WAR MOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 279, 4 May 1915, Page 7

WAR MOTES.

TRENCH DIVERSIONS JN THE DASH EOR SHELTER. Much real humor lias been introduced into a letter concerning trench life, v, ritten by a sergeant of the Gloueosters as follows:—• "We did 7(1 hours in the trenches, and CiiiiKi straight here—a matter of ten miles. I have often road an account of a British company "swinging through tlso village.'' We swung from one side of the road to the other absolutely beaten—straggled along an endlei-s road, and were finally billeted here in schools. The village blacksmith, who is ; also the proprietor of an estaminet (the troops call it ''just a minute"), lias given ; me a room in his house, where I can : rest properly. I dined—or, rather, sup- ' ped—with-the blacksmith and his family j last night. I could not possibly inrng- j ine that I was in France. Everything j suggested the middle ages in England, ' especially the grand coup at the end of the meal, when each member assiduous- j ly polished his plate with the remainder, of the bread! . . . German bombs are,' thrown by some sort of machine, and ! can be easily seen in flight. The men i on the look-out shout "Bomb up," and , then one invariably runs in the wrong \ direction, or falls full length in the mud and water. One bomb fell near the parapet nearest me one day, and sent a lifeless Hun sky-high. The bombs cause great diversion. One of our suhalterns was sleeping peacefully in h's dug-out the other day, when a grenade paid him a visit. Someone shouted to liitn to get up and run, which you can imagine he did. The thing exploded before he had gone three paces, and made a thousand holes in his clothing. Except for a few slight flesh wounds ho was unhurt. Another fell right in the middle

of the trench, and one man, in bis anxiety to reach safer quarters, sat right on the thing; He managed to get \ip and run away unhurt. A second man was luckier still; he slept through tuc explosion not more than a yard away. THE FAMOUS SEVENTY-FIVES, It has been admitted from the very outset that the Frencli field artillery lias been superior to that of the Germans —a fact largely due to the famous "75" gun. A French artillery officer, in a recent conversation with a British correspondent, had something to say about this weapon which is particularly interesting. "A great virtue of the "75' gun," lie said, "is the extent to whhh it resists deterioration. The- rifling' is. intensely hard metal, and though riy guns have been in action steadily since the war began they are as efficient to-day as they were at the bsgyfining of the war." The feature in wliich the "75" gun has most conspicuously established its superiority is in the sapidity of its fire. The officer in referring' to this said: "This to some extent depends upon the division of labor amoig the gunners, but even more conspicuously on the mechanical properties of the gun. The public is quite familiar with the general action of the gun. The boclie, which holds the ground and ultimately prevents the recoil of the gun driving it backwards, becomes firmly fixed in the ground after the first shot, with the result that each successiveshot fired has no effect on the bearing of the gun. Consequently the gun remains pointing in the same direction for an indefinite number of shots and does not require to be re-aimed. So much is common knowledge, but I think it :b not generally realised how the result lias been achieved. The designer of the gunhas so arranged it that no matter hoiv the gun is directed the direction of the force passes directly through the point at wliich the beeho of the gun is fixed.. In the case of the German gun the fore; is directed not at the point of the boehe, but at a point to right or left of it, the elTect of which is that the g'in tends to be slewed round and the g.mlias continually to be directed afresh.'-"

BRAVE MEN. The exploit which gained Lieutenant Lead and Sergeant Hogan their V.C.'s is likely to live in military history. A number of Germans were occupying a trench due north and south. At each end there was a sort of pocket or chimbcr, the connecting trench being nothing but twists and turns at sharp angies. Following several unsuccessful attempts to take the trench Lieutenant Lead and Sergeant Hogan, with 10 men, made a dash for the extreme south end of the trench, which they occupied. The ten men 'were left in this ehambor, whilst the lieutenant and sergeant crawled along the connecting trench, their pu> . pose being to drive the Germans into the north end chamber. They hoped tic Germans would then climb out and make a rush for their inner lines, so coming under the firo of the 10 men at the southern end of the trench. Lieutenant Lead cleared the various sections of the twisting connecting troruh by putting his arm round the corner and using his revolver. The Germans could not fire round corners with their rifles, so they were gradually driven back into the extreme northern end of the trench. Instead of bolting, however, they called out, saying they would surrender. There were 3(1 of them, of whom twenty were wounded, so Lieutenant Lead and the sergeant made a highly creditable "bag." ON VON DER GOLTZ.

Since the name of Von der Goltz crops up frequently, a short note on his career is relevant. He is 1i years of age, and though the English military writers C:o not rate him very high he has had a long and very varied professional career. .As a juvenile ollicer he began in one of the topographical branches of the Prussian | army. In .1870 he was attached to the I army of Prince Frederick Charles, and saw the battles of Mars la Tour, Gravclotte, the siege of Metz, and the winter campaign on the Loire. In the ys.ir after the war he took up work as a professor at the Military School at Potsdam, and has since turned out a number of works on military matter,;, particularly German military matters. Ihe best-known of these is "Das Volk ir-. Wafl'en'' (The Nation in Arms). All his books have attracted favorable uttcn-, tion in other countries, on account of their impartiality. In 18S:> his services were loaned to Turkey, and be remained in that country for VI years. The i eli'ect of his work there was made vis.hle| in the Greek war of 181)7. Jn 1000 lie; was in command of the Ist Gcrmou! Corps, more recently in charge of Gen- • eral Alexander Von Kluck, of whom so ■ much has been heard in this war. In ' 1007 he supervised the Sixth Army in-1 speetion, and now lie is back in Turkey, j From time to time there are minors of > disagreements with General von San-! ders, but (like the repent rumors of hisj assassination at Smyrna) these reports! should be read with caution. As is now \ pretty generally understood, if is this! old soldier who has organised the pics- j

! (■:;(, d-'i'c-:\cf-'i of the r/ard.'.-.ic'h'ii. The | o'.iur di.y we heard that the Nc.:;-:- Frew .'l'res:--e had published a ietter c! ho ;■..'.- i milling that the Turks are ill-equipp3d ;:.! d short of supplies. It is curious news i.id.'cd to hear that the general should have made such an admission in writing—almost incredible, in fact. HOW GERMANY PREPARED. SECRET SERVICE IN BELGIUM. [ ! The following story is told by an i.'fi- ', cer who was in Antwerp before its ocj cupation by the Germans. In company ;, with an ollicer of tlic. Belgian jinny, lie ! entered a little roadside inn and culled for some lager beer. Oil the walls ot li.e i bar parlor were a number of large fni'.n----i ed advertisements, among them being ! one of somebody's lager beer—need'ess ;to say, made in Germain'. This advertisement caught the eye'of the Belgian ! ollicer, who rose, exclaiming, "Ha!°an- | other of them." I With his walking stick he smashed , the glass and tore the advertisement out, throwing it down back upwards before ; his English comrade, who saw to his ■ amazement a very perfect map of the .' country round Antwerp on a scale of Gin !to the mile. The Belgian ollicer inforj med the Englishman that when the uar ; began there was was not a public house \ in the district without one of these adj vertiscments, and when the invades lost their bearings their officers all know where to find a chart not far away. The innkeeper was a British patriot, above suspicion, who, of course, knew nothing about the map. 'He informed the officers that the advertisement in question had been delivered to him nine years previously by the German brewers, and had been hanging in his parlor- ever since. THE GERMAN MOBILISATION.

A Dutch officer, General van Voorst tot Voorst, has recently given a survey of the development of the German railway system from a military point of view since the Franco-German war. During 1870-71 there were at the disposal of the German military authorities altogether seven railway lines in North Germany and three in South Germany, of which only one—the Berlin-Coioune lino—had double lines. All the same it was found possible to convey 10 army corps, with an aggregate of 450,000 men, to the frontier in the course of ?1 days. Since then the military authorities have been engaged in developing the country's railway system from a strategical point of view, and with striking success. Germany now boasts 12 double-tracked railways between Osnabruck and Ulm. This moans that eve:y army corps garrisoned east of this :Kstrict, together with the reserve army corps formed at mobilisation, lias a double-line railway at its disposal. Not less than .18 double-line, bridges cross the Rhinc ; so that nine to ten cavalry divisions can be conveyed from iiii: the above-mentioned army corps. Poor brigades, with some cavalry and <ircillery, require. 90 trains—24 on eacli line. Owing to the fact that all these trains could be despatched in the course,of 12 hours, it..became possible to effect the whole transport to the western frontier in about 20 hours. The transport commenced on August 3— the second day of mobilisation —in the evening, and was finished at noon on the 4th'. The-fron-tior was passed during the night, and Liege was assaulted on August fl and 6. As far as the transport of troops from the western to the eastern theatre of war is concerned, there are six double lino railways available. As the distance between Maubeuge and Konigsbcrg is about 1800 km. and a military train wilder ordinary circumstances travels

MONTENEGRIN'S STOICISM. LOSSES IN ONE FAMILY. Montenegro, which lias a population of than 30,000, is at war with Austria, but in the clash of armies numbering millions little is heard of the Montenegrin campaign. The following extract translated from a letter written by a Montenegrin father to his son, who is serving with the first Canadian contingent, well illustrates the warlike spirit of the Montenegrins:—"Yes, my dear son, at lust the time has come for us. to measure swords with the Austrians, but you are mistaken in saying that we shall fhd them easier to beat than the Turks. It is true that the Austrian soldier cannot be compared with the Turk f,o far as hand-to-hand fighting goes, which is the thing which proves the brave man; but the Austrians can fire their deadly rifles, and the greatest hero can fall to the bullet. This will explain to you the sad news that I have now to giw you. Your dear brothers, Radon ja and Noviza, have been killed. Your brother Tajo and I are wounded. With regard to yourself, my son, you are among strangers and in a strange country, which may not inspire you with the same enthusiasm for fighting as if you had been amongst us. Therefore, I, your father, beg you not to disgrace your name, but to shed you blood without hesitation, if necessary, the same as I know you would if you wore here. Remember that you are fighting the same enemy; therefore fight with a hero's faith," and if it is God's will die as your brothers died, for a glorious death is sweeter than a coward's life in luxury."