The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1916-08-25
Sees signs OF
FAILING MORALE
NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENT
INTERVIEWS GERMAN
PRISONERS.

Paris, Aug. 19.-"For the first
time during the war;" writes a cor
respondent of a Paris newspaper,
who has had opportunity to talk to
Germans captured in one of the bat
ties on the Somme, "have l found
among prisoners any sign of failing
morale.
There were prisoners there of
ages varying from eighteen to forty
eight, fathers who had been defeRed
side by side with their sons. In many
of them / found WEAKNESS of the
! long, useless efforts, WEAKNESS of the
incessant travelling from one front
to another, and moral WEAKNESS be-
cause of loss of confidence in their
officers and leaders.
For the first time did / hear
words like these:
owe were at Hardecourt, in the
Sabot wood, when we were subject
ed to dreadful bombardment. The
shells literally fell on the ground in
heaps. We were there without any
cover whatever The few dugouts
were occupied by our officers, who
remained underground. We did not
know where to go, so we ran in dis
order along the long communication
trench attempting to escape from the
avalanche Not one word of command
was given Ell
Lives Over Terrible Scene.
at was a little, old man who
spoke these words, bowling his head
with sorrow 1t was evident that he
was living over again the whole ter
rible scene.
"a boy was taken before the AL
satan officers who acted as inter-
prefers to be examined. His lean
cheeks which had never felt the touch
of a razor we're covered with a red
dish, down-like growth of hair.
1.-The French were about eight
hundred yards away he said. They
advanced in front and on our banks
at the same time. They came down
upon us. The part of our regiment
which was still intact was in the
trench. We had been sent there af-
ter our artillery had started to fire
at another part of the field. When
we looked across the parapet we
could just see the French soldiers
very far off. Still, our Lieutenant
and the commander of our company
agreed that it was of no use to
fight, so we put down our arms. II
was fully half an hour later that
the French soldiers arrived and we
were made prisoners
1.-THE tonein which this boy spoke
showed plainly enough that until
then he had had another conception
of the duties of an officer. 1t was
the first time he took their true
measure but he was not alone in do
ing so. The little old soldier / JUS
mentioned held the same opinion Of
the conduct of his officers and 81
we have found so many of the pris
oners we have taken in Picardy.
Something Radically Wrong.
"This judgment, which is not for
mulgated in words, is all the more
damning. When men who possess
so little intelligence and personalit!
as these prisoners, and who have
been under such iron discipline, be
gin to sit in judgment on officers WHIT
stand so far above them on the hu
man and social ladder, it means tina
something must have gone RADICAL!
wrong in the very solidly construct
ed engine which is called the Ger
man army"
"a German noncommissioned Off
Ger told his story of how he arriv
ed in the trenches in front of Hem
1T took us five hours to reach thu
trenches altho soldiers in fit condi
tion would have been aDle TO cove
the distance easily in one hour. l
was night and our officers lost thei
way. We had been sent forward Il
relieve the --Regiment, but tina
regiment had not seen fit to wait TO
us and had left. When we arrived
in the communication trench ther'
was a perfect chaos of disorder, al
the French guns hailed shells on us
Nobody had any idea of where GU
fighting positions were. All kind
of contradictory and confusing or
ders were given. We remained Their
for more than an hour, huddied to
gether in a corner and unable to fine
anything useful to do, or even L
gnafoh "a liftIa rest ~