Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-09-03

find a certain degree of shelter, than In
Artois and Flanders, where the coun-
try is as flat as the top Of a table, with
nothing even remotely resembling a
hill. In the fiat country the guns
which are carefully masked by means
of branches from detection by hostile
aircraft, take position at distances
varying from 1000 to 5000 yards from
the enemy's trenches. Immediately In
the rear Of each gun is a sub~terranean
shelter so that when a German Taupe
I comes in sight the gun crew can go to
earth until it has passed. An artillery
subaltern, known in the British serV-
ice as the forward observing officer,
goes I'D to the infantry trenches ana
chooses a position, sometimes In q tree,
sometimes in a shattered church tower
sometimes in q sort Of dugout, from
which he can obtain an un"obstructed
view of his battery's zone of fire. He
is to his battery very much what a
COACH Is to a football team, giving MS
men directions by telephone. Amid all
the uproar of battle the observing om-
Ger has to keep careful track, through
his glasses, of every shell his battery
fires. and to inform his battery COM
mander by telephone Of the effect OF
his fire. He can make no mistakes, Tor
on those portions Of the battle line
where the trenches are frequently less
than a hundred feet apart the slight
| est m~iscalculation in giving the range
might land the shells among his own
men. The critical moment Is, how
ever, when the enemy makes a sudden
rush and climbing out OF their
trenches come rolling forward. In
| stantly the French trenches crackle
and O into the full blast of maya
| zine fire. The air quivcrs to the in
cessant crash Of bursting sErapnel.
Infantry attack calls the observant
officer into the telephone. Number
one. four and five guns fret and his
battery, two or three miles in the
rear begins pouring sErapacl on the
advancing Germans. But still the
gray figures come on. Drop twenty
fveI' he orders. Careful with your
f,se-setting = very close to your
trenches The French shrapnel sprays
the ground Immediately in front OF the
French trenches as a street cleaner
sprays the pavement with q hose. The
gray line checks, ~falters, sways un-
certainly before tho blast OF steel.
| Men begin to fall by dozens and scores,
others turn and run for their lives
| With a Shrill cheer the French infant
nv spring from their trenches in a
| counter attack. Raise twenty-five!
|. raise fifty telephones the OBJ
serving officer as the blue figures of
his countrymen sweep forward in the
charge. And so it goes, the guns
backing up the French attacks and
breaking the German ones.
It should be remembered that there
are two types Of shell in common use
today-shrepnel and high explosive
used for entirely different purposes.
| Shrapnel is intended only for use
against infantry in the open or when
lightly entrenchcd. At a range Of $500
yards the bullets Of the British 1S-
pound shrapnel, 375 in number, cover a
space $50 yards long and 80 yards
| wide-an area Of more than n and a
half acres. Though terribly effective
against infantry attacks or unprotected
batteries, shrapnel are wholly seles
against fortified positions, strongly
built houses or deep and well planned
entertainments. The high explosive
| shell contains no bullets, but a charge
of high eXplosive-in the French SER
vice melinite, in the British usually
lyddite, and in the German army trim
itrotoluene. The effect iS far more con-
centrated than that Of shrapnel. COW
ering only three-fifteenths of the area
affected by the latter. Though shrap-
mel has practically no effect on barbed
wire entanglemcnts or on concrete, and
very little on earthworks, high ex-
| plosive shells Of the samc calliber de-
stroy everything in the vicinity, con-
crete, wire cntanglements, steel
shields, guns, and even the trenches
themselves disappearing.
"The commanding Importance OF the
high explosive shell in this war is due
to the peculiar nature of the conflict.
The struggle has developed into what
is, to all intents and purposes, a fort
ress warfare on the most gigantic
scale. The Germans are not simply en-
t~renching. The so-called trenches are
in reality concrete forts, with shields
Of armor plate, protected by the most
ingenious wire entanglements and 9TH
err distractions, and defended by ma
chine guns mounted behind steel
plates and capable Of firing a thou
sand shots a minute, in the enormous
proportion of one to every so men. III
order to pave the way for an infantry
attack on a German position Of this
description near Arras, the French fired
200, 900 rounds Of high explosives in a
single day-and the scouts came back
to report that not a barbed wire entan-
clement, a trench, or a living human
being remained. During the same bat
tie the British, owing to a shortage of
high explosive ammunition, were able
to precede their attack by only 40 min
utes Of shell fire. This was wholly in
sufficient to clear away the entangle-
ments and other distractions. and. as
a result, the men were literally moved
down by the German machine guns.
To give some idea Of the staggering
expense of modern artillery fire, ]
might mention that the Germans, dur
ing the crossing Of the San, fired 700,-
600 shells in four hours.
Il have twice been under the fire of
the German siege guns-in Antwerp
last October and in Dunkirk in early
May. At Dunkirk a room had been
reserved for me on the upper floor of
the local hOstelry, the Hotel des Ar
cades. 1t must have been about six in
the morning when l vas awakened by
a splitting crash, then another and an
| otbar eocb lorpdor ond thor, .fora near