THE FIGHTING LlNE

Nelson Evening Mail, 2 October 1916, Page 4

THE FIGHTING LINE

[ WIJJAT A ''LULL" JUEA.XK Under the heading of "A Quiet Day at the Front." a war correspondent writes : There ha> been a "lull" in the fighting. The weather has been largely responsible for this. A great quantity of rain lias fallen, audi in yumy places the ground has once more 'become a, mere quag-mure. Xwne the less, the word "Ml" must bo understood a-? purely relative. Even on "quiet" days-the consumption of artillery a-inmaini-tion, taking tho iine as, a- whole, is enormous; As I -write the tliroblbing of the air is almost .continuous.

The. mortality caused by shell fire varies immensely. Lately I was at- a place on the front where the commanding officer of the battalion told me that on the preceding -day 'tho enemy had (put over 600 isheHs without causing us a single casuailty. That is, if I remember •rightly, about the number of-sheiks that was thrown into nStai 'borough on tho famous raid. Here sudh an incident only appears in the communique as: "There was hostile .shelling on our trenches at

&uch immunity from casualties was, of course, an extraordinary piece of luck. The estimate, which. I have quoted before, is that it takes about two tons of projectiles to kill or wound l one man. "With the average size oi" shell wlreb the 1 German is using, 600 shells would be nearer seven tons. Then awiy come a. chance shot into billets where a score of men are""colloeted). or whicfli happens to find a weak spot in a- dug-out, or dTops on a platoon which is walking, along a hidden road, and the average is restored'. In one half-day -d-urinc the "lull" since the 'Canadians got back the ground (below IHo.oge, the Germans fired 2000 shells into th<Larea just won. The communioue of.the day referred to the fnet. saying ■that "our lines were heavily sflielled."

THE "FRONT." Many people imagine the "line" as some sort of continuous and definite fortification. As a matter of fact, the.frontis not a line in the. mathematical sense at all: it is a region. It is a- tract, averaging, perhaps, eight, miles in,.width,, w.here everything is desolation and .where death stalks at all l times'. iSinglo men. much less .masses of men, cannot, go. about it. openly and! live. It is under peipefcual ■scrutiny., from aircraft, from observation -stations-, and motive foalloons. Our guns, and,.we may be sure, the enemy's no less, have .got the range of every ditob and hummocki, each bit of ruined cottage or raggedl stump of a tree. Somewhere up the middle of this there winds invisible except from an aeroplano or some high observation point, the opposing fvont line trenches, with, behind them,..n labyrinth, of .support and communication trenches.

When one goes tin to the front one travels many miles in a, motor-car,' and as one draws nearer each village is more and more full of men in khaki, and main roads and .cross roads alike more and more congested' wit!h. all the impediments of war. At last, at some olurrop of ruined ibuildiimt*'. 'von .get out of ;y.oiir car, which immediately -batiks- off into a..safe , retreat. As you siind in the road a shell bursts, and you think it? verv- close' a* hand. thoT-'ch as a matter of fact'it was nrobalblv 600 yards awav. Another bursts ' further away," and another* and you hear I much ban gin qi, which may 'be vonr .g::ns. or theirs, "that you cannot tell. (DiIFFTOOLT PROGRESS. Tlien you go forward. Now-and again your guide will tell you to crouch down, or <be : careful not to walk too much, .to the right. Soon.you come to the communication trenchy an open ditoh, into, which voii sfc&n arid-walk, while it igrad.iu-,,: ally deepensVuntiL.you are in a narrow! ipassarre with earthed walls and! only a strip "of skv overhead. You may have/-" two miles or more of that -communication before voii get to the real front line;;, and walking in communication, trenches is one of the hottest, and hardest 'forms of' exercise yet devised. . \ ■ You meet'men coming back, from the front line, very muddy indeed, and ,pasa others, onlv l'es-? muddy, who squeeze., themselves- "into tho sides to let you ..pass... Everyone now is wearing a steel' helmet, and 'has his gas-mask slung. across Ins shoulders; for without,:no matter where, the wind is from, 'not even a civilian can go anywhere near the front. " The" noise goes on. Sometimes, a shell Ibursts very near. You see nothing, but, you hear a" srreat deal, and an officer coriiT ing down sav for your comfort that it }3 verv quiet iustnow.V.So on you go again alonrr that passage,-which you are learn-., ing to hate, until at last you come to a place where voucan go, no further and can look at the "enemy. WHERE TKEE-NEAIY WAITS. You either peep ■'through > acbink in the sandbaigs or you are given aperiLscope to peer above the top; and across i*a ragged strip of N%. Man's Land,' 100 yards, perhaps, in width, is a yellowis'h irremrlaß. hummocky line of earth and sandbags, with, in. frontof at, a w,k ernes of barbed wire. Bennd that hummockv line-is. voU are told, foe enemy. The throblbin-g rin the aar is stilt ■P n ;" , -«?.-. on, as it was when I started to write. Either on our side or the enemy: s, since I be«an this message, it is certain that man-men (hive been killed, or ™#; , And' this never stops? and. as. I said afc. tho be-inning, we are. now having a "kill." in which there is nobbing to re-, port. ■'-' .- : ; ; '■-'".■ .'"' __^__^