AMMUNITION BY AIR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 244, 12 October 1918, Page 13

AMMUNITION BY AIR.

HOW THE HUNS WERE BEATEN.

The infentry twerc hard pressed (writes "Wing Adjutant" in the "Daily Mail"). For hours they had endured the heavy shelling which prelndee an attack, and then, wave upon wave, the assaulting lines of grey-clad Huns had poured froni their trenches across No Man's Land. Three times had the lade in khaki hurled them back, twice with rapid rifle and machine-gun fire. On the third occasion the Huns had penetrated almost into the trenches, but with a shout the defenders had lea.ped out and driven them back -with the bayonet. For a time all was quiet at the Boche prepared for another effort, and during the pause the CO. took stock of the ammunition. Supplies were- perilo'uely low, and he went into a well-protected dug-out and telephoned through to the rear for supplies to be sent up. A thin voice answered him: "Impossible; the enemy's barrage is too heavy, and no one could get through alive. You must hold on at all costs. If thie portion of the line gives, the whole of this front will be threatened." The colonel went back to the trenches determined to hold on while a man remained alive, but he sighed ac he thought of the lives that must be lost owing to the lack of ammunition. A tense feeling of suspense hung over all his men, but he cheered them as he took his way along the line. Suddenly his ear caught the sound of an engine, the hum of the aeroplane as it passed over the battle. The CO. looked up; the noise eeemed very close. As he looked he saw machine after machine come along the line, flying so close to the ground that their undercarriages barely cleared the parapet. And from each machine leaned an officer who dropped parcel after parcel into the trenches until the whole line had been thickly strewn with packages. One fell at the colonel's. feet. He picked it up curiously, wondering what it might contain. As his fingers closed around it h:s face became eager and he tore at the strings and wrap-pers, and there in his hand lay cartridges—the one thing in all the world his soul then longed for. Quickly the word was passed along-, and all the packages were collected and distributed among the battalion. A look of relief came into the faces of the men a* they handled the familiar cylinders. Then the storm burst again. A grey line leaped from the opposito trenches with confidence in ite bearing. The German commanders had guessed the- shortage of ammunition in the British lines. But their triumph was short-lived. Before they could reach the wire their lines were cut to pieces by the rapid fire of the British troops, and the Huns fell back again, astonished and beaten. That was how the Royal Air Force their comrades in the trenches. ,