Omaha daily bee., 1914-12-21
ENGLISH ARE GOOD FIGHTERS
Editor Of German Newspaper Lauds
Spirit Of British Forces.
UNDERRATED THE DEFENDERS
First Lieutenant in Kaiscr's Army
Tells How Ills Troops Looked
Upon Enemy ms n Joke
Until After Fight
Correspondents Of The Associated Press.l

Correspondence OF the Associated Press
BERLIN, Dec. 9.-English soldiers are
good fighters and resourcefui. an editor
OF the Zeituug am Mlttag. who is serving
az first lieutenant in the German army,
writes his paper in an account CT the
engagement around Ypres.
Full OF fight and confident Of easy
victory" he says. "our young regiments
started TO march against the enemy. We
were quito certain that Providence had
endowed the English with long legs to
facilitate their running away faster.
Thus we advanced by long and short
-narches through Flanders, the great GEM
etery. We were delighted with the beau
tiful Flemish landscape and with tho
inhabitants, whose language we soon
managed to understand. even as they
speedily came to understand ours
we thought OF the English soldiers
as the comic papers are wont to portray
them. There were q few who warned
us against possible characterization OF
the enemy, hut their mlsgivings were
uuieted by our pointing out that these
were mereenary troops. hired at few
pence day, bare OF patriotism and in
capable OF sacrifice,
Sooner than we thought we were upon
the enemy First we came upon a dead
Englishman then two wounded English
officers then an English prisoner. The
prisoner naturally was OF great interest
20 our soldiers. Wonder II che mercenary
can shootT we asked ourselves. An hour
later some OF his comrades gave MS an
answer to that question. They gave us
clear, practical demonstration--s such a
clear demonstration that our battalion
was reduced to half It's original size In
few encounters. We suddenly realized
that the English mercenaries could not
be routed with more hurrahs, and that
these smooth-faced gentlemen used the
long legs not always for running away,
but sometimes for desperate and dan
gerous chPrEes.
Best OF English Troops.
The English infantry which opposed
us at Ypres must be considered among
their best troops. They defended their
positions with energy and skill. and when
driven back tried again and again Ia
recover the lost ground. In these en-.
deavors they were supported efficiently
by the fire of their field artillery. They
had also transported heavy naval gum
to Ypres. and the English shells ant
shrapnel caused enormous damage amonl
our troops.
'As the surrounding OF the Engilsl
forces by our troops made itself NOR,
and more felt the English infantry trle,
again and again to break through on
lines. particularly in the vicinity OF Bace
laere, though without success In on
OF these attacks 500 English soldiers an
| twenty officers fell into our hands.
The English trenches we're mostly =
arranged as to be quite invisible to tn
naked eye. When we had got into tn
first trenches we we're astonished az theI
systematic construction as regards dept
side protection against splintering
shells. breastwork and flooring. tn
trenches were nearly all excellently a
ranged for q long stand. We were pa
ticularly astonished at the iron and ste
work built into the breastworks. TIL
floors were designed with an eye
maximum comfort. Our men capture
there a great store of excellent preserve
corned beef and ham. and many also 81
cured one of the shaving outfits while
every English soldier carries.
When we had taken a position II fr,
quently occurred that we found a dil
proportionate number OF dead to the veT
few living defenders. We soon dlscoN
cred that large number of the dea
were shamming and these were east
tickled into life with a bayonet.
I'm some cases the English had du
trenches. but had not occupied then
and TO deceive us had put large rour
turnips and similar objects along Il
breastworks"