The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-06-18

Icrater or a piece of demolition work. In time every detail of bombing in trench warfare and a good deal of bombing In the open is mastered.
 Toward the end of the instruction course combined show" Is held Near the bombing school is a school for instruction in the use of trench mortars, another wartime development. The Stokes gun, the best type of trench mortar in the. British army, is like drain-pipe on end. The Stokes gun is one of the most useful and also one of the simplest pieces of artillery. It can be moved from place to place. It can be aimed with beautiful precision. It destroys trenches and ma- chine guns, small emplacements, and morale. Used just before an attack the Stokes gun takes it all out of the Ger mans, because 1t can be fired with aston ishing rapdity. and five or six Stokes guns doing burst" will send up huge clouds of dirt, screening an advance and doing havoc with enemy guns and men. With the help of the Stokes guns and airplanes brought over from an aviation school nearby. a real assault is staged at the school trenches First the stokes guns begin a hve-minute bombardment, each firing about five shells per second. The trenches are torn up, new craters are formed, dugouts are demolished, and the whole situation so changed that neither side knows the trenches any more The men tnen ldke lHeli pldcts.
 BOMBING THE WAY
 The invaders advance, sometimes throw | ing out smoke bombs to cover. As they reach the trenches they are met by the Huns" As the bayonet goes forward l bomber places a charge of explosive and 1 blows up the trench walls, forming barrcade for his party. Behind hum an- other barricade has risen and the ln- vaders' Hanks are safe. In addition the | 1. ynt1 | Then the men advance. Each man | stands as near as possible to a corner and the men never crowd together so that
 a bomb striking among them would not put out more than one or two at the most. When bomb falls near them the ! men dodge round a corner if possible, try Ing to advance under cover.
 Presently they discover that a Hun has hidden in bombing pit which they can not see They throw wildly at it. The Hun jumps aside. As he jumps the sniper,
 some hundred yards off picks him out. | The next time he throws the sniper calls, and the umpire takes the bomber out l The advance continues. Presently the 1 invaders come to long trench and when | four or five have gone into it, doors snap l at both ends They are caught Elise where on the line there is more trouble. sniper is stopping one party piece l of wiring overhead prevents another from t 1 trap The advance is held up definitely. l But the airplanes are watching. An observer signals. Immediately the in vaders set up line of red flares. Wher- ever they are the flares go up, and the observer. is able to plot out on his map exactly the places where the advance has
 been held up. He dashes back to head lquarters. He drops his map. Half 1 minute later the Stokes guns are at 1t
 again, smashing up the trenches directly
 in front of the red flares.
 A new wave is sent over. It dodges across No Mans land. It creeps into
 shell holes and throws bombs. It reaches
 the trenches and brings fresh supplies lt
 1 hurries around to the German grenade
 dumps and begins throwing the Ger
 mans own bombs Eventually the trench
 | is cleared.
 As soon as the attack is over the off
 Icer in charge will lead the men pack to
 l a concrete model of the trench system and explain the mistakes which have been
 made One group has forgotten to clear
 the crater's lip from which Germans
 bombed them. Tn another place a snlRer $
 post commanding two trenches was ietl
 lunbombed Or the Huns had neglected
 to use a very advantageous position be-
 hind a traverse. Or the men had messed
 up their communications underground anu
 failed to reach the flank or the Invader
 The whole battle is repeated With crit-
 iciSm. Then the aifiieh So "P osaii'
 take new photogra phs, and the men are
 set to planning new attack on ths
 changed ground.
 ] Planning and commanding are essen
 tals of this work. The men are not only
 taught to be bombers, they are taugh
 to teach bombing to others, the rank
 and file They have to know and to teacl
 the work of the royal engineers, because
 in both trench and open warfare th'
 engineers usually have more than they
 can do.