MASSED FIRE.
(From AV. Bench Thomas.) Fu.vnck, July 30 Artillery fire of great violence has .broken out again in ,the neighbmrhood of Nienport (on the Belgian coast.) For hours at a time columns of water like geysers shoot up from the Yser, a stream converted into a continuous canal with trini banks and not infrequent bridges These waterspouts have burst forth in the closest groups round and about all the bridges, some of which have received direct hits.
The enemy has used and is using a creat quantity of ammunition, nearly ail of it from the best siiell and the best cannon he has got. —the s'Oin. He has standardised this howitzer and its ammunition, produced them m great quantity, and has now massed along tlie coast a greater number of these batteries than ever before. Behind them he has also in some quantity a number of long-ranged, higliVelooitv guns tor shelling the hack areas.
He has attempted to make these guns Argus-eyed, and each battery is now provided with more observing and lighting aircraft thsn before. These, too. have been standardised. His airmen also are distinctly less timorous. They crocs our lines moie frequently and at times descend to lower altitudes. It goes without saying that our artillery replies effectively and is as .well or better served by its eyes.
'The trenches occupied hv the enemy after his last attack along the sea coast have long since become untenable. Their German garrisons have been killed or buried oi' dri\ en back. No trenches in tlie sand can endure modern artillery fir£. Tlie fighting here is in abrupt contrast with the fighting I described in my last despatch round Lens, where three-quarters or more of the tiring is a direct duel between the rival batteries.
— So”far no infantry action lias followed the artillery concentration at any part of the line. The other day the enemy let drop a violent barrage along our trenches in front of Armentieres, but it. had no sequel. A few d&ytf fete* s?#* thousands of gas' shells, but nowhere
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Hokitika Guardian, 15 October 1917, Page 1
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343MASSED FIRE. Hokitika Guardian, 15 October 1917, Page 1
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