THE NOISE OF BATTLE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 239, 18 March 1915, Page 6

THE NOISE OF BATTLE.

SHELLS, IUKLK SHOTS, AND CIUNS. A XICHIT MANOEUVRE. An ollicer of a Scottish Territorial rewrites:— 9 I have spent my lirst 30 hours in the trenches. (lflicors and N.C.O.'s tvent up on Thursday afternoon and were distributed unionist the companies in tliu trenches for instructional purposes. Wo left our billet during the afternoon and inarched four miles along roads full of immense holes caused liv large shells, broken trees on every .. idc , houses not merely wrecked, but in absolute ruins, not even a wall standing, and little harvests of wooden crosses here and there. It was dark ere we reached a cross-

">a.d in the middle of a large wood. Every five minutes the whole country was lit up by star shells, which the flermaus vend up constantly. Meantime tl'e vain came down in torrents, and the rattle of musketry and the 1)00111 of puns never ceased. Hundreds of ghostly figure", moved about carrying; all porta of tlmigs_ rations for the troops in the trenches, planks of wood, bundles of hru-'lnvood, kegs of water and mm, ami down tile road trooped stretcherbearers canying the wounded to the hosp.tal. Then a voice said, "Guide from the and my iwo sergeants and myself tramped oil' in single file behind him for our destination. Through the wood, past an immense chateau, a mere skeleton with all its stables, greeuho««ei. etc., a mass of ruin-;. We ho'il half the wood, .and the central part is still fun of dead Germans.

, GOING THE ROUNDS. Winding in nml out to avo'il tin- shell linlorf in a short tlx?-;; we rc:i.-lu'd tin; reserve trenches. As each star shell goes it|> vo all crouch and remain perfortl.v still, and nothing happen <. W« .cross a ]iLt!'' brook, see a light. anil find ourselves in the oolone'.'s dug-out a coke brazier, hot tea, rake, broad, butter ami jam. tind ifaces and voice.'. An hour's clmt. and then wo follow tlin C.0., who is going his nightly round*

i:i nil.'li I'.ark, lnit the guide knows his way l.ikc a tracker, and loads lis deviously through a village, once a prosperou; little jdaco like Whins of Milton, now a complete ruin. 'We avoid shell hole-, at every 20 yards, crouch a dozen time:; for flares, jump half a dozen ditches, splash into 2ft of nmd down a drain, and behold wo are in the firing trench. The C.O. introduces mo, to the major in charge, who tells me to consider myself his guest, and shows mo his dug-out, which one crawls into on one's hands and- knees, and just holds two exactly. Inside the sentries stand like silent statues, for this trench is only 70 yards from the enemy, anil it is death to put one's head over for more than a second. (Urailunlly the subs, foregather, and we have quite a skip-up dinner, piping hot, as it is cooked within a foot of our noses. Later on I walked over the whole of our line with the major. Tt was rather exciting, as the communication trench was fuli of water and the flares were going busily all the time, but wo were not observed, and got safely back in about an hour',l time.