INFANTRY LIFE IN THE TRENCHES.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1916, Page 9

INFANTRY LIFE IN THE TRENCHES.

A XKW ZKAI.AXDFR'S I.MPKFSSinxfi. Following is a copy of a letter written I by one ol' tlie Xew Zealand Engineering i and Tunnelling Company to a reUitive in L. Wellington, from the "Front Trendies, ! Northern France":— • May 1, Front l'lent-hes. Northern f France.--!t is a perfect Mav-dav to-dav i —still and sunny and warm. lam h writing at a IjIl; open window overlook- , ing a garden that has made wonderful > progress in the hist week. The pear < trees are all in their transparent new , green leaves, and have set their fruit, i There i s a big cherry tree in full blaze 1 of blossom, and further back against < tin 1 dark green ivy wal] are two big i lilacs, one white and the other purple, ; covered in blossom. 1 can smell tliem from here. The lily of the valley bed is ' almost out and there are patches of bine hyacinths, and spot- of big flaming' tulips amongst the grass and rubbish under the trees. The guns seem to be having If May-day time, too, just now, and it is very peaceful. What an extraordinary kind of warfare this is. The French, who held this part of th« line till recently, seem to have had some kind of comfortable working agreement with the Bosche to make life more bearable, and we seem to be carrying on the tradition more or less. The idea, is called "retaliation." and a strafe would proceed something like this: Everything would be be beautifully peaceful, as it is just now; people all out in the sun reading or concocting messes in their mess tins, or just dozing peacefully on the lire step—of course, iindcf cover of the parapets—Brother liosche' no doubt doing ditto: when somebody becomes •'fed-up" with the general monotony of existence, and lets n]V rilie grenade into the opposite trenches. The "retaliation" idea necessitates a return for this compliment. We all know it is sure to come, and everybody swears at the "fedup'' one for disturbing the peace, of things generally. In a minute or two back come two or three grenades from the other side of grassy "Xo-inan's-land.'' This must be "retaliated." so one of the enterpising young men that run the trench mortars sends over a few footballs at the end of a stick. The mortar makes a sudden splitting bang as it liros, and as it is usually in some wellconcealed, unexpected place just behind you, it make you jump. You can watc'u it com ng over in the air, and hears the burst when it lands—if you watch through a periscope., you can see the earth and things fly. Then you, if yon are interested, watch for the stick, an iron rod, to come back—it usually does. If this happens to have annoyed Fritz, he answers with some of his own peculiar '-ninnies" that send over sausage affairs that whirl over and over in the air. and contain about sixty pounds of high explosive. Tiiese go oil' with n most ear-splitting bang when they land, but seldom hurt anybody. The position of these ''ninnies" is the particular pet aim of our light artillery, and they immediately blaze away at where they think the shots come from. These light guns are mostly located well behind the front line so that when the 'liosche artillery begin to ldok for them, the '■strafe" is transferred out of our immediate neighborhood, and we in the first lines return to peace again—and the whizz bangs drone back and .forth well over our heads. Tf there is lots of spare ammunition about and the gunners are feeling energetic, the big guns, furtin." back still., istart throwing compliments at each other: and then one may get mention in an olllcial communique—'■some artillery activity in the neighborhood of blank" Of course, I am talking of the infantry life in the trenches. Our work goes on all the time well below ground, and unless the liosche starts to strafe our dumps, and so interfere with the work of the fatigue parties emptying our spoil, does not interfere with us. My work takes me about the trenches and advance posts a good deal, so I see most of the fun that is going on. The Bosche let ofl' some mines not far from here the other morning about -2 o'clock, and came over into the craters, from .which he was promptly ejected again. I have a fine distant ' view of the proceedings; they made a tremendous row, and the (lashes and Hares made the whole show look like an energetic thunderstorm. "We are rather expecting something of the sort round this way before long. I have been out in the billets for the last three dav.s, and am going back in the trenches this afternoon for a three or four days' spell. T rather hope that things will liven up while 1 am in—it would make one feel one were really in a war—at pesent it, is as someone said: "Anuncomfortable picnic with an occasional unpleasantness." I wish they would stir up things and finish it.