SHELL SHATTERED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16026, 18 September 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

SHELL SHATTERED.

LAND MINE -> EARTHQUAKE.

The following extracts from a vivid d* scription of a machine-gun section WOSS territorial battalion, attached to the Sea- -V' * forth Highlanders, makes thrilling reading: . ' Talk about the devil' let loon! I think he had a free hand that night, for: fa ;v the time we spent in the trench was * fairly decent foretaste of what it md& jglp like in the lower, regions. There was no *■' \j nee trying to escape the shells, "i They burst everywhere, and the stretcher, V bearers had their hands more than, fifljL-Vf.iS having to get volunteer assistance in bind- j "v ing np the wounded. \- % "We were shelled for about half a» || ! hour only, but it seemed ages, and when things quietened, what sights, what grwsome'evidences of war! Here and there along the trench were the shell-shattered : frames of what once were homely and Sf bright young men. Here and there lay: - the wounded, - suffering in silence, their wounds temporarily dressed, waiting to go to the dressing station, thence to be sent ; " to the hospital. And at one point was a.." shell hole, where a young fellow had been struck by an explosive shell, - and Mown almost to the German lines. . *"v

Like an Earthquake. tt i [ .«* >v _ V * --" " The other dayl happened to be cd sentry duty at the "time, about 3 a.m.—•' • our engineers exploded a land mine under ': which they had tunnelled. The shock of,V ; the explosion made the ground. rise tad Jl| fall like an . earthquake, and when the/ v I smoke cleared our artillery commenced to shell the German trenches with greaU j vigour, and, from one part of the line a'\ heavy rifle and * machine-gun . fee was opened on them. The Germans replied with only a few shells, and when our si''*.} ~ tillery ceased -fire, quietness reigned lor ? i the rest of the day.As to the success of - otherwise of the mining, I can say noth--5 ing, but the first news we got was thai § the Germans were going to have . their _ T j own back •' by a bombardment soflyoiili|l§ trenches." For two days it was still quiet. " but on the third . morning after the ex- ?* ~ ploding of the mine I again happened to , _ be on sentry duty at about- 2 a.m.. when _ a heavy rifle fire, began from the 'German . - side, and was returned from our lines oS and on for about an hour. r_ - Raining Shells. ~ - - "I felt sure there was something "in : the wind, and at daylight, just after ons" of our trench mortars had fired one or two bombs, it came. The air seemed an infer-S*;-"; no of screeching shells, and the earth was*shaken by the explosion. Three kinds of ' shells they —high explosive shells, or 7' 'coal boxes,* shrapnel, and small; shall*, *. known as 'swish bangs' or "pip squabs. Like rifle fire, they poured them in three„ *-; at a time, four at a time, six at a time.'.. Here, there, and everywhere they burst/~ | \ crashing , and cracking, tearing the air, j and digging up the ground. For ' about a quarter of an hour it lasted, and then comparative quietness reigned for a few minutes, to be roughly broken again by a renewal of the bombardment. "Thieatimes they bombarded, about a quarter of - : "; an hour each time, while the" earth - . shivered and shook, and the air " rattled ~ - and rumbled*" like thunder. Awful was y-- ? not the word, for it seemed as if no living - | thing could survive the terrific onslaught.." Yet, when at last it stopped, the -birds. 1 ,"-' began to sing in the trees as if nothing * had happened." '