The Paris _Temps_ correspondent describes a meeting near Soissons
with a French infantry soldier who had just escaped from the
Germans. They had forced him, he said, with fifty others captured at
the same time, to dig trenches after shooting those refusing. The
soldier said:
"Under a French cannonade which killed many, we were compelled by
blows to dig in the most exposed situation the trenches the Germans
now occupy, which are very wide and deep and cemented against damp
at frequent intervals. We received only one meal, at 11 P. M. We had
no coverings and slept in the trenches. Finally, when my comrades
were most all killed, I crept from one end of the trench and crawled
100 yards to a shell hole, where I spent the following day. Then I
crawled 200 yards to the French trenches.
"The Germans received food and munitions regularly, but seemed
dispirited, and suffered from rheumatism greatly. The majority are
middle-aged.
"During the last fortnight the Germans have withdrawn many guns,
which were replaced with trunks of trees as barrels to deceive
aviators, and some were even mounted on wheels."