NEW WEAPONS FOR OLD

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2825, 17 July 1916, Page 6

NEW WEAPONS FOR OLD

REPAIR DEPOTS NEAR THE FRENCH FIRING LINE (From Mr. H. Warner Allen, the representative of the British Press with the French Army.) . . ' ■ It was in a village a few miles behind the front line, and the guns were firing heavily. "You have come, to visit the front?" asked a Major, who received us as we left our motor-car. He rather demurred to the reply we gave that it was not so much the front that we, were anxious to see as the services of the rear.' "You can hardly call this the rear," he said, "when you hear all that noise of the guns!" We with- the suggestion .that his post was to bo described either as the front of the rear, or else as the rear of tho front. In any case, thq "75" repair depot which was under his command was well within range of the German guns.

It started as a mere field workshop, capable of doing 110 more than the (visual obvious repairs needed by the gun on active' service. It was not expected to cope with really serious damage. which was left to'the gun hospitals in the rear. However, like a number of .other field depots, it has grown enormously in size and efficiency since the beginning of the war. Trench warfare has made it no longer necessary for it to be perpetually on the move. Originally all its materials had to be packed in a few carts, and the depot had to he kept ever on the heels of a swiftlymoving army. Now, it has had the leisure to take premises of its own, and to supplement its former simple' equipment with a number of more complicated tools. The premises consist of a number o) farm buildings', .which have lent themselves excellently to the work required of them. Tho ingenious officer in charge has had his>eyes open for anything abandoned in the' deserted villages of tho fighting zone that might provo serviceable. Engines of ' all kinds left by their proprietors in their flight before tho Germans have proved useful in hundreds of unsuspected ways. . Sometimes the recoverey of theso machines from po'iftte within range of the enmy's- fire litis furnished abns&mt opportunity for heroic effortField Kitchens and the "75." In the courtyard the field kitchens were being repaired. It was not only that wheols and shafts had been broken, but if a cook is careloss and 6tokes his firo too high there is every chance of his burning out his firebox. Tho field depot, when possible, repairs the firebox, or replaces it by an uninjured firebox from an otherwise damaged kitchen.

In the neighbouring shed is a "75" repairing shop. Here most ordinary repairs can be done efficiently, with an immense saving of time. At the present time a gun must indeed be badly damaged—say, for instance, have had part of its barrel removed by a shell—if it is neecssary to send it to the factory in the rear. During some recent hard fighting this depot proved itself capable of repairing two or three guns a day and sending them back to tho front within twehty-four hours.

In tlieso field depots the various in . genious ideas invented by the men usini r such weapons as the "75" and tho mach .- lne-guji are applied and developed, prt». vidod that they do not require alter: i, tions of too essential a character. Ofttjn d simple notion suggested bj practice has been the cause of saving many liven and has doubled efficiency. The Fren /211 'soldier has a .special gift for discover! tag what ho calls' "the egg of Coluinburf that is, those simple, obvious dev/lces which seem to staro 011 c ill tho face ■ Mid yet aro so hardly found.

The machine-gun, of which the us t in trench warfare becomes more and 1 hore extended, has its own shed, where ex] |ei-ts repair and tune it up to the utmost j /itch of perfection. The officer in chau »e is particularly proud of the success of bis men in this delicate work, and is prepared to back tho machine-guns th &t ho has tended against a perfectly ne- ir onn just out of the factory. "War- ranted never to jam," he said, coutentec? fly, as he'pointed to a phalanx of them/tb at had just passed through bis hands.

Another shed is devoted to rifle; >, automatic pistols, revolvers, and bi (vonets. Hero the weapons [omul on the field of battle, or, it may be, between tin t opposing lines, me mended ami prepijred foi further use. Tt is a favourite ammsement in the trenches for n soldier to c .Tecp out and recover from somewhere in ((lie barbetf wire entanglement a comrai Je's ride, or, perhaps, if occasion is very kind, to carry oft' in triumph from a? 1 enemy listening post a German rifle.,. There is a small reward offered for all J weauons brought in from between the li aes. Tlieso weapons are collected and sen t down to the repair depot, where, as n Itfgin'iing, thev ' receive a thorough washi jig and polishing. A. gang of expert gnn smiths performs all renairs that can ' fce done on the spot, with the result thr it there aro racks of rifles and revolver? 1 lining the shed filled with wennons whir >h are spotless and look as if they had j nst come out of the factory.