"A FRIGHTFUL HECATOMB."
Reading edition
The disadvantage of having a sovereign who insists upon being his own generalissimo must have weighed heavily of late upon the German armies in the west. A French soldier engaged in the district just south of the Somme gives particulars, gathered from German prisoners, of the Kaiser's recent visit to his lines in this region. He says:
"To prove their zeal in his presence the German officers increased their daily quota of about 100 shells for firing at the French to 3,000 in twenty-four hours. The next day the imperial traveller was five miles south of Lihous, where the same ceremonial was organized for his reception. There was a regular debauch of shells from cannon, guns and mortars. There, again, the infantry showed little eagerness to attack us, but some blows and threats improved their sense of duty.
"There was a frightful hecatomb. They again tried to capture the villages of Dilrens and Quesnayen Santerre on the following day, but, although encouraged by the presence of Emperor William, they failed ingloriously. One officer says 500 German bodies already have been buried and many still are on the ground."