The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, Octber 7, 1915. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1456, 7 October 1915, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, Octber 7, 1915. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Onk of the greatest tasks that the allied troops had to lace in the recent advance on the Germati lines on the western front was the demolition of the enemy’s wire entanglements. The wire entanglements are very formidable obstacles. According to an interesting description in the Sphere, the stakes are either wooden or steel of some 4m to fiin in diameter, and are set from sft to Bft apart. The top wires are usually laid obliquely so as to prevent our troops using planks or ladders. Barbed-wire is chiefly used, and it is drawn diagonally as well as horizontally between the posts. The ground over which the attackers must advance is strewn with broken bottles and odd pieces of tangled wire. Every piece of these entanglements will be under close rifle from carefully selected points, so that the whole obstacle is under complete control even at night. The German entanglements are seldom continuous; advantage is taken of depressions in the ground in order to hide them from the enemy’s shrapnel fire. Gaps are also left at intervals to draw the attackers into certain spaces, which are marked by concealed machine guns. These gaps form also a passageway for the men behind the entanglements when they advance against the opposing trenches.