Evening star., 1918-01-17
TAUGHT PRACTICAL
USE OF BIG GUNS
American ArtiIIerymen in
France See British Demon
strate Intensive Firing.
BY HERBERT COREY.

WITH THE BRITISH ARMY IN THE
FIELD, December 1I.-American Of
ficers come to the artillery schools on
The British front full of bookish theory
They know all about ira jectories and
indirect angles and delayed fuses. They
can cover a map with pretty lines.
They go back after having been
taught how to translate that theory IN
to practice.
There is no doubt about it. I've seen
them 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 al
West Point, where they have also been
taupht that West Point is the best mil
;tarv school in the world. The conciu-
s;on follows like the dog under 4 WAGON
that they are the best art:lierists in the
world They know now to hide F"'.
behind a hill and hit shack paii' o
nine two by four and covered WITH 's'i
paner in a ten-acre field. FIVE mics
away. When they get thFoush ~" =
there Is no more snack.
Practice and Theory.
rb. difference between theory and
the British practice is that when tne
British batteries get through with 1t
there is no more field
Here Is little incident una. 50 M
pressed an American general VINO VISIT.
ed the front that he hardly talked OF
ANYTHING else for days. He was wen
seasoned general. too. He has Iousht an
over the map. He was taken the ROUNDS
NCIt
with his aids one morning. the genera
commanding offered to show the Ameri-
can general how this sort OF thing IS
done nowadays.
tery over there" said he. I'VE have
been trying. to find him for days. At last
the aerial photographers have been sue
cessful The German camoufage has
been pierced.
What American General Learns.
He showed the American general the
mornings map-for maps are Issued py
the intelligence section fresh every
morning-on which the position of the
German battery was marked as neatly
as q mark could be made by the point
of a needle Then he gave some orders
Then he and the American general and
their aids sat down and chatted-about
the difficulty of getting ones trousers
patched nowadays, perhaps, with all the
women gone to the war. BY ana by the
general comanding took out his watch.
TT is twenty minutes past g." said he.
~At twenty-three minutes past 3 salvo
of seventy guns will be fired on that
battery
It was quiet afternoon on the
front. Here and there q British gun
blooeyed. At long-very long-inter-
walls erman gun blurted back. The
big. new three-decker airplanes sailed
overhead and over the German lines.
One might call the day peaceful. on the
whole. The two generals and their aids
sat there in the stiffness, watching the
second hands of their watches. By and
hy-after hours and hours-the long
hands touched twenty-three minutes
past 8 O'Clock. A believing roar came
from behind score of hills. 1t rever-
berated sullenly. Then there was si-
1ence. Then, away over there in the
German lines, the party heard the faint
sound of the explosion of seventy shells.
dumped simultaneously on German
battery. Its men were at that moment
probably writing home to Gretchen or
whiting shavings too brown for coffee
substitute.
Next day the American general saw
the morning map, issued fresh by the
Intelligence section. Yesterday there
had been a pin-point showing where
German battery had been hidden. To-
day the map had been rubbed clean. The
pin-point had disappeared The battery
was done for.