Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1916-12-07
Associated Press Correspond
ent Tells Graphic Story of
Things Seen With Army of
Sir Douglas Haig,
SOLDIERS INDIFFERENT
TO ARTILLERY FIRE
Men Jest as Babel of Sounds
Pass Over Their Heads
Foreign Ground Likely to
Bring on Offensive,
Copyright 1916 by the Associated
prpgS

(Copyrlght 1916 by the Associated
Press.)
With the British Army in France,
Dec. 8, via London, Dec. 6 (FTom a
staff correspondent of the Associated
Press. Winter, cold, gray and
bleak, has held the western battle
front in its icy grasp for more than
a week now, and has temporarily
checked any attempt on either side at
operations on a large scale. There
has been the usual daily "strafing,' or
exchange Of artillery fire, but the
shelling has been largely done by what
mariners would call dead reckon
ing"
Low hanging, damp, leaden skies
have shrouded the land in gloomy
darkness, and observation has been
almost wholly impossible. For the
past seven days there has been thick
mist, while on two occasions the war
zone has been completely curtained in
a mantle of heavy fog But through
this gray murk the guns kept ham
mering away-firing at the unseen
enemy-harrassing post roads and
rail heads or any other registered
place where he was likely to be busy
with the multitudinous affairs of war
behind the lines.
Battles in the Fog.
A battle in the fog-and nearly
every detached engagement in this
struggle on the Somme could be class
ed as a battle by ordinary standards
is wierdly mysterious and uncanny
affair A roar, a flash of red flame,
and out into the leaden mist shriets
shell on its well-intended mission of
death and destruction.
This is where it should fall" re-
marks the gunners, as he points to a
map with a pair Of compasses. I'VE
will put another just over here and
bang goes the gun. In the deepness
of the fog the battle seems to shoot
into q little drab world all its own.
The Germans, however, have been
bombarding one Of their recently lost
positions. 1t is a favorte occupation
of the German gunners-this shelling
position they know so well, after
they had been driven from it. And
such "strafing" calls for a reply even
if the enveloping fog permits one to
see scarcely beyond the grim muzzlo
of the giant gun itself.
Fighting Is ImpersOnal.
Such fighting as this makes war
seem intensely impersonal and in the
cOlorless language of the official COM
munique, may appear something like
this
There was considerable hostile
shelling today against our front on
both sides Of the Ancre. our retalia-
ton was prompt and effective"
One knew that if the British shells
we're truly searching their way
the Opaque mist to their
charted destination. the reply must
be all that the communique claimed.
Under the protecting canopy OF fog.
the Associated Press correspondent
sought to explore the pulverized ruins
of what was once the thriving little
French village of Beaumont Hamel.
Officers and tommies coming from
that direction gave every assurance
that all was quiet within; so, the mo,
tor car proceeding blithely along un-
til a ghostly whine in the lmpenetra-
BILE gloom overhead told its own story.
The daily shelling had begun.
BewiIdering at First.
To one only casually acquainted
with the noises of a battlefield there Is
always bewilderment at first, as to
which are the friendly" shells, going
over toward the enemy, and which
are the unfriendly visitors coming over
to burst in a wild destroying fury. In
the mystic grayness of the dripping
fog the bewilderment was accentuat-
ed, and the ordinary whistle and
"crump" of the vari-calibered shells
translated into a yeritable witches
chorus. so intense was the lombard
ment at one time, with the shells rush.
ing in opposite directions overhead,
that the mingled sounds became like
the singing of storm winds.
Each caliber shell has its own par
ticular plant, sometimes sadly melan-
choly i'm the distance, and again spite
fully fierce in its nearness. 1t is a
great source of satisfaction when, un-
der the tutelage of an experienced Of
ficer ones comes to distinguish for
ones self the difference between the
outgoing screech of the friendly shells
and the incoming 'whang' of what
the ''Tommies" call another present
from the Boches.'
Visitors to~the British front are al"
ways impressed by the absolute ins
difference of the English, Canadian
and Australian soldiers to the indis-
criminate sheling. Unperturbed, they
"carrv on" as if there were no such
thing in all the world.
A striking picture in the fog was
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