Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-09-18
GERMANS SCATTER
SHADOWS AND WAGE
WARFARE AT NIGHT
Powerful Illumination Lo-
Gates the Enemy in Dark
ness, Writes Private in
British Army.

LONDON, Sept II tBy Mail to New York
Sept. 1S).
That the Germans are employing
s,archlights at night to learn the posi-
ton of the British troops opposing them
/ and use their artillery even after dark
ness has fallen, is shown in a letter re-
ccivcd here today by the parents Of
Private Edward Strong, with the British
army in France.
Tho Germans don't seems to care how
much ammunition they waste" says the
letter Yesterday they kept blazing
away for nine solid hours at position
which we had left the day before. The
bullets did absolutely no damage.
"If ii wasn't for their artillery / really
don't know where they would he, for
they are little use at any other form of
lighting. We find too, that the Germans
are less inclined to fight, and when we
approach them, they surrender often,
rather than fight us. l think they have
been badly shaken by their hard march
ing.
ION Sunday, August q, We came in con-
tact with the enemy unexpectedly at
Mons. not knowing that they had been
victorious at Namur. They outnumbered
us 10 to For three hours their shells
We're terrific. but toward evening our ar.
tillery checked their murderous fire.
Darkness fell at last much to our relief
and the fire slackened considerable but
not altogether, for the Germans brought
a powerful searchlight into operation and
harassed us through the night.
About o'clock we got orders to retire
II was then that I felt some pain, and l
had to hop on one foot until ! reached an
ammunition wagon. Daybreak found us
out of danger. Later they came over the
country in masscd bodies, They must
have lost terribly. Our losses were in
considerable.
I'VE were firing al 300 yards range, with
fixed bayonets ready to charge, but tho
German infantry didn't want any of this.
They seemed to depend on their artillery
and machine guns.
on Monday we had a little respite. on
Tuesday we were into it again. Wednes-
day at daybreak it was started over
again, and here the Germans gave us
what no. Our casualties at this point
were awful about 5000 or more
J. Harris, of the Worcestershire regi-
ment, writes: IT was in the battle OF
Mons and st. Quentin, and / can tell
you South Africa was a picnic TO that.
II was like hell upon earth for a few
days, but we gave them a lesson they
won't forget. That was the first action
for lis. and the Germans got quite a
shock when they bumped against Tommy
Atkins.
Their losses were enormous, compared
with ours. They lost at least 10000 in
one day We simply moved them down
in heaps. They had about 100 big guns
along the front turned on us from morn
ing to night and those did the most dam
age to us Their infantry is a 'washout.'
THE Kaiser had his finest troops at
Mons, and told his staff to pay particular
attention TO us, but | expect they thought
we We're hot stuff after they made our
acquaintance. What we did in that three
weeks English people at home will never
know. We We're marching and fighting
cay and night l have seen sights never
10 be forgotten among the refugees of
France and Belgium"