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Show KAISER'S TROOPS j KEEP UP COURAGE . They Come Back From I Trenches Without Signs of ! Being Demoralized. ' GRENADIERS CONFIDENT j British Have Employed Half I of Their Army on the I 1 Picardy Battlefield. 1 1 Headquarters of the German Armies I on the Somme, July 24, by courier to ' n S Berlin, July 25, 10 a. m., via London, Jul" 26, 4:25 a. m. One source of in- I formation is conversation with troops ! J coming from the front lines, particu- ' H : larly common soldiers, whose view- j n ! point- often give a valuable clue to I (! the tide the battle is taking. , ij The correspondent visited first a grenadier regiment which had just j fj been relieved from forward trenches , jj after beating .off French onslaughts ! W in the vicinity of Estrees for several days. The soldiers described in uncon- n ventlonal language the French charges, particularly the great attack ' of Friday, the chief force of which ' j fell on this regiment. The onslaught M was preceded by three hours of In- ' H tense bombardment, touching the ex. , a treme limit of the possible for the ex- trmely efficient French artillery. I 5 It might have been expected that ! jr the front trenches would have been ', v, demolished and their defenders-demor. j W alized after this pounding, but the soldiers unconcernedly related how, fi when the artillery curtain lifted and ; ii French and black regiments charged, j the Germans jumped from what was - left of their trenches and advanced n to meet the French. In an open des- ij perate hand to hand struggle in which ft hand grenades were almost the ox- L elusive weapon, the French finally re,- m turned to their own trenches 'followed by the Germans, some of whom even ' B leaped into the French trench and ' m continued the struggle "Tnrtir called 1 m back by their remaining officers and j Lrj non-commissioned officers to their ' ij own lines. 1 Kj Cannot Break Through. ; m "Will the French be able to break ' m through the grenadier regiment?" was , asked of the soldiers. m "Never," was the reply which ex- I pressed evident pride in their regi- i In ' ment, but was given without a touch of bravado. f "Which is the better French soldier, 1 1 the white or the black?" tl "The white, by all odds, is better j and braver," was the instant judgment of the soldiers, who added uncompli- II mentary reference to the fighting cus- IB toms of the Senegalese troops which 0 had resulted in very fey prlsonres fflj being made .from among these regl- Hi ments. i The next group encountered was a j !fl . t detachment of slightly wounded men, ' W 1 walking back from the dressing station jj to the railroad head. No despond- H3 -V ency was evident among them. An- J ; other regiment visited had just re- U turned from another part of the south- ern front. Its experience had been jj much the same as that of the first , j R regiment, and the soldiers exhibited : if an identical feeling of absolute confi- i n dence that they had the upper hand i jj over their enemy. K One man when questioned said that I J he had not seen the great French ; I t charge. He had been buried in a ' I trench during the preliminary bom- ! H - bardment and was dug out after two I n hours and sent to the rear. His nerves U apparently were not at all shaken by I b his experience. He, like all the others, ! L took his return to the trenches as a j I matter of course. i I The correspondent also visited a I group of several hundred French pris- j 1 oners captured during the fighting at ' ff Estrees.' It must be said that they, ! I too, made an excellent impression. j They showed no trace of despondency I or demoralization. They were mostly j a Bretons and colonial infantry. !u Many British Troops. jl The troops had been ordered in by I General Foch in a vigorous endeavor to open the German sack position and ; i give the British and French the neces-sarj- elbowroom for further efforts. Later expansion is the' object of the British strategy and the British efforts to this end has been far greater than those of the French. j j General Haig has employed two sol- j j diers to every one by General Joffre J and his losses have been proportionately proportion-ately even greater, it is said. The im j , mensity of the British effort may be judged from information supplied The Associated Press correspondent by the commander In chief's Intelligence officer offi-cer that thus far in the July offensive offen-sive over half of the available di'i- j sions of the British army, counting i ' . even those of the Orient but excluding j the divisions in England not yet ready j 3 for service at the front, have been t fl . used on this comparatively narrow a ' fronL - IJ "We have them Btopped now," was 81 the confident verdict of this officer, jHj agreeing with that of the commander- n in-chlef's chief-of staff. W |