The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-08-01

14-inch naval gun, and, believe me, It
was a fine little piece. Just picture
to yourself a little beauty that can
send a 3S-pound shell every two sec
onds for five miles and more, If you
want 1t to. and land on Fritz vest
button every time. There is nothing
/ like better than a gun, anyway and
! have never since been entirely salts
ned with anything less than a "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
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 a
receiving station on the ground and
are then telephoned to the batteries.
All u troops were equipped with
telephone signal corps detaehments
and this was a very important arm
Of the service. The enemy position is
shelled before an attack, either en-
barrage or otherwise, and communica-
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
a searchlight. The field telephones are
very light and are portable to the last
degree. They can be rugged up or
knocked down I'm q very short time.
The wire is wound on drums or reels
quickly our COPS established com
%municatiOn from a 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 it was to dope out the
range from the information sem them
by the observers in the air. Two men
were stationed at the switchboard.
one mar to receive the message and
the other to operate the board. AS
soon as the range was plotted out it
vas 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 I had been at my gun for sew
eral days | was ordered back TO my
regiment, which was again in the
front-line trenches. My course was
past both the British and French lines
but quite a distance behind the front
lines.
Everywhere there We're ambulances
and wagons going backward and for
ward. / met one French ambulance
that was a long wagon full of poilus
from a field hospital near the firing
line and was driven by a man whose
left arm was bandaged to the shout
der. Two poilus who sat in the real
on guard had each been wounded in
the leg and one had had a big strip OF
his scalp torn off. There was not a
sound man in the bunch. YOu can
imagine what their cargo was like, if
the convoy was as used up as these
chaps. But all who could were sing
ing and talking and full of pep. That
is the French for you: they used no
more men than they could possibly
spare to take care of the wounded, but
they were all cheerful about it
always.
Gro Be Continued)