Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-08-14
BRITISH OFFENSIVE
STILL IS VIGOROUS
Gunfire Keeps Up, and Every
Day Some Strong Point
Is Taken.
GERMAN CASUALTIES LARGE
Villages This Side of Bapaumc
Filled With Debris of De-
molished Houses.
GERMAN CASUALTIES LARGE
BY FREDERICK PALMER.

|
reading the brief official reports that
the British offensive were over if he
went out to the field. would conclude.
Judging from the unccasing enormous
volume of gunfrc, that the tcrrinc
battle was in progress. No one the
! correspondent meets at the front
! thinks that the offensive is over. or
| that anything but winter will stop il.
! Though no village or considerable
| frontage Of trenches was stormcd in
| the last few days. every day found
some strong point taken and somc now
| spur trench thrown out in the course
| of the same kind OF an operation which
| followed and preceded each big blow
| The question this week" said n
StaH officer. zig whether our guns have
Killed more Germans than their guns
! have killed Of us. and VIC know that
the odds in our favor arc at least two.
If not three. to one"
For six weeks now the British have
maintained a torrent Of shell fire. which
! German prisoners who have been at
| Verdun say surpasscs anything they
| endured there. while, at the different
| munition hcpots. the piles Of shells
seem as plentiful as on the day be-
| fore the grand offensive began.
1t has been a week all to the gun
ncrs' taste. They have had such an
advantage or position over the Ger
mans as they never had before thanks
TO the possession OF Pozicrcs ridge.
which is crowned by windmill at its
! highest point, it's wooden structure
being long since blown TO spIintcrs by
! she'll fire. and its stone base cracked
| Into bits. It is incaIculablc and incon-
ceivablc tho amount of shell fire spcnt
/ on this ridge It's irregular skyline
| is ever changing aa one she'll chasm
i'm the pummeled earth is filed and
another is made. The British still keen
domination by tactics and methods Of
! fortitication not permitted to ne made
here.
GERMAN COUNTI:RAT'TACK
DBSCRIBED AS COMIC
| The Australians describe tho latest
| German counterattack which was
! made last night. as comic, if the re-
| suit had not been so tragic for the
TWO battalions which made it, Ap-
| parently the Germans were mostly re-
! cruits When assembling for the at
TACK they were caught by the how!tzcr
/ n?c. Then they charged across an
! open space. TO be caught by both tho
I britisn gun and machiue--uu fire
/ some iorty survivors vino got to the
| trenches held UP their hands The
/ Australians called on them to come in
| Ihe British guns are situated behind
| the conquered slopes of the ridge
"hiic from the crest the British arc
ahle 10 sec All the way to Bapaumc
mus exposed. tho German guns gradu-
| ally have been retiring. for once the
| Britlsh locate German battery. they
go after il with Il concentration fire
Ike pack OF hounds after "a corncrcd
foX The British are hamnerinr
| every village on the way To Bapaune
and Bapaume itself while at the same
time their superior numbers Of planes
continue dropping bombs on tho same
targets that the artillery bombards.
wherever the Germans are quar-
tered they are subjected night and day
TO this nervc-wrccking bombardmcnt
The British artillery commander has
only TO say Put twenty rounds of
eisht-nch into Courcellette" or "a cou-
pie OF salvos of twelve-inch into Then
val or we might AS we'll stop that
working party digging in Martinpuich
for the afternoon" and away go the
messengers. roaring like railroad trains
through the air with their tons of
explosives
I'VE don't make many changes i'm
the map this way" said u gunner. but,
as matter of bookkeeping in casual
ties. the balance is all in our favor. 1t
softens things up for our infantry be-
fore they attack. 1t is as demoraliZing
as a continuous nightmare, and explains
why the Germans can put no more
spirit into their counterattacks"
AS some illustration OF the power of
artillery when shells are ample and
guns numerous, II is estimated that in
this last week the Germans in the
Somme battle area have had 5000
casualties from mortar fire and gun
fire alone.
After three days Of cooler weather.
another heat wave has come. For four
weeks there has been no rain except
slight shower. The ground is parche
by drought. and leaves are beginning
to fall from the trees in some places
One result of the widespread shell
fire over Il great depth of the German
front. whether twelve-inch shells into
distant villages or eighteen Founders
into the front line and support
trenches. is to prevent the Germans
bringing up water as we'll as food.
The thirsty men at the front are pcnncd
up in trenches in the burning hot
earth in this fierce August weather.
Most Of the villages this side of Ba-
paume are filed up with the debris of
houses which the British shell fire has
battered down. The thing most notice.
able to an American is how little ice
is supplied either by the British nr
French armies. where it is found only
In hospitals. The common use is
habitual to neither people. Yet there
is surprisingly little heatstrokc. It is
significant Of the value of incubation
for typhoid that, despite the heat and
battle conditions. where buryirg the
dead and sanitation are hard to control,
at the last report there were only
seventeen cases in the immense Brit
sh army In France.