THE FRENCH ARTILLERYMEN

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 57, 5 November 1915, Page 4

THE FRENCH ARTILLERYMEN

A .British officer in Fiance recently gave an interesting account of the manner the wonderfully efficient artillery service of the French Army >is helping in the training of the new British Annies. From the account given it seems that every freshly-arri-ved British Brigade is attached t<> a British Division for ten days in order (dial the imm may become familiar with work in the trenches under real war conditions, and then the artillery is ginm a week’s solid training with the French batteries. This, the officer stages, does the men a lot of good, and the French gunners are as charming as possible to them. r l be French ofiicer.s neglect nothing in aider to make everything agreeable and instinctive to the British of all ranks. Describing the procedure in detail, the officer savs: "Tins is how we spent yesterday:—One of my gun.s was carefully drawn to the position at present occupied by a French gnn, in the centre of a French battery. Our men worked their best in order to do things well under the eyes of the French gunners. After having placed the British gnn on the right ' spot, the Frenchmen communicated to our officer the precise position of a machinegun emplacement situated at a range of about I 800 yards. They knew this emplacement, and they were able to help us In time onr fuses with tlie greatest accuracy. Indeed, they showed themselves past masters iu the art of making onr men believe that they were doing tilings themselves. Then we fired onr gnn, and at the second shot tin' German emplacement was destroyed, at which there was great joy among our section of gunners. There was the same joy and hearty congratulation ‘on the part of tin' French gunners. To-day. the position will be occupied by three French guns and one British gnn; tomorrow by two French gnus and two British ; next by three British and one French gun. AIJ tin’s time the battery will be commanded by a French battery commander, who hitherto has never seen British gunners. Only when the battery consists of four English guns will a British officer take command of it. Until then he will remain as long as necessary receiving, with his British gunners, indications with regard to the country drawn from the experience of the French gunners, who have held the position since .November, 1914. Only one man i can command a battery of four guns, and licit is always the man who has been

longest on the spot,, without respect of nationality or seniority. 1 need not tell yon that the French are past masters in the art of making things as agreeable as possible for ns. and our men will ho genuinely sorry when the French batteries leave us. Tn the meantime, nothing in- the world could he better than the instruction of our gunners, who are still inexperienced. 1 am glad to say that twelve of my sixteen batteries are subjected to the conditions which T have described.”