OUR ARTILLERY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2896, 7 October 1916, Page 10

OUR ARTILLERY

PRAISE FROM A SENIOR OFFICER INFANTRY'S CONFIDENCE IN "THE GUNS " " 6 'A letter received by the Minister of Defence (lion. J. Allen) from an officer in France, who is fully qualified to speak on the subject, contains some interesting remarks on the subject of tile New Zealand Artillery Division ill France, The extracts speak for themselves. "Wc were ordered to be aggressive, and we were aggressive. . . I think wa made the Bodies sit up a bit. Hitherto the place., we hold has been looked upon as a sort of rest cure. We havo bad a fair number of casualties for this kind of warfare. We arc, however, in good fettle, and ready to take any one or any thing. "Tho casualties in this war due to big guns and machine-guns are very heavy. "These Germans fight devilish well, and in my opinion are miles ahead of | 'us with machine-guns, and wc arc only now getting even with them as regards guns and ammunition. "Nowadays war is merely a huge ar-. tiller.v duel, the guns being covered by machine-guns and infantry oil both sides. When 0110 sido thinks it has sufficiently battered the ground occu-i pied by the other it attempts to advance, and is always met by heavy mßchinc-gun fire. "They (the Germans) have splendid discipline. Even when I pass prisoners on the road they stand rigidly to attention and salute, thus showing an example of self-repression (as they must hate us) which it would be well if wo could imitate.

"On the whole it appears, to be a case of Greek meeting Greek, hut there should soon be a good many more of us with tho new,armies rolling up. , "Our men arc doing excellently and mako fine gunners. They havo been consistently well reported on, and I think we possess entirely the confidence of our infantry." "That," said the Minister jiarenthetically, "is the greatest compliment, that could bo paid to the gunners— that thoy 'possess the confidence of the infantry.' " "As I write," adds the correspondent in a postscript, "the mother of four little children has been killed by a German shell? Their father is at the war. They have no relatives and arc sleeping in our place, to-night. Isn't it beastly?" "Our infantry and gunners," said the Minister by way of comment 011 the last paragraph, "are at tho front trying to do their best to prevent any more 'French women with four children' being killed. There is no New Zealandcr who, in my opinion, would not be too ready to join 111 for such a purpose. I think tho most powerful stimulus that comes to a man to join the "Reinforcements at a time like this is not the fear of public criticism or tho whito feather sent to him h.v, perhaps, isome thoughtless girl, but the feeling " 'There Lies My Duty.'

"I am sure that the man who goes into tho conflict with that feeling behind him makes the hotter soldier."