Various

“ A similar fate is reserved, at no distant date, for German South Africa, against which General Botha—a man no less brave and dashing as a soldier than sagacious as a statesman—is preparing to lead a conquering force. ”

“ Special interest being taken in the fighting in Flanders, one rather overlooks the give-and-take warfare being carried on further east, where siege-trench fighting like that on the Aisne still goes on. There the Germans occupy deeply dug lines which are largely made up of underground galleries partly natural, partly artificial, in character, as our photograph shows. When the French artillery fire is severe, the Germans scuttle like rabbits into their burrows, coming out to man the trenches in front immediately the French infantry begin to approach.— [Photo. by C.N.] ”

“ Our illustration shows a halt in one of the squares of Warsaw of one of the regiments of Siberian infantry, whose magnificent fighting qualities in all the battles of the war in the eastern theatre of operations in which they have taken part have gained for them, as the accounts of the different actions sent to London from Petrograd testify, the outspoken admiration of the whole Russian Army. ”

“ The sea-planes came into great prominence, for the first time during the war, on Christmas Day, when seven of them attacked German war-ships lying in Schillig Roads, off Cuxhaven. The attack started from a point in the vicinity of Heligoland, and the air-craft were escorted by a light-cruiser and destroyer force, together with submarines. The enemy put up a fight by means of two Zeppelins, three or four bomb-dropping sea-planes, and several submarines. Six out of the seven pilots returned safely—three were re-embarked by our ships, and three were picked up by British submarines. ”

“ MEN OF THE HEROIC FRENCH ARMY WHO HAVE DIED FOR EUROPEAN FREEDOM.
This tragic photograph, showing the fatal effects of a German shell among some French soldiers, brings home to the mind what "death on the field of honour" means. The Premier of France, M. Viviani, in his great speech at the opening of the Chambers, paid an eloquent tribute to the French Army. "We have," he said, "the certainty of success. We owe this certainty ... to our Army, whose heroism in numerous combats has been guided by their incomparable chiefs from the victory on the Marne to the victory in Flanders.... ”

“ With the coming of darkness, however, regularly, night after night, the Germans redoubled their efforts everywhere, taking advantage of the obscurity to fling forward dense swarms and columns of men in massed formation, to storm the entrenched Russian position, apparently at any cost. ”

“ We see here one of the heavy siege-guns which the Japanese brought up for the bombardment of Tsing-tau when about to open fire on the German fortress. The gun-team of artillerymen are standing in rear of the piece, and in the foreground, to the right, is one of the detachment receiving orders by telephone from the battery-commandant at his post of observation. Profiting by their experiences in siege-warfare at Port Arthur, the Japanese were fully prepared with a very large and efficient siege-gun train to undertake the attack on Tsing-tau immediately war was declared. ”

“ One of the features of the present war which have been drawn attention to by "Eye-Witness" in his letters from the Front, is the resuscitation of fighting with hand-grenades on both sides. Particularly has this been the case during the battles in Northern France and Flanders, wherever the trenches approached one another within flinging distance. There also, on occasion, where the troops facing one another were further apart, and beyond reach of a throw by hand, an improvised catapult of the classic type has been devised by our men for slinging hand-bombs ”

“ GERMAN PRAISE OF THE BRITISH SOLDIER: GENERAL VON HEERINGEN.
Interviewed recently, General von Heeringen said: "The English first-line troops are splendid soldiers, experienced and very tough, especially on the defensive."— [Photo. Bain.]
Quite of a piece with the doing of this job in South Africa was the disposal of another overt enemy against our authority at the other extremity of the Dark Continent—in the person of the Khedive, Abbas II., who has now been replaced by Prince Hussein Kamel Pasha as the nominal Sultan of Egypt—under our protection and power. ”

“ Both the French and British troops have made the best of things in the siege-warfare of the trenches, and out of an initial condition of misery have managed to evolve a considerable amount of comfort in many parts of the front. Ingenious French engineers, for example, have constructed warm shower-baths, hair-dressing saloons, and similar conveniences, while the British "Eye-Witness" was able to write recently of our own lines: "The trenches themselves are heated by braziers and stoves and floored with straw, bricks and boards. ”

“ The entrenchment of the East Coast is not only a wise precaution, but the work of digging and fitting up the trenches is excellent practice for the troops who may later on be called upon to do similar work abroad. It will be seen from our photographs that the trenches on the East Coast are constructed on the latest pattern as developed in the war, with deep passage-ways, roofed sections, traverses, and zigzags to avoid an enfilading fire from the flank. ”

“ Much has been heard of the plague of German spies at the front, and for excellent reason: they have been as daring as they have been ubiquitous. Here we see a suspect being brought through the French lines after having been found in a suspicious position near our Allies' artillery. ”

“ The British officer, who is once more showing what a magnificent sportsman and fighter he is in the field, is not altogether neglecting sport as he knows it at home while he is at the front. Already we have heard of hare and partridge shooting near the firing-line ”

“ Their hate is the measure of their fear.... Whatever feats of arms the German Navy may hereafter perform, the stigma of the baby-killers of Scarborough will brand its officers and men while sailors sail the seas. ”

“ Another and more innocuous form of going back to the habits and methods typical of primitive man, is, perhaps, traceable in the illustrations given above. They are some of the handiwork of the twentieth-century German military cavemen of the Aisne battlefield, while making use of the cover of the quarries and natural excavations of the district along the northern side of the river. ”

“ Pure, easily digestible milk is the only food suitable for a young baby, and contains everything baby needs. That is why, if Baby cannot have breast milk, he must have Glaxo, which is milk enriched with extra cream made pure and easily digestible. It costs you but a trifle more than ordinary milk, and is not only the one safe alternative for breast-milk, but is also more economical than foods which have to be mixed with milk to make them nourishing. Glaxo can be given either in turn with breast-milk or as the sole food from birth. ”

“ The Maharaja Scindia's munificent Christmas gift for the soldiers and sailors consists of 41 ambulance-cars, 4 cars for officers, 5 motor-lorries and repair-wagons, and 10 motor-cycles.— [Photo. Illus. Bureau.]
In a telegram to his aunt, the Dowager Grand Duchess of Baden, only daughter of the old Emperor William, the Kaiser gave "God alone the glory" for a grand victory which was supposed to have been achieved by Hindenburg over the Russians in front of Warsaw—a victory which caused Berlin to burst out into bunting and braying and comparisons to Salamis and Leipzig in its momentous results. ”

“ In the photograph above the shells are seen bursting at a certain distance from the firing-point. Our soldiers in the trenches in Flanders, according to "Eye-Witness," have made improvised hand-grenades for themselves, utilising empty jam-tins. These are charged with gun-cotton and fused, and on being lighted are flung across among the Germans in their trenches. What the jam-tin hand-grenades look like the "War News" illustration referred to shows, and how they are used with catapults. ”

“ They cannot have lost less than 180 men killed, with 20 men badly wounded, and about the same number slightly." As regards the fate of the German landing-party, he says: "Early in the morning we made for the cable-station, to find that the party landed by the Germans to destroy the station had seized a schooner and departed. The poor devils aren't likely to go far with a leaking ship and the leathers removed from all the pumps." It may be that the vessel seen on the right in the right-hand photograph is the one in which they escaped. ”

“ But this acknowledgment of the Kaiser to the Lord of Hosts, "our old ally of Rossbach"—which must surely have inspired Hindenburg himself with a feeling of jealousy and sense of soreness—turned out to have been altogether premature, and of the nature of shouting before they were out of the wood. ”

“ AUSTRIAN PRISONERS; HONOURING THE DEAD: AND SERBIAN WOMEN HELPING WITH THE GUNS.
It has fallen to the Serbians to furnish the most complete and overwhelming triumph yet achieved in the war—the smashing victory over the Austrian Army on the River Drina during the first ten days of December. Our photographs were taken on and near the battlefield. No. 1 on the first page represents a preliminary incident. It shows an Austrian patrol captured while pressing forward with the rash assurance that characterised the Austrian headlong advance. ”

“ Determined night-onslaughts by infantry have been, according to a letter from Petrograd, a notable feature of the German tactics in the battles on the Vistula, particularly in the fighting that has been taking place between Lowicz and the river. By day, the Germans, we are told, were persistently aggressive, continuously launching attacks against various points of the Russian lines, while the Russians remained on the defensive. ”

“ They failed every time, it would appear, beaten back after literally a massacre. The Russian tactics, it is interesting to recall, were exactly the same as those with which, as our own officers and men have described in letters home, Sir John French's battalions in every case so effectively shattered the German efforts at breaking through the British during the retreat after Mons. The Russians, it is stated, invariably allowed the Germans to come in to well within point-blank range, remaining silent, holding their fire and not showing a light meanwhile. ”

“ Not many of them have had such bad luck, from all accounts, but accidents cannot be helped, and a victim has been claimed now and again, mostly at places where some raiding Uhlan patrol has managed to cut in and ambush one on some outlying road near the line of communications between the front and an army base, catching the 'bus while returning after discharging its soldier "fares." ”

“ Particularly singled out for praise has been their audacious expertness in close-quarter combats. They supply both infantry and artillery, and are recruited all over Siberia, forming ordinarily two separate commands, the East Siberian and the West Siberian troops, which garrison the fortresses and districts between Vladisvostock and the Ural Mountains, the dividing range between European and Asiatic Russia. ”

“ With some wire, also, a sort of candelabra was constructed. The flowers on the table are in a German shell for vase, and the gramophone was another village "find." It is evident that the war may develop a race of military troglodytes.
THE ILLUSTRATED WAR NEWS, DEC. 30, 1914— [PART 21] —35
HEADQUARTERS UNDERGROUND: THE BRAIN OF THE BRITISH ARMY WORKING IN A SUBTERRANEAN ROOM, SAFE FROM SHELL-FIRE.
Our illustration shows how and why the motive-power of the Expeditionary Force, the brain of the Army, is often to be found below-ground. Mr. ”