MENDING THE WIRE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2742, 10 April 1916, Page 3

MENDING THE WIRE

NIGHT LABOUR AT THE FRONT

TRICKY WORK IN A BARBED LABYRINTH ] ' 1 . Night labour upon trench' and. wire ' defences is one of ;tho most arduous i and dangerous incidentals' of siege war- • . fare. The following graphic description 1 of the condition's under which the work ■ is. carried on is contributed by a soldier ' to the "Westminster Gazotte: — Wiring is one'of the chief concerns of ; the men 'actually ocoupying the firetrenches (he says), for the entanglements are constantly being damaged by shells, bombs! and other means, the wooden support stakes smashed or uprooted; and lengths of wire cut or torn • away. Scarcely a night passes but there comes a call for a party to go out for work among the wire. Sleep there is at' night for no one.' A sufficient dumber of sentries are posted to: ensure safety, and the. rest are split.up into parties feverishly working to accomplish the maximum possible before dawn, when all. are again called to their posts, the hours between darkness and light, when It is hot safe for a man to look over the parapet, and yet too dark for him to see in a periscope, being tho critical hours so far as guarding against the possibility. of an attack is concerned. A Night in the Wire. Tha first night on tho wire is an experience not easily forgotten. As you crawl over your parapet into the bleakness of a moonless night, armed with ■great coils of barbed wire, sharpened stakes and wooden niallets, the gentle thud of a rifle-butt in the earth just by your elbow reminds you that you are now on entirely open ground perhaps one hundred yards from the German trench. Another thud in the same place, a splash of mud : in the face,.and you roafise there is.a. fixed rifle putting a shot into the place you have just crawled over. Those fixed rifles axe awkward things. They 'are' worked on a. stand, and trained by.day upon some spot m the enemy's: lines that seems likely to give good results, and all night they pump bullets into tb../same place; ai regular fixed intervals. Much use a also made of machine-guns in the same n-ay, either firing single shots, or sweepin/the whole.length, of the .parapet at the height of a roanV head, as many a sentry has learnt-to his.cost.,. . But to continue the wmng. All nirrht lonz you crawl about with lengths o wire! concealing it in the long grass dropping loose balls of it here and there, which are, anchored to a stake b T a yard or more of wire, halls into which' a man may put him foot, hut may not withdraw it, tangling it into veritable death-traps, using the last resources of your ingenuity: to tear and rip the Hun should he attempt to storm our lines, and all' the'.tune there is a ceaseless "pino;," "pmg, thud, "thud," all round, Brer Hun feeling ' for the 'working party, that he knows i 3 out, and every time the mallet falls ■a perfect hail of shot, ending perhaps with a suppressed groan, for tommy, knows better than to give away the whole -partv to the mercies of .the everready . machine-run by a shriek, and there is one. more burden lifted gentlj back into the trench to receive medical attention," • 1 . • Treacherous Cans. Wire is at all times a very tricky thing. I once went on an expedition to examine the jenemy's wire,. and suddenly found mysW- standing right under the parapet of 'the trench .itself, 1 .had struck a gap in the wiring and come clean through without seeing it at all. The dickens of a time it took] me to find my-way. out again, too,'.and > not at' all pleasant either, with . the j knowledge that if Brer Hun didn t see me ho ought to be shot for negligence. This must have, been somewhat the experience of the' German officer who one verv dark niulit walked clean over our parapet and fell into the trench! The Gentry; had such a shock on. seeing the aoparition. thatvhe put; his bayonet through him before he could get up, and thus was lost to'us a: valuable prisoner. Scene. Farm by roadside. Windows blocked with filled sandbags. Sandbags hirricade in road. Deep trench dug in circle round farrovard. Evidently in state of defence. Meadow covered with dark shapes, discovered in moonlight to be tabernacles constructed of two 'waterproof sheets fastened together. Snores from below tabernacles. Company asleep. .Time: Midnight. Sounds " from cowshed : "Ting ling,' ting ling." "bzz, hzz." Shed door opens, flood or light streams on to forms of officers Iving m their/valises in yard. "Please,-, sir, message through from headquarters." "Oh, lor!" "What is; it?". "Oh!" "Mr. Brown, you're to take fifty men up at once for work on the new trench that runs past Stonevhrbke Farm; half .a mile behind tlie line. Fifty shovels and . twenty picks."