Various

“ It has been said that no man can be called happy until his death, and certainly no one was ever more felicitous in the manner of his end than the veteran hero, the blameless "Bayard" of the British Army, who has well been called one of Ireland's greatest Englishmen. ”

“ One of War's "little ironies" finds illustration in our photograph. A great conflict such as that now being waged is full of contrasts: grins, pathetic, sometimes not without a suggestion of humour. That the German Marine should be told off in a pretty rural district to round up cattle for food for the German troops is a case in point. The sleek and shapely kine which these sturdy fellows are commandeering plod peacefully along in happy ignorance of the fact that they are prisoners of war being led to their doom by an armed guard. ”

“ Thus if our casualties at sea, which are mainly of one kind only, be added up, they will probably be found to exceed our deaths on land, which are always much less numerous than other kinds of losses; yet the mortality of our battlefields has been mournful enough, especially among officers—where the death percentage has been higher than in any other war we ever waged. ”

“ Much has been said of the elaborate character of the German entrenchments, and of the British genius for comfort developed in our own lines, but it is doubtful whether anything done by either side in that direction has surpassed the chef-d'oeuvre of an ingenious French engineer shown in our illustration. At one point in the French trenches not seven hundred yards from those of the enemy, and within two miles of the German artillery, he constructed an up-to-date bathing establishment, with a heating apparatus and a shower-bath! ”

“ Cavalry engaged in the Belgian frontier battles are fighting in all sorts of ways: repeatedly, for example, as infantrymen in the trenches. On occasion, also, they have even charged on foot, with bayonet or with their lances. The Life Guards, according to a letter from the front, charged the German trenches the other day with bayonets. A squadron of French dragoons dismounted and crept through a wood on foot, surprising a German infantry company and overpowering them in close-quarter fight with lances and clubbed carbines. ”

“ Our informant, who bought some incendiary disks from a German soldier near Antwerp, states that every man carries twenty bags, each containing about 300 disks. Mr. Bertram Blount, the analyst, found the disks consist of nitro-cellulose, or gun-cotton. They may be lit, even when wet, with a match or cigarette-end, and burn for eleven or twelve seconds, emitting a strong five-inch flame, and entirely consuming themselves. The Germans throw them alight into houses. ”

“ Nothing could give a better idea of shell-fire than the remarkable photograph here reproduced. It is a panoramic view of a German artillery bombardment of advancing infantry, and was taken in three sections, well within a hundred and fifty yards of some of the bursting shells. The locality of the battle is in the Argonne country between the Upper Aisne and the Meuse, where the French are having continuous and stiff fighting. Men of the French infantry keeping under cover in one of their advanced trenches are seen in the left foreground of the picture. ”

“ More recently the Kaiser expressed a wish that the British might meet the Bavarians "just once" and his wish was gratified. In depicting a Bavarian cavalry fight with French dragoons, the Bavarian artist naturally represents the enemy as going down like nine-pins. Prince Heinrich, who figures in the drawing, is the only son of the late Prince Francis Joseph of Bavaria, first cousin of Prince Rupprecht, the Bavarian Crown Prince, who recently exhorted his troops to conquer "our most hated foe." ”

“ Much hard fighting on the Yser and elsewhere in West Flanders has fallen to the lot of the French bluejackets of the Naval Brigade, a strong force of whom were brought up from Brest to reinforce the Belgians in their defensive battles near the coast after the retreat from Antwerp. Attacking side by side with the British, they retook Ypres on October 13, and after that held Dixmude for weeks. ”

“ Among the French Colonial troops, the Senegalese have done excellent work, both on the Aisne and, more recently, in Belgium. Our photograph was taken near Pervyse, a village on the railway between Dixmunde and Nieuport, which has been the scene of many fierce encounters. In the Battle of the Aisne, when much night fighting took place, the Senegalese, it was reported, whose dark complexions rendered their faces less visible, proved very useful, and showed extraordinary daring. ”

“ The howitzer type of mobile heavy gun is much favoured for defensive work in both the German and the Austrian armies. The howitzer is capable of elevation up to 65 deg., the idea of this high elevation being, it is stated, to obtain a steep angle of descent for the shells at comparatively short ranges, in combination with a high remaining velocity so as to ensure the penetration of overhead cover. These howitzers are also employed in siege and fortress defence warfare. They have been used along the Aisne positions as auxiliaries to the giant Krupp siege-howitzers. ”

“ With lances, also, as our illustration shows, some of our Bengal cavalry, in action on foot, on October 24, at Ramscapelle, near the Yser, recaptured the village from the Germans. Dismounting near by, they charged the enemy lance in hand, driving him from his trenches. Following up their success, they then forced their way into the village, smashing in doors and windows and storming house after house in spite of fierce resistance until, assisted by other troops, they forced the enemy out, capturing guns and many prisoners. ”

“ Our illustration, reproducing a picture from a German paper, may solve the difficulty. Says the legend: "The Prince seized the drum of a fallen soldier and led his troops, beating the charge."
TELLING THE TALE IN GERMANY!—SEARCHING FOR THE BRITISH FLEET.
One of the curious fictions about England now going round in Germany is one that Sir John Jellicoe's fleet keeps in hiding lest it should meet the German fleet. German war-ships, indeed, scour the North Sea at all hours to give the Grand Fleet battle! Our illustration, from a serious painting published in a German paper, shows them at it. ”

“ There was, though, no 'shyness' among our men. They laughed and joked with one another as they quitted the trenches to move forward over the open. By the evening the enemy's position had been taken." Both ordinary shrapnel and high-explosive 15-c.m. shells from the German heavy position-batteries of howitzers, which weapons the Germans prefer for such work, although they also use guns of the same calibre, are seen bursting in front of the French troops. ”

“ They are doing much the same themselves, however, in the cities nearest their western frontier. At Cologne, ever since August, there has been constant nervousness as to possible air-raids, and searchlights from elevated points in the city have swept the sky nightly, and machine-guns have been set up on tall buildings. At Düsseldorf when our airmen destroyed a Zeppelin, the aviators were fired at by machine-guns from all over the city. Our illustration shows German machine-guns in temporary use as anti-aircraft guns.— [Photo. by Photopress.] ”

“ IN CAPTURED DIXMUDE: THE CHURCH OF ST. JEAN AFTER BOMBARDMENT.
WRECKED BY GERMAN SHELL-FIRE: THE CHURCH OF ST. JEAN, DIXMUDE.
Dixmude, after a comparative lull since it was first bombarded by the Germans, recently became once more the objective of a fierce attack and fell into the enemy's hands. The afternoon communiqué issued in Paris on November 11 said: "At the end of the day (i.e., the 10th) the Germans had succeeded in taking possession of Dixmude. ”

“ MEN OF THE THIRD SEA BATTALION WITH A MACHINE-GUN DURING THE SIEGE.
At midnight on November 6—seven hours before the German garrison of Tsing-tau surrendered, the central fort was captured by the Japanese, who took 200 prisoners. The Germans had made great efforts to repair their batteries, but the shell-fire from the Japanese guns was too heavy. After the central fort had fallen the Japanese captured at the point of the bayonet other forts and the strong field-works connecting them. It was stated that some 2300 German prisoners were taken when Tsing-tau surrendered. ”

“ In fact, it has been proved to be correct by the opinion of all our best judges in the field itself, as well as by the results of the fighting when the odds against us have been invariably three to one, in spite of which we have always managed, not only to maintain our ground, but also to encroach on that of our antagonists. ”

“ Hence it follows that a so-called "Kitchener" army of a million men ought to have for us a military value of at least three millions as against the Germans—the more so since their best first-line troops have already been used up, and replaced with beardless boys and most corpulent greybeards. ”

“ Dixmude, on the Yser, suffered terribly during the earlier stages of the great battle in West Flanders. It was stated on October 27 that French Marines holding the town had withstood a continuous attack lasting forty hours, at the end of which the place was in ruins. Mr. E. Ashmead Bartlett, who visited Dixmude on October 21, wrote (in the "Telegraph") : "The town is not very big, and what it looked like before the bombardment I cannot say.... An infuriated German army corps were concentrating the fire of all the field guns and heavy howitzers on it at the same time. ”

“ Shave —but in comfort with a Durham-Duplex Razor Safety, the razor which enables you to shave with the barber's diagonal stroke without fear of cutting yourself. As a gift to a man friend nothing is more appreciated. ”

“ Well now, supposing that the war were to last for two years, it follows that, at the same rate of loss, the German casualties would amount to 12,250,000, which is almost unthinkable. Its very destructiveness should tend to shorten the duration of this terrible war. As Mr. Asquith said at the opening of Parliament, in a curiously cryptic and significant passage: "The war may last long. ”

“ The tremendous force of the impact with which the shells crash down is shown at the same time by the man seen in the foreground of the photograph standing up to the waist in one of the gaping cavities in the ground that the shells make where they strike. ”

“ On the march in Tsing-tau; (2) and (3) Entrenched with a machine-gun. Our correspondent states that the photographs were taken since the siege began; otherwise the dark band round the helmet-covers might be taken for a manoeuvres badge. ”