NO MAN'S LAND.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 265, 5 April 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

NO MAN'S LAND.

BY NIGHT AND DAY. By F.A. McKENZIE, (The Weil-known War Correspondent.) "What!" said the Colonel incredulously. "You hare never been in No Man's Land! Come now, that's too bad. Go with Captain to-night." And the Colonel proceeded to take his turn »n the game of throwing rings on iron nails jutting out of the io.nd'bagged wall in which he was handsomely beaten by a young subaltern. It was the brief pause before dinner. German shells were making the evening hidaaus, searching with Teutonic thoroughness a wood a short way behind us. The Hun had been ratner mere active than usual sending quite a number of "sausages"—little playthings each containing from 60fb. to 2201b. of high explosive—around our front lines, while his heav'er gujjs had been at work farther back. "Fritz is peeved to-night," said the Major. The average soldier will no more admit that enemy artillery fire is heavy than the average officer in a luier would admit that tho sea was rough. The game over, we moved on to the front. The walk through the communi-

cation trenches is aiways {.veaflisonie. You twist and double and take tventy , mmutas to cover a distance that you could cover in five minutes on the surface. When we had done half the jour-

ney wo came to a bit of a woodl. '' It's four mdnutes- if we go through the wood ; and sixteen minutes if we go round by the trenches," said my guide. "Let us . rush it. If you hear a click, drop down like a streak of greased lightning and 'lie law." There was still sufficient daylight for one to take in the appearance of tne front lines themselves. They were on a

very low level, where trenches were impossible, so that all we could haive was a very substantial parapet of sandbags to protect us from the enemy fire. Tonight fortunatsly was dry. On wet days the little stream that ran through our position rose and the ground became one slithering, slipping slough. Here in the first winter our boys fought up to their middles in and even now, with ail our precautions and- drainage and improvements m trench life, nothing could make this particular spot anything but a hell hole. There is some comfort and sense of security in a decent, well-drained trench. There >s nono behind a raised parapet, i»hen you know the enemy occupy all the hill positions arou(\d and that you are like a rat in a pit. Darkness came on. There were the rounds to be made and minute instructions to be conveyed to every corporal's guard. There was no need of 'lights to show the way. The German flares steadily ascending in a semicircle around, each made for a time its own immediate neighbourhood as bright as daylight. The trench mortars had ceased their work but the Huns were apparently fearing some attempt at attack on our part, for they maintained an unusually.heavy rifle fire, constantly sweeping our parapets. "Here we are," said tho Captadn, pointing to a little tunnel under ono part of the parapet. "Go quietiy, keep low, and when the flares go up put your faecs down so that they cannot see your flesh. White flesh stands out." We craiwled on our hands and knees through the tunnel, and then we were in No Man's Land itself.

I 'had often studied No Man's Land from th© trenches. The desolate strip between our lines and tho German tines varies m width from fifteen yards to half a male. A few hours before I had been at one spot on our front where the Germans were fifteen yards away. We occupied one side of a crater; they occupied the other. On our side the bombers stood always ready, waiting for the first sound of real activity to turn the other side .into a shambles. Doubtless over the way Sfessieurs les Bodies waited in similar fashion for us. This space is blocked on either side by great masses of wire entanglements, with lanes running through them—carefully guarded lanes, safe for our own men, but with a machine gun waiting for tho first of the enemy who showed his nose. The lush weeds grow coarsely on a soil enriched by the blood of many bravo men. Often enough on tne hotter parts of the line those who have fallen and died have to lie unburied in some shell hole for sometimes weeks, until their comrades can go to them. No Man's Land! The scone of thousands of desperate hopes, of thousands of brave raids and solitary heroisms; tho field, too often the grave, of tho Empire's best. Creeping along the narrow gully it took an effort of imagination to realise where one was. It was pitch-dark. Our way was obstructed by wires. We had to move with caution, for noise would have brought a machine gun on us and wo had new no parapet to keep the bullets back*. There came a flare. Down went our heads, and when the light of the flare had died away the darkness seemed all the more intense. Flare followed flare, and while the flares continued ther was nothing to be done but to lie absolutely still. Soon we reached the observation, post, where three or four of our men" were lying low, listening intently for any sound of enemy approach. Captain gavo some whispered instructions to tho corporal and his men. "You quite understand," ho said, -'that if the Germans come along to-night you are not to stay here and fight them. All you have to do is to give the fhrrn and hurry back behind tho parapet. You're net to bo fools and throw yourselves away for nothing. Now do not forget. That is an order. If you see them coming, fall back as quickly as you can.' Beyond tho observation post our men were testing tho wires and won; patrolling close to us. "Lio low. Keep your ears open. Don't make any sound." One listened to the noises. Chief among theso was the rifle-fire hii'lleta from near to hand, sounding like tho crack of :i whip overhead, bullets fired from farther away 'having a distinct ping Then came the kick of the machine guns that broke out (with their devil s tattoo every few minutes, and tho crack of the flare ag-it was fired from its clumsy pistol into tho heavens. •Vow an a'larm arose farther down tho line. A stupid German sentrv had been startled by something. ' The machine guiis burst out and the riflolire grew lifeavy, only to die away in a few minutes.

Sometimes, oven m this wild shooting, the bullets find tlioir billots. IVico that night alter wo returned be. fund tho parapets men cam* to report 'asnaltes. 0n r corporal in "Xo Man's Land had boon caught bv a bullet in the stomach. A private behind tin p-m----pet, raising his head for a moment had been .struck down by a lui'llet 'in t ; ; ■ eve.

Soon after daylight the Major ppiup on his rounds. T was to Join him. "You ought to see Xo Alan's Land in day time." lio sadd, and so iwc went into '• again. It was very different no v. TV rifle-firing had erased and there va . comparative quiet. The surrouTv'ithat had termed so glo--my and m\s ! o- ;

)i)S m the darkness looker! now nothing »ul. a ln't. of coarse and forsaken rounryw'd?., witb a U»t of barbed wire spread ivor it. Whrn ivc got n litt!« way out I LiirniH] to note t!ic> front of our own kihlios. I know t'lrrn well from lipimd; I did not rooocriiisa thorn from the ront. I'm' t!io or>rt!i over the sandbag* lad been covered during tlip summer by i trrowth of frr;Ns. Rramhes of tree's nd hu.sbos- hare hushes mit-li every loaf '»rn ilf hy slipi'l fragments— mad<» t:.:> Minion lomnlfto. I s-omo 1 to lie look ri" :it ;i s!ili(flitlr ris ; n:' "oimtrv ridgo. Wo m vrd atnn • v n. n 's Land in ■>" M„» direction ~',] |, oir tli.--of vo:-e«, f . ,-„!,i; m tl.!k- ---'! ' i» I ion- t.r iir' .)• their morning "al. And tlon there oame a Iwrshor, irdor. louder note. U was one of our n ji'ino. ?!>•■ ni< pi'n'/'-i artillery fir" •"' f'Mcro'l. Tie iot ,'av's work bad "gHU !

THE RATAHI.K KMBLKM. 'J'lio Knglish now must eat the It ek 'J'he I'ttlo Welshman grows: Her emblem i.s unfit far food. They cannot eat the rose! The i-bamro-k's cnly fit to pat 15v t'oosoliiiL's, I suppose: So Irish too must oil the look. Amongst their otiier woes! The sturdy thistle. S oik's pride. Aye dreaded by her foes. That, i!<>m- can rat it. bit an a«s The wily Taffy knows ! No wo must starve or oat the leak, How long, Lord only knows; I'W it is now the Premier fowl That little Welshman grows! Tra QuaiV.