The Carlisle independent., 1918-08-15

The barrel slipped back, threw out the shell case at 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 to Brown, You should never waste your- self in infantry. son.. And old dopey Brown just stood there and grinned.
 That was Brown every time. He knew about more things than you could think of. He had read about gunnery and fooled around at Dixmude until they let him play with the "75's," and finally here he was. giving his kindest to old Fritz with the rest of them.
 never saw a battery better con. ceaied than this one Up on the ground you couldn't see the muzzle twenty yards away-and that was all there was to see at any distance. There was a ruined garden just outside the gun quarters. and while the gunners were there picking apples there would be hiss and an explosion. and over would go some of the trees, or maybe . 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 il with the "75's.'
 They gave me little practice with a '75 under the direction of expert French gunners before I went to my 14-inch naval gun. and. believe me, fl was a fine little piece. Just picture 10 yourself a little beauty that can send a 3S7pound shell every two sec onds for five miles and more. if you want it 10. and land on Fritz vest button every time. There is nothing l like better than gun. anyway, and l have never since been entirely Satis- fed with anything less than "75.''
 As you probably know, the opposing artillery in this war is so widely sepa. rated that the gunners never see their targets unless these happen to be buildings. and even then il is rare. So. since an artillery officer never sees the eremy artillery or infantry, he must depend on others to give him the range and direction.
 For this purpose there are balloons and airplanes attached to each artil lery unit. The airplanes are equipped with wireless, but also signal by smoke and direction of flight, while the balloons use telephones. The ob- servers have maps and powerful glasses and cameras. Their maps are marked of in zones to correspond with the maps used by the artillery officers.
 The observations are signaled to a receiving station on the ground and are then telephoned to the batteries. All our troops were equipped with telephone signal corps detachments and this was very important arm of the service. The enemy position is shelled before an attack, either en barrage or otherwise, and communica- tion between the waves of attack and the artillery is absolutely necessary. Bombardments are directed toward certain parts of the enemy position almost as accurately as you would use q searchlight. The field telephones are very light and are portable to the last degree. They can be rigged up or knocked down in very short time. The wire is wound on drums or reels and you would be surprised to see how quickly our corps established com municatien from newly won trench to headquarters. for instance. They were asking for our casualties before we had finished having them, almost.
 Artillery fire was directed by men whose duty II was to dope out the range from the information sent them by the observers in the air. Two men were stationed at the switchboard, the other to operate the board. As soon as the range was plotted out 1t was telephoned to the gunners and they did the rest:
 The naval guns at Dixmude were mounted on fiat cars and these were drawn back and forth on the track by little Belgian engines.
 After had been at my gun for sev- s'ral days l was ordered back 10 my regiment, which was again in the front-line trenches. My course was past both the British and French lines but quite distance behind the front lines.
 Everywhere there were ambulances and wagons going backward and for ward. l met one French ambulance that was long wagon full of poilus from field hospital near the firing line and was driven by man whose left arm was bandaeed to the shoul- der. Two poilus who sat in the rear on guard had each been wounded in the leg and one had had big strip of