The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1917-02-28
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ABOVE sPURTlne GUNS


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4 WITH THE BRITISH ARMIES II
q THE FIELD. FEB. (Ry MALL
what does Il feed like to have 4 hos
| tile battery Of artillery pick you VI
Land 4gin shooting at you while ycs
hans " d sasket half mile high Il
til ea ssss hAllaany
81 pose, as lou dansled at the tol
end of the wire cable no thickeI
than achild's little finger. the Ger
man howitxers should suddenly try
Ito smash the auto-truck carrying thu
4 winch holding the ground end Of thu
lstring?
Suppose you. up there In the win
tier sky. saw an airplane making fol
yru and you knew It would do its
hest 10 shoot fire arrows into your
sausage, cause 1t to explode and
chuck you headlong to the frozen
earth below?
Or, failing to explode. the balloon
caught fire and you. to save yourself,
had to plunge downward at the tail
end Of i parachute with shrapnel UNI
| der and about you all the times
Think You could do your work
calmly. accuratelyg Think you
would be snficiently cool-headed to
Icall up on the telephone. whose
wires disappear under you in a dizzy
dip gronnduard. and tell somebody
lin little cffce about it and have
| him get your own batteries working !?
These are the working conditions
lof every day OF the soldiers attached
Ito the balloon sections Of the army
Thanks to the courtesy Of major
commanding one Of these sections.
Il was allowed to so up with an OBJ
servat ion officer In one Of these fam
pus sansag es Z The latter was
soung lieutenant, in reality an
American, whose father once lived
in Cincinnati. High in the air. over
a world covered by four inches of
snow. while the noise of the Big
War bounded up in lumpy explosions
and the conclusions OF the larger
gums could be felt distinctly, he ex-
planned his work Just as you would
explain yours. in the office, shop or
on the farm. Through the glasses
the zig-zas ging white lines of the
trenches showed plainly.
See he said. looking through
his glasses. there are two distinct
networks OF trenches, with a mar
row space between which is free
from criss-crossing lines. That
space is No-Man s-Land. OF course.
all activity on the other side of that
space is German activity, and that
il part Of the job we are UP here
TO attend to-
See that village beyond the Ger
man lines to the left?" he contin-
ued, steadying himself without
touching the sides of the basket
one OF the secrets OF accurate bali
loon observation THAT is Blank
And. to the right there, that road
where you see the double row OF
sres. lat Il the part 81 the line We
-shi slseaa ectlon are int resi-
ea s Jsaer parts are Under oh
ssrya an iIom those balloons you
see tc the north and south of us
thouea. naturally, We cooperate
very loosely one balloon with anoth-
er so that the minimum observable
activity gets past us. Troops in
march, supply columns, working
parties among or behind the trenches
things like that We signal to our
artillery and get a batterg-or sew
eral Understanding We give
them the range, then, as they fire,
we give them corrections, so many
degrees to right or left, too long or
too shcIt. The whole thing is done
II telephone, right from this bas-
l6et Here: put this on your head. ,"
The head-harness OF telephone girl
9as handed me. | put it on.
Time me- said the lieutenant.
81 am going to call up battery.
Hello. ABC-44,1 he called.
Hello. Battery ABC-44" came
the reply ii seemed almost instantly
AS matter of fact it has taken 10
seconds. Test" the young officer
replied into the transmitter.
You see" he went on, .'the
thing is very rapid. II has to be
rapid Nevertheless my call had TO
Iass through a central As the saul
sage swayed gently TO and fro. a
frosty haze of blueish purple stole
between us and the lines. Beneath
the nowy earth was plainly visible
but objects two or three miles off
were completely hidden from view.
High over the haze, on the horizon
sailed an airpiane. About IL, like a