A Man Who Saw

Levin Daily Chronicle, 25 April 1918, Page 4

A Man Who Saw

AVIATOR'S REMARKABLE

PEOPHEOT.

PEETH, April 15. A well-known Perth professional man has received the following letter from his son, who is an aviation observer in Prance. The letter is dated January 18:—

"We are carefully watching Fritz rehearse his huge army on an extended front of many miles, in which 1,000,000 men are engaged. His massed formation in advance will form a huge tidal wave, and we wil much resemble a post-and-rail fence trying to keep back a flying wheat field. Retire will be our only move. God knows what will be the loss in material alone and in men, for under such a presure as his enormous power will exert many will fall from exhaustion. His system of reinforcement is by retiring wearied men in shifts, new divisions marching through the retiring men.

'' Recognising that he mu3t have tunnelled many miles to smother his reserves, we watched carefully a huge tableland, which for months was covered in snow. At last man-hole appeared in the face. We sent six scouts to watch that hole night and day. Early one morning that hole was enlarged, and out at the double, ten deep, filed Fritz. Well, we had laid a big gun on that hole, and fired two shells. I flew over an hour later, and saw that it had proved a very cheap grave for Fritz. If he advances his men in massed formation we will not kill them in hundreds or thousands, but more likely at per acre. Our boys, the best God ever breathed into, are all ready and anxious for a scrap.

"But one and all recognises how -hort of men we really are. This is partly due to the excessive length of the line, whic his being daily stretched, without any excess of arrivals. Further, we cannot bring up reserves at 'lie sahme pace at Fritz. Where they come from, and how he gets them up, we cannot yet fathom. All we recognise is ho docs it. H e carries them by rail, which I have known him to lay down at the rate of miles a night. He carries his rails and material on trucks in lengths of 25ft, rails 751b to the yard, and steel sleepers, all spiked and gaug. cd. Each truck carries about a quarter of a mile. At each end of a sleepcor a man with a hook gets hold and off they pull the length, and like lightning link them up on baulks of wood Gin by Gin. He also uses a press which curves th e whole length of the rail at once. He ballasts with any material to hand, and over this road he travels at 40 miles an hour, approximately, as I view him from tho> air, at often 14,000 ft.