The Hawaiian gazette., 1911-11-24
VIVID DESCRIPTION
OF MODERN BATTLE
What Il Feels Like 70 Be I'M
der a Hot Artillery
Fire.

what actual fighting means is Of par
ticular interest nt the moment when
both in Europe and Asia nations are
in the throcs Of sanguinary struggles.
Private 99203 lay behind his little
broastwork nervously lingering his rife,
writes +. 3. Austin In the Sphere.
The long hours of inaction and suspense
had told upon his nerves as on those
of every man in the line. Above all,
the constant thunder Of the hidden
guns swelling momentarily till the very
air seemed to shake with their rever-
beration filled him with vague uneasi-
ness and curious physical discomfort.
His body somehow seemed to have lost
solidity, his stomach trembled, some
thing crept along his spine. The day
was already hot but his hands were
cold. Anxiously he gazed in the direo-
ton of the terrible sound. There was
nothing to be seen, not even a dimness
on the clear blue summer sky. Then
for the hundredth time his eyes ranged
the ground which somewhere concealed
the enemy. In front of him and below
him the grassland stretched uninter-
rupted by hedge or ditch, save where
about 500 yards distant stream wound
a course roughly parallel to the position,
until a mile and half away it reach
ed the dark mass OF woodland which
swept over the crest of the next ridge
and down to its foot. A road emerged
from the wood, crossed the level
/ ground, and curved TO the left of the
I position. The whole plain was bare
of any living thing.
He turned his head and looked
along his own line. At first the men
had laughed and chatted gaily enough
if somewhat nervously, but now the
/ long tension had hushed their voices,
and most of them searched the dis
tances with haggard eyes in silence. A
couple of subalterns behind him con-
versed in subdued tones, almost in
audible in the roar of the unseen, fir
Misunderstanding guns. Some way along
the line a Photograph was flashing out
] hurried messages into space. High up
in the sky balloon was floating He
was ignorant whether theirs or the
enemy's.
The General Appears.
The muffled beat of hoofs upon the
turf startled him. The general COM
manding the division galloped up with
his staff, spoke few words to the
| colonel, and disappeared. The whole
line waited expectantly for an order.
None came. The artillery thunder
seemed to increase.
Suddenly, with six regular crashes
at intervals as precise as those Of a
striking clock, the howitzer battery be-
hind him fired. He looked eagerly to
discover their target but could not
even see where the shells burst. The
battery continued to fire methodical-
ly over the ridge into seeming nothing
ness until its monotony rendered him
almost oblivious to it.
After some time he heard a peculiar
ly shrill sound, something like the
screech of a steam whistle. 1t started
on low note, rose swiftly to a pierre
ing intensity, and finished in sharp
crash behind him. Then the shrill
sound came again, and suddenly a
white cloud-puff appeared in the air
in front of him, and there was crash
land strange humming.
"Shrapnel,n said the man next to
him through locked teeth Now the
smoke-puffs and crashes followed one
another quickly all along the line, but
principally, it seemed to him, near the
salient angle occupied by the next regi-
ment. So far no one near him was
hurt. He waited in mental anguish
for something to happen. Suddenly a
man sprang up with shrek, rushed
along the line for few yards, and
fell A couple of ambulance men ran
up to him, turned him over, and left
him. Private 992OS felt his nerves go
all to pieces A wild desire to spring
up and rush away beset him. There
was an uneasy stir all along the line.
"Lie down. Lie downi' shouted the
officers, and the colonel strobe among
the bullets to hearten the men, ours
ing at the raw troops he had to com
mand,
The shrapnel fire persisted sweep.
ing the salient angle for the most part
but searching all along the line at in
tervals, striking man here and there.
The ambulance men were in evidence
all the time-here carrying a man off
slung over their backs or on a stretcheF,
there examining one and leaving him.
Sometimes they, too, stumbled and fell
mot TO rise again. The regiment set
its teeth and lay still. Behind It the
howitzer battery crashed out mOnot-
onously against the invisible enemy.
The strain was becoming intolerable.
Here and there along the line men were
taken i'll and retired, boiling back like
rabbits, duelting their heads in ludic-
rous fashion 10 escape the invisible bull.
lets. Some swoTe SOFTLY and continual
ly, some prayed, some babbled they
knew not what. Above all the din rose
the voices of officers exhorting their
men to be steady. On the ridge the
Photograph still flashed, but the figure
of the colonel was no longer 10 BIO seen
against the sky. He was stretched on
the ground anxioualy watching the wood
mile and half away through his
glaseea.
Presently he saw dark figure
emerge from Il, and then another, and
then several, and then many. The
HhaTp-sighted among the men saw them
also. The cry, oThere they areiu ran
along the line. Private D920a inaliue.
lively laid hls finger on tho trigger OF