GERMAN METHODS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 4002, 7 August 1915, Page 2

GERMAN METHODS.

SOME DARING TRICKS

A NELSON MAN'S FXRKRIKXCES. To tbe rank and file on Gallipoli it is patent that the A lim'd troops are confronted by German methods and systems; to the staff officer, with bis greater discrimination and experience m military service, it i< all the more obvious (writes Trooper C. L. CSmith to tlie Nelson "Colonist”). Many features of warfare are now'being practised in tne Mediterranean which tlie Germans gave prominence to in the "Western theatre. Recalling the army notes and correspondents’ accounts of the last Balkan War, we see no trace of the Turks employing many methods which are now extensively used. Apparently Marshal von dor Goltz has since that war put bis Turkish charges through additional courses of instruction. In the small encampment over tho first ridge from the beach tho first traces of the Teuton wore found in tho German names upon the kit therein. On a precipice on our left, whore three machine guns played liuvoe. with tho landing party in the early morning of April 25, two Ger-

inan soldiers wero found dead. No . doubt they wore in charge of tho ma- | chino guns, which weapon is now used I on tho same largo scale by the Turks j as it is in France and Belgium bv tho Germans. Observation through glasses lias shown that most ol tl'.e Turkish gunners have been supplanted by instructors in the .Potsdam creed. vSevo- j ral Turkish officers have fallen into j our hands, and they make no secret of their objection to tho high-handed con- | duct of their taskmasters. On officer, in fact, wont so far as to say that u i lio wore granted parole for 24 hows j ho would bring in two regiments and | ouo battery of artillery. These troops had, lie said, been the victims of con- j tinual brutality at tho hands of the Germans —both officers and soldiers. . That officer had, nowever, seen the oosition of three guns before .being j blindfolded, so be had to stay m out j midst. Tlie Gorman privates apparently can do as they like with the Ottoman non-coms. "Kultur” wears no velvet when handling its Fa.stern puppet'. . An autlientic story Is told of a-Ger-man who, one moonlight night, succeeded in worming Ids way throng 1 the scrub unobserved (that was _ heroic our engineers put down the wire entanglements). and sauntered along i n 1 front of tho Australian lines exhorting lour fellows to “keep your pecker up. A voice queried from the trench : , “Where from, matey?” “Broken Hi LI M “Who runs the big two-up joint?” No answer. Bang! Vos, the lads in. the trenches get shrewder every day, and they were not Simple Simons when they arrived. In the matter of mines, too, cue Prussian, tried his hand, hut with i.ndill'erent success. \Vo had a goon sprinkling of old soldiers amongst ns, who “fought shy” of comfortaoly constructed crossings and newly-turned earth. Wo have been told that botli the heaeffi'encampment, and tho larger

one further back were mined m several places. The disturbance or the troops’ rest at night is another phase of Germany’s influence oil Turkish ideas of war. All night long an extravagant expenditure of ammunition toes on serving no other purpose than to keep those manning the trenches alert. The general character of the night attacks is reminiscent ol what we road of tho doings on other fronts. The enemy advance frequently in close-formation, making all mannor of wild noises on their bogles, and. with their lungs. Early in the campaign Ottoman buglers made nerveracking slaughter of our bugle calls, and all to no purpose, because not a I bugle was taken ashore on our side. ; Tho old Prussian Guard scheme of ad- : vaiK-ing in. two or more lines of close formation, with machine guns carried in the rear, was nearly—but not quite ! —successful. On the occasion on which the Turks tried their luck with it tho front line lav flat just as one ' of’our battalions was preparing to leave the trenches to wield the bayonet. As it happened, our men I were ordered Hack, and our machine I guns nlaved havoc with that party before it could do anv damage.