The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-05-21
BATTLE
AT YPRES IS
GRAPHICALLY
DESCRIBED
(By Associated Press)

London, May 21-"This is the
greatest artillery battle in the his
tory of the world; the expenditure of
ammunition is famulous," writes an
observer from behind the British
lines at Ypres, describing the fight
ing of April 25 and 26, which re-
suited in considerable gains for the
Germans.
After describing the almost con-
tinuous cannonading that has been
going on for two days, with liter
ally thousands of guns in almost
continual action, the observer sug-
gests that the intensity of the firing
may be judged by the fact that at
one small bridge across he User
twenty German guns fought eight
cen English and French guns all
night, until finally the German guns
were silenced. THE French 1856
he notes, "were fired so rapidly that
they sounded like an endless roll OF
thunder multiplied by a thousand .
Touching briefly on the Canad.
ians' part in the battle, he says:
"One of the most notable incidents
Of the battle was the work done by
the Canadian supply column. Not
cartridge or shell was secOnt
late in reaching the man behind the
gun, and when the black fumes blew
across a section of supply men ant
| they fell, others rushed in and KEEP
the fighting line replenished unit
the wind blew the fumes away.
During the afternoon two aero
planes-supposed to be British
marked and shaped exactly as tn,
British aircraft are, flew over thu
German lines, and it was noticed
that the German shells played al
about them without effect. TheI
they would fly over the British line
and back again, but the German
shells always fell far short Of bring
ing them down. On their third Wis
it Canadian field battery let then
have several shots. One aeroplane
badly damaged, volplaned down in
to the German lines, and the othe
fled out of sight behind the German
trenches"
Describing the artillery fighting
the writer says: Gas far as on
glasses could carry, we could see tn
white bursts of shrapnel, the blac
bursts of the German giant guns, o
the feathery floating clouds of anti
aircraft shells which broke in tn
reverberating dome of the sky
where both German and Englis
aeroplanes scared. The old theor
that shooting causes rain was dis
proved, for the sun shone bright
over the indescribable scene. TIL
wind was so strong that the aero
planes facing 1t made no headwaI
and standing into the wind in on
place like kites, the British aero
planes seemed as stationary as tn
top Of the Eiffel Tower, directin
presumably the British gunfire.
From behind our hill two BIRTHS
monoplanes scared so low over L
, that we could see their guns; the
climbed into the sky to drive ava
Taube biplane which was flyin
over the hill sidewise in the heay
wind The Taube took to flight {
| height so great that it looked lik
dot in the sky even without glas
ed turned on it. Soon the white puff
of the German anti-aircraft gur
! and the muddier white puffs of tf
British sky guns punctured the SIX,
above and below the glittering do
} which were the aeroplanes gleamin
, in the sunlight.
"Behind our hill were Belgia
peasants ploughing. Further benin
1 them, in a meadow, we could 81
/ men playing football. I discover
later that some Of the men In Il
match, were to march Ave miles t