GUNS IN MUD

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20132, 29 December 1939, Page 5

GUNS IN MUD

TEST AT THE FRONT DIFFICULTIES APPARENT LIGHTNING PUSH ;| __ !; POSSIBILITY DOUBTED . : LONDON, Nov. 28. Standing in icy, drenching rain. I . | watched a battery of British field guns ; I being hurried into action against an 11 imaginary enemy, says a correspon- . j dent on the Western Front. It was more than a mere parade- ■; ground exercise. Officers and men ■ i and a little group of onlookers knew ■I that it was, in effect, a test whether it would be possible at this stage of : | the wettest winter France has had for ' more than a generation to move mech- | anised troops and artillery effectively [ over these sodden fields, i The guns and their vagons splashed along the road in fine style, spurting ! mud on either side and sometimes : splashing through water so deep that ' the spray hit them from sight. Ground Churned Up. ! Then they turned right and left off i the road toward selected gun positions. Ploughed land and grassy paddocks were churned into greasy slush before the guns were placed in position. The tractors cut broad ruts axledeep. It took two gun crews, straining at the ropes like tug-of-war teams, to manhandle single guns out of some of the ruts which the tractors had cut ! and to manoeuvre the guns on to the | plate-like steel platforms that each I gun carries to prevent it sinking in | the mud. when firing, ! Winches had to be used to haul some spare limbers from the muddy tracks that the leading vehicles had ! churned up. The battery was in | position only a few minutes after the scheduled time, thanks to the efficiency ’ and energy of the crews. Worse Conditions in Reality But to picture what would happen i lo the German Army if it attacked on 1 the French frontier, one must multiply i this picture 100 times and remember ! that the guns I saw were not working ; on fields which had been cut up by i motor vehicles previously, nor over i country already ploughed up by tanks and infantry transport and shellfire, as the guns would have to do in an advance. On the side of the road the mud was as soft as quicksand to half the | depth of gumboots. Despatch riders and motor-cyclists skated, bounced, jand slithered. A troop commander ! trod on an apparently firm piece of | ground. It gave way and he fell j sprawling in mud so soft that it could i have been poured out of -a jug. Light rain and bad visibility will I defeat any lightning war that Ger- ‘ many may attempt in this area this ; winter.