With the Trench Mortars

Taihape Daily Times, 9 December 1918, Page 6

With the Trench Mortars

("Daily Chronicle," Sept. 20th, 1918.) Very little is heard of a branch of tmr Army which has done, and still does, an immense amount of hard, and Et ti~es, dangerous work, as the recent casualty lists testify. A trench mortar battery of the medium and heavy types of mortar is recruited from the artillery, but Jiaving left the fold to serve an ungainly and, to a true gunner, a primitive apology for a gun, which is carried in a G.S. wagon on the march while the personnel trudge along on foot, the artilleryman no longer looks 02 a T.M. man as & real gunner. Living in trenches, rarely getting a chance for spectacular work, they are as a race apart. Neither are they loved by the infantryman, who has an instinctive dislike for anyone likely to stir up the Boche guns and get the trenches <trafed. So the Toc-Emrna man is 'nobody's child." They are an' independent unit, living a happy life, taking the gunners' pitying smile, and the infantryman's dislike good-humouredly, and doing their bit to get to Berlin. In a normal sector, the T.M. officer visits batalion H.Q. in the line every day. Some colonels are mild and peaceloving, but others are regular fireeaters, and believe In causing Jerry as much annoyance as possible, a policy which has its disadvantages with a vindictive enemy, but is perhaps the best m the long run. "H'm," grunts the Colonel, "trench" mortars, are you? Well, look here, young man, we've been annoyed very much lately by vane-bombs (small German T.M. bomb weighing 41b). They come from this trench here," pointing on map, "the reference is H 22 d 1.4." ~" 7"" :^Kfl?. "Righto, sir, IT put over a few and , eee if I can shut him up." He wandefs along to the front line where one of his mortars is in position. Close by is a dug : out where the 'detachment live. He calls down the entrance. Bombardier, I want you to get a dozen borhbs prepared; be all ready to fire in half an hour. Is the signaller there? Tell him to come along With me and bring a 'phone; we shan't want much wire. I can see pretty well from that sap, just near the mine-crat-er; we are going to shut up a 'pineapple.'" (Tommy's name for the granaten-werfer or vane-bomb thrower). "Very good, sir. Come along, you fellows." "THE STUFF TO GIVE THEM." The officer goes along with the signaller and helps him to reel out the wire. By looking over the parapet here"*&nd there, he at length decides On the best place for observing the fire. While the field telephone is being attached and connections made, he pulls out a map, a scale and protractor and measures the necessary range and . switch, which are 'phoned to the gun. - Presently a message comes back, "Ready, sir." "Righto, blaze away.''' \ The signaller sends the order 'Fire!' 1 They hear a "pouf." j "There she goes!" One or two infantrymen on sentry duty who had I been eyeing the preparations with disfavour, immediately become interested. All eyes watch the black: object travelling rapidly through the air., There is a swish-swish-swish as the bomb falls, a. thud, then the explosion. Lumps of earth, pieces of timber, corrugated iron, duekboards and debris are hurled high in the air. "That's the stuff to give *em," cries the sentry. "How many more are you going to send over, sir?'" "About a dozen; repeat the last round.'' Another bomb is fired, falling out- j side the trench this time. The range is altered slightly, and several more hit the trench and round about. The infantrymen are enthusiastic. Then everyone ducks suddenly .and hugs the duekboard on the bottom of the trencKT Whizz-bang! Ci*ash! Bang! For two minutes the storm rages; then stops as suddenly as it had begun— , artillery retaliation. They get up, laughing and brushing the mud from their clothes. No one is hurt, luckily, neither is the gun damaged. The "pineapple" shows no sign of life. The trench, where it was located, is all battered and smashed in. \ Picking up the telephone and reeling in the wire, the officer .and his signaller return. Some camouflage is put over the gun. "What about some dinner, cookie? 3ss nearly one o'clock." The incident is over. It is nothing. The sector is one where "there is no- j thing to report,'' but it all helps to j tvin the war.