THE ART OF BOMB-THROWING

Evening Star, Issue 15907, 13 September 1915, Page 1

THE ART OF BOMB-THROWING

Bomb-throwing by hand into the enemy's trei ; ches is an art that has been steadily developed in this war. In expert hands the hand grenade is a very deadly weapon, and a bombing party will very quickly clear a line of trench. The Germans depend principally on their minenwerfer shell for this kind of trench warfare. The minenwerfer shell weiuhs from 100 to 2001b, which is Hung high into'the air, whirling as it goes. The Australian and English soldiers make better bomb-throwers than the Germans because of their love of cricket —every young Australian has practised "overarm" bowling at one time or another, and the hand bomb has to be thrown with a sort of overarm motion. Furthermore, cricket or football players can easily gauge the flight of a bomb from the enemy's trench, and escape its effects. For this reason, probably, the Germans dread the hand bombs more than the British troops, for they know nothina about cricket or football, and seem unable to gauge their own bombs correctly or those flung at them. " Bomb-thrcwing," says a writer from the trenches, " is not the simple business it may seem. You have to time the bomb as accurately _as von time a cricket ball; and if yon time it wrong you are 'out.' You twist the cap, count 'One, two, three, and away.' and hope the thing will explode a 6 it falls. One or two of the bombthrowers were excited, and threw so quickly that the enemy, when plucky enough, could match them up and throw back. Passing forward the grenades and filling the ijlace of the throwers with men at all expert are problems not readily solved in a melee. But the work procesded well, when it became clear that the supply of explosives was running out. The officer sent back 'runners' for further supplies. Most of these were lucky enough to get through, though they travelled across the open under heavy fire. Just a* the last lot of grenades was being used men appeared carrying boxes of grenades -''cross the open ' as coolly as a. milkmaid with her cans ' The crisis was hot and acute. The Germans began to hurl vast numbers of their wooden handled canisters, which they now use at point-blank range in lieu of a pistol or a bayonet. "Whether we won or held the trench depended solely on the supply of the number of capable throwers. The officer fell on the new supply with feverish delight. It had come in time to save the situation. All was well. So he believed, but his ecstasy was short-lived. As he took the fiTst grenade out of the box he realised that it was of a quite different pattern, and nobody knew how to work it, especially how to time it. Almost at his ear a German srrenadc exploded, happily just the other side of the wall, so that it only covered men and box with a shower of earth, adding to the confusion but not to the casualties,''