OCR Text |
Show CONDITIONS ON I BRITISH FRONT I Eye-witness Describes the Con-tinuous Con-tinuous Artillery Combats on Allies' Right. WEATHER IMPROVING H Roads Hard to Maintain in 111 Shape for Motor Travel $9 German Story Denied. mM London. Jan. 25, 2:07 p. m There 11 was given out In London today a fw further recital of conditions at the H front by an eye witness attached to C the British general staff It Is dated I Tuesday, January 19, at the British fcft general headquarters in France A synopsis of it follows: "The work of the artillery, partim- H;r larly on the British right, is dis- ' cussed and it is related that weather mv conditions are improying. The diffi- iVvJ' culty of maintaining good roads, Af yvhich are ground to pieces by heavy motors, is mentioned and extended f&V?-denial f&V?-denial is given to a German report jrv that the English have used German prisoners as aeroplane observers. 'rf: Continuing, the observer sas Jie$ British Artillery Combats. iftsA "The continuous artillery combat almost takes the form of a game in some parts of the field As soon as the German batteries start shelling ihi us our guns are directed against cer- ;. tain places on the enemy's lines, th ,v?; bombardment of which, we know by -. ' experience, will soon Induce him to H desist. Having obtained the range of Ip." most of the hostile batteries, we gen- kV; erally can reduce them to silence or KV-render KV-render their fire comparatively harm- .V less. W-H "On Saturday, January 16, our guns m$-,i made good practice against the Ger- w$ :-i man trenches and also found an excel- p ' lent target in a German battalion tp I marching through a forest, and they j made direct hits on a convoy and ob- I servation station at Yolaines. On i I Sunday, the 17th, north of Givenchy. we shelled the German redoubts and forced the garrison to retire. On Monday, the IKth tho Rritlab lefi was heavily shelled without result. j German Report Denied. "An alleged German official report declares that a certain German prls- i I oner in the English lines claims that on several different occasions he was forced to ascend in a British aero-I aero-I plane in his shirt sleeves to point out the German positions and drop a bomb. This whole story is a pure j I fabrication, but it presumably would I not bare appeared unless it was like- I I ly to be accepted as true In Germany and in some neutral countries. Tho absurdity of taking up a private sol- ( dier, who never before had made an ascent, In order to ascertain the po- Isitlon ol units of which he knew noth-I noth-I Ing, is sufficient refutation. More-over, More-over, we would be hardly likely to render his ta6k more difficult by in- f .Dieting the needless hardship of ex- ; i posure. (I "Immense efforts and a great amount of material are being expend- j ed to keep roads in repair under the j motor traffic. Furthermore, iu many cases the paved portions of the roads Jj are so narrow that vehicles are un-able un-able to pass each other; consequently, it has been necessary to widen the paved surface. Although stone block is one of the most ancient and dur- ! able form of road, it becomes brokeu ij up in time by heavy traffic. 1 "The weather is now dry and windy, which results In improving f conditions In the trenches. B "The wind at the height of half a mile has reached a velocity of ninety ; miles an hour. In spite of this, sue-cessful sue-cessful aeroplane flights have been I accomplished." 1 |