Norwich bulletin., 1915-06-04
Stories of the War
The Fiqht At Ypres.

''This is the greatest artillery battle
in the history of the world; the ex-
penditure of ammunition is fabulous,
writes an observer from behind the
British lines at Ypres, describing the
fighting of April 20 and 26, which re-
suited in considerable gains for the
Germans.
Touching briefly on the Canadians
part in the battle, he says: One OF
the most notable incidents of the bat
tie was the work done by the Cana
dian supply column. Not a cartrige
or shell was second late in reaching
the man behind the gun, and when
the black fumes blew across a section
of supply men and they fell, others
rushed in and kept the fighting line
replenished until the wind blew the
fumes away.
During the afternoon two aero
planes supposed to be British
marked and shaped exactly as the
British aircraft are, flew over the
German lines, and it was noticed that
them without effect. Then they would
fly over the British lines and back
again, but the German shells always
fell far short of bringing them down.
On their third visit the Canadian field
battery let them have several shots.
One aeroplane, badly damaged, vol
planed down into the German lines.
and the other fled out of sight behind
the German trenches
Describing the artillery fighting, the
writer says: las far as our glasses
could carry, we could see the white
bursts of shrapnel, the black bursts
of the German giant guns, or the
feathery floating clouds of anti-air-
craft shells which broke in the rever-
berating dome of the sky, where both
German and English aeroplanes
scared. The old theory that shoot
in oa1ISpS rain was diSDrOVRd for
the sun shone brightly over the indie
Scribable scene. The wind was so
strong that the aeroplanes facing it
made no Roadway, and standing into
the wind in one place like kites, the
British aeroplanes seemed as station
airy as the top of Eitel Tower, direct
ing presumably the British gunfire.
From behind our hill two British
monoplanes scared so low over us
that we could see their guns; they
climbed into the sky to drive away a
Taube biplane which was flying over
the hill sidewise in the heavy wind.
The Taube took to flight at height
so great that it looked like a dot in
the sky even without glasses turned
on it, Soon the white puffs of the
German anti-aircraft guns and the
muddier white puffs of the British
sky guns punctured the sky, above
and below the glittering dots which
were the aeroplanes cleaning in the
sunlight.
Behind our hill were Belgian peas
ants ploughing. Further behind
them, in a meadow, we could see men
playing football. I discovered later
that some of the men in the match
were to march five miles tonight and
enter the trenches in the maelstrom
of fire which we were beholding. l
spoke to one of these men who told
me that he was one of those who had
been the first to be sent to the war
last August. The umpire impatiently
called time while talked to the goal
keeper.
Tonight the glares of the battle H.
Illuminate the sky of Belgium for
many miles. The tower of the Cloth
Hall of Ypres and two church steeples
were visible in the rays of the even
ing sunset, but many fires were burn
ing in the town, and my glimpse of
the ruins of the beautiful Cloth Hall
tower may have been my last, for the
German shells were falling about it
necessarily"