The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1918-11-21
breech, locked it shut and Brown sert


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.
I never saw 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 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 IF the trees, or maybe
man or two, but never q 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 it
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 fine little piece. Just picture
to yourself little beauty that can
send 3S-pound shell every two Sec
onds for five miles and more, If you
want it 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
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 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 airplancs 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 of in zones to correspond with
the maps used by the artillery officers.
The observations IRE signaled to a
receiving station on the ground and
are then telephoned to the batteries.
All our troops were equipped with
telephone signal corps attachments
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 rugged 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
munication 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 1t was to dope out the
range from the information sent them
by the observers In the air. Two men
were stationed OF the switchboard,
one man to receive the message and
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 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 distance behind the front
lines.
Everywhere there were ambulances
and wagons going backward and for
ward. met one French ambulance
that was long wagon full Of poilus
from 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 rear
on guard had each been wounded in
the leg and one had had q big strip Of
his scalp torn off. There was not
sound man in the bunch. You can
Imagine what their cargo was like, II
the convoy was as used up as these
chaps. But oil 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.
Just after 1 passed this ambulance
the Germans began shelling section
of the road too near me to be comfort
able, so I beat 1t to shell crater
about twenty yards of the road, to the
rear. A s.irapnel shell exploded pretty
near me just as jumped into this
hole---I did not look around to see how
close it was-and l remember now
how fha old minstrel Joke had heard