OCR Text |
Show WHEN THE OFFENSIVE STARTS. On the French front the heavy guns arc roaring. From tho German side the shells aro increasing. For 200 miles tho roll as of thunder Is heard. This is the prelude to a mighty effort ef-fort on the part of the Teutons to do that in which they failed earlier in the year. When the next drive starts, the Germans Ger-mans will send every available man into the battle. All the guns that can be concentrated on a fifty-mile front j will bo employed. In the opening of the Somme offensive on March 21, ! the Germans fired G75.000 shells in one ' hour and fifteen minutes, or at the rate of 9,000 shells a minute and 150 shells a second. This time they will eudeav-1 or to throw ono million shells In an hour. The air will be filled with smoko and flames and in all the area back of the allied lines poisonous gas will be released. Then, with a smoko screen i as a protection against the machine crews which have survived the blast of death, the troops of the kaiser will movo forward in waves. How will the allies meet this combination com-bination of high explosives, shrapnel and gas? They will keep under cover until the storm from the heavy guns lifts from their front lines and the barrage tells them the infantry Is ad- j vancing. Then every man in the dug- j outs who has survived the terrible J pounding -will seek to get in line to resist re-sist the waves of the enemy. If many of the machine guns are left in working work-ing order, the attack may be made very expensive and even held up. Then is when the desperate fighting, of which we read, will occur Man against man, It will bo a struggle to the death. |