The Nome daily nugget., 1918-03-20
(Ey Herbert corey)


 front full of bookish theory. They know all about trajectories and indirect an- gles and delayed fuses. They can cover a map with pretty lines. my ~1,7 z They go-.baek after having been taught how to translate that theory into practice.
 There is no doubt about It. I've seen tn em coming and going. They are mighty apt to come over here with the cap slightly on one side of the head and the eye just a bit confident Not all of them, but some. They have been taught the theory of artillery work at West Point, where they have also been taught that West Point is the best military school in the world. The conclusion follows like a dog under Il wagon that they are the best artillerists in the world. They know how to hide a gun behind Q hill and hit shack built of pine two by four and covered with tar paper in a 1o-acre field, hvs miles away. When they get through with it there is no more shack. < f
 The difYerenceJ between theory and the British practice Is that when the British batteries get through with it there Is no more field left. "v, r
 Here is a little incident that so iln- pressed an American general who wis., ited the front that he hardly talked of anything else for days. He was a we'll seasoned general, too. He has fought all over the map. He was taken the rounds of the British artil- Iery positions along with his aides one morning. The general commanding offered to show the American general how this sort of thing is done nowr- days a.~. t.~
 We have just located a German battery over there" he said. "Wo have been trying to get him for days. Al hast the aerial photographers havc been successful. The German camou- na.e has been pierceil'S Ss
 He showed the American general the mornings map-for maps are issued by the intelligence section every morn ing--or which the positions of the Ger man bftteryr was uiIrkedy as nearly ss a mark could be made by the point of a needle. Then he gave some or ders Then he and the American gen. eral and their aides. sat down and chatted--about the difficulty of get ting ones trousers patched nowadays. perhaps. with all the women gone to war. By and by the general com fnanding took out his watch. Tt is 20 minutes past three" bet said. At s8 minutes past 2 salvo. of 70 guns will be fired on that battery"
 It was a quiet afternoon on the front. Here and there a British gun bIooeyed. At s1ons-very' lons--inter- vals a German gun blurted back. The big new threesdeclser airpianes sailed overhead and over the German lines. One might call the day peaceful, on the whole. The two generals and their aides sat there in the stiffness. watch ing the second hands of their watches. By and bys--after hours and hours--the long hands touched the B minutes past 8 o'clock. 4 believing roar came from behind a. score of hills. It rever- brated sulienIy. Then there was si' fence. Then, away over, there in the German lines the party heard the faint sound of the explosion of 70 shells, dumped simultaneously on German battery. It's men were at tha' moment probably writing home to Gretchen, or whiting saiavings to brown for coffee substitute.
 Nest day the American general saw the morning map. issued fresh by the intelligence section Yesterday there had been d pin point showing where IL German battery had been hidden Today the may had been rubbed clean the pin- point had disappeared The battery was done fors Y 'e
 It is that sort of thing that our young oficers are learning. It is the sort of thing that cannot be taught in any school. They watch tho res''- larity and precision of the dermH t for ho is both regular and precise. ct he always was They learn tha at noon exactly shc will drop fixef number of shells upon certain selected points. They find that he is so accu rate that he can drop his shells al most in the same shell hole. Tha sort of thinS does not disturb th' British morale. The Briton likes t sandwich psriods of intense activity il
 c. -A Al M,