HIS LIFE "BETWEEN BATTLES"

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2677, 25 January 1916, Page 9

HIS LIFE "BETWEEN BATTLES"

VERY, VERY CURIOUS

AN OFFICER'S PICTURE

An artillery officer on the Western front writing to his wife, describes the Ute there "between battles":— If. I w'oro seeking the fit adjective which could be applied in its highest superlative to this life in the firingline it Would certainly not be "exciting, nor yet "dangerous'." The life is exciting and it is dangerous—a little, it Js, however, neither very exciting nor very dangerous, but it is very, very curious. This/war has its' moments, its hours, of high emotion, of intense excitement,' of crowding dangers. Its' routine—here on the Western frontis laborious, almost■ to' the point" of tediousness, demands a sober and constant carefulness in detail, and —provided you watch the minutes and the winds, the twigs and the sky, have eyes, ears and nerves always on the alert—it is reasonably safe. _•* ' " War exciting?. No ; "you; must not allow it to he.. The moments are rare l — to the majority of officers they never comer-when.the,call 'is for', a gallant snout and a. forward rush in which leadership takes its most, obvious and its easiest form. The hours are always with you when, with,cool,- suspicious, deducting mind,. you -are watching n section of the enemy's' trench or a zone of fire, awaiting his attack or'di«°bnK your own.. Stalking and being stalked, you will find it interesting, absorbing, but it must not be exciting, or you will not do your work properly. I lie. stern pursuit ofwar: has been robbed of all-its fascinations by the spectacled savages who have spent the last half-century,in the counting-house, the laboratory and thej cpllar .preparing to destroy the humanities of'civilisation. War is now a grubbing kind of business. What are tho. Risks?

- .War dangerous? Naturally it is. to an extent. But- not nearly so dangerous as one/might judge from the "greatest ,circulations." ■]{, lias its-hours of' peril, of horror—just as civil life has— a "4, le i' are more frequent than in civil life, of'course.-.. But'-it.is not all the time dangerous.- For six days out of seven on an average a soldier, if he observes the strictest caution, is, "following a dangerous trade," nitbing n: °re. On the seventh (lay—l speak in averagesr—he has his rist about doubled. Oil very rare occasions he has to tako the risk of a firamati who goes into a blazing house to rescu6 a child or a policeman who stops a madly bolting : 10r ®® - have just conic from a spell in the firing trenches spying out forward observing .stations' for the battery, lhere was not. a thrill 1 of. real danger vat any moment. One has to be careful 'to watch the traffic,!' that is all. It you wish to-take a long, lingering look at the enemy's trench you use a periscope. For. a : brief'glance, to get wide field of- view,- you, look over the 'parapet. There are differing estimates of the length of time ,it. is safe to show your head over the parapet. £>ome say ® se Cfnds,. some say twonity-five. "The German .is slow in the lip-take." remarked the officer who insisted that 2o second? was quite a safe time to look_ over the parapet. '.Behind the l'arapet it is almost as safe; —and on dry days as, oh a marine par- . ade. ''A solid fortification of sand-baes, proof ajsairist any blow except that of a very big high, explosive shell, encloses on each side, a pleasant walk, drained, paved, , lined with comfortable dug-outs, m places adorned with little flower-beds, ■the infantry soldier ordinarily " spends some days in the contemplative calm, punctuated, with a- little sniping, of the firing trench (his time of increased risk 13 when his turn comes for patrol work, and he has to prowl 'about outside of nights), and then some days in the shelter trench, where there is no 6niping, and again some days in the firing trench. • At-stated periods, normally, he can_ go back from the firing-line altogether for a -hot bath and a change of underclothing. That is the normal. In times of big attack's it is different. It is the stories that, come back from the big attacks that give, I suppose, the common impression of tho soldier's life.

An Uncanny War, Not exciting'; not as dangerous as you would imagine, this- siege war is more curious, more than it is possible to describe. Try to imagine the huge ditch, some 300 miles long, from the rsorth'Sea to the Swiss lakes, which is our trench, facing another ditch which is their trench, all lined with-. Eyes, thousands, aye, millions of Byes.. "All day, all night these Eyes , stare and s tare; the' hands serving them break up the. dark with star shell, and brains behind them welcome the day, only because it makes the scrutiny of death' more easy. On tlie front .edge of each ditch the -Eyes are t|iick in line; farther back, in every possible post of observation, are groups of Eyes, and Eyes soar up into the air now; arid again to stare into the underground secrets, on the other side.._ There are. Eyes'of infantry, Eyes of artillery, Eyes of airmen'; . Thejscrutiny never pauses one moment. Let an ..Bye blink •£ ■ moment - and it may mean catastrophe, a, stealthy rush on a trench or a flood of poisoning gas. ' I can vision of- night a great, dark gutter "stretching; across Belgium and France, fringed with staring Eyes. / In all its aspects, - this underground war ha,s the unoanniness." In our artillery, work—to give you another impression—ive come by night, guns and horses carefully, hidden away in the rear somewhere, to a place which a : preliminary reconnaissance has. indicated as a good gun position. • At length the position is ready and the guns can be brought -up and coaxed into the »pits made for them. You might pass a hundred times'a day and never guess that guns -were hidden capable of sending high explosive shell 5000 yds. or more to the German lines. Forward of such a 'gun position would be an observing station. About observing stations, it,would, not be wise to say much, lest this,letter fall into alien hands. Observing stations are the nhief posts of danger in modern artillery work, and the most careful guard is kept on'their secrets. ~ Modsrn Warrior Qualities.

•Carefulness, tedious, monotonous carefulness, absolute punctuality, and grave attention to every, detail —those are the warrior qualities in this war. A' guard, entrusted with the duty, rouses one a quarter of an hour late. It only means, perhaps, that one misses one's cup of coffee before turning out in the (lark hours of the early morning for a. spell of duty in an deserving station. But it might easily mean some really serious loss in attack or defence. So punctuality is enforced with severe penalties. '1 lie minutes must he watched, the grass must be watched, lest you tread down a path and tlius give away some secret to the Eyes .yonder. All the minute details of life are hedged in wiffli precautions and penalties. As to the daily life, it is busy enough fc bo free from all chance of ennui. A typical day would be plotted out like this: the morning checking the amraunilion supply, looking to the horses (125 of them), seeing the quartermaster-ser-geaiit, the veterinary sergeant, the farlier sergeant, attending to matters of billeting and rations. Tho afternoon with the battery commander when he is shooting the battery or\looking up new positions. The evening! moving up ammunition, supplies, and entrenching materiaT to tlie battery. Sometimes, too, the tsaftery has to fire at night—to discourage tho enemy or to cacoumge our own men. i