale bathhouse, lavatory and repair shop In the works are a number of vats large enough to enable en-able several men to bathe at one time. Uniforms Fumigated. "While the men are enjoying their bath their clothes are taken away, their underclothing washed or burned and replaced by a new set At the same time their uniforms are fumi-gaied, fumi-gaied, cleaned and repaired and the buttons sewed on. The repairs are done by women who are employed for the purpose By this Installation some 1500 men are caiered to "What this really means to the soldiers sol-diers alone can be appreciated from the realization of their previous state It must bo remembered that they not only had not bathed for weeks, but they had not been able to take ofr their clothes, that consequently in many cases the officers as well as the men are verminous. "As the latter troop up to the bath thc-y are unprepossessing in appearance, appear-ance, weary, unshorn and haggard They are coated with mud, a good deai of which is crusted on them. Some of them are splashed with blood of their comrades or of the enemy. "When they come out clean refreshed re-freshed and reclothed they are differ 55? be,lnSs- Nt only Ib this a good thing from the point of view of hap piuess and comfort of the Individual, hut it is a distinct gain in his fighting fight-ing value and an asset to the force Nevertheless, bodily the men are in food condition. Food in abundance reaches them regularly except in a Lk3"8 ,Such as are incidental to .rench warfare." |
