BIG GUNS IN HIDING.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 208, 31 August 1918, Page 15

BIG GUNS IN HIDING.

STRAW STACKS CONVERTED INTO A BATTBHY. (Bj MAJOR C. J. C. STREET, R.U.A.) The battery commnnder stopped suddenly road. "That's the place," he said with evident conviction. The two officers with htm gaied rather blankly in the direction of his outstretched arm. They had been reconnoitring for positions In the uclsbbourliood for the Utit three hours, nntl had found every likely spot either already occupied or surrounded I>T groups of recent shell-holes that shewed It had been carefully reglsterrd by the U<T.nan battcricu. They had just pas.-ea tliroiifrli a small town, among half-mined building!', of which they had found no place Hint would give them concealment with u:e standing In fmnl of mi open field, In one corper of which Mood four rather dllnpldnteiMookllif Htraw stacks.

"That's the place," repeated their leader. "Pity we didn't come this way round tirst and aive ourselves all the trudging. Let's go over and have a look at it."

"Bit open, eir, isn't If!" vcntureJ the second In command. "It'll mean a lot ot dlinculty in hiding the gnus. We've hardly got time to dls pits."

The major laughted. "We're not going to hide them that way," he sail. "If yo» had an aeroplane photo, of this hit of the country, and knew there was a battery somewhere about, where would you look for

••In that row of cottages. I fancy," replied the SCM.ud in command, pointing to a row of half-ruined buildings a couple ot hundred yards away.

"£o will Krlta." agreed the major. "Comp on, I want to have a lock at this Held. Got the compass handy?"

Not many days Inter the field looked exactly tJie same as it had when the reconnoitring party first set eyes npon It. The only alteration in the landscape was that the ruined cottages seemed rather more tumbledown even than before, and were eurrouudoil by disturbed earth.

It was only the favoured few who were taken to see Ihc guns. They found themselves in what appeared to be a thatched barn, in which «it a gun-detachment, while at one end stood the gnn, ready for action.

The major was wont to laugh at the this barn from the outside, did you?" he would say. "You see it isn't a barn, really, it's n straw stack. We pulled out the inside of the four stacks that used to be here, and shored tt irp with timber as we went along. They look just the same from outside as they di,] licfore. Of course, as soon as we open fire, the Hermans shell that old row of cottages. ]£ they hit them, we slow down and s-top, until they think they've neutralised us. During the night we send out a party to repair Ihetn, and when Fritz finds out our constant efforts to Veep them in order, he naturally thinks we're using them. Wc'rf. going to shoot in a few minute?, stop and - *ateh the fun."

A couple of men went op to the front of the stack and pulled a couple of ropes. A section of the wall swung aside like a curtain, allowing the muzzle' of the gun to be ran out. "Hullo," said the major, "they're jnst going to start. My 6econd in command is up in the O.P. He's got a email shoct on."

The 'battery had not yet got off many rounds before the moan of a shell coming towards them was heard. It passed over their heads, to burst -with a crash some distance in the rear. The major walkea over to a crack in the back wall of the barn. "I thought co," he exclaimed. "in those poor old cottages again. Tell Captain Pike to go slow, telephonist, we're being neutralised. He'll know what l mean."