Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 19??-1918, 1918-07-18
sYNoPsIs.

synopsis.
CHAPTER i--Aibert N. Deppw. author
" the story, eniisth In tho United States
navy, serving four years and attaining
the rank Of chief petty oiiicer. hrst'ciass
gunner.
CHAPTER 1.-The great war starts
coon after he n honorably discharged
from the navy and he sails Tor France
with determination 10 enlist.
CHAPTER iiI-IIo Joins tho Foreign
Legion and 10 assigned 10 the dfcadnaught
Csssard whore his marknmanship wins
him high honors.
so we put cotton In our ears and
the captain called the observation
tower a short distance away and they
gave him thu range. Then the captain
"cniled 4i2S meters" 10 Brown. They
placed the nose Of q shell In n fuse
adjuster aud turned tho handle until
II reached scale 4i2s. This set tpe
fuse 10 explode at the range siven
Then thar alarmed the shell Into the
breech. locked II shut and Brown sent
hIs best 10 Fritz. rl
The bnrrcl slipped back. threw out
the shell cnse nj our feet and returned
over cushion Of grease. Then we
received the results by telephone from
the observation tower. After he had
fired twelve shots the captain said 10
Brown. "You should never waste your
self IN Infantry. son." And old dopcy
Brown Just stood there and grinned.
Tint wns Brown every time. He
knew about more things than you could
think Of He had read nbout gunncry
and fooled around at Dixmude until
they let him play with the "75's." and
finally here he was, giving his kindcst
10 old Fritz with the rest Of them.
never saw battery better con.
cealcd than this one. Up on the ground
you couldn't zee the muxxle twenty
yards nwny-and that was all there
was to see az any distance There
was . ruined garden Just outside the
Z gun quarters. and while the Runncrs
were there picking apples there would
be hiss and an explosion. and over
would 70 some Of the trees. or maybe
a man or two. but never shell struck
nearer the guns than that. The poilus
used to thank Fritz for helping them
pick the apples. because the explosions
would bring them down In great style.
Shells from our heavy artillery passed
just over the garden, too. making an
awful racket. But they were not In II
with the "7b'a"
They gave me little practice with
'7b" under the direction Of expert
French gunners before I went to my
14-inch naval gun. and. believe me. II
was flne little piece. Just picture
10 yourself a little beauty that can
send a 3s-pound shell every two sec.
onds for Ave miies and more. II you
want II TO, and land on FRITZ vest
button every time. There 10 nothing
! like better than q gun, anyway. and
have never since been entirely satis.
ned with anything less than ''76"
Al you probably know, the opposing
artillery In this war Ia 20 widely scpa'
rated that the Runncrs never see theif
targets unless these happen to bs
buildings, and even then II 10 rare. 30
since an artillery oflicer never ssss the
enemy artillery or infantry. he must
depend on others to sive him the range
and direction.
For this. purpose there are balloons
and airplanes attached to each artil
iery unit. The airplanes are equipped
with wireless, but also signal b.
smohe and direction Of night. while
the balloons use telephones. The Oh
servers have maps and powerful
glasses and cameras. Their maps an
marked of In zones to correspond with
the maps used By the artillery cnicers
The observations are sigualed to
receiving station on the ground and
are then telephoned to the batteries
All our troops were equipped viii
telephone signal corps detachments
and this was a very important arm
Of the service. The enemy position Il
shelled before IN attack, either q
barraRe or otherwise, and coinmunica
tion between the waves of attack and
the artillery is absolutely necessary
Bombardments are directed towart
certain parts Of the enemy position
almoat AZ accurately AZ you would ust
searchlight. The field telephones an
very light and are portable to the las
degree. They can be rigged up Of
knocked down in a very short time
The wire In wound on drums or reel
and you would be surprised to see how
quickly our corps established com
munlcntion from newly won trenci
to headquarters, for instance. Thel
were asking for our casualties befor'
we had finished having them. almost
Artillery fire was directed by mel
whose duty II was to dope out tn
range from the information sent then
by the observers In the air. Two mel
were stationed at the switchboard