GERMAN TRENCH GUN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 309, 29 December 1915, Page 9

GERMAN TRENCH GUN.

TIffiOVTLNG A 200-POUND SHELL. Dr C. E. Pepper, a we'.l-known Surrey practitioner, with the Forces, says in a letter home: — "A new engine of destruction lias appeared in the German trenches. It is called a 'minenwerfer,' from 'minen,' a mine, and 'werfer,' a thrower—of course, the Tommies call it a 'minnie-lover.' It pitches a bomb that weighs 2001b and 6tands 3ft high, and when it explodes it makes a hole you could bury a 'bits in. The shell splits into strips that measure from two to three feet in length, and three to four inches in breadth, the edges of which have jagged teeth like a saw; in fact, we have used them for that purpose. These come hurtling through the air for a quarter-mile or more, cutting through treee that happen to be in their path, and lopping off stout branches. The concussion is terrific, and can be heard for a distance of ten miles away.

"If you can imagine what it would be like to have a Zeppelin always poised over your head, dropping bombs on a quarter-mile area, you can understand what it is like to be here, and yet no one lias had even a scratch except from the first one. That caught us napping, and pitched among a group of nine men —the result may be imagined. Of course, we immediately started to live underground. Still, we have to go about our duties during the day, and our immunity from injury is a remarkable testimony

to the adaptability of our men to cir

eumstanees. It happens that you can hear them start, and sec them coming. "The mortar that evidently dispatches

them gives a peculiar little 'pouf,' some thing like a deprecatory cough, not nearly as loud as the report of an ordin-

ary rifle; it is. in fact, distinguishable by its very gentleness 'midst the turmoil of other sound. Then you see a sinisterlooking black object (at night a firing trail of sparks from the fuse) describing an arc through the azure vault of the heavens above in your direction. Then you bolt down the nearest hole. On one occasion I was conversing with a friend at a spot where there was no immediate shelter at hand. "During the ascending part of its curve we had quite an argument as to which angle it would descend, and whether we should fly or stay where we were; it would be no use running into it. By,the time it reached the summit of its course we fortunately came to an agreement, and bolted round the corner of the trench to the right. A large working party is still busy with tlie rebuilding of that part of the trench where we had. stood."