HUN BATTERIES SHOT TO BITS.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15756, 24 November 1916, Page 5

HUN BATTERIES SHOT TO BITS.

A GERMAN ON THE

BRITISH FTRE. l VIVID NARRATIVE. i AMSTERDAM, September 30. Tho havpc wrought by English fire among the German batteries on the Sonime is described by tho specinl correspondent of the "Kolnische Volkszeitung," Hermann Klatsch. He takes as an example the fate* of .the famous Silesian artillery in July and August, but it is evident that as lie writes from headquarters he has been invited to make clear to Germans at homo that the losses in material as well as in men have been colossal. Ho says:— "Shells strike the guns direct; all wooden parts are on firej the hand ammunition bums also; an ammunition cart blows up and a small ammuition store as well. It is difficult'to replaco them because ammunition has to be carried by men who slink along routes themselves under heavy fire. Also the wounded have to bo borne into safety, ami still thero is nothing but shells, shells! Each ordinary shell is followed by a gas shell, and everybody wears a i gas mask. j ''At 9 a.m. an officer of the battery announces that tho English attack has 1 begun and that great masses of tho encoiy aro rforming forward over tho completely wrecked infantry positions and are close to the battery. But the battery now consists of only one gun, for +he rest are shot to pieces or completely useless. There are men enough to f.erve the gun, because while the guns were under the heaviest fire tho men were. under shelter. '. If the men had not taken shelter tho guns, or the one gun, would have had to serve itself, for uot a man would have been left alive. BRITISH ADVANCE. . "Forty or fifty English are visible at the end of . tho little coppice of C . But the one gun that remains cannot in its present position bo swun E round far enough to bring . the advancing English under fire. Meantime tho crcw of a neighbouring battery com© in and .report that all their guns aro out of action and that they themselves are at tho disposition of the officer commanding our battery. They are sent off at oncc to bring up ammunition or to replace men who have dropped. "A lance-sergeant reports the enemy is advancing farther and with caution We will not let the gun fall Into the enemy's hands without a struggle, so under heavy fire the men pull the gun out of its bed, set it up in tho open, and commence a quick fire on the advancing enemy.. But in the meantime the British have brought up two ma-chine-guns and are pouring a. hail of bullets on the" gun and tho gun crew. The sergeant-major falls. "It is impossible to shell the advancing eflemy any' longer, for every bit of the ammunition carried with the gun is used up, and there is nothing more to do except to make the gun useless for the enemv and save the men to fiq;ht another gun' somewhere else. The lieutenant arms himself with handbombs ready to welcome the first of the enemy therewith, and gives with a heavy heart the order to put the gun out of use. But tho men canhot withdraw the breech-bolt, which has become blazing hot. they remove the and all the range-finders. SWOOP OF AN AIRMAN. "The English have already reached the original battery position, but one more attempt is made to telephone to divisional headquarters: 'Majority men saved; guns destroyed; am retiring.' Then the telephone is taken along and everything that has to be left behind is destroyed. Only the battery commander remains behind with a few men, unable to abandon the last faint hope of seizing some favourable moment for saving what remains of the gun. For his guns are his very self, and his eye does not leave the shot-shattered plot of ground where he knows hia battery lies. "On their -way to the rear the men are -discovered by an enemy airman, who swoops down upon them and opens fire from a height of 300 ft. But the men bolt for cover and get off with one man lightly wounded. Then they go forward again. Presently they are 1 joined by the men of a Bavarian ba'tery, who have also had to leave their 1 shattered suns because the enemy had worked forward right into the battery positions. _ ' "Divisional headquarters tries to find 1 out how many guns are destroyed and how manj men have returned fit for ' duty. The second battery managed ' to "recover two heavy and two light gunn during the night. Of the sixth < battery, which was iu a little wood, every gun has been shattered by shell- ' fire." The fourth and fifth, which alone still had our own infantry covering them ahead, held out for two days. But, finally they, too. had to leav™ the field, j as they were incessantly Bombarded ] with gas-shells. But they brought ( their guns with them, and were 1 promptly seat into action at another i point. The second, third, and sixth, [ which had suffered most, were given < new guns and sent to the rear for re- i formation. A week later they were in j action again with their numbers made i up to strength, fresh equipment, and (

so forth. Next time thcv had t-cit davs of it! •'At the end of the month the regimoilt was given u 'rest,' which. consisted of spending every night in a different bivouac for four nights. And after the fourth they . were sent into action again . "Once more the enemy begins to score direct hits; eighty gns-shclls a minute are poured into the battery ■position, and. in addition, ton batteries of enemy field-guns open \ipon>oiir men. Tho gas-clouds grow over denser; enemy airmen incpssantlv observe tho battery and tho effects of their own fire, and from eleven eaptivo balloons tho enemy have a full view into tho position. ? "Still tho battery holds on, until at ' last there is not a gnn left that can - - firo a shot! 1 '