UNDER FIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 21, 24 January 1917, Page 7

UNDER FIRE.

CLOSE TO FRONT LINE TRENCHES. Hγ. Harry Holmes, formerly general secretary of the Wellington V.M.C.A., sends an exciting account of a visit to " Triangle'"' dugouts in front line trenches. He says:— "The British V.M.C.A. was asked to take over the Red Triangle dugout. Captain Best, one of the Canadian secretaries, took Mr. C. J. McGrath, one of our workers, and myself out for a preliminary inspection. We motored from R to .. This town is absolutely in Tuins —not a house but has not beea shelled —and all the population gone. The week before we arrived a great shell came through tiie roof of the Canadian V.M.C.A., and blew the top of the head off the Canadian corporal in charge.

There we left the motor car and walked for a mile across a swamp to the little wood in which the dugout is situated. It is a place about 30ft long, 10ft wide, and 6ft high, and is really not a dugout, because the greater part of it is above ground, but roofed with heavy steel construction.

Here for ten weeks has been conducted the most advanced work of the British in Trance. It is 800 yards from the famous —■ — trenches, and is under shell fire day and night. Here at 9.30 we had supper out of doors, in front of the little wooden shacks in which our men sleep. The previous evening at five o'clock eight great shells had fallen within 40 yards of this place, blowing off the tqp of the nearest houses. At 10 o'clock we motored down from D to H O . Here we walked along a road, being constructed at night by our engineers, all the work being done in the darkness, and reached E -. From thence onwards no match can be struck at night, and so those of the party who smoked cigarettes got their final light. We walked" up towards the V « R— •— , in the direction of C C -, and then we walked along in the road just behind the ridge. The whole place was most brilliantly lit by star and Very shells. These are fired from a pistol into the aiT, and stay up for some seconds, causing the most brilliant illumination. You can read a letter a mile away by the light. The experience is weird, for as this brilliant light goes up you feel that every eye in the universe is focussed oa you, and you are the only man that can be seen.

We passed along, and entered a little wood, and then came one of the most stirring experiences we have ever had, and we did not know what had occurred until afterwards. As we got among the trees there was an increase in ihe num< wr of star shells, and almost instantaneously a terriEc artillery bombardment took place. Battery after battery opened up, and huge gun's from mile's away fired over our heads. One battery started firing from within 20 yards of tne road along which we were 'walking: It the demonstration had been arranged lor the King it could not have been more spectacular. Most of the party did not know whtthpr Boche shells we're, coming over or whether they were ours going over w> the Germans, but McGra-h, the imperturbable leader, who has nerves of steel, said, •' Come on. come on, there's nothing coming over/ just to encourage us to believe that the :oise was all from our guns. W e wanted to believe him, but evidence seemed against him, as the snnek of the shells going overhead from ki? sidp " as P lain 'y heard. Never snail I forget the sigh of relief that w<ail heaved when we dropped into chairs in that dugout. We heard afterwards i!" ■ ,v, rPa!, - v Wnrred. The Germans nad blown in one oi the trenches, and a Prisoner had betrayed their enterprise, so tnat when the front trenches were blown ?P by the enemy every pun that we had >n the rvhole vicinity played a rain of grapnel and explosive shell on the "ater, so that no advantage could be Wken of the mine explosion. in that little dugout we learned some"Jing of one of the most wonderful pieces « work being done by the V.M.C.A. in "ance. X o wonder one of the staff Jpeers said. « I believe the V.M.C.A. at w^l7.. 13 one 01 the 6even wonders of the I°J. d - ,In that little place two men had made their home for ten weeks, taking TL £ nsks of a tidier, wearing gas -T grapnel helmets. Our goods have *» M be brought up at night from a farm SSn^ 6 The other night the column got under shell fire, and came to ne dugout at a gallop, eight cases being Tet 1 ?- he dash at thp «» ish - for the * mL Wn clean off th, ' limbp r. an d I fmV^\. Were PatefuUy and thankfully by some stray Tommies. did 79nn S f K "" k in Jul - v thp ". c two men Grath ?u ncs u ' or,h f,i hlls Mc£*th, the leader. U a lecturer from the Board of Education, and during p. hls degree of Doctor of Litera- ! is was wr 'tten on a comg™on of ancient and modern liturgies. £s companion is a young Canadian, Mr 1 " of **"