BATTLE INCIDENTS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 14051, 22 July 1916, Page 6

BATTLE INCIDENTS.

THKANZAOS IN FRANCE. SCENES* OF DF/STRUCTION. Vivid descriptions of incidents in the firing h'ne are given by Australians in letters* to their relatives. One of them now serving in France sa^ys : — ,l Tho whole nation is at war, and you hardly see a man who is not a soldier. All the work is done by women, and, in spite of all they, have suffered.; it is grand to see the way that they bear the losses and hardships that this ghastly business has forced upon them. It, cuts you to the heart to go through the town's and villages, once so pros: perous and full of happy people — now a- heap of miins. ' Tho streets and field.' are full of trenches ; and barb-wire and other evidences of the grim reality ol war aro everywhere. I ani not allowed to tell you the name of the place we are fighting, in, but our support trenches, run through tho ruined houses anc: gardens of one of these villages^ and what a sinster place it is ! The powers, of evil have made their dwelling-place there, and it is utterly blasted. In tlu cemetery the graves have been openac by shed holes and the orchards beyond, will bear no 'fruit this year upon their withered boughs. The church in ■ the centre of the village is a ghastly ruin, but its walls gleam white in the sun, amidst the huddle of broken barns anc Charred walls. Before the war it was ft pretty French village — now -it is one of the headquartera of death, and then is just now a horror in its silence where no souud of any living thing is to be heard. > ■ ' A GAS ATTACK. "Just as I opened your letter last night — at 9.3o— the beils rang out, anr the words we aro always expecting, but dreading to hear, were shouted — 'Gas attack.' How quickly your unread letter was put away you nui.y guess when J tell -that three whiffs of the gas kill;-, one. And no sooner do these woi*ds sound than our artillery behind— evei; before we have got our helmets ad justed, quick .is we are— begins to vomil death on to the German 'trenches. "For nearly two'hours there followed air awful scene tha.t baffles description.: ■There was the awful roar from ; hundreds of .guns— tog- and small. The pitch black night was lighted up Ly the flashes of our guns and the bursfcimv of. shells, and ,b y flares. Hundreds of 'the enamy mentuced us on our front. Good God, one needs a nerve, to stand it all ! No imagination can conceive it. It must be lived. ■OlTiEft. SENSATIONS SECONDARY. Tt must be true of this war— l hear it so much on all hands— that what strikes in upon one most fis the great noise of it all. All other sensations are secondary— heat, cold, pain, fatigue, and danger Is that not Nature -all over? She -will not allow you to experience; more than one emotion at a tima. There is a shattering roar which no one' can describe to you. ; You may shout at the top of your voico to. tho man alongside you ; and, when in turn he bursts his lungs trying to say something to you, you look upon him and wonder why he is making grimaces. In tho periodical lulls you find yourself a deaf mute. You know the guns hav. ceased firing by tlie absence of concuss.on, but you cannot hear a sound, and you 'cannot even speak for hoarseness."