The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-01-02

Come along. Kitchener needs you! For all
who would enlist this bus is ready without cost"
Hurrah, Kitchener! We accept the kind offer
with thanks. We are coming along! We are
coming! go
On the forests edge Major sigwart instructs
his officers about the situation:
Ionder on the western horizon lies Gibbet Hill.
the place of skulls. And before II, on It's eastern
slope, stretches the railroad dam from London
TO Portsmouth. Those are the immediate goals
on the road TO London.
on the edge Of the battlefield! Here a signin-
cant line has been drawn that separates two
worlds.
Up to this point the maneuvre lessons. the
careful preparations of military scientists suf-
fce-here the will sets in. here comes to pass
the mobilization OF the highest moral powers. Up
20 this point pre- oaredness. organization Of great
masses were what counted-from now on every
man must stand his own! Up to this point
warfare is machinery, wise. half mechanical sub
ordination, system-from now on sharp eyes.
quick decision. and a courageous heart are the
things that weigh!
Horsemen. dismount! The inner ring Of the
modern battlefield belongs to the infantry!
The reserve battalions on the outskirts Of the
battlefield get orders to reinforce the firing line
and advance into the Furthermore trenches.
Much heart blood has flown at front there! The
battalions are to leap into the hard contested
trenches . . and the soldiers are burning
to stand by their hard pressed comrades!
Terribly RACES the battle storm. The echo OF
the she'll hits has no time to sound itself out,
for into the thunder crashes n new shell. Like
magnets, the miles Of first line trenches draw the
little iron sheets OF the companies forward.
A long. dangerous creeping march brings
Major Sigwart's battalion into the trenches on
the firing line. Death barred the way to only
twelve of his braves.
The grenadiers ran breathiessly. they ran as
II here an open paradise awaited them. And
now they got into IA hell.
They don't aim badly. those Englishmen!"
That. translated into every day German,
means: Terribly RACES the battle.
The roar of all the battles OF this world war
combined does not touch the ~vitriolic hatred. the
desperate. blind furious clashes on English soil!
There is whistling. whirr!ng. sizzling and
growing without pause. And the English shells
don't travel aimlessly skyward: they are very
familiar with this territory. they know how to
meet their enemy and batter the roofs of his
underground dwellings. Earthworks fly up in
atoms. wire entanglements splinter asunder.
waves of earth sputter into the trenches. one
glance through the little tin can that once held
delicious preserves and now serves as a "slanter,"
shows of what tenacity the fighting Will be. From
o hundred thousand blood lusty rifles rises light
ming. from machine guns. mortars and from
ermored guns.
The German rifles owe answer for not a single
shot, and the German gunners too, II they didn't
know how before. have certainly learned the art
Of aiming we'll on the great Russian and French
battiefields. And the Austrians went to the war
school on the Isonzo, The mine throwers. med.-
oval c~atapults Of the form OF crouching dogs,
below forth death and destruction. And where
heavy torpedo shells make hits there, too. 70
holiday. 800
The enemy has his eyes and ears everywhere.
He is well informed as to the strength OF the
German reenforcements. He knows that storm
columns are gathering in the German trenches.
columns that strive for Gibbet Hill. So he begins
to feel out the German trenches by means OF the
feelers of his heaviest guns. Like an invisible
fairy creature the thing comes nearer. slowly.
With every step the approaching monster knocks
fire out Of the ground, nearer and nearer come
the fateful hoof heats. Shortly 1t has reached
the trench OF our grenadiers. and until evening
Il kicks and nudges about. crushing the artful
structure here and there.
Cnspeakahle torture it means to have TO suffer
under the kicks Of this fury foaming, invisible
giants hoof. The grenadiers. however. are I'M
deferred. continuing in their Danaides' work,
keeping their trench as we'll intact as possible.
suddenly "A steeply aimed shell buries itself in
the sole Of the trench. sNueezes through the
running boards and sits fast there for a moment
as If it tried to remember the specific command
the gunners gave il on it's way. A bursting
O thunderbolt . a he'll of fire and smoke
s""a wild whirl dance. -"
\ few minutes later one of those uncanny shells
sneaks into that part of the trench where the
other wing of the battalion is. VIII the grena-
diers survive the next few seconds? The bird
OF steel lies helpless. motionless. In its furious
Night IL seems TO have lost its will Of destruc-
tion. Every moment. however, It may regain its
senses and the fury = they are unspeakably
anxious seconds these 80
Two reconnaissance officers place the hot
steel clump on their rifle straps and carry It
carefully away.
The soldiers, in a quite unmihtarly, hearty
manner, press the two mems hands. Many a
piece OF quiet hcroism in the Great War will
never he sung by Glory's Tyre. 80
The enemy, too. brings on reenforcements.
East Yorkshire volunteers. Highlanders. London
Scotsincn. Can ii lie that at length in the
Britons heart a spark Of humanity glimmered?
Did Albion pay off the colored. bestial scum?
No, England is only sparing her blacks SO long
as she still has her own and American ammuni-
ton. But doubt 1t not: before she signs the peace
treaty she will have mercilessly used up her
African and Indian munitions. The telephone
announces the corps command.
Tomorrow morning. at 4 o'clock. the artillery
b. to open fire on the enemy positions on the
railroad dam and on Gibbet Hill. Seven-thirty:
storm attack"
A piece Of railroad dam and a hill OF
skulls. . " . Hedges. mine craters, earth banks
are here the issues. 80 They decide the fate
Of the world! -"
Mercilessly the bullets and shells fly hither and
thither. One feels as IL the shells must tear up
the blue silk of the sky. for blindly they seem to
he dashing forth into the horizon: yet each has
its wisely calculated destination, to %disperse, to
kill and TO destroy. An aiming apparatus in
vented by the human brain shows them how to
revenge on humans their greed for blood.
Evening comes. The battle. however, does
mot olaan Tho riAao nnlph chair n Six