SLAVES OF THE GUN.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1917, Page 5

SLAVES OF THE GUN.

ARTILLERYMEN IN THE MUD. NO REST, NO SHELTER, NO WHINING. London, November fc Mr. Perry Robinson (Times' corre« spomlent n.t British headquarters) sheds a vivid picture of the ceaseless strain the artillery is bearing under present conditions. The batteries are dragged through miles of grey-brown slime, stagnant water, and shell-torn ground, the soldiers carrying the ammunition where it would be impossible for mules or ponies. Guns and men alike are unprotected from the weather or the enemy fire. The men snatch sleep in waterproof sheets spread on the slime. Whilst bolting their food seated at munitions boxes they fall into a weir? stupor. Officers drop asleep giving commands. "And the never-ending rain comes in torrents, the icy winds sweep across the waste. Grey, bitter days, succeed bitterer nights, when the sky is aflmne with star-shells, rockets, and shcllbursts. Each day and night is the same turmoil, uproar, unending fatigue, mud. and always the enemy shells. "There is one kindly property in mud. It deadens explosions and lessens the killing power of shells." The German batteries arc formidable, but suffer badly under our concentrated hurricane attacks, which utterly obliterate thoir positions. We heat it from scores of prisoners, and the innumerable captured documents fro. quently credit the British with treble the actual gun strength in given positions. ' The enemy in many cases has the immense advantage of operating from fixed positions in unspoilt country, where he has had leisure to construct concrete dug-outs. The British though bearing an enormous physical and nervous strain, face all danger with a light-hearted contempt which is so common that it is almost an insult to mention, it. Never did men better deserve their country's thanks.