The Sentinel=record., 1915-02-27
EVE WITNESS" DECLARES THE WHOLE BATTLE FRONT IS A
 VAST CEMETERY.
MANY GERMAN DEAD UNBURIED
In Some Places Men Are Forced to Fight in Mud Up to heir Knees. Country Looks Like Whitening Blast Had Swept 1t.

London, Feb 26.-10:I5 D. m.-"All the ground near the front line is bowed up with shells and furrowed with the remains of old trenches and graves The whole place is a vast cemetery in which our trenches and those of the enemy wind in every di. rection"
 This statement is made by the Brit. ish official "eye witness at the front, in a description given out here to- gight, of the recent battles southeast of Ypres and of the country in which the armies are fighting
 "In sheltered spot" he continues, there is a little graveyard where some of our own dead have been buried Their graves have been care. fully marked and a rough square of bricks has been placed around them in front of the trenches German bodies still lie thick
 At one point of the br'ckdelds re centy some thirty men tried to rush cur line At their head was a youns German officer who came on gallant ly waving his sword He almost had reached the bashed wire and theE fell dead. and he lies there yet with his sword in his hand and all his thirty men about Ji'-
 "It is the same all along the front ii this quarter Everywhere still gray figures can he seen ying. some times several rows together and some times sinely or in twos or threes
 "This description might serve with few minor alterations, for many of the localities along our front where the fighting has centered around some wood. a village or line of trenches 1t is as if each had been swept by a whitening blast before which every object, whether a work of nature or of man. has crumbled into ruins or become twisted and deformed and even the very ground itself looks as if if had heeu shaken by a violent convusiou of nature
 TO the south of the Yprcs-Ccmiuos canal the "eye witness" says the ground. although there afe some en- closures. is comparatively open. To the north of it. however. there are many woods. and these have become tangle of fallen trees ihersperscd with shell craters
 TO add 10 the hard hips Of such fighting the troops have been attack ing on ground in which the men sink mp 10 their knees in mud
 "Despite all these drawbacks,' con iuues the observer. counter attacks have been carried out with such reso ution that in nearly al cases the 1 original line has been regained. On the night of February l5 as our troops were advancing to drive the enemy | out of one of the trenches, his guns suddenly opened a tremendous fire Our men were in the open at some distance from the Germans at the | time and being thus taken at disad- va4tage their chance of success locked small. Without a moments hesitation. however the attacking line broke into a double quick and pounding throueA the mud burst into the German trench.
 "A counter attack on the l1th also was most flashing piece of work. In one trench which became in the course of the lighting more or less isolated, forty of our men continued to hold firm anti every one of them had been either killed or wounded.
 Our Howitzers did especially good work on the trenches captured by the Germans at one point Observers could see one lyddite shell after an ether bursting in the trenches and hurling the defenders into the air
 Quoting from letters which he says were found on the bodies of German soldiers in support of his statement, | the eye witness" says:
 There is no doubt that the feeling f ill Germany towards the war is chang. ing. They probably are as determined as ever to fight to the last, but the cary optimism and confidence are yagishing. It would appear also chat the drain upon the enemy's manhood is having depressing effect
 ''It is reported that even the Ersatz reservists who are suffering from ailments which would render them unfit for military service. are being