River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1915-07-08
BAVARIAN PRINCE
KAISER'S BUFFER
Relates How He Held Allied
Forces Of General JOffre.
FRENCH GAINS WERE COSTLY


East Front, He Said "They Are the
Hammer In the East; Here | Am
Only the Anvil; My Job Has Been to
Hold OUT
Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria
in an interview with an American
war correspondent at the headQuar-
tiers of his army in France gave In
teresting details of the recent often
sive moves Of the British and French
armies opposed to his forces. His
present mission and one aim in the
war, he said, is to stop 'all comers,"
French, English, or what not, when
they take the offensive
Commenting on the fall Of Lemberg,
the crown prince expressed tie wish
that he, too, might be taking the Of
fensive. Referring to the armies en-
gagged on the east front, he said:
They are the hammer in the east.
Here l am only the anvil. My job
has been to hold out"
Thinks British Lost $4,000.
Speaking of the fight his men made
at Neuve Chapelle, where at the start
of the English offensive, he said, three
German battalions had faced and
fought forty eight English battalions
until re-enfOrcements came up he
estimated that the British losses there
were probably much heavier than they
had admitted. He estimated that the
ID III ;oI, INOh or
thereabOutS.
Then he answered questions about
General JOffre's latest and greatest Of
fenSive.
"They began" he said, about go
o'clock in the morning Of May 8, drop
ping bombs on where they thought my
headquarters was, following this with
terrific artillery fire, which has been
kept up almost ever since with a Sc
quence of the most desperate and
bloody charges in an attempt to break
through my line. Their only hope Of
success would have been to break
through on a broad front of not less
than twenty kilometers. But not even
on a small front have they succeeded.
My line has not been broken at a sin
gle point The net result Of their big
offensive was to push back a small pro-
lection of our line
Used Millions Of Shells.
81 should say" he added, "that the
French have used between 100000
and 100000 shells in their offensive
against my army in about six weeks.
The latter figure is probably nearer
right, though it is rather difficult to
estimate with accuracy. l should say,
though, that the French artillery fred
an average Of nearly 100000 shells O
day Our observations as checked up
indicated that the French official report
was correct in stating that their gun
ners fred 100000 shells In single day,
which was the high water mark Of ar
tillery work out here.
Il believe that their losses have been
total, but / should say it was not less
than 10000. We always prefer to I'M
derestimate It Is mistake to under
rate the foe. It Is wiser not to be over
optimistic except about one thing, and
that is about what you set out to ac-
complish-yOur iron will to win"
In reply to the question, where Is
Kitchener's new army" the crown
prince said that was one thing he and
his staff all wanted to know. They all
agreed that they had not FLASHED yet
with Kitchener's new army and that,
so far as they knew, it had not attempt
ed any offensive, though the crown
prince said that they had seen some Of
Kitchener's new troops. who had ap-
parently been drawn on to make good
the losses in the line.