The Scotsman - Wednesday, 19th September 1917, page 5

REWARDS OFFERED FOR AMERICAN PRISONERS . DETERIORATION OF GERMAN TROOPS

[From Our Correspondent.] With the British Armies in the Field, Tuesday Night. The Germans are offering rewards for the first Americans brought into their lines, dead or alive. Tho Higher Command shows its concern about the imminence of tho American Army's entry into the fighting on tho Western front by lotting it be known in various divisions that men who succeed in capturing soldiers of this new Army will bo given money, Iron Crosses, and other ' substantial recognition of their efforts. The general commanding tho 11th Reserve Division put a price of £40 on the first American, dead or alive, at the end of July, and this has since been increased in other units. The diary of a sergeant of this division discloses this interesting.offer. Ho wrote:— • " Wo are supposed to havo had Americans opposite us for somo time now, and two divisions of Portuguese on our right. The man who brings in tho first American, dead or alivo, to headquarters has been promised an Iron Cross of tho First Class, four hundred marks, and fourteen days' leave."' • Tho diary, which covers nearly two months, describes in detail tho destruction of an industrial town by. tho Germans, and its transformation by the German army commander into a mass of fortified ruins. Batteries were planted in cellars, private houses, factories, and public buildings, which were partially demolished to giva a. better field of fire, and the streets and squares were torn up and enmeshed with wire to provide sites for concrete redoubts and machine gun emplacements. This town is in tho front line of the Hindenburg" defences , and wholly evacuated by the civilians, who were sent further into tho invaded area without the opportunity to take more than a few personal belongings in handbags. Tho sergeant records how ho and his comrades, when not on duty firing machine guns from the barricaded windows and roofs o! the remaining buildings , seached for hidden treasure and dug in the ruins for silver ware. Ho discovered gold watches priceless paintings from museums, statuary and other works of art, which the Germans are hoarding in their dug-outs, " hoping fgr ' a favourable opportunity to send them to Germany for salo. Tho cathedral was sacked, as well as other public buildings. The German authorities removed the bulk of the municipal and ecclesiastical valuables, but many of the inhabitants tried to secrete their possessions, and the soldiers have explored cellars and . dug up gardens in the hope of indincr them. - BAD BREAD CAUSES ILLNESS. ' ¦ They would gladly exchange their loot for nourishing food. The quality of the German Army bread has steadily deteriorated, and it is now practically uneatable. It is dark , sodden , and evil smelling, and is causing serious*illness among the men. Some of tho hospitals behind the Flander3 front contain many patients suffering from stomach trouble .directly due to the bread.^ Prisoners captured by the Londoners north of Inverness Copse this week wero in bad physical condition, 1 which they attributed to the quality of the-bread. In their regiment—the 4th Bavarian Reserve Infantry —one company Ijad 25 per cent, of its strengt withdrawn between August 28 and September 15 on account of gastric inflammation , duo to bad bread. All the prisoners taken by tho Londoners wero dispirited, and gave a gloomy account of their hardships in Inverness Copse. They' admitted they had been unnerved by our persistent artillery fire, and by the airmen, who fired into their cratera and trenches. Their officers rarely visited the front linn ' . ' . LARGE DRAFTS OF BOYS. German divisions on tho Western front are still receiving large ' drafts of boys of the 1919 class to replaco the wastage caused b y our heavy bombardv ments and infantry attacks during tho ' past six weeks. Youths wero recentl y captured , who were mustered at the beginning of May, and sent to the front exactly four months later , before their training was completed. The dilution of unit3 hitherto possessing, good fighting spirit with these boys has had a markedly deteriorating effect, and older prisoners admit that the effect on the regiments i? very bad. • ¦ ..-' -Some of the battalions which failed so badly in the Langemarck fighting have been subjected to severe disciplinary measures as a punishment This has been bitterly resented by experienced soldiers , who claim that the nerve-shaken , badlytrained , badly-fed youths drafted into their ranks not long before the battle wero responsible for the defeat. . , -; ¦'- ¦ ' . .. ¦ ;..- .-: : " A curious uniformity in time prevails at ' present in the British and German Armies. .'Germany abandoned summer time, which is an hour in - advance of English summer time even in the front trenches, and their watches and all the clooks in the invaded towns and; villages aro jsatmally got an hour faster than .on our .side of tho liiio. , ; . ¦ . . .;¦ ' ¦ ¦ :. . [CoPTBiGHT Reserved.] V : ; GERMAN CASUALTIES IN AN AIR V:>• • -,- . ¦! .',- ' ATTACK.,, ;.. ,v— -^ Amstebdam, September 17. — ;The Maestricht paper Courier dc['la ..Meuse has obtained infownatioh of what -happened during an attack.b y Allied avia,tbrs upon Roulers . between -the 10th';and the 15th of August' . ^ Greatvsecrecy was maintained by the. Germana/at-.tho.time of these raids,-,and.this is now explained by the fact that one qf the bombs 611 upon a great building, near the market .place, n-.which; were a great', number of, Germans 'and cilled; ¦ or 'wounded about 900 of thora.-^Central