It is pitiful to see the innocent women and little children driven from
their humble homes to trek to different parts of France, literally
starving on the road. And when they return they will find that their
only shelters have been burned to the ground. I see in the papers that
English people have been giving chocolate and cigarettes to the German
prisoners, and, I daresay, every comfort they require. Yet a few weeks
ago the same men were robbing, looting, and causing grief and anxiety
in this country! Instead of giving them cigarettes and chocolates,
English people should distribute the money amongst the wives and
families whose husbands and fathers will never return: _Gunner E.
Tyler, of Bristol_.
Kill or Wound?
One of the German soldiers captured by the Lancashires observed, “You
shoot to kill; we fire from the hip, and only want to wound.” On a
German officer who was made prisoner a diary was found in which was
entered the advice: “Do not face the British troops when entrenched;
their fire is murderous. First sweep the trenches with artillery fire.”
One of the German methods of finding the range with their big guns is
to heap up the corpses of their fallen men, and thus, when the Allied
troops advance, their distance from the batteries can accurately be
gauged: _A Private in the Coldstreams_.