Under influence of nameless German atrocities of all descriptions,
the attitude of the British soldier in the fighting line is becoming
fierce and embittered. Nothing will induce him, however, to vent his
spite on prisoners, though few Germans understand anything else but
force as the expression of power. They look upon our men as miserable
mercenaries whose friendliness is simply an attempt to curry favor with
the noble German krieger; our men regard them as misguided individuals
who don't know any better....
The German phrase, "_Stellungskrieg_," is a very accurate description
of the great stalemate on the western front which we, more vaguely,
term "trench warfare." It is, indeed, a constant manoeuvering for
positions, a kind of great game of chess, in which the Germans,
generally speaking, are seeking to gain the advantage for the purposes
of their defensive, whilst the Allies' aim is to obtain the best
positions for an offensive when the moment for this is ripe.
The ground is under ceaseless survey. A move by the enemy calls for
a counter-move on our part. A new trench dug by him may be found
to enfilade our trenches from a certain angle, and while by the
construction of new traverses or the heightening of parapet and parados
the trench may be rendered immune from sniping, a fresh trench will be
dug at a new angle or a machine gun brought up to make life sour for
the occupants of the new German position, and force them in their turn
to counter-measures.
Any one who saw the trenches at Mons or even, much later, the trenches
on the Aisne, would scarcely recognize them in the deep, elaborate
earthworks of Flanders, with the construction of which our army is now
so familiar.
High explosive shells in unlimited quantities are necessary to keep
the hammer pounding away at one given spot. To break a path for our
infantry through the weakly held German trenches around Neuve Chapelle
we had many scores of guns pouring in a concentrated fire on a front
of 1,400 yards for a period of thirty-five minutes. In the operations
around Arras the French are said to have fired nearly 800,000 shells in
one day.
Even this colossal figure was surpassed by the expenditure of
high-explosive shells by the German and Austrian armies in their
successful thrust against Przemysl. Our bombardment of Neuve Chapelle
was, in the main, effective, though barbed-wire entanglements in front
of part of the German trenches were not cut, and heavy casualties were
thus caused to the infantry when they advanced.
For the most part, however, we found the German trenches obliterated,
the little village a smoking heap of ruins, and those Germans who
survived, dazed and frightened, amid piles of torn corpses. If this
enormous concentration of guns was required to blast a path of
1,400 yards with a thirty-five-minute bombardment, what a gigantic
concentration of artillery, what a colossal expenditure of ammunition,
will be required to drive a wedge several miles deep through positions
which the Germans have spent three seasons in strengthening and
consolidating!