SHELLS FOR 28 MILES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXVII, Issue LXXVII, 31 July 1918, Page 2

SHELLS FOR 28 MILES.

A .PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Every, few minutes since dawn a loin shell had thundered Into, or near a little-town that lay 28 miles behind the lines, .far. from the tumult V>f war. Towards 10 o'clock one of the officers left the men and walked across a meadow .to. inspect some of the shellholes.. Suddenly he saw the earth a few hundred yards in front of him rise up in a great fan-shaped spurt of black smoke and .flying dirt. It was.the explosion oi another shell; and it seemed an appreciable time before he heard the shattering .roar. There had been no whine or scream— no warning .of any kind. The earth just rose uj> ibefore his eyes. He ran over to the -plafi-e where the smoke still hung, and found an enormous hole, into which a otor omnibus could have been put. fu_l of crumpled lumps of yellow-stained Outside the crater lay the ba... plug of the shell, a shining steel .cylinder with an imperial crown and ja few numerals scamped on it. It seemed amazing bo think that two V minutes ago that gr,eat piece of metal : had been 28 miles away. In his imagination he saw the ganjxexs^. clad in preparing tJfegujr.and the > .next shell and making jokes .about its .destination—he saw the-stout sej-geant .who had pulled the string -or pressed the lever which had caused :*£h.a't mor-. .mons upheaval of earth in that quiet measly, far from the clamor and de..structiftn of war—in-the little meadow shaded, by drowsy farmhouses and people, .bj partridges and hares. AU around Jay the peaceful countryside, bathed in the sun, and here was the deep rugged crater in which lay pieces of meta] that were too hot to touch. Even as hs looked for souvenirs, in the bottom o. the hole he heard the thud of another shell on the ground, followed by the roar of the explosion and the faintly heard boom of the distant gun. He climbed up to the top of the crater and saw a column of smoke behind some trees. He walked across the meadow to * look for some other holes, and climbed over a hedge into the nest field, and was walking along listening to the j warning siren in the town, when, to his '' surprise and dismay, he saw a terrific | black column of earth and smoke leap lip scarcely 20 yards away. He was conscious for a moment of the air being full of flying fragments, and then, in- i stantly and automatically, he threw ! himself down on his face and covered ! the back of his head with his hands ; and waited. j For a_ few endless moments of dread anticipation nothing seemed to happen, i and then the lumps of earth began to •thunder all over his body and to beat; his arms and legs and head. He felt as if he were at-school again being* mercilessly 'flogged. The lumps of earth,, which were heavy and were falling from a height of sevfii-al hundred feet, were really painful, and all .the time ho had the horrible knowledge that some large fragment of -metal might be descendj ing with them, and that at any mo- ( ment he might be knocked senseless or j killed. The thundering of the falling ! earth all round him and the cruel flog- < ging of his back seemed to last for hours. . At last it stopped, and he clambered to his feet, dazed and sore. He did not know at first where to turn, but when he saw the grea,t yawning! hole.a few- yards away he ran over to it, with the first 'instinct of humanity, after that of safety—the, instinct of curiosity and to get souvenirs.— "G.N.,"-in the Daily Mail.