Evening star., 1915-01-01
Correspondent Tells How
Whole Companies Are Driven
Out by Floods.
TRANSPORT OF SUPPLIES
IS TERRIFIC TO THE MEN
Soldiers Grow Careless Of Enemy's
Fire-Willow Trees Deceive in
the Dark-Star Rockets.
Correspondence Of the Associated Press.

Correspondence Of the Associated Press.
LONDON, December 20.-The follow
ing account of life at the front is from
a CORRESPONDENT who volunteered for
service at the beginning of the war and
has since been promoted to the rank
OF officer:
During the latter part Of November
the army in the trenches was well-nigh
perishing with cold: since early Decem-
ber it has been the victim Of persistent
rain and flood.
Might after night, whole companies
are flooded out of their trenches, while
a rearrangement of the forces has made
1t impossible to give the men their
former weekly three days Of rest In
the villages behind the lines. All the
advanced forces will remain in their
trenches now for eighteen days; then
they hope to have brief relief.
ut is difficult to give an idea of what
rain means in the trenches. The lines,
under frosty conditions, seem such an
orderly, permanent and townlike series
of cubbyholes that when they all start
to melt away and cave in under the in
fiuence of thaw and rain it is as II one
were trying to travel through pitch
dark London in ruins.
Buried in Mass Of Earth.
H~of1cers who were g1orying in fine
new dugouts, equipped with all the
trench comforts, suddenly found them
selves buried in a mass of collapsed
earth of the consistency and quality of
thick paint.
'sThe latest gossip here is that the In
dian division and the Germans were so
close to each other day or two ago
that they used the same parapet for
IA{y nj fral f,,rn Of 6ysfn
through their mutual loopholes. That,
OF course, is a little exaggerated, but
serves to illustrate the manner In
which the two armies keep continually
grenades and homemade bombs. fash
ioned out of biscuit tins, can be used
a9vantageously at many points.
g Chance for Sharpshooters.
srGenerally, however, the front
trenches are about 200 yards apart in
this section. That gives the sharp
shooters plenty of chance to get in
their fine work, and it is dangerous to
push ones head above a trench even
70 sight a rifle. Many Of the sharp
shooters are using. periscopes much
like those of the submarine, and with
these they can sight and shoot ac-
curately without coming anywhere near
the top of the trench. The opposing
sharpshooters. of course. delight in ef-
forts to hit the tube of the periscope
and frequently succeed.
x-"Since the rains and floods came the
communication trenches have largely
oozed away. Some of them are like
rivers; others are knee deep with
pasty mud of exactly the same con-
sistency of bakers dough. A regiment
which passed through one such trench
a day or two ago left three men behind
and had to send a relief party back to
dig them out.
Under such circumstances the labor
q bringing UP ammunition and ra-
Gons from the rear is terrific, and the
men assigned to this labor reach their
destination in state of utter fatigue;
nevertheless, they have to take their
turn at sentry duty later in the night. 1
Miss No Chance to Shoot.
'The enemy is very businesslike and
misses no chance to shoot any man
Who exposes himself. Today, for in
stance, an English soldier was up in
aywillow tree cutting withes. A shot
passed him and he sportively signaied
"A miss; left A second shot came and
he signaled "A miss; right The enemy
Aerodted by his advice and the third
shot passed straight through his head.
There are the strictest orders
against men exposing themselves; but |
eome of the careless ones are surpris- |
fngiy disregardful of their safety. Yes 4
terday private who was dragging p |
sack of coal walked slowly along the
top of a communicating trench for a
considerable distance in full view OF
the enemy, merely because the bottom
of the trench was muddy. and travelling
down there in safety would have been
SO much more laborious than on the
firm soil above. A hail of bullets miss
ed him, but he even stopped to light
his pipe behind an eighteen-inch will
low before he deliberately climbed back
down into the trench with his load.
= Tired of Trees and stumps.
The whole army is very tired Of
willow trees and poplars. 1t would be
q relief to know that we would never
have to see them again. Willow
stumps are particularly annoying be-
cause in the dark they look exactly
stray limb resembling leveled gun. |
Il was out scouting two nights ago |
and went farther ahead than I had |
intended. l had no rifle with me. !
trench suddenly saw what I thought |
was a German crouching down with |
leveled gun. Ny heart stopped and I
hastily signaled for the rifle of a |
loaded. Then l looked straight again |
and found the German was only a !
willow stump.
Drops Down by Corpse.
ION my way back, crawling cautious |
ly through turnip neld-one must |
move cautiously, for these turnips |
crackIe most alarmingly under foot |
suddenly up went one Of their star |
rockets. which make the neighborhood |
light as day for a mile around i
dropped down. To my horror, I dis |
covered that my face was close along, |
side a German corpse. that had lain |
there since their last unsuccessful in |
fantry attack six weeks ago. Another !
and another rocket went up. and 1t !
@as many minutes before l could get
away from that grisly object. 1
brought back his helmet and rife as
souvenirs.
There is a great supply of news in |
the trenches, but much of it, regret
to say, Is unreliable. Today for in !
stance, we heard of q great naval VIC
1 tory for the English, a great Galician
eictory for the Russians. and for the
twentieth time that the kaiser is sick
unto DEATH