BIG GUN "SNIPING"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 34, 3 November 1917, Page 8

BIG GUN "SNIPING"

"THIS IS THE LIFE!"

A SKETCH FROM THE WESTERN FRONT

The Western Front. ' this is the life! This is the 1-i-f-e!" sang tho grey-haired adjutant, rendering, more or less correctly, the opening of a cheerfully stupid rag-time ditty that used to be nopular in tho dear, gone days of four years ago. Elbows and breast of his jackot wero brown with the musty earth of the trench parapet he leaned against; his field-glasses remained trained on a spot thirteen hundred yards away in the Hun lines; his ruddy cheeks shone with tho flush of an unusual excitement.

And, my dear readers, were you a gunner who for months and months had watched the German front from cramped observation posts and passed tho orders for loosing oil' hundreds and hundreds of rounds without over Becing sm enemy head, you would have felt the same hot satisfaction. For, rejoico with us, the leccnt advances on tho Western front have given artillery observers a new interest in life. From certain wellteed points on the new-won ground, it is possible to pick up Boches coming over tho open in twos and threes, sometimes in dozens, and to "snipe" them with 18-pounders. "They's getting out of the shell-hole and coming on to the Sunken .Road, now," exclaimed the adjutant, kicking the trench wall in his eagerness. "For the Lord's sake, give- 'em a salvo—givo 'em a salvo!"

The artillery subaltern, had already spoken a calm order to his telephonist, who crouched at the bottom of tho trench, receiver to car. "Yes. sir"—from the , telephonist— "they're on C target.", / Through his binoculars 'the subaltern ; marked three brown figures that had left the shelter of a hole in the ground; , They walked quickly, steadily, across the . 200 yards of bare flat, land that, led to dug-outs and some sort of security. Ho i watched while a second-hand would have ticked off eight. The three brown figures continued to move forward. I The order: "Two rounds gun fire! ; a i screaming, whip-cord rush overhead; ■ others in quick, fumbled succession; i then two. three, four, and fivo puffs of smoke that blotted out the brown figures. "'One 0' minutes more right! Two rounds gun fire!" called tho subaltern again, his binoculars still raised. Eight more rounds swished over our heads. ■ This time eight well and true bursts could be counted. When the smoke cleared two brown figures could be seen running. Another ten yards and they had tumbled out of eight. Through a long-range telescope, a huddled form could! be picked out, lying still and alone, fifty yards from where the two brown figures had passed from view. • . ...... To-day bringing forth perfect visibility, four battery observation posts were being manned from 5 a.m. till dusk; each batter? commander had come up by noon with flask and sandwiches to last the (lav; and by the afternoon the .colonel was taking critical stock of the shooting. "Would you like to see . a Boche train?" asked one of the subalterns, handing me a powerful telescope. In front of us tho shell-churned ground dipped down gradually to five hundred yards away, where our front line lay. A. hundred yards beyond that the stone became steep and the tips of a straggly row of leafless trees tailed off into the red, dusty ruins of a shattered village— the enemV's first entrenchment. From the village the brown, blnsted land rose smoothly to a huge wood, fifteen hundred yards back, and to the remnants of what had been a stone chateau; while on a line with the chateau and to the right stood a big brick building, called for the sake of reference "The Works. During the previous three days the zone between these two points had proved one of our most remunerative spots. Farther still to the right wero bare rolling country and the clayey, wanderings of the opposing front lines. When you turned to the left of the chateau wood you saw a wide expanse of green, and m tho far distance a long line of noblo trees well out of field artillery range. "You see that square black patch on the ground behind the trees, about tho middle," went on the subaltern. 'Well, that's a train. We saw an engine bring it up and move off again. Looks like a supply train. We asked the heavies to get on it, but it'll require a very long range gun." A sharp exclamation from the commanding officer of — Battery. "Battery action! Target D- the rangei we registered yesterday," he ordered. One, two, and six ready, sir", reported the telephonist a minute later. "Heavens, they're carrying dixies, growled the adjutant. "You can see the poles on their shoulders.' •"Well, some Huns are going without their dinner," smiled the officer, gazing again through his glasses. "What are you registered on? asked the colonel. ■~.'» "The lone tree, sir, 18 degrees left of the last house —," replied the officer. "Two rounds gun fire," he called, and we all watched and waited. It seemefl an age—it always does when vou are at the observation post—before the guns spoke. The burets were well over tho six Huns who, in pairs, were carrying the familiar camp kettles known as "dixies."

"Drop one hundred," said the officer. All our senses were strained. Would the villainous Boche get to cover before we could hit him. Some of us had been reading that morning accounts of the little ones done to death in the London air raid, and had forgotten the word mercy. This time the shells were nearer, and the Huns hesitated. They ended by dropping the dixies and racing back to a communication trench.

Tho major of the 4.5 howitzer battery came back from a visit to the infantry outposts and reported that it was certain Bodies were in a concrete machinegun emplacement, whose position eight pairs of glasses mado out after concentrated search. Ten minutse later someone called out, "You're right. I can 6ee two of 'em coming down tho trench to the emplacement." And then one of the neatest bits of the day's shooting was put in. The Howitzer "0;C." turned on all his six guns. One shot hit the emplacement plumb. The rest were all within thirty yards short of it or over it. "They're clearing out," .shouted another observer, and indeed eight or nine men cßuld be seen scurrying nway like rates.

Thirty rounds were fired. That spot rioted with 6moke and flying stones and earth. The concrete emplacement still stood, but was not nearly so shapely. Five, six, seven minutes passed. Then we picked out figures creeping back again. Another dozen shells were loosed

off. , An angry ejaculation from the adjutant. "Why, there's a man walking hi front of the emplacement," he complained. "Look, he's got into that shell-hole to the left." The colonel was looking through the telescope. "That fellow's wounded. You've shot his breeches off. No, leave him; he won't do any more barm. Orders are orders, and our colonel is a ureal little man. .... ;, , There was one more incident. About 7.30 p.m. the biggest party jet seen crossed the open in full view We counted twenty-two of them. They inarched •two by two, and bore a big Red Cross flag iii front. Not a single gun was fired though the adjutant did not take bis Masses oft' them, and ho sweated profusely under his tin hclmot. "You can never tell what tricks they ro up to, ho grunted disappointedly.