BALL BOMBS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 87, 24 September 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

BALL BOMBS.

THE PENALTY OF TALKING IN THE TRENCHES.

(By W. BEACH THOMAS, in Loudon " Daily Mail.")

lho course of the warfare in the Allots district is strange and sufficiently horrible. Every night and all night the civilian population who still remain behind the trenches he.ar the almost continuous rattle of musketry, succeeding, as darkness falls, to the scraping wh.stle of shells and the sudden explosion of bombs that are dropped almost daily by the enemy. The shells and the bombs are understandable; but one must approach closer to the battle to find the explanation of the rattle of musketry. It will, indeed, be necessary to waJk down a real German-built trench. This is not so easily clone. One man, whose duty has tuken him there twice a week for many weeks, is still wholly unable to find his way without an expert guide. The Hampton Court Maze is simplicity to these deep-cut v.ays that curl and slant and cross-cut one another in any and every direction; and as yon near your destination it is not. more than ten to one in your favour if you look over the top for two consecutive seconds. This man has, in fact, never seen the intervening spaces or gathered a general view of the topography. How many people at home e\ 'ti yet realise what a real pukka trench is like? This one is eight to nine feet deep and Sj narrow that two men have some difficulty in passing one another. It las a sort of parquet flooring of wood, sh.ri planks set across, with here and there a layer of cement. Wherever any weakness has appeared in the walls the flaw has been more than made good '>y rein forced concrete. No man has looked over the parapet for weeks, for a terribly watchful enemy is living ;n similar trenches at a distance of fourteen yards. The men who fire have platforms cut in embrasures, and nearly all the Germans opposed to them have iron shield* in front of them, let into the parapet, cinch of the shields having loopholes which can be covered or opened at will by manoeuvring a sliding shutter. For night-work, indeed for most work, tho rifles are carefully aligned against any loophole or observation point that may have been noticed and fixed firm in this position. So the men face one another in i vi - lage of which not one-half or a quarter house or even room is loft intact. N'.t one stone stands upon another, ei.vpt where they have been used for building trenches cut through the old rounuitiom. Here fighting is continuous every night. If a voice is heard in the Allied trench, instantly a ball yen ido is thrown at the place of the i-ound. And s'range things these big ball «-voii_ ados of the Germans are. They .' re attached by a looped lanyard to the wii.st of the thrower. As the ball leaves his hand tho string puVs out a plug, which sets thj fuse working and warrants explo ion within two seconds or no.

Ro necessary is it thought to prevent surprise attacks that both sides are continual.? throwing out flare-lights. The most fashionable sort falls to the ground when thrown, fizzles for a few seconds, and then sends up a bright rocket or Roman candle. So vigilant n"e the enemy that bombs are usually thrown at once at the spot from which these Hares :eem to have emerged. And what a terrible .sight these candles illumine! Between the trendies lie, and have lain for week*, the most terribe debris of battle, dispccta membra, unburied and beyond recognition, i'or whom at one time both sides vainly lisiied with grappling irons. Since this form ot salvage hj...; been given up it is now the nightly task of members of the Ked Crois to spray the intervening >pace with strong carbol c, thrown by garden squirts from the iiife harbourage of the trencli. Of such terrible stuff is war made; and in this record 1 have perforce omitted the details that would most offend our senses. A\ hat it the bW'ect security of our lovely English Villages these summer days were i-.o blotched and stained I' We ought to ask the question; and we ought ta know and feel how a brutal enemy lists brought these tilings upon the fair country ( . neighbour France, peopled by mon and women as deep, v in love w.th peace a.s we are, and as innocent of bloodguiltiness. We must hear the la'e and feel the horror bci'ore we can work as wo must to purge the coining days that our children are to live and to save their own country from like

ealamity. I h-d almost forgotten the explanation ot the continuous rifle tire which asto.iishea the civilian |Kipulation belnnd their trenches. When enemy face o e another as nearly a« this, almost lh-» only defence, if an attack is iV.irod at night, is a never-ceasing tire, directed against possible gap* or spy-holes in the pari pet. Probably it taKe.s 20.000 bul'et-i in this sort of lighting to kill a iu.l n. At any rate, you would think so to hear a'l night the crack of the gun and the flop of the bullet against, iron -liield or -andhag at intervals that suggest the hammering ot a nail by an expert carpenter. The par a jut is line-. I with flattened lead, and while these enemies are glaring 'n?o one another s iron miiskn at few yards' distance the heavy tunnon —in accordante with this new lo.iu-range habit cf t'*e Germans —drop their giant sliel's into town* and \ iiy>gt« nubs and mi cs behind the trenches. There the children ferret in the great craters for bits o! sheik, and light for possession o" the prize trophy, the fuze of a 120-shell. It has, perhaps, cut a little'avenue in standing corn, or crushed down the wall of Monsieur X.'s pigsty.

Kvwywherc with quiet endurance the w mderful Frenchwomen go about their daily btwines* and begin to gather the trim harvest which tliey helped to »ow when the war win young.

A certain niVe Frcn: hwonrn, whose husband, serving as n doctor, has never left his remote part of the line s'neo the tretch war began, has, on her pa't. played r.<s courageous and cons!'.tent a part. Not for a day since lir«t the ca.n'.i i were heard 1' s she eft her hat.eiid hoi;s« ill Artois. Battles have I; en IVlight round it. It has seen a<lvsuiec« and retreats and lias suffered sneer >,i\e

bombardments, at this moment, more severe than usual, for pome eight months. The Germans have been twice through the town and .>ome oi them tw'co at her loyi r. Th*. other day a "dadl linded on a portion of the hou«e and shattered it to ftagmento; l.ut in spite of every sort oi urg-nt reo'ie.t from friends ••he retu-ed to have. Without fuss or of alarm -he fitted into the unspoilt part, of the r '-established the ( lean tidings of the phu'o. and dutv oilers what bo--nltalitv she tan to the lighters or civ;lia \s that most 1 it. Among llione who becged her to ; l, snfetv wero some nieml>eiK ol the Hi_ tish IU-J Crx« temnor.irilvfoivtng wit.. French. All *h« «V-tl in answe- <•> iVr protest, was. "While I can h-fj v, m who are fit'htine with I s fi,v " And dailv. at mv hour, .h s jrentlo ladv herself cooks the- me*.--, wi'd insist on serving these Knrhshnien, even a.s rarl v as five or six mt- .norn- ; n _-. with their nit.ve break f->t t burin and egg c -