100 years ago

The short-range fighting is the greatest and most surprising military lesson of the present war. This statement was made by the Chief Quartermaster of the German Army General von Wild and reported by the American Press Berlin correspondent.

He said: “It had always been reckoned that in modern warfare infantry fighting would take place at between 800 and 1000 yards, instead of which most of this kind of fighting has been at ranges varying from 75 to 150 yards. With the modern magazine rifles and machine guns it is possible to let the enemy approach within such a short distance, and then open a terrific deadly fire. I consider that the greatest factor and the most important lesson of the war.”

Von Wild described in graphic language “the fearful slaughter of the English. They fought with lionlike bravery.” He was deeply touched, when going over the battlefield, to find scores of dead English troops, lying on their backs with arms outstretched.

 

50 years ago

There seemed to have been a rush to snap up the old gas street lamps which the parish of Heworth Without, near York, was offering for sale.

The lamps, ten in number, had become redundant when the parish changed over to electric street lighting, and they were offered to the public at £5 each. They were about 40 years old. Applications had been received for all but two of them, and it was likely that these would be snapped up soon. People buying the lamps intended to convert them into electric lights for use outside their homes.

Contrary to what might have been expected, the demand had not come entirely from people who lived in big houses with long drives. Indeed, some applications had been received from people living in semi-detached houses.

 

25 years ago

Four Malton butchers were to bake 1000 pork pies for the homeless sleeping rough in London’s cardboard city.

Originally, they had planned to make a huge pie for their local councillors, similar to one sent to Charles Dickens in 1841. But they had recently decided to make 1000 small pies instead and send them to the Salvation Army at King’s Cross.

Town Mayor Councillor David Lloyd-Williams said: “Dickens enthused in letters about the huge pie sent to him by local butchers 150 years ago - and he shared it with the poor in London. London and the South is supposed to be prosperous compared to the North but we do not have thousands homeless, cold and hungry, sleeping on the pavements in cardboard boxes. This is the true spirit of Dickens and Christmas and we hope our Malton pies will encourage other Northern towns to help the poor of London.”