THE ALLIES’ CAMPAIGN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 4006, 12 August 1915, Page 5

THE ALLIES’ CAMPAIGN.

GERMAN ATTACKS THROWN BACK. SPLENDID NEWS FROM THE FRENCH FRONT. BRIL LI ANT ARTILLEK V WORK. PARIS. Aug. JO. A communique states that two hun-cli-ckl attacks with petards were made northwards of Souchez railway station. The attacks with thrown hack. Our curtain of fire stopped a violent attack on our trenches at Coi rx-los-Camies. Fresh attacks at night, supported by asphyxiating shells, were also stopped by the artijlery. (Received Aug. 11, 8.5 p.m.) Oflicial: Artillery actions only are reported in the Artois, on the Aisrie, and in the Argonne. Four of our aircraft participating in the Saarliruck raid did not return. One is reported to have landed in Switzerland.

AT THE BRITISH HEADQUARTERS. LIFE BEHIND THE LINES. Here is another of the very interesting sketches of the American United Press Representative with Sir John blench, .Mr William 0. .Shepherd : • Headquarters of the British Army, NORTH KILN FRANCE. Ploegsleort Wood (the Tommies call it Plug Street) is in Belgium. Some day it will he a great historical park, like the held of Waterloo. Just now its trees are scarred by bullets and shells. German bullets whistle now and then through the branches and clip them off with a lightning' snip: from time to time the ambulance men run t.<> some corner of the forest to pick up a British soldier who has been hit by a stray German missile; and. taking it altogether, now is not the time to see IMnegsteert Wood. Just beyond the wood lie the British t reueiies; and just, beyond (be British trenches is the German line. A rich brewer in A rmentieres owns IMnegsteert Woo:!: it y, as ins pheasant ground. The plica-mits are gone now. Just before Christmas the British soldiers in the wood bagged twenty-two of thorn for Christmas dinner. and that finished the lor. •IRONCLAD- ORDERS.’* in October the Germans, sweeping down towards Calais, tried to take Ihe I’loegsteert Wood. Commandei'-in-Chief Sir John French gave one nt ids iron-clad orders that it must be held : the fighting for RloogstooriWood went on' for days. The (Limans got into it &wd died : the Britishers fought them out <>f it—and died. And when winter fell the great forest was dotted with graves and it? trees were battered by bullets and shells, but the British trenches circled its outer edge and the German trenches were dug four hundred feet from the forest’s limit. 'Hie forest is two miles long and a. mile wide. We came to its border after crossing ploughed fields, where German shells fall daily. We found a sidewalk, two feet wide, made ot sticks fastened together with wire, a corduroy footpath. WINTER HARDSHIPS. •'•lt was unspeakable here in the winter. The men floundered in mud to their waists until we built these footways,” explained the English major who was acting as inv guide. The footway led straight into tne . heart of the forest. _ . “It’s rather ticklish living in here, said the major. ‘A ou see, the trenches aren't far away, and the German bullets come in here among the trees. 1 ’ The hanging of rifle fire m the , trenches was incessant, but not heavy. A bullet sang above us and clipped off a small twig, which fell to the ground. Half a dozen bullets song their songs before we reached a dug-out which stood among heavy trees/ _ A fine woollen sidewalk passed in front oi this dug-out and stretched away down an avenue of trees. Between the dugout and the sidewalk —in the front yard—was a beautiful garden of wild flowers which had been transplanted from various corners of the forest FOOLHARDY ROBINS.

There wore all the signs of summer in the forest-, except birds. They have learned to stay away from Ploegsteert- grove. “There are two or three robins that haven’t gone.” said an officer who lives in the dug-out. "nut the\ io .specially foolhardy.” ' Violets and primroses and cowslip? almost betklcd the forest floor in places. A clump of violet roots, dug up with tons of earth by a German shell, lay beside the great cavern, with its flowers healthy and strong. BRAVE ENEMIES.

There’s one spot in Ploegsteert Wood that German shells ought never to reach. It's a grave with a carefully made wooden cross on it. and Dm lettering says: “Here lies two gallant, German officers. 5 ’ “That's rather uiiexpoctoa. ' said a civilian who was with us- “ But they were brave/' said Dio major. “’file Germans aren't always so bad. Five .Officers from my regiment wore missing one time, and we never expected to find their bodies. Rut when we drove the Germans back wo found a grave on which was marked ‘Here lie live brave English officers.’ We identified them all, and their bodies were taken back to Eng land.” . . We followed another sidewalk and came to a huge mound covered with yellow flowers, which had boon planum bv the English soldieis. On a neatly unde cross at the head of the mound an English soldier had patiently printed the words, “Here lie seven toon Gorman soldiers. There wasn't- an English grave in Ploegsteert Wood that .was better tended or more heavily flowered than those mounds of fallen Germans. signs OF HIGH spirits. Knots of men passed along the narrow walks now and then going to ano from the nearby trenches. They carried boards, jugs of water, bags- <” food trench stoves, boxes of ammunition, and all the great array ot things that, are needed in the/'big ditches. Now and then a courier pedalled his bicycle over the corduroy footways. At one circular cluster of dug-outs was a si cm. reading “Piccadilly circus. The siflewalk that passed through “Piccadilly circus” was marked Regent street.” There were also ‘ Leicestei souano ” “Tourists welcome saul AothA- "Very Lights three pennies, rend another sign. “Very Lights” are the calcium trench lights winch are thrown into-the sky m. night trench lighting. Everywhere in Ploegsteert Mood were signs of high spirits; every soldier we mot had a smile on his tac or a happy remark. _They led us o odd signs'or to particularly prottj gardens. A SOLDIER'S GARDEN. In the midst of all this a cry came up through the lane. “Bring the ambulance,” a soldier was walling. _ 1"° men ran out from a hut carrying a stretcher. . , “Somebody has been nipped, sam a soldier who was showing up his garden. “Somebody or other gets it m here every day.” Then he showed us some more fine points about his garden of wild flowers.- It wasn’t bravery or braggadocio witlj him; it was only a matter- of being accustomed to that sort of thing. Tie and the other soldiers in the wood, who lolled about leading or whistling, and tome of them even singing, had spent a terrible winter in those woods, with the rain and cold adding horrors, even to death. Now

the rain and cold were gone, and even death had lost some of its ugliness. STRAY PELLETS. They brought the wounded man along the pathway, after a time. He had keen shot through the leg by a Sirav bullet-, and the soldiers ran out of tiieir dug-outs to the passing stretcher to sec- ii the unlucky soldier was someone they know. Ho was sick and faint and white, but lie said, I ‘Hello Rill,” to one soldier. Then he added, ••Look out for my kit, will you, until I come hack p” I want to come back to Ploegsteert Wood again some day, when the big shells aren't whipping over it and the German bullets aren’t singing death songs' through the trees, and think out,' in quick all this strange mystery of war that makes vou kill a man aud then makes you put flowers on Ins grave, and keeps you smiling and happy through it all. \ aHMWwir»a>BW* MiiwriMi nfc—ini'lfwwgwtat