GERMAN GUNSt WEARING OUT;

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14439, 27 October 1917, Page 3

GERMAN GUNS WEARING OUT.

A GROWING GERMAN, HANDIOAP. . tdm>m, August 20; ■ In a message sent from British head quarters, France,* the Press Association correspondent says :■ — ; •>: ? ; A very satisfactory feature of recent counter-battei'y work by ovat gunners is the lai-ge, number of considerable' dumps which, have been blown up. 'The Hunk appear to be stacking larger quantitJes of shells than usual around their bat- i tery emplacements, which is probably; owing to tho ; difficulties of transporting ainmunition ( which they encounter when they begin to shoot and draw our fire. German gunner prisoners are complaining that there is a great increase m prematures and; burst-in-the-boreih their batteries,, and that many of the gunsj are very much the worse for wear. Jt is no uncommon thing for a gun to. "have,; fired 12,000 rounds and still remain m! action. If I appear tq dwell on] this' m atter of deteriorating the quality "of ammunition and wearing out of gnhs it is because I regard this as a question of vital importance. It has not yet as"umed proportions which sensibly inflnence the course of the war.-bxit it is one of the many, and certainly not one of the least significant of many, sighs that (the Germans are beginning to sag under the tremendous tax upon their resources.