The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-08-14
BRITISH OFFENSIVE TO
CONTINUE TILL WINTER.
Every Day During Last Week Found
Some Strong Point Taken.
WHOSE GU,TS HAVE KILLED
MORE SEEMS QUESTION
British Gunncrs Have Advantage Over
Tcutons That Makes Most Counter
attacks Futilc--Opprcssivc Heat In
Field,
By FREDERICK PALMER. :, :.
Accredited Correspondent With the
British Army for the Press OF the
United states

British Army for the Press OF the
United States.
! At the British Front August 12--
| dispatched at 1880 o'clock. August
| 3).--No one. the correspondent meets
at the front. thinks that the British
offensive is over or that anything but
winter will stop it, Though no village
or considerable frontage Of trenches
vas stormed in the last few days.
every day found some strong point
taken and some new 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 a
/ star officer, lis whether our guns have
killed more Germans than their guns
have killed of us. and we know that
the odds in our favor are at least two,
If not three, to one"
( For six weeks now the British have
maintained torrent of she'll fire
/ which 0efmdn prisoners who have
been at Verdun say surpasses any
thing they endured there. while at the
different munition depots the piles OF
shells seem as plentiful as on the day
! before the grand offensive began.
Tragic Assault by Germans.
F. II has been, "A week all TO the gun
ner's taste They have had such an
:
mans as they never had before,
thanks TO the possession of PoZieres
ridge. which liz crowned by a wind
mill al it's highest point, its wooden
structure long since blown to splin-
tiers by she'll and fire and its stone
base cracked into bits.
The Australians would describe the
latest German counter-attack which
was made last night as comic. II the
result had not been % tragic for the
two battalions which made 1t. APP
parentiy the Germans were mostly
recruits When assembling for the
attack they were caught by the how
itzer fire. When they charged across
an open space to be caught by both
the British gun and machine gun fre.
Some forty survivors who got to the
! trenches held up their hands. The
! Australians called on them to come
in.
The British guns are situated be-
hind the conquered slopes of the ridge.
~lstsz .-s.-ss t.se' ssaesfA .tsG 3 a "a
able TO see all the way to Bapume.
German Guns Retiring.
Thus exposed the German guns have
been gradually retiring for once tn
British locate German battery they
go after II with concentration fire
like n pack OF hounds after a cor
nered fox. The British are hammer
ing every village on the way to Ba-
paume. and Bapaume itself, while at
the same time their superiod numbers
Of planes continue dropping bombs on
the same targets that the artillery
bombards.
Wherever the Germans are auartered
they are subjected night and day TO
this nerve wrccking bombardment.
The British artillery commanded has
only TO say put twenty rounds OF 8,
inch into Courcellette." or "a couple
OF salvos OF 12-inch into Thiepval,
or we might as well stop that work
ing party digging in Martinpuich for
the afternoon and away go the mes
sengers. roaring like railroad trains
through the air with their tons of
explosives.
We don't make many changes In
the man this way" said gunner.
but as matter of bookkeeping in
casualties the balance is all in our
favor. 1t softens things up for our In
fantry before they attack. 1t Is as
Idemoralizing as a continuous night
mare and explains why the Germans
can put no more spirit into their
counter attacks"
Heat Wave Arrives.
After three days Of cooler weathe.
another heat wave has come. For
four weeks there has been no rain
Except a slight shower. The ground
lis parched by drought and leaves are
be ginning to fail from tho trees in
isome places.
one result of the widespread shell
fire over great depth Of the Ger
man front whether 12-inch shells into
distant villages or 1S-pounders into
the front line and support trenches
Is to prevent the Germans bringing
water as well as food up. The thirsty
men at the front are penned up In
trenches in the barning hot earth n
this fierce August weather.
Most of the villages this side Of
Bapaume are filled up with the debris
OF houses which the British shell nre
has battered down. The thing mos
noticeable to an American IL how lit.
tie tee Is supplied either by the British
OF French armies, where II Is found
only in hospitals. The common use
lis habitual to neither people. Yet
there is surprisingly little heat
strokes 1t Is Significant OF the value
OF incubation for typhoid that despite
the heat and battle conditions where
iiburying the dead and sanitation are
hard to control, that at the last re-
port there were only seventeen cases
lin the immense British army In
France,
/