Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-22
afANS UNABLE
FIREPLACE DEAD
Years Of War Begin.
ling to Tell on Foes
Man.Power 6
)ME DIVISIONS WEAK
- That Held Meteren
Found Far Below Nor.
NAL Strength
IL DIVISIONS WEAK
By PHILIP GIBBS
DeejaI Gable to Epening Public Ledger

By PHILIP GIBBS
ocjal Gable to Epening Public LEDGE
Z q tspyyfoht, 1918, BY Nctc York Tones Co.
VI fnr CORRESPONDENTS Headquarters or
the Western Front, July 90.
ftS4 NY first account of the capture OF
zretSfen by Scots and South Africans
41i1derestimated the number Of prison
" m. When l wrote only sixty or sc
4 nd heen brought down under escort
x bat later in the day more than 2Ol
o&hers were collected from cellars and
4 dugouts in and apout the ruins of the
Village and added to the bag. Mean
while Australians TO the south brought
K their humber up to 100. They were an
Z Axtrenely mixed crew. as I saw 70,
H myself some of them big fellows OF
y 61x feet two or three, with heavy
= hulking figures, and one or two at
e1 }o0st looked monstrously tall beside
The British soldiers who were Their
6uards. Their big shrapnel helmets
Added to their height and gave them
The medieval look which strikes one
n Anew every time one sees batch OF
!, these men But the others were thin
Weedy undersized lads with saunt
hheekbones, deep eyesockets and sal
tow skins. so that they seemed under
their steel helmets. which came down
Is their shoulders, like human carl
0atures of snuffed candles.
II is q marvel that so many looked
- we strong. for these Prus
4 fiare ~f-hty-first Reserve hi
yisio living hellishly since
the j, 30. when they were
= put In ~ Meteren. 1t is a
3 lfne viii 'ches, made up OF
( Sjell pits IN, which they had to
crawl at night. digging themselves
deeper into these holes and hurrowinE
for cover from the British fire. When
lt rained they sat and slept in water
and mud.
Made Cellars Untenable
The village of Meteren gave them
no comfort as shelter, because the
6ritish guns pounded it to ruin above
: the cellars and, having laid II low eX.
y cent for the stump of an old red brick
ohurch tower which still stands,
a toierced great Craters of brick-strewn
Rrouud so that 1t was better to be
I out of the cellars than IN them. They
! made their line of defense on the
4 outskirts of the village. hiding their
dWelling places in shell pits behind
.<hedges and in tall grass and Towering
weeds.
Miserably they tried to orga nize
= 6ome trench system which would
make life more tolerahle, and they did
F actually dig a few bits Of trench and
x make some dugoutS and machne-gur
ofnplacements on the north of the vii
hee behind one of the hedges. But
q {hey had not gone far with this work
when the Scots and South African!
made 1t useless.
Probably they could not get on witt
lt because Of the weakness Of the
eBrhpanies Influenza crept from shell
q hole to shellhole and caught hold o
these poor wretches. The incessan
British gunfire, smashing into Meterer
and bursting among their burrows
caused them many casualties and ap
parently new drafts to fill the gaps die
not arrive They became so veal
that it is said companies were dowr
to thirty men and battalions to 120
10 the remnan nts of the Eighty-firs
Y Reserve Division of PrussianS sa'
Wretchedly under steel helmets wher
the British guns strafed them at any
hour of day and night, put on gas
masks when we soaked their GROUND
~ with poison fumes and knew what i
meant to live in hell on earth.
Old stun. Thought Boche
All that normal kind of experience
o4me to them on Friday morning, 81
they thought 1t was. just the same ole
q ming. They put on gas masks whe'
4 clouds of smoke rolled toward them
md crouched low and listened to th'
crash of big shells and the scream o
them For a month this had been tn
81 daily routine, and although they seemed
8 70 guess that one day they would h
attacked. there was no reason why /
should happen that day.
In that way they were surprised. ant
II many of them knew nothing of the at
j tack until they found Scottish soldier
kAAf ia
meekly. The only trouble to the Scot
came from a number of machine gun
hidden behind a hedge on the north q
Meteren, and they were held up ther
a and suffered there most of the casualtie
Of the day, which elsewhere had bee
very light.
The Camerons and Royal Scots an
Gouth Africans encircing the villag'
f1 Attained their objectives rapidly an
' en- the southeast of Meteren went bt
yond them. There has been no counter
attack, nor is it easy to make one
ii view Of the low spirit of this Prussia
division. A large number of machir
runs were captured. as there were seve
behind one hedge and something like or
70 every twenty yards elsewhere.
There We're six officers taken wi,
{f the men and one of them complaine
bitterly that a daylight attack was NJ
playing the game and said in bt
~ French: Les ecossais beaucoup furieux
One of the South Africans met
nan whom he had known well on Il
Reldt, and one of the German prisone
ne an uncle fighting in the Britt!
& 1my
They seem to have but little knowled
~ what is happening on other from
ND utterly refuse to believe that the
<s}foTe million American soldiers
vance. though, as one of the Britt
@1cers saws, they are beginning TO
;H# ~ and take notice of the new menace
Apart from the capture of Meters
t Which was a useful little gain to t
"a British. the most interesting thing
<6 fniB action seems to me to be the pre-
o&tained that the division holding I
0lace has been allowed 10 fall so (
- &clow strength and that no adequ;
Eefts had come to it,
n that becomes a general necess
8ong German divisions even amoni
11nbe- of them. the doom of the G
- army Is certain. for II the bocI
1inot replace their losses nothing
I've them II Is too soon 10 expect Il
aerally Germany has still large NJ
6oru Of men in her depots, but we kr
NJ they are not enough 10 replace
>a4nt rate of loss.
<rhe four years drain on German
n6-power Is beginning to tell at Il
@<<srh In the actual field she has.
- armies. the British have heal
9anpt for divisions which have b
lonx In the lines against them,
<n1rtPalians, especially in certain ps
q. ,x-it