WITH THE "HEAVIES."

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 155, 30 June 1917, Page 13

WITH THE "HEAVIES."

Describing the working of heavy artillery in France, a correspondent says:— But of all these hideous engines tha most hideous and most unnatural waa the enormous fifteen-inch howitzer. 1* stood apart from all the lesser monsters, in a lair of its own, and it seemed to move of its own volition. One scarcely noticed the men around it. so insignificant did they seem. When we first saw it, it was lying flat, like some monster waiting for its prey. With the aid of pulleys and a trolley the huge projectile was hauled towards its breech. Then when the breech was closed, it seemed to wake up, and without any visible human agency it raised its nosa over the edge of the pit in which it lived It moved slowly upwards until one could have sworn that it was gazing intently into the clouds above the steep hill before it. The men who had been ministering to it hastily ran aside and left a respectful distance between themselves and the monster. The non-com-missioned officer who was to fire tha great howitzer, as he stood back on tha hillside, seemed no more important than its humble slave.

There was silence. Instinctively one stopped one's ears. There was a great roar, a sheet of flame, and a thin mist of fiercely driven smoke. Everything in the valley shook and trembled, while a hut covered with tarpaulin collapsed entirely, as with a wild bellowing the hu"e shell tore through the air on its way to the enemy. Then quietly the "un lowered its nose again, and sank back into its pit with a dignified swagger that teemed to say there was jno reason to make a fuss about the i matter. An officer who was standing by ■mc remarked: "It is just as if it had blown out a puff of tobacco smoke, and | could not think why anybody should be ■ excited abgut ifcl'V- -