N.Z. MEN IN THE FIRING LINE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2829, 21 July 1916, Page 3

N.Z. MEN IN THE FIRING LINE

A GUNNER'S LETTER

"■Just a few lines," writes a Wellington gunner from Prance to his mother, "to let you know that at last we are into the firing-line, and, having arrived there, got the most pleasant surprise of my life, for we, are in the most comfortable posy I have ever had sinco i took the oath. We had heard a lot about 'tho line' from the Tommies, and when we moved up everybody was a bit excited. We travelled to within about seven miles of it in the daylight, and then they allowed us (and the horses) to have a day off. The following night we left about 9 p.m., and travelled •Pill 1 a.m. After seeing our horses to bed »e saw ourselves there, and it seemed as though we had hardly got our heads dow.ll when the reveille sounded, and all gunners paraded in marching kit at 7 a.m. This wa3 io be the end of the trek. It was a sweltering hot day, and ive liad seven miles to go, but it was worth it, for when we got there we had to take over the guns from a Tommy battery. They had been here ten months, and everything was iu tip-top order. They even had a garden outside tho pit, and we have quite a respectable lot of flowers out to lend colour and perfume to the scene. We actually have a set of china and chairs! There are two double bunks, and two sleep 011 the floor. Altogether, it is more like a 'batch' than a gun-pit. The whole is sand-bagged, with the grass growing over the top, and is down in a hollow, so that it is next to impossible for tho enemy to sen us. The battery that was here before us only had one casualty in ten months, so you can seo it is 'some place.'. Wo are getting better fed than ever before. There is not a great deal doing in the day, but in the night we go and draw our ammunition and supplies. There aro always three men standing by, as wo are supporting infantry,- anil have to bo Teady to retaliate if they shake up our trenches. The other night tho infantry had been annoyed by a hot German nmchino-gnr. called 'Parapet .loe.' ' We waited for him. and got him about 10 o'clock thai night. ,

"It is a pretty sight" to sne the aero, plauos being shelled, with the puffs of shrapnel bursting all round them. Sr> far we have not seen one brought' down. You road of a town being shelled, but when you wander through the houses, and see' the rooms full of dotting and furniture half-packed, you can rcaliso .the suddenness with which it all occurs.'' There are two or three chur-, dies blown down here, and everywhere you look there are great shellholes in the ground, and every window

in every building is broken. They have rigged up a big bath-house neai, and once a week mou are allowed a hot bath; you also leave your shirt, towel, and socks, and get clean ones ill return. There seems to be tiers and tiers 01 guns behind us, and to hear them get going at night is a great sensation, as we can hear the projectiles whizzing over our heads en route to the Germans!''