New-York tribune., 1914-12-22
GEN. Won HERINGEN
PRAISES HIS FOES
Continued from page 1

expert in arms and ammunition, ana
wouldn't know a dum-dum bullet if |
saw one. The British rife with a steel
| ring attachment on the side was SIM
| liar to one which | had picked up on
| former battlefield for souvenir pur-
noses the day before, and the bullet
was undenably bob-tailed, and the
| general was sincere in his conviction
/ that he "had the goods" on the Eng
/ lsh; but it was a question for the
| high court Of civilization, advised by a
| commission of experts.
81 think we Germans are almost too
/ good-natured i'm some ways the gen
/ eral remarked with a twinkle Of humor
/ when the conversation drifted around
/ 10 atrocities" "Do you know that
there is a regular postal service be
| tween my trenches and the French
| At one point they are only about fifty
| Yards apart, and the men send letters.
! papers and other things back and forth.
| The other day our soldiers got letter
/ from the French, reading: To-day we
! are enemies; in fourteen days we Will
/ be friends, and then we will both go
/ against the English
/ The general believes that there is
/ more or less bad feeling between the
/ French and the English, and as an IL
/ lustration said:
"Some time ago a mixed batch Of
| French and English prisoners was
| brought into a town and quartered to-
/ gether. without any warning tre-
mendous row broke out, fight between
| the French and English: and the funny
part was that our soldiers who were
/ guarding them jumped in and helped
/ the French. Now we always separate
| French and English prisoners"
Can Hear Eiffel Tower.
The general laughingly remarked that
| the Germans were not entirely depen-
| dent for news on the German official
/ bulletins. with our wireless installa-
I ton" he said. Eve can hear the Eiffel
| Tower talk. One day | was interested
to overhear that two of my own bat
| teries had been 'annihilated' by the
| French at a certain point. II was GER
| tainly news TO me; they were still in
wofkinc order when / called them up
on the telephone"
General Won Heringen made the in
/ teresting statement that the health Of
his trOOps was better than in peace
| times. Except from typhoid" be said,
"there has been only one death from
/ sickness i'm my army in two months. A
/ small typhoid epidemic was quickly
| checked, thanks to the stringent sani-
/ tary measures and pioneer work Of the
American army in typhoid vaccna-
ton"
Like all successful men. General Won
Heringen was more eager to get in
formation than TO give il. The COM
mander of the -th army does not be-
lieve that in the matter of warfare
the Germans know it all. lie said quite
frankly that they had learned and
were still learning lessons from their
enemies particularly from the Eng
lish-how 10 make the most of every
bit of cover. Speaking Of the larger
lessons of the war so far. he said:
For one thinsI believe that there
will be in future no great building
boom in forts; and again, the old
theory Of trenches has been sent 10
the scrap heap. Formerly, you know
it was thought indispensable 10 have
a clear firing field Of al least a thou
sand yards, if possible. Now that ar
tillery plays such an all-mportant role
the thing is not wide firing field, but
cover and protection against artillery
fire, even If you can see 10 fire for
only fifty yards. Fifty is quite enough,
and an infantry attack can be stopped
in that distance.
Safe Cover the Thing.
another thing: After you have
taken a village by storm the men must
find safe cover without an instant's
loss OF time, as you can invariably
expect an immediate heavy artillery
fire from the enemy. The French are
particularly good at finding cover
quickly. Our men must initiate them.
60. ~
indispensable War without them woulC
be unthinkable now"
"What is the one bravest deed that
has come to your knowledge, your ex
cellency?" asked.
"Shall | give you n bombastic an
swer?" he replied. good humoredly
"Well, thAl, there have been so many
brave deeds that no one of them stands
out pre-eminently. But in the retro
spect the finest thing, to my mind, wa:
our young troops, charging for the frs
time in the face of a murderous fire
singing Deutschland, Deutschland ubel
Allesi'"
The generals best after-dinner story
was about his own son.
after the bombardment OF Antwerr
had continued a certain time il was de.
cided TO give the city one more chance
TO surrender, and to my youngster fel
the honor of carrying a letter 10 be de
livered to the commandant. He started
out with an under officer and three sol.
diers carrying a white flag, and was
stopped several times by wire entangle
ments, but as nobody was behind them
they cut their way through, and finally
reached the city. There was nobody in
slght-nobody 10 ask them who they
were or what they. wanted-so they
kept on walking into the town.
1T was probably the first time in
history that a parementaire had
walked into a town he was TO call on
to surrender, and had to spend several
hours seeking somebody to parley with
Finally he found some scared gen
darmes in hiding and induced them 70
lead him TO the Burgomaster and exc
cuted his mission. He brought back the
letter TO the commandant inscribed
Unbelievable owing 10 unavoidable
absence
Some idea of the position OF tho
Germans in the West can be gathered
from the fact that the commander in
chief Of the Nth army had time to
smoke and chat with me for sometime
like ten hours in two days.
Let the people know in America
that We are no barbarians; that every
thing is quiet and in good order with
US, and that we are looking forward
with calm, energetic confidence TO vic
tory" he said earnestly, on speeding
the parting correspondent.