BATTLE OF BIG GUNS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2309, 17 November 1914, Page 9

BATTLE OF BIG GUNS

THE GERMAN ENTRENCHMENTS

BOER TACTICS

(Special Correspondent' "Morning Post.") Another stage may be said -to have been reached in this most extraordinary war, and the battle of the Aisne, so far as tho river of that name has anything to do with it, is for" the moment over, or, rather, has entered into a position of stalemate. Everything is, however, favourable to the Allies, and if we have not had the satisfaction of driving the enemy from his fortifications wo have at all events the pleasant conviction that he is most probably unable to leave them now at his pleasure. I have been over tho ground I traversed before, and find comparatively little change in the position of the opposing armies. In his new positions above the enemy has no quarries, but has very effoetive entrenchments, in which his big guns are cleverly concealed.

Further along the line of the river the quarries begin again, and resemble a series of detached redoubts. These are still holding out, although our trenches at Borne points have been advanced to witnin a few hundred yards of the enemy's. The artillery duel is

being carried on as severely as ever, especially between the heavy guns, but the infantry work is spasmodic and one would almost say half-hearted; at all events, on neither side is there any apparent wish at present to push home an attack, in force. Both seem content.to hold their ground while the battle rages on the west. Heavy Cerman Reinforcements. There is every sign that the Germans became seriously alarmed at the dimensions which the French turning movement was assuming, and have Drought up heavy reinforcements. The centre of activities now is at' -, j and . The first-named has been tal".en and retaken over five times. A young English soldier remarked to me , the other day: "They told us the German soldiers couldn't fight, but, my word!" There can be no doubt but that they have fought like demons in this battle of the Aisne. The condition of their trenches, covered in as they are, and of their rat-holes among the quarries can only be imagined. At all events, the prisoners that are being taken in that neighbourhood are very unpleasant people indeed. I saw one officer who had been interned in the trenches whose clothing was drenched in blood up to the middle, and it was not his own blood. The dead are lying unburicd between the trenches, for the artillery fire is so deadly, seeing that by this time every range has been worked ,out with absolute accuracy, that fatigue parties canuot be sent .out from shelter. s

While it is true that most of the German prisoners seom quite glad to be taken, still, to all appearances, the moral of the enemy is not bad on the whole. "The infantry can beheard singing and playing the accordion in their trenches, and there is a grim kind of humour in the traps each side lays for the other. The very artillery has a way of saluting the enemy at particular times, for no particular reason. What should be meal times are specially selected to keep the enemy busy, while there . are little tricks such as letting him get'to sleep anl then .wakening him up again. ■ It is well for the gunners to keep up their spirits by adding a little interest to their work, for any'thing'more appallingly monotonous than this artillery duel along the Aisne cannot well be imagined. You see nothing but the blank side of a hill, , or a rolling plain or a forest. You have the unpleasant consciousness of being under fire" from you know not where, and you

siwply bang away without the* slightest means of knowing what effect our shot is having. A Baffling Experience. At tho eame time, top, it is a very baffling experience to watch this fight l ing from a distance.. The-centre of activity .keeps- movinp; about in unexpected fashion. The other day, for instance, in'the early, morning there was heavy work at and towards ——, that is to say, on my.right. This lulled towards noon, when the action of ths heavy guns had apparently passed towards and , away to the left. In the afternoon and the valley were in the thick of it; by the evening it had gone back to the right, and at midnight practically the whole line was taking action spasmodically. It is too, that while each of •the sections is having its turn the others remain , ' almost entirely quiet. Further, there is a bewildering uncertainty in what may be the objective. For instance, a covtple of "Coal Scuttles" may land at a certain point, followed in a minute or two by another brace, and one concludes that the German gunners have got on to something. One waits for" the next, but not more come, and, on the contrary, a different kind of gun opens upon some 'quite other objective, rattling away briskly for a time.' Then, after a long while, boom comes the big fellow again and ,once more stops. The Germans must waste a tremendous amount of ammunition ; indeed, an officer calculated the other day'that they expend quite fifty 6hells for every man they kill. There is more serious work in hand when ono hears the "Kaieer's hymn of peace", wafted on the breeze, for so the British soldier nicknames the rattle of the machine guns—ground ' out, of course, by the Kaiser's hurdy-gurdy. That always means more deadly business at close quarters. There was a smart piece of work the other night at the farm of ; on the fringe of the . Held by the French all day against heavy German!, attacks, when dusk fell the defenders apparently retired in disorder to the woods, running fast across tho open ground. The enemy suspected a ruse, and continued to shell the place for a time, but', apparently reassured, advanced with shouts of joy. Masses of his infantry debouched upon the fields round the farm, which remained- utterly silent until the open ground was crowded, , when in the twinkling of an eye every wall became a roaring inferno of shot from the deadly Maxims mounted on flvery point of vantage. The carnage round that littlo placo was awful, tho serried massas of the enemy being mowed down as they stood. ' The French claim to have killed upwards of a thousand so far as they could ascertain, and the German rout was hastened by the , who poured forth from their concealment- in the forest. Our soldiers call this sort of thing Boer tactics, and claim to have learned the lesson in South Africa. They often put that lesson into practice, but the Germans have their own tricks, too, so that the ghastly game is not altogether onesided.

So stands tho great battle of tho Aisno, which commenced on September 1.2. The two linos are in grips, and we arc .holding tho enemy in his burrows along the crests of tho hills,, in mi artillery duel varied by sharp skirmishes. 'Although' his 'artillery was superior at Urn commencement,' now that the Allies' heavy guns are up, it is we who com inn nd the longer rnngo and the more deadly projectile. This is essential point in what is practically a siege, for tho field guns and even tho howitzers are not much used in tho artillery duel at present. On all hands ono hears praise of the British gunhbvs, aft) avltleHs« nf the dindly natuM of our shell. By, all accounts tie Get,.

man wounded are much more severely injured than ours. Work of British Engineers. A word is also due to the fine work of our engineers. Their courage is really grand, and their bridge building wonderful. In the country of many streams where they have been operating between , ——, and some of it touches the marvellous. Some time ago I reported the construction in. five hours of a trestle bridge across a twenty-yard stream with high banks. .They have beaten even this record, and that under fire.' One admirable bit of work was done at. ——-, where they had built a pontoon bridge. Thie stood intact, although the Germans bombarded it, ajid it remained for.a loose horse to damage it by slipping and falling over into one of the pontoons, which it holed. The delicate task of replacing the damaged pontoon was effected under heavy fire, and in a very brief space of time.

There are many who declare that this battle of the Ai6no is a second Paardeberg, and that tho Germans have been manoeuvred into a position they never desired. That may, of coursej be so, (but there are many facts which appear to conflict with it, and which one gathers as one goes about the country.In the first place, Germany lias long coveted the Champagne district, anil has many times been accused of having designs upon it. The- policy of "peaceful penetration" ,was certainly highly developed here. It is now obvious that tho present defensive positions had been prepared well in advance, long before the Germans even entered France, so that they were not made ready during the advance on Paris simply as an alternative. Entrenchments, it is true, were then being.dug by forced labour, but these were merely linking up a chain. Further, the espionage arrangements among the _ civilian inhabitants were most extensive. Our own men have found lonely farme fitted up with many suspicious devices, wires running into the ground coming apparently from ■ nowlierey, signalling apparatus, and prepared places having all tho appearance of gun emplacements. It is needless to insist .upon tho quarries, for.it is now common knowledge that they were being prepared for years. The extensive work done inside in the portions which have already been occupied by the BH{Tsh and French is proof positive of this.