The Sentinel=record., 1915-01-24
NIGHT BATTLEFIELD
 ABODE OF TERROR
GERMAN OBSERVER TELLS HIS EXPERIENCE BETWEEN THE
 LINES OF BATTLE.
Night Alarm Causes Instant Activity and Illumination of Searchlahts and Gun Fire,

Hanover Jan 23.-Though the med ! ern battlefield at night IS the abode l of terror, 1t does not lack picturesque
 ness, according to German officer whose opportunities to be impressed have been many. Il a letter to q friend here he wrote:
 Being on observation duty at night is Tot as lonely a job as you
 think. Time passes very quickly. There are nights however. when
 every minute seems an hour-a all that depends upon circumstances and your own frame of mind
 War here is more intense than 1t
 is in the east .AIy observation post lies close to, the lines of the French
 on a hill. From there 1 report the movements of the enemy and direct
 our artillery fire. Over me fly hun
 dreds of shells and shrapnel from
 both sides. A share of them camo last night
 Until about 10 o'clock all was quiet, From out of the dark night came the usual battlefield noises. it noises one could call them Some
 where men spoke in an uHdertone-
 what language l don't know. Then came the sound cf footsteps. A man coughed in suppressed manner and the steps of another Ter rec orded
 by the faint voice O. two metallic substances striking together. Then the steps and other sorhds vanished and l replaced my revolver.
 There was nothing to be seen, un.
 til to my right the rifles in the French trench began to sputter. Lit.
 tie tongues of purplish fire seemed
 to leap across the ground. and through the air went the vail of
 thousands of bullets. What they shot at I could not discover--false alarm. of course. But they kept it up val iantly and the excitement communi- eated itself to the trenches in front of me and to those beyond on my left Tn less time than it takes to write it, the entire field rose from sleep. Searchlights which had lain still be. gan to move about frantically. Here
 and there other lights appeared as
 if somebody had turned on the cleo. trio current of city
 Headquarters wanted to know what was the matter, After confess ing my ignorance l returned to my task of observing things in the dark
 But through my glasses the little
 flames of the rifles became merely d trifle larger and more intense and the si1fouettes and shadows cast by the searchNghts blacker. From near by came the buzzing of an aeroplane mo.
 tor-it passed o1, which way l don {
 know. S9%E
 And then greenish flames in the far-off sky told of rockets or shrapnel, whichever they were A detonation
 back of me caused me to look around. Just then two of our guns emitted columns of fire. and the next instant
 shell sailed through the air above me with an uncanny moan. Another come. Ahead of me, in 6 rapid sue cession two sheaf-ike flashes and two explosions that shook the earth
 around me
 Soon the fire became general. The battlefield assumed an aspect which would call beautiully-terrible
 There were moments when it re.
 sembled a large city ia which the in.
 habitants passed the night by pull ing up and down the shutters of their windows Of a sudden whole rows of houses would be ligAted up. as the men in the trenches fired vol leys. For a moment part of this city would lie in utter darkness and then would rise from it the columns Of fire emitted by the howitzer bat. teries The pillars of fire would rise almost perpeldicuarly. giving the
 impression that you were looking
 upon vast number of steel ovens,
 "Of man you heard not sound No human voice could be heard in the
 din; softly tried my own. But the effort mingled with an explosion near by. For some time the fury of the
 battle il the dark, about nothing, in creased. tfF
 For the greater part of al hour
 the thrashing continued. Then the ! outbreaks lessened in volume and ire
 quency, and finally died out altogeth-
 CT In the trench in front of me men l now sroKe, but soon 1t was so still again that I could hear the ticking
 of my watch and the signing of the wind in +he paarh1r willows