HOW IT IS DONE.

Taihape Daily Times, 4 March 1918, Page 6

HOW IT IS DONE.

riGHTING A NAVAL

SIX-INCH.

CALL TO "ACTION STATIONS."

The bugler halted by a hatchway. Stiffening himself straight and taat as a bridge stanchion, he threw cp lis arm, puffed cut his cheeks, nnd setting the call to "Action Stations" hi.rtling along the mess deck. -'DJubIJ up, double up' Come «.?oug and fight" sing the bi|li jr.ftVng its ine'^atnn

penetrate ev j-jwle.-e. Promptly aal mrrVy the mi.n who tad been \ri•.<-.*.s hig "on the t<* line" for .uKi a tth jumped 'o ob*y it. What so enthralling as going into

action! What fun to equal a fight 1 At last real enemy ships were thers to shoot at; not mere imitation foes of sail cloth and lattice-work.

Among those on the marine's deck who joyfully answered the summons of the bugle was the little group of iron-muscled, broad-shouldered Boyal Marine Artillerymen who formed the crew of the 6-inch gun which poked its ugly grey muzzle through the port X casemate. They were a mixed lot, and the best 6-inch crew in the ship's company. Ten hits with ten consecutive rounds in one minute represented their best —and their worst fell not very far behind it. When the first sharp note of the bugle reached their ears the 6-ineh's Crew recognised what \fche full call would mean, and put themselves into motion before the last note sounded. Bound a hatchway and under some bridge supports they went, then disappeared into the bulging stomach of the casemate. The last man in banged to the door, fastened it, and there were the crew "properly boxed up" as one of them put it, with several inches of steel dividing them from the outer world and the certainty that all of them would be wiped out if a shell broke into their-pen. Big Dan McClosky, No 1, at the gun, fitted his shoulder to the crutch of the gun, laid his eye to the telescopic sight, then swung the weaopn about to assure himself that all worked freely. Satisfied upon this point, he showed a huge fist to the sight-set-ter with the warning, "If you don't mind what you're about to-day I'll— Falling in according to their working numbers the other men "loaded up" and waited for the signal to commence." It came as the ship wore round, disclosing a target, that looker little more than a blur of smoke on the distant horizon. The sight-seer grew busy following directions that were passed to him from some mysterious place outside, and for the "load ing numbers" began a period, of stren uous labour

From o:ie to the other they tossed hundred-pound weight projectiles until these disappeared into the gun, A charge swiftly followed them, the breach clashed, there 'came a terrific roar, and the mouth of the weapon was gaping for food again. MeClosky, heaved his broad shoulders and muttered through clenched teeth as he moved the gun about, correcting "overs" and "shorts" trying to get on the target quickly. The sight-seer, working swiftly and steadily, to assist him, praying devoutly that the right length would speedily be found, for he knew that if it were not no pleasant time lay ahead of him. "On" at last, the gunlayer held his range accurately while the breech of the weapon clanged incessantly and the perspiring loaders fed it energetically No .sooner had a shell gone into the breech than it seemed to be leaping out of the muzzle straight into the vessel they were battering. At gleefully, w hu e the others spared breath enough tn Tn-,i.„ to make encouraging comments. "Keep her there. Dan" "Bang amidships that time," "Give Fritz another like that!" "Hurrah that's done him!" as the enemy upoil which they had gradually been closing went up in a burst of smoke and flame When at last "Cease fire" reached the:-, MeClosky, straightening himself to relieve the cramp in his shoul- ' dcr patted the sight-setter on the back nad said. "You did well, and—if you hadn't I'd have murdered you!"