The Washington times., 1917-03-31

| fires at you merely because you fire
at him: he hlRs when he wants to
hit something; and my point is that
in spite OF all the devastation de-
scribed inSm my article last week, he
does not hit 1t except once In q way,
almost by chance. After all, II Is the
man with the bayonet who goes
straight to his mark; and the artillery
is most useful when IL is clearing the
barbed wire from his path; for the
days Of the cutting pliers are past;
and he who sends his men over the
top before the wire is brushed away
by the guns Is a dug-out who Is like
lily to be permanently dug-in IL he is
rash enough to share the exploit he
orders.
Safer on Battle Front
Than In LondSn after Dark.
Hence, you have the miracle Of
roads crowded with trains of lorries
and troops coming and going from the
trenches, and. of railway trains puff
ing away as openly as at Croydon,
OF batteries with their camouflnge
worn out and howit3ers without any
camouflage at all, naked to the
heavens, all SO well known to the
enemy that IL were to give not only
the names Of the places, but their
very latitude and longitude, should
make him no wiser than he already
Is; and yet I was safer there than
In London after dark.
/ had to dress for the part of man.
at-the-front In khaki, lest the ytsibiI-
ity OF my ordinary clothes should de-
vote me to certain death at the hands
OF the Hun. Well, I traversed the
somme front very agreeably In the
company OF General Giorgescu, whose
brilliant Rumanian uniform would
have tempted anyone with the true
spirit OF marksman even In time of
peace. When the general was re-
monstrated with for running this risk.
he laughed and pointed out that the
snow had made khaki as visible as
scarlet and gold. He was quite right.
l might just as well have borrowed a
herald's tabgrd from Sir Alfred Scott
Gatty for battlefield wear as far as
my visibility was concerned. On all
hands l could see bodies OF men NOV
ing about, showing up against the
glittering virgin snow like the bulls
eye on target Yet neither they nor
were a penny the worse.
1 must add that / was left with
SO poor an opinion of high explosives
tnat 1 believe we should go back to
tne olack gunpowder OF Waterloo n
only II were possible to carry the
great bulk of 1t that would be needed.
have already described how the
houses OF Ypres are still standing
though practically every hearth has
had a high explosive shell rdetouated
on It. They make prodlgious holes in
the ground. these shells, and they hurl
ciods to the sky with volcanic energy:
put the sky is just where they are not
wanted A less ardently aspiring,
more terre terre, expansive explo-
sive would be much more useful. 1t
would bring a house down by blowing
lts ankles from under 1t instead of
hrst knocking its roof in and then
very superfiuously blowing II of
again. Lateral. not vertical energy
Is what, as II seems to the amateur, Is
needed. Inventors please note.
Man stnI the Instrument
or Precision Par Excellence.
The combination Of Impression with
The narrowest localization Of effect leads
to an impunity under exposure which
Is Incredible to the man at home. II
saw a steel foundry. one Of the largest
in the country. with its furnaces visible
at night for a dozen miles round, in full
blast under the very noses OF the Ger
man air service; yet none Of the many
bombs aimed at It have done any dam
age worth mentioning. Its risk from
Its own accidents Is greater than from
the engines Of destruction brought
against II by its powerful enemies.
The British air squadron which enter
tained me for a night has discarded OBJ
servers, Photographic cameras, and
bombs, and consists OF pure duellsts.
Their Snachines carry one man only
and he, with one hand on his tiller and
the other on, his machine gun, throws
himself on any German he can find in
the air, and intimates in effect, like the
Shakespearean warrior. that for one or
both Of US the hour has come" At that
station the commanding officer, in point
ing out to me an alarum horn which
meant Huns" accidentally touched the
button and sounded II. Before he could
explain that 1t was a false alarm a
knight errant sprang into the air and
spent the next hour searching for an
imaginary foemap.
For the credit OF one of my own pro-
fessions let me add that this command
ing officer was famous actor. That he
handled flying squadron without effort
was easy for me to understand. To a
man who has produced a modern COM
edy. a campaign is child's play.
/ do not, OF course, mean to imply
that dueling in the air is superseding
observation, photography, bombing,
fire direction, and the like. At anoth-
er station l had seen the two-seater
aeroplane with all its apparatus, in
cluding the sighting contrivance by
which the dropping OF a bomb can be
aimed like a rifle on the BIsley
-anges. But the duelists brought
me back to the fact that the man Is
still the instrument of precision par
excellence You do not have to send
a thousand airmen to do the work of
one. You do have to send a thousand
bombs to do the work OF one. And.
after all, they are much less likely to
do il.
The Miracles of Battle
As Seen BY the Amateur.
I insist on these points-always in
viting you to bear in mind that have
no authority for them except my own
conclusion from my own amateur OBJ
servation-for two reasons. First,
for the sake of those who, having
husbands and sons and friends and
brothers at the front, or being them
selves in training for that fiery or
deal, are tormented by the idea that
nothing can long escape these terri
n