UNDER FIRE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2350, 5 January 1915, Page 6

UNDER FIRE

GERMANS AFRAID OF SHELL. = The story of, German bravery is told by a British artillery officer in a letter to a friend:—l had been seat'forward to rifle point to observe fire from there, and to look" out for any movement of the Germans. On arriving . there, M who waß with me, showed me a section of horse artillery that he had started to range on tho day before. They were very cleverly hidden on a little knoll with a quarry behind, another iri front, and a road on their right. It , was still early , a lovely morning, with the sun just starting to clear away the mist. So I watched the seotion for some time. It was really quite amusing. Whei I first got there Icould see no one near tht guns. But soon eigns of life appeared. First came a couple of German gunnerß strolling."up. the road from their bivouac, rubbing . their eyes and looking very, sleepy.; (This is no exaggeration: their guns were only 1200 yards off and I have: good' glasses.) A httlejater up came some' more, and they Btaited getting round their guns. Then an officer came down. the road with his blue coat swinging behind him, very spiok and'span, I thought it was high time I to. wake them up a bit, so I sent dowa a rang© and charge to one of my gun 9 and the order to fire. I heard one gun go and the whistle of the shell, and at the same moment the detachments round the Germans guns all disappeared. They had heard' our lyddite singine on its way "Guten morgen, wie geht's?" (Good morning, how are yon?). It fell, a little short. Add a. hundred yards, 20 minutes more right. Again the de« tachments disappear, and this time the' shell falls on the road just over. Drop 50 yards, repeat, and this time the shell fell on the knoll, very close to No. 1 gun. German nerves could stand it no longer. ' The ran like a hare into the quarry behind the guns, nearly taking a header into it by falling over his sword! No. 1 detachment fled over the road into the wood, and No. 2 into another quarry. Also another officer who had been walking down the road fled back up'it! I Vent on firing lyddite, trying to get a direct hit, and at last was successful. A shell fell on top of the ammunition wagon of No. 1 gun. There was a big puff of black smoke and nothing else for the moment, but very 6oon a thin spiral of smoke crept up from the wagon. I stopped my gun firing for the moment to watch . results. The officer in the quarry peered out and gave some order. Three men ran towards the wagon and pulled out what looked like, two bodies from under it, and carried them up tho road under oover. ' Then, seme more of the Germans appeared and walked towards the guns, so I let them have two more minds of lyddite. One fell in .the road,, the other on the trail of the gun. _ This cleared them b'ack to their quarries, and we now had quito an amusing half-hour. The smoke from the wagon got thicker,' and suddenly there was a big flash, and vou could see lumps of burning cordite thrown up. After this several heads appeared to see what was on. Out of tho quarry appeared very slowly a head with an officer s cap on. Now came the turn of the riflemen who were round me. The range was 1200, and threo marksmen had a sliofc.' It was impossible to tell where the bullets went, but that head disappeared as if the ground had opened under it. Again the wagon exploded, and then tho head appeared, only to. disappear again directly a rifle was fired. Altogether that wagon exploded eight times 1 And the "Jack-in-the-Box' of tho quarry got quito active in his movements towards tho end. A Maxim gun was then put in position on tho section, and by firing a few rounds at long intervals kept the section ouiet for two days. On tho third day ■ they moved during the night to a fresh position. >