Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-07-19
with that battery?" my

What's the matter with that battery?" my
companion asked.
ONLY ONE BATTERY CAMoUFLAGED.
We debated the question. There was SODA
thing uncanny almost immoral about this quar-
tet of seVenty-fves that were blathering away
by the side of the road At last we found
what was wrong They had not been hidden
under cloak of camoufage. There were half
dozen green branches over one. Perhaps its
that the old order changeth. The others stood
out brazenly in their nakedness. Down the road
the battery horses eagerly thrust their noses
into the soft heritage. The battery drivers
slept against the bank, dust deep upon their
faces, their tired arms outstretched. -t -
Other batteries seen and heard None
were hidden by the camouhage screens which
have been fashionable in artillery circles for
three years past. There were few trenches
across the swelling eminences. Here and there
brown scar told where some men had dug in,
or a blot of fresh earth on the hillside revealed
a newly made strong point Men sat about on
the lips of some of them. smoking cigarettes,
nodding in the brilliant sun, or sometimes eat
ing the Neutrality-suspicious. which is army habit Id
the listless fashion of tired soldiers. -.
The battle was almost a silent one. l had
just come from the Montdidier sector, where big
guns throb and hammer all day and night.
Late the afternoon of the previous day the
waves of sound fairly stormed at one along this
Montdidier front. Here there was little to be
heard. Now and then a battery of seventy-fves
burst into excited cackling, the tat-tat-tat of
machine guns was heard. Once the ragged sound
of volley firing came from the blue distance
Judged by the noise this fight an incon-
siderable-almost a contemptible-one as com
pared with that at Montdidier Yet thousands
upon thousands more men engaged. The
issue of the war not remotely hung upon it.
WHY BIG GUNS WERE NOT USED. .
The explanation is simple. At Montdidier
heavy guns in permanent empIacements.
Here the line of battle has swung and flowed.
Neither side has been able or has cared to bring
up its heaviest artillery, knowing that in tornor
rows movements they may be cut off, The ar
tillery work has been yet largely a matter
of field artillery-the 75s~ on the allied side
and the IT'S the German side. 1t is only
when the fighting becomes stabilized and the
two sides dig in and the war of position begins
again that the big guns will come up 49,
For miles back of the battle area the roads
had been apparently deserted. Sometimes a
staff hooted along them, or ration cart
jolted dustiy by. Here and there beIated
refugees making their way out. Their
great oxen paced deliberately in front of their
huge wagons, their absurdly tiny donkeys
pulled absurdy tiny carts in which men and
women who seemed absurdly oversize were
sitting. But for the most part the roads had
been silent. We had driven for miles upon
miles without meeting a man.
Yet here, in the very area of the fight itself;
the roads alive with traffic. American am
munition trains creaked forward, the heavy com
bat wagons drawn by six and eight mules.
Trucks hooted along and guns rumbled forward
and the clanking rolling kitchens gave out their
clouds of smoke and sparks. Every inch OF these
roads we're under she'll fire, but shell fire in
open fighting is not what shell fire is when the
"big STUFF is being showered about. AS dan
gerous, perhaps, but not impressive. ..