The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-11-17


through the vast German trench sys-
tem-literally buried city or sue
cession of underground villages. To
most onlookers trench is just glor-
flied ditch. Not so to the Germans.
Those they occupied for twenty
months before July / last were as well
planned and as carefully built as any
structure in Berlin-considering the
purpose Not so the British or
French trench.
The British-French advance in the
Somme makes it possible today to
stand at ones ease in the middle OF
what was No Mans Land July l and
observe the differences between Ger
man front trench and British front
trench. Approaching them the first
point noticed is that the allies wire
is only cut across by lanes or gang
ways at convenient intervals, while
the German wire naturally after cap
lure IeS III u dhpiCu lhaoo oh IhS
ground. The allies supper their
barbed wire mainly with wooden
posts; the Germans do it with iron
posts. The British parapet owes
much more of its strength than does
the German to visible sandbags.
Within the two trenches the differ
ence is much greater. The allied trench
q. pears in every way like the work
of men who hoped to move on before
would be in it for years. The allied
long; the German trench seems like
the work of men who planned they
would be in it for years. The allied
trench housing has been much more
of a makeshift, sort of camping
out, with some ingenious provisions
for shelter and comfort, but no more
than the least that would serve. Most
of the British and French dugouts are
just roughly delved holes in the earth,
with only enough props and rafters to
holds the roofs up; their floors are
bare ground, with little straw for
covering; their DOORS if any, are a
few odd pieces of plank with few
pieces nailed across.
The German front trench in the
west is like one huge, struggling vii
liage, built of wood and strung along
road 800 miles long, writes CORE
spondent of the London Daily News
and Leader, September 4,
The article, in part, reads: "Of
course, the houses are all under
gound, STILL they are houses, of one
or two floors, built to certain official
designs, drawn out in section and
plan The main entrance from the
trench level is, sometimes at any rate
through a steel door, of pattern ap-
parently standardized, so that hun
dreds may come from the factory on
one order and missing parts be easily
replaced. The profusely timbered
doorway is made to their measure.
Outside this front door you may find
a perforated sheet of metal, to serve
for door mat ar scraper. Inside, a
flight of from twelve to thirty-six
stairs leads down at an easy angle.
i The treads of the stairs and the de-
scending roof of the staircase are
formed of mining frames of stout tim
Der, with double top stills; the walls
are of thick blanks notched at the top
and bottom to fit the frames, and
F., strengthened with iron tierods run
ming from top to bottom of the stairs,
and with thick wooden struts at right
angles to these.
j AT the foot of the stairs tunneled
corridor runs straight forward. for
2rything up to fifty yards, and out of
this open rooms and minor passages
on each side In many dugouts a sec.
ond staircase, or tow staircases, lead
to lower floor which may be thirty
or forty feet below the trench level.
"All these staircases, passes and
rooms are, in the best specimens. COM
pletely lined with wood and as fully
strengthened with it as the entrance
-,.,..ca1t .lroady described. In one
&. C.. lr5ou- each section of pla-
49,. mad H. allotted places for mess.
ing and sleeping, its own place for
parade in passage, and its own emer-
gency exit to the trench. In another.
used as dressing station there are
beds for thirty-two patients and a fair
sized operating room. A third, near
Mametz, was designed to house a
whole company of 800 men, with the
needful kitchens, provision and mum.
ton storerooms, well, a forge rev.
cited with sheets of cast iron, an en-.
CINE room and a motor room. Many
of the captured dugouts were thus
lighted by electricity. In the officers
quarters there have been found full.