Bisbee daily review., 1915-12-12
GERMAN SOLDIERS
MANIFEST GLOOM
IN LETTERS FOUND
Diaries Tell Of Terrible Conditions
and Letters Contain LamentS
and Signs for Peace; Hell
Couldn't Be Worse"

PARIS. Dec. Letters writ.
Ten by German soldiers during the
battle of Champagne, found on pris-
oners and dead, throw some light on
he spirit of the troops
The battlefront has disappeared in
cloud of smoke" wrote one. Moth
ng can be seen, for the French ar
ullery fires almost as repidly as the
Infantry One armored shelter was
crushed in and not one of the 16 oc-
cupants escaped Men are falling like
flies and the renches are nothing but
debris"
shells are simply raining upon us, /
another wrote. III the end were only /
searl This is the cry everyone |
should raise, peacei peace!'"
Cruel hours" a captain noted in |
his diary. One company of $50 men |
had 60 killed last night and a battery |
close by lost Is dead A shelter five |
yards deep, protected by two rows of |
logs and two and half yards of earth, |
was caved in as if It we're only a
match that's a specimen of the force
3f the French Shells
Many Of our men are useless,
wrote the captain of the Path infan-
ny in a report intended tor his SUI
perior officer 1--WE must have rein
forcements at once. Our men are
dying Of fatigue. privation and loss
Of sleep"
Nothing to eat; heavy losses" |
noted another THE French haven't
ceased firing since the morning Of the
2lst; il has gone on 60 hours; how
long will it last? Every spot Of our
position is so bombarded that It is
! next to impossible for human beings
TO hold out longer"
six of our men we're killed by
shells yesterday morning" wrote
captain Our trench has been nearly
/ leveled. The 18th battalion has suf-
fered heavily"
How the re-inforcemeuts we're rush
Jed up is revealed by another officer
we we're crowded into autos" he
wrote, "and rushed madly from You
ziers to Tahure. After two hours rest
n the rain and six hours march TO
our position under constant shell
fire. we reached the trench. losing
Sc out of 20 men of the 2nd com
Dany by the way. We were us hours
without food in a trench not two feet
deep Hell couldn't be worse. Six
hundred more men just arrived; they
win only replace the killed and
wounded Of the past five days"
4 Surprise and the Generalization of
he German first line troops By sus-
tanned artillery fire have both been
siyen as explaining the considerable
aumber of prisoners taken Orders
of German commanders that fell i'm
TO the hands of the French indicate
thai the attack was not a surprise
and there has been a natural reluc-
lance to believe that German organ
ization and discipline were in default
Information obtained by the Associ
cted Press from eye-witnesses of the
% operations is to the effect that the
German counter-attacks were neither
apirited nor well planned.
If the attack was no surprise the
] force Of it was a revelation; it ap.
] pears to- have thrown a certain con.
fusion into the German ranks. result
ling i'm precipitate and almost disor.
derly engagement OF reserves. The
( men seemed both exhausted and de
moralized incapable of proprly un
drtaking a general counterattack
/ Over-confdence in the solidity i'm the
y first line trenches seemed TO be gen
n raj among the officers, for many o.
them were found in bed at Trou-Bri
cot half hour after the attack began
They were ignorant Of the capture O
i the first line trenches because the tel
cphone wires had been ruptured.
In the counter attacks division.
$ We're broken up and scattered, regi
a ments even were divided. batallioni
sent to right and left in absolute con
tradiction Of the German spirit Of or
SANITATION There we're engaged be
2 tween the Maison de Champagne an,
1919 Hill 30 batallions belonging to .
different regiments.
S. What acted most on the nerves O
C. the German troops. according to in
,, formation brought out by questionin
prisoners, was the continuity of Tn
ne French artillery fire, the weakness O
their own reply the extent of thei
losses, lack of food for sveral day
and thirst. They surrendered In sec
10 tions I'm many instances and i'm Who'll
~ companies i'm some. All acknowledge
t- they were tired of the struggle.
A fact that is regarded as signif
III cant is that the reinforcements tn
re- Germans sent up during the BATH
5a were mostly of the contingent OF 1871
with some volunteers Of the conth
gent of 1916 previously held in II
serve at their bases The conclusio
drawn by some military critics
that Germany is nearing the da
when she win no longer be able I
maintain her present force on all h,
lines
British government is now ready