WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 August 1916, Page 5

WAR NOTES.

WRITING A PAGE OF HISTOKr Captain Norman Leslie, of the Rifls Brigade, wrote from the battlefield:—l Try noi; to worry too much about' the war, anyway. Units, individuals, cannot cpunt. Remember we are writing a new page of history. Future generations cannot be allowed to read the decline of the British Empire and attribute it to us. Wo live our little lives and die. To sonic are given the chance of proving themselves men, and to others no chance comes. Whatever our individual faults, virtues, or qualities may be, it mutters not, but when we are up against big things Jet us forget individuals, and let us act as one great British unit, united and fearless. "It is better far to go out with honor than to suivive with shame." t "Dulce et decorum eat pro patria mori." Captain Norman Leslie "went out with honor," for he died on the battlefield. NEVER BEATENNelson's History of the War, Part X, ly John Buchan—Appendix 1, page 281:! "At midnight fresh troops were to have strengthened our grip,upon the hill (Hill HO at Anzac), but before that hour the Irishmen had been outbombed, and the !>th Australian Light Horse who had . made a most plucky attempt to recapture the lost communication trench, had been repulsed. Luckily, the New Zealand Mounted Rifles refused to recognise that they were worsted. Nothing would shift them. All that night and all next day, through bombing, bayonet charges, musketry, shrapnel and heavy shell, they) hung on to their 130 yards of trench; This, when the Australian Light Boras made another attack on the lost communication trenches, carried and heldi Ihem, gave us complete command ofithfli mderfeature." WHAT ARE "BARRAGES"? Severcl inquiries have come to hand *1 to what are the "barrages" go frequently! mentioned in the cables. It is often said, for instance, that "the enemy's attack was stopped by our barrage fire," or "the enemy ran into a severe barrage and suffered heavily." The term "barrage" meang much the same as "our curtain of fire," also frequently mentioned, Before the infantry attack the opposing trenches / are subjected to a terrific bombardment. This is continued as long as possible, but as the infantry advance the time soon comes when the fire can be no longer directed upon the trendies which they arc attacking without risk that they wiH themselves suffer from it. But the guna do not cease firing. The elevation is raised, which means that the muzzles are tilted somewhat more towards the and the-fuses are lengthened; or, if the puns have been firing high explosive shells, they fire shrapnel. The Bhells now fly over the heads of the attacking infantry and fall upon the ground, beyond the trenches, and especially upon the communication trenches. The hail of shrapnel bullets presents a "bar" to the advance of reinforcements to. the support of the trenches attacked through which they cannot pass except it the price of very heavy losses. The artil* ' lery of the side attacked creates similar barrages of shrapnel, through which tha attacking infantry must pass. It is not that the guns are actually aimed at tha infantry The artillerymen endeavor to create a zone across their path through which they must pass to attack, which ia so swept and lashed with shrapnel bul* lite that to attempt to traverse it is afc most certain death. 1 It is an illuminating commentary oni the infallibility of "authorities" in suchl matters as these that before the W|f the French artillery was the only efervice which had properly grasped the supreme importance of a flat trajectory in thig connection. That is why the "seventy" fivn" has proved the most efficient of all field guns. The trajectory is the curved pith followed by the projectile from tho moment when it leaves the guA until it reaches the earth. The flatter or lower the trajectory, the wider is the danger zone created by any barrage. The Fj#nch gun has the flattest trajectory of aH and this is secured by a longer barrel and a high velocity. Exceptional accuracy in shooting is also secured by the longbarrel, the high velocity, and the flat trajectorj', and the bullets of the French gun are "rendered more deadly by their hi?h velocity. A shrapnel bullet is round and of small piercing power, and the ! igh velocity at which the French bullets are driven gives a great increase in their destructiveness. VALUE OF HELIGOLAND. KAISER'S HATRED OF ENQLANJ}. Tho stenographic report of the iwbate in tho German Reichstag on the Naval Estimates contains the following Hitherto. unreported passage in a speech delivered by the Radical Deputy, Hem Waldstein:— 1 "Those of us who lived on the coast of the North Sea are terrified when we reflect what would have happened if Heligoland had remained in the possession of the British, and had been at tha outbreak of war an English fortified place. We think with gratitude of the German statesman (Caprivi) who, by concluding the agreement whereby Heligoland was handed over to us by the British, transformed tho island into the most effective protection for the coast of Germany. A monument to Caprivi ought to be erected on Heligoland, with tho inscription: 'To the protector of tha German coast.' Neither the possession of Zanzibar nor any other possession in ' Africa could have been worth to Germany what Heligoland has been worth during this war. Again I say, honor to the memory of Caprivi." The Deutsche Rundschau, commenting on Herr Waldstein'g fervent expression of gratitude, claims the honor and credit for the Heligoland exchange for the Kaiser. "It is absurd," declares tho Pan-German organ, "to praise Caprivi for a matter in which ho was merel" the instrument. It was William 11. who foresaw the strategic value of Heligoland and initiated the which led to its acquisition by Germany, A quarter of a century ago the Kaiser l'elt instinctively, and knew by virtue of ins insight, that England was our enemy, and that we must prepare to fight England betimes. It may he said with trutH tnat tho Kaiser, despite temporary aberrations, has been u hater of I'.ngiand since his earl ; - j I'ood. AU credit to hijn for it.''