Bridgeton pioneer., 1917-10-04
RUIN IN FRANCE
DUE To FEAR
Ordered by German Officers to
Brighten Troops.
MEN WARNED OF REPRISALS

Troops Told They Will Be Shot if Al.
lies Capture Them, and This Causes
Many Germans to Keep on Fighting
Who Otherwise No Doubt Would
Surrender.
One of the imperative military ne
cessities" for the Incredible devastation
and destruction that were wrought by
the Germans along the pathway of
their retreat in France was to convince
the German soldiers themselves that if
they either desert or surrender to the
French they will be instantly shot in
reprisal, says a correspondent with the
French armies.
German soldiers now being taken
prisoners by the French along the en-
tire front say without exception to their
captors that they realize they are go
ing to be shot and are quite prepared
for it.
While the Germans manifestly have
various aims in view in their system
attic policy Of reducing every inch of
French soil occupied by them to q
waste desert, the French military au-
thorities have been able to establish
definitely from the German prisoners
captured that not the least of these OBJ
jects is to inject the morale of despera-
tion into the German army.
Gern,apo W,rnaI of n..4L
The Germans are told not only that
they will be instantly killed if they
fall into the hands of the French, but
that unless they fight to the death in
an effort to keep the allied troops from
reaching German soil their own homes,
farms and villages will quite naturally
suffer the same fate by way of reprisal
that they have inflicted on the homes,
farms and villages of France.
The need of desperate measures on
the part of the German military au-
thorities to keep their troops from sur
rendering on every possible occasion
has for long time past been fully es-
tablished. One of the most striking ev-
licences of this was the orders of Hin
denburg himself issued after the French
attacks at Verdun last November and
December. The prisoners in these two
affairs alone totaled almost 10000.
Hindenburg in his orders to his gen
erals. copies of which have since fallen
into the hands of the French. scathed
in merciless terms the lack of morale
on the part of the German troops
which permitted them to surrender by
thousands without the slightest resist
anre. Imperative orders that all re-
sponsible officers take immediate steps
to overcome this condition were given.
Since then, however, this tendency of
the Germans to surrender on every pos
sible occasion has increased so steadily
that Hindenburg himself has been fore
ed to take heroic measures to over
come it.
German soldiers now being taken
prisoners as well as other sources con-
firm the fact that it was Hindenburg
who conceived the idea for the whole
sale devastation of all territory which
the Germans are forced to abandon.
1t was under his orders that all Ger
man regiments that fell back on the
western front had regularly appointed
crews whose sole business it was to de-
stroy all property and to leave every
inch OF the ground that goes back into
the hands of the French a veritable
desert
These same sources confirm likewise
that one of Hindenburg's principal OBJ
jects in this is to place the entire Ger
man army now on the west front in a
position where it will realize that it is
better to die fighting than to surrender
and where it will realize that only
hghting to the last will save their own
homes from the same fate they have
inflicted on France