The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1916-08-07
DYING SOLDIER COVERS GAS
MASK WITH EARTH TO PRE-.
VENT PATTERN REACHING
RUSSIANS


With the Right Wing of Field Mar
shall Won Hindenburg's Army July 2S
(by Courier to Berlin, August a.
Here is the place where the Russians
reported during their March offensive
that they had taken our first three
lines,' said the German Captain with
whom an American correspondent had
Just inspected the Teuton front
trenches southwark of Narocz Lake.
The officer continued:
Their statements, though accurate,
was misleading, for these three lines
of trenches composed our first line Of
defense"
The Captains statement, as the cor
respondent had the fullest opportunity
to observe, was true. In his trip to
the front, which covered altogether
many scores of miles of trenches, the
observer never before had seen posi-
tons which appeared to be so strong
or so nearly impregnable.
terrible commentary on the Rus
sian losses here during the March Of
fensive was afforded by a remark OF
the officer at a certain oint in the
trenches where the stencil led the cor
respondent to ask whether bodies we're
still lying unburied He replica
mo, but the victims of shell nre are
so shielded that 1t is impossible to COW
er all the scraps of flesh when build
ing the trenches"
The positions retired to were tenn
porarily captured by the Russians in
March after a German battalion, which
had been withstanding the attacks OF
some 1000 men, had been reduced to
200 survivors, and the commander de-
cided to withdraw them when the last
of their four machine guns damned.
The Germans retook the position on
April 26 and two days later they adj
vanced their line some 200 yards.
where it is still held by them. The
of a breach for the Rus
slams here comes from the fact that
this is the main route to Wilma. The
last attack of any consequence was
made July 6. 1t failed, like its pre-
.decessor, with heavy loses for the Rus
slams.
During artillery commandments one
lookout is stationed by the commander
at each section of a trench and he is
relieved every Is minutes.
1T cannot be required that any man
shall stand awaiting death for more
than Is minutes at a stretcm" said
the trench officer. Here, as every
where, the correspondent found that
the spirit of the troops left nothing to
be desired. Everyone was confident
that the Germans already had con-
Iquered, and that 1t was only necessary
to wait until the Entente Allies learn
ed of the impossibility of preaching
the German lines. The correspondent
was surprised in English by a private
soldier, who explained that he had
worked for five years in factory near
Hartford, Conn.
A touching instance of a German
soldiers fidelity to orders was related
by a battalion commander. Three men
left the trenches on a patrolling expe-
dition and only two returned. A search
the following night revealed the body
OF the third man. who had been NOR
tally wounded. 1t was noticed that he
had buried something in the ground in
the interval before his death.
When the object was uncovered it
roved to be gas mask of a new pat
tern. The strictest orders had been
given that this mask should not be
permitted to get into the hands of the
Russians their masks at the time be-
ing OF an inferior design The SOL
dier's last thought when dying had
been of this order.
The Russians maintain fairly con-
slant rife fire, which is utterly wasted
here, the only German casualties COM
ing from an occasional well-directed
shrapnell shell.