The Sentinel=record. (Hot Springs, Ark.) 1900-current, 1915-02-13
LIDDYTE SHELLS TERRIBLE
Letters Found on Dead German SOL
ders Tell of the Shortage of Food
and That School Boys Are Being
Forced Into the Army.

London, Feb y. 7.35 p.m-The
British army in France is now using
heavy hOwitzers which, according to
a report from the official "eye-wit-
ness with the expeditionary forces
have gained ascendancy over the
heavy German guns These Howitz-
ers, lie states, were used in success
fun attacks on the German positions
in the brick fields south of La Bassee
canal a week ago tonight
Our heavy howitzers took part in
this bombardment, their fire being di-
rected on the railway triangle
The eyewitness says:
The boom OF these pieces and the
detonations OF their shells were aud
ible 20 miles away above the roar of
the other artillery, while to those
close at nand the shriaking of the
great projectiles through the air was
most impressive as were the volumes
of smoke and debris blown up. The
effect of the lyddite shells was truly
terrific, one house being blown bod
lily into the air as they burst among
the brickstacks they created great
havoc among the enemy
The assault was launched against
a strong position or keep among the
stacks of bricks held by the Germans,
our storming columns rushed tIe
work from three sides at once and
captured it with very little loss for.
as prisoners afterwards stated, the
noise of the bursting shells was so
great and the clouds of dust with
which the defenders were surround
ed were so thick that they did not
observe our men advancing until too
late. At the same time trenches u
the north of this point between 1t
and the canal were stormed by an
otler party BY seizing these points
we were enabled to occupy a continu-
Gus line southwards from our for
ward posts on the canal which formed
an advantageous position in front
the brickfolds
we captured ~ unWounded pris-
oncrs in addition to many wounded,
a trench, mortar and machine guns.
The Germans left 20 dead on the field
while our casualties we're insignifi-
cant.
The Germans, however, showed no
inclination to accept this reverse for
in the early hours of February T. a
body of them advanced along the
canal bank shouting out Don't shoot;
we are engineers This form of strat-
egem unfortunately for the enemy,
has now lost its novelty, Our men
held their fire until the supposed sap
pers were only few yards away and
then opened with a machine gun with
the result that the engineers fell
back leaving 30 dead in front Of our
line. In the afternoon another at
tack was attempted but it melted un.
der our artillery fire and did not ar
rive at close quarters.
"A great feature of the recent
fighting has been the accuracy of our
artillery fire. On one occasion o'u
guns accomplished the feat of blow
ing the Germans out of trenches they
were occupying on an embankment
although IL was Only tV ydiu9 II oih
that which we were holding
on the 9th of February most OF
the enemy's casualties were due to
our shell fire. The whole OF the area
both behind and Immediately in front
of the trenches we now hold was
found to be Uttered with the bodies
of hundreds of Germans killed in the
various fights since the 25th OF jan
uary. Our artillery fire here has OBJ
tanned such ascendancy that after the
assault on that day our troops actl-
ally were able to put up barber wire
entanglements in front of their
trenches in broad daylight without be-
ing fired at by the enemys infantry
Prisoners captured here we're de-
spondent and much shaken.
"The Germans rely very much on
the ineendary smell for damaging
towns and in their recent lombard
ment of Armentieres they used pro
iectiles of this type packed with
candles composed of celluloid, phos-
phorus and wax, which material is so
inflammable that it will ignite II
placed in the sun
The eyewitness says that some
OF the prisoners captured lately haYs
been of comparatively poor physique