Williston graphic., 1918-10-10


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-
cealed 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 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 60 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 1t
with the "75's."
They gave me little practice with
'75" under the direction of expert
French gunners before I went to my
14-inch naval gun, and, believe me, 1t
was a fine little piece. Just picture
to yourself little beauty that can
send a 3S-pound shell every two Sec
Onds for five miles and more, II you
want it to, and land on Fritz vest
button every time. There is nothing
I like better than a gun, anyway, and
have never since been entirely salts
fed with anything less than u.s."
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 it is rare. So,
since an artillery officer never sees the
enemy 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 OBJ
servers have maps and powerful
glasses and cameras. Their maps are
marked off in zones to correspond with
the maps used by the artillery officers.
The observations are signaled to q
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 communion
ton 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
searchlight The field telephones are
very light and are portable to the last
degree. They can be rigged up or
knocked down In q very short time.
The wire is wound on drums or reels
and you would be surprised to see how
quickly our corps established COM
hunication from q newly won trench
to headquarters, for instance. They
we're asking for our casualties before
we had finished having them, almost.
Artillery fire was directed by men
whose duty it was to dope out the
range from the information sent them
BY the observers in the air. Two men
were stationed at the switchboard,
, one man to receive the message and
the other to operate the board. As
soon as the range was plotted out II
, was telephoned to the gunners anc
they did the rest.
, The naval guns at Dixmude were
i. mounted on flat cars and these were
e drawn back and forth on the track b!
little Belgian engines.
{ After I had been ut my gun for sew
eral days l was ordered back to m!
regiment, which was again in tn
. |
> past both the British and French line
1 but quite a distance behind the from
lines.
D Everywhere there were ambulance
and wagons going backward and fol
ward. l met one French ambulanc
that was a long wagon full of poilu
from a field hospital near the firin
line and was driven by a man who's
left arm was bandaged to the shou
der. Two poilus who sat in the rea
on guard had each been wounded i
the leg and one had had big strip G
his scalp torn off. There was not
sound man in the bunch. You ca
imagine what their cargo was like,
the convoy was as used up as thes
chaps. But all who could were sin,
ing and talking and full of pep. Tn;
T. is the Frcpch for you: they used II