THE FAMOUS "75"

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2488, 15 June 1915, Page 5

THE FAMOUS "75"

i FRENCH CONFIDENCE IN THEIR GUN. There are two things in particular,, writes the Paris correspondent'of "The' Times," in which the French place their confidence when they think of the long wall of Geriuim trench line which lias to bo broken—Joft're and the 75, and the field gun gets quite as much-pet-ting' "and picture postcard adulation as the C'ominauder in Chicl'. At the back of all the systematic progress which the French have been making since the main German offensive wore itself out lies the excellence of their lield artillery, Tho nation knows this, for the men who have been at the front, infantry as well as gunners, are never tired of repeating it, and the letters and diaries captured from German dead and prisoners speak more eloquently still. So, whereas in Germany the popular admiration is bestowed now on their big siego guns, now on their Zeppelins or submarines, according to the whim of the moment, iu France the 75 has it all. French infantry ean charge within 50 yards of a German trench while their own guns, firing just over their heads, from two miles in the rear, rain such a hurricane of lead upon it that not one of its defenders can show his head and live. No other army can make. tlio same boast. But for this quality in their artillery the French would at the present time bo rooted fast in their trenches in such distriots as the Champagne, where owing to the heaviness of the soil a rapid charge across the open is an impossibility. As it is they are going forward hand over first. The 76 keeps down the German fire while the infantry stumble forward through the mud and smother the Germans with the bayonet J tho trench onco rushed, and its defenders taken or slain, a hail of shells from tho French guns prevents the German supports from coun-ter-attacking while tne trench is pub a state of defence in the opposite direction. So trench by treuch the ground is sained. Accuracy of fire is one great point about the To ; spml is the other. The 75 can fire from 21) to 25 shells a minute. The German 77 cm. gun, whicli is modelled upon it, can in theory do the same, but it does not possess the automatic fusing meohanism of the French gun. Consequently unless tie German gunner is very expert, he cannot fix the fuses as quickly as ihey are dono automatically iu the French "gun. The sound of a battery of 75's at rapid fire when the gunners are forking with a will is a revelation to anyone hearing it for the first time. During the Battle of the Yser, on one of the most critical days, the writer was standing on the roadside just outside Nieuport, when tho Germans drove the Belgians over the canal from Mannckensverre, and occupied St. Georges.The two battalions that had been holding the bridge were at their' last gasp; fragments of one of them camo trickling back along the road, Gome of the men reeling and bloody from their wounds, other shaken and demoralised by the cannonading they had endured. The situation was serious; it looked as if the German's might come right on to Nieuport and threaten the bridgehead. Suddenly a battery of French 7o's opened lire from among the willows about three-quarters of a mile ahead. The sharp reports came rapping out like tho barking of an angry dog. _ Presently tho gunners warmed to their work and the shots followed one another in quick and quicker succession liko the detonations of a Chinese cracker —bang, bang, ba-bang-bang-bang, bang, bang, whilo the flashes showed like darting ribbons of light through the rising haze of tho afternoon. . Three heavy Gormanhowitzers, ' which had been dropping 1 Jack Johnsons hour after hour on tho wretched village of Ramskapelle, shifted their fire to try and stop this torrent of shrapnel which was checking the advance of their infantry. The huge 6bells came plunging into the meadows beyond the battery, throwing up tht> soft mud 50 feet into tho air, and massacring the cows as they grazed, but they could not find the range, anc the French guns went on barking nwai with impunity till dusk. That single battery, by its vapid fire, stopped thu Geimans from debouching from St-, Georges and saved they day from beinij worse. Leon Daudet, son of Alphonse Daudetr is quoted iu ■an English paper as say*, ing: "Dumanet and Tommy are chums,Dumanot murders 'Tipperary,' and Tommy murders tho 'Marseillaise." Dumanot gives' Tommy his bread, anc Tommy gives Dumanet his jam. Dumanot, in his zeal, oven takes to tra, and Tommy, at the end of tho war, will have learned to distinguish, between Burgundy and claret, whioh is no small mattor. When wo come to tho officers, I know a young lieutenant of Hussars who cannot ceaso praising the unassuming gallantry of tho English. Another told me, 'We lovo to seo them land ill their hundreds of thousands, notonly because we shall be more numerous against tho Boches, but because tho Franoo-English alliance is a. unique aud imperishable tiling in the world.' " Our Union Jaok is so called in allusion to the union with Scotland, the word Jack being a corruption Q f th« iprord "Jacauflv or Janiop,