d if
the remark of one of his staff that "the English can't attack" was a
fact, von Zwehl said: "I can only speak as far as my own experience
goes, and that is that the English never were able to carry through a
bayonet charge with success against my troops. They came on bravely
enough, but when our troops would open fire on them at 50 yards and
follow it up with a counter attack, the English would invariably go over
into the defensive, at which they are at their best. They are
particularly experienced in 'bush warfare,' and display the utmost skill
in making the most of every bit of cover."

The commanding General confirmed the following gruesome story which one
of his staff officers had told me:

"The English apparently do not bother to bury their dead, but let them
lie. We are still burying English who fell on Sept. 14 and later. We
found and buried two only yesterday. That the abandonment of their dead
is deliberate is indicated by the fact that we have found the bodies of
dead English soldiers in corners and nooks of the approaches to the
English trenches, where the wounded had evidently crawled to die, and
where their comrades must constantly have passed them and seem them."

More Generals were met during a visit to the "office building" of the
Great General Staff in the Great Headquarters. Here, too, I was allowed
to examine the historic room where around a large mahogany table the
chiefs of the staff hold their daily conferences, at which the Kaiser
himself is often present. A huge map of France and a slice of Belgium
covered the table and hung down to the floor on either side. I noted
with interest that it was a French General Staff map. On one wall hung
another map showing the exact location of all the armies in the West.

In the unavoidable absence of the combination Chief of Staff and War
Minister von Falkenhayn, the new Quartermaster General von Wild did the
honors in the long Louis XIV. Room where the Great General Staff eats
together--an interesting sight, for it represents the round-up of the
brains of the German Army. Gen. von Wild, until his promotion, commanded
a division against the English at Ypres and spoke in generous terms of
his opponents.

"The English are excellent fighters," he said. "I have walked over many
of the battlefields in the North--gruesome sights, beyond words to
describe. From what I saw, I am convinced that the English losses have
been much heavier than ours."

Gen. von Wi