The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-09-30
The Noise of a Modem Battle.

during the greater part Of the South A.
rican war, has furnished 10 his pape-
a graphic description OF warfare. he
writes:
What is a modern battIs-how doss-.t
look and sound?
Really. the field Of operations is so
extensive and the range of modern guns
is so great that battle conditions haye
altered until there IS no lon5er any gen
eral clash OF battle or even any posi-
bility OF grasping or viewing an engage
ment from any single point. There is no
great resembling noise in war nowadays
You hear one Of our big guns loo Ell
three miles over on the right. ana an
other enc two miles on the left II you
are near one it makes a tremendous
noise, yet 1 have not heard one e0plo-
sion as loud as good, strong, clap or
thunder You hear the guns of the en-
envy cough far III front Of you, and taeir
shells burst within Your lines with
nearer, louder sound-but not really
great or deafening noise, by any m ans
Our guns create almost no smoke,
though our lyddite shells throw Up clouds
of dust and smoke where they fal, m les
! away. Because the Beers are using old
fashioned powder in their cannons there
is a small white cloud wherever one is
fred and squirt Of red sand where their
shells dig into the veldt. The smoke o.
war, therefore, and the so-calied roar
of battle are both alike occasional, scat
tered, inconsiderable.
The rif1e-iring has been the prin ipal
feature of our battles 1t sounds, as I
wrote once before, like the frying of fat,
or like the cracking and swapping or
green wood in a bonfire. II YOU are
within two miles of the frCnt you are
apt to be under fire, and then you heac
the music of the individual blllets
Their song is like the magnifed note OF
a mosquito-'Z-z-Z-z-Z thsy go owe
your head; 'zZ-Z-z-p' they finish as
they bury themselves in the ground. tbs
is a sound only to De heard when the
bullets are very close. You kick up you
heels and run hundred, or even fifty,
yards, and you hear nothing but the sc J.
eral crackle of rife fire in and bsfore
the trenches. The 'Putt-putt Tor Yick
extraordinarily gun is able TO interest
you at a distance of three miles. Its
explosions are best described by the nick
name-The blooming door-knocker. It's
bullets or shells are as big as the bowl
of large briar-root pipe, and they tear
and slit the air with a terrible sound,
exploding when they strike. The firing
of the gun was heard all over the larg
est of our battlefelds, and the explosions
of the Shells sound long way. beca use
outer edge Of the field. The whizz that
even these missiles make in flying how
/ ever, is like the whispered answers of a
maid in love-only TO be heard by ahe IA
vored individual who is especially ad
dressed.
I'm a word there is not much noise in
modern battles. These individual sourd ;
of which I speak are not loud enough 10
blend. The GROWING, al-pervading noises
are those of the guns and of the rifle
fire, and on the vast veldt, spread over
a double line of five to seven miles in
length, only those that are very near
J are very loud.
THE bravery of our stretcher bearers
I is as much beyond question as it is be
I yond praise. When all of US lesser and
immediate historians of the moment have
! told of the value of all generals, colo
/ nels, majors, captains, and "Tommles' Of
! the army. we shall still have, in common
/ justice, to describe how the chaplains.
doctors, and stretcher bearers go in and
out of the most hellish flre-not once or
7 twice, but all through every battle.
/ cit is just without the range of fire
| that you see and realize the horrors Of
/ war II is there that the wounded crawl
/ and stagger by you; 1t is there that they
spend their final output of energy and
/ fall down to lie until assistance comes /;
it is there that you see the stretchers
. laden with their mangled freight, and
the sound ones bearing the wounded on
/ their backs and in their arms. Better
T yet-if so cheerful phrase is permi ssibIe
in such a case-to know the brutality
I and woe OF war, happen upon q kopje
/ that has just been storned or a trench
+ that has been carried Go to such a
+ place today, twenty centuries after Christ
came with His message of peace on
earth and good will 10 men, and behold
! what you Shall see.
Here said I to a photographer in
such a place. think it was Belmont
snap this scene. Look at the wounded
all over the ground. Quick! Out with
your camera
on, I can't, said he, it's too hor-
ribleH
las you please, 1 said, but it's what
/ the public wants
( You read in the writings OF those who
know nothing of war about the with
Z ings of the wounded and the grooming
/ on the battlefield. There is no writhlns,
/ and the groans are few and faint Tn re
was one man who was simply chewed up
by a shell at lMagersfontein, and his SUI
/ ferings must have been awful. He pt
! crying, Doctor. can't you do anythfng2'
/ first wounded man I saw in the war kept
! saying, In ever so low voice oh dear.
dear, dear Oh, dear, dear. dear But
there is much less groaniug than you
would maglne-very little, in fact Two
things are so comon with the woun sed
as to De almost ike rules OF behavior
! First. they all beg for water Ot used to
/ be cigarettes that they asked for on N
4 Turkish side N the last war IN Europe
ha 11vt 3,
made gentle by their wounds. Men OF
the roughest speech. profaue BY Sc -cn !
nature, cease to offend when stricken
down.
( Well. mate says one whose leg IS
shattered, you never know when your
I turn viii come, Do you?
And another mpIy cries. 'Oh. dearr
Now and then you hear. For Gods
/ sake, get me taken TO an ambulance. 3
/ bat 10 profanity IS Intended there.
/ y have had half q dozen men describe
( how Il feels 20 be wounded All who
( had bones shattered by expanding 5uIletr
used nearly the same language 10 de-
scribe the sensation.
You feel they said. exactly as r.
vou had received a powerful sack rom
an electric battery. and theu c mos p
blow as II your foot for arm. O. Via .
ever part IL NAV 5el was crushed BIZ d
stroke with a TREMENDOUS naTet II f.
much the same IN g lesser 4 gree e ~
Zone IS struck 81 a Man er tu- ~: h.t
II the smooth. slender. cezn Ettfe Il
merely piercss the flesh q burr ~ or
+ singing sensation Is the lnstsntan oas
result
Lying SIX hours ~ the hrsiHrz s-o
was pretty bad said ore whoza srrn
bone was smashed 'out he real awf1.
experience was he 3oltiuE over tse rockz
wheu was csrrIesi ~ 81 ~ a-no-i7z - 3.
7 Another mann officer hose srot va
smashed ~ An explosive huief. sad