The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-11-08

An American Artillery Camp in
France, Nov. 7-Down in the hollow
with the six-inch howitzers one had
no chance to see the target. \
Fifty yards from the muzzles there
was a thicket.One could plainly see
the heavy projectfle tear through the
slender tips of the branches as 1t
screamed it's way through the air.
There was a fascination in watching
it. Suddenly, as it touched the top
Of it's curve, it disappeared.
;. In advance OF the thtcket was q
hill, and on the other side of the hill
was the model trench that was being
blown to bits. Yet the men with the
battery saw that target with the inner
eye.
Hes splitting the bracket they
said. The ''he" was the officer away
off in the observation post who was
giving the firing orders. Twice the
shells had been high" and twice
"low'' and the error had been cor
rected. Obeying the telephoned orders
the gunners had set the spouts of their
big pieces decimal, parts Of inches up
or down.
Then the order had come "five
right" and then ten left and now
five right" again. That was split
ting the bracket" Elevation being
presumably right, the shells had fall
len on the proper line, but at slight
distances from the, target center. If
the bracket split neatly. and the other
complex factors which enter into gun
fire condescended to do teamwork, the
result should be a bullseye.
The men of the second and third
gun crews were sitting by the linn
bers, well back of the guns. They
commented frankly on the idiosyn-
crasies of, the men Of the No. i gun
crew, then at work with the big skies.
No. SIS, No. 2 was slow. They said
that once he was double-t timing
through a garden and a grapevine
grew around his leg and tripped him.
And No. rs fuse cutters might be able
to cut cheese successfully, but they
were distinctly out of place in cutting
fuses. The No. 1 crew did not hear
these statements from the bench, for
the officers frown on loose CONVEX
sation. They seemed Hurried. It was
little wonder. This was the third day
they had worked with a gun.
Watch the bubble" shouted the
gun captains to the gunners.
The gunner sits on the left Of the
breech, where he sights through mys-
FERROUS glasses and twirls little wheels
around and around. One article of
his paraphernalia is a spirit level. and
in the level is a bubble. He should
spend his spare time watching the
bubble, except that he has no spare
time.
Those huge guns were being fired
six times to the minute by green crews,
just out of college and cornfield, and
no one of them had time to spare.
At the left of the gun was the cais-
son, divided off into compartments
like boxes in a post office. In these
compartments were the projectiles and
the powder bags. Three fuse cutters
knelt in devotional attitudes before
them.
Range - one--two hundred"
shouted the telephonist.
The battery commander repeated 1t
loudly, SO that the crews of the four
guns heard. The gunners began to
twirl their wheels and watch their
from the caisson to the gun, carrying
the heavy protectiIe against his stom-
ach.
the trail Of the gun and another ram
med 1t home. He was back with a
white bag filled with pwoder. 1t was
against the butt Of the shell. The
breech block was slammed shut. No.
/ stood with the lanyard in his hand.
watching the gun captains uplifted
hand.
Three seconds interval" said the
battery commander. Tire"