IN THE TRENCHES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 144671, 4 May 1915, Page 8

IN THE TRENCHES.

i“UTG STREET. LOXDOX, March 19. Upon the map you will find it due south of Mc-ssiaes under the name oi Hoegsleert. The Army knows it as Ring Street. amd is proud of it. There arc* many rca&ons for this pride. Nearly every inch of this straggling patch of woodland, which measures about 3000 yards at ins longest and about hull' that at its widest point, has acquired tradition and the defence of Hug Street Wood will be one of the host remember episodes along this battle front, 'flic lovingly tended regimental cemeteries formed in clearings tell the cost of the defence in this equivalent on tho British front for the Argoane out on the trench linos to the east. it is tin* only part of our line where there ts real wood lighting, and the men have taken to it wiih a will. Compared with the work in the trenches life in Hug Street is now a holiday. When the lighting began then* it was another story. The ground under the trees was a treacherous hog, the road.-' were impassable on account of mud. The trench line which was then in the woods itself, as was the enemy, was made in a hurry and the digger slruck water with the lust spudlul of clay. Now a forest town of comfortable dug-outs has been laid out, new mads have been constructed upon which the men can reach any portion of ihe wood dvvshod. There has been a little pheasant .'hooting. Life would be a pleasant picnic if it were not for the (Jcrmans. They have now been driven out ot the wood and hold a trench line some £0 yards away from the fringe of the trees. Their snipers, their shells, and their machine-guns disturb the picnic atmosphere. As wo passed up tho •‘Hayinnrkct’ 1 through “Piccadilly Circus'’ several shells whistled overhead, a somewhat sinister note of speed and oi purpose. They were on a long journey am! meant to get there in a hunv. A stray bullet or two passed by with its disconcerting warning: one nf them ridded to the number of chipped trees that we nas>ed. The enemy has a nasty way of -.weeping the wood with his machine-guns, sometimes letting off a whole belt. It *errcs tho double purpose of annoying our men and of warming the enemy’s gnus up for tho evening. Fortunately wo were spared this, and were able to stroll about in comfort within SB yards of the enemy. Troops look at their host in a wood. With billets, however good they may he, there is always a certain amount ol squalor. Hem in this part ol France the farmhouses are built round a dung pit. The village* are entirely lacking in English rustic neatness. The houses are dirty, for the mud of the road invades the dwelling-moms. The troops in billets have nut the same opportunity for displaying their inventive genius as they have when they are living far from houses in the wood. There they are completely thrown upon their own resources, which appear to he more than adequate; they live entirely among themselves without having to worry about civilians and they thoroughly enjoy it. A WOODMAN’S LIKE. Tho zest- they have put into organisation of the defence of the wood is apparent on every hand. I have been aide to see the French under more or less similar conditions (they have not so much mud to cope with), and our men arc not a whit behind them in gaiety of heart or in display of individuality. Hug Street is by no means a rest ramp; it is a very active, hard-working section ot our line, but the work there pi ov ides a veiy welcome change from tiie days in the trenches. The men in Ling Streoi. arc leading the li\e.s of woodmen. They an* not cooped up for hour alter hour, but an* able to move about more or lew* indy by day and hv night. There are birds in tho branches above, flowers will soon bo springing up on the marshy ground umiori oot.

In tin? trenches roml 11 inns ini' against iin> development of artistic initiative; the men arn too hard m work keeping abme water to have time for much else. In tho trenches a ImUaliim imiv make a small minitatiim for itself by improving tlk’ trenches during its period of occupancy i it may wet now boards in or do a lot of excavation, sandbag work, or draining, but the msult is entirely utilitarian. In Plug Street they bare time for jolting and gardening. They are able underneath the cover of the trees to work mam tho outward appearance of their dug-outs and lints, to take an artistic pride in them. The men are as iimnii'-iiroud as a newly-married couple.; they are proud of their pictures, iheir furniture, their bunt-scrapers (made of beef tins), the names they have given to their homos, ami the roads they have built. NOMENCLATURE. We passed up the ‘■Haymarket.’' which in Ping .Street, ns in London, led ms to ‘■i’iceadilly Circus, 1 ' off which in some geographical confusion branched not only '■Regent Street." but Elect Slrcci" as well. The Strand and Oxford Circus also have their ee.irgterpart here, but one'or two names figure on the Plug Street map which yon will not tind in lanidoii. Soy Corner and Dead Morse Corner bring one back to the realities nf Plug Street. Eaeb one of these thoroughfares is bog of the worst description. Over the bog the men have laid a narrow strip of “corduroy" paving.

[ c passed 11 party of thorn making I this pavement. and a very clioory group j they were. Close to “The Lodge”—bundled with the neatness of suburbia they were hard at work chopping twigs into the right length and nailing thorn on to stouter parallel branches about #lt. apart. The finished article resembles 1 lie iwig bridges v.dn’ch swing across the liunnese rivers. The going on it is excellent. The roads it forms enable the men to move their .stores up on wheelbarrows ami to move about without too deep an acquaintance with the mud. There are several miles of this twig matting laid down upon the roads of Plug Street. Zt has all been made by tho men; it requires fairly constant renewal and repair. 11, with everything else, shows a tendency to disappear into tho all-absorbing mad. , Jhis constant work of repair, however, still leaves tho men time for enjoyment. They have an excellent saucepan and month-organ orchestra, which renders all Tommy's favourite airs with im almost ludicrous amount of expression and sentimentality. They are a nice cheery family those thickset, freshcqmplcxioned men, and as expressive as with the machine-gun as they are with the mouth organ. Tho gardener who is making of the roof of his bombproof dug-out a little garden plot which, when the flowers burst out. will justify the name it hears— Primrose Villa—is a Very enthusiastic gardener; ho is also a good soldier. The men who disnhiv tho in.

genniiy use;] in making Plug Street n iiubi.ablo borne are redoubtable oppunems.iu this «,ir of treneli anil breastwork, whore the individual talent for improvision counts for so mneb. A great deal of tiio life in the Army is jam—plum and apple mostly—but it is not all jam. Tbe men lead the healthy life of foresters, grow primroses and play mouth-organ;, behind the line of hi eastworks. but when they fret pear the sandbags renditions alter considerably. (r is well for them lo become less than a little boy, and to bo neither seen nor heard when they are taking a look through the trees at the “liiideagr," as this portion of the enemy’s delenees is called. Tiniorcn a I’icruscon:. Rebind tbe barbed-wire .bars of their cage the Germans, too, sing and light lor. as the whole Army testifies, they are lusty opponents. They have their snipers mu in from of them, and il is well not, to show oneself, lint to peer at their reflection mirrored in tile periscope or through the loophole. There is not much- to be seen. A stunted forest of wooden eatangienienl supports, a closely-woven undergrowth of barbed wire, with the trench parapet behind forming a relief map mountain range. This is the front, as an occasional bullet remarks, and the deeiKT-toned whim/', of the shell overhead emphasizes. At the periscope a man Mauds gazing intently into the lower of the .slanted mirrors for any sign of activity on tlto other side of the death zone of SO yards for any movement in the few shell-min-ed homes beyond. Upon the damn sandbags the rille.- lie in readiness with their owner gazing across towards tile (imiia i s as though upon the most fascinating panorama of the world. Meanwhile the sMIs r re iiK reusing in number. and their direction makes us wondor what is happening to ilio motorcars we have lot’i behind. We more off and wo are taken over by a subaltern-—one of the many who. thanks to the war, has yoi his feet on ; the ladder earh in life. He gr.j, ids commission from Sandhurst in November and was at the war in December. In January and in Street he ce’ehrated bis 18th birthday— a lino young fellow whom tho men will follow anywhere. He showed ns the rest of Plug Street, down “Hunter A\ennc” to “Dead Horse Corner. M down the “Sirami.” past “Spy Corner,” pointing otii ilie run of the Herman positions and that of our own. which are both admirable and both equally heretical from the orthodox texi-hook point of view. He knew, every inch of them and dwelt with pride upon the various devices hv which the passage of the Hermans has been stopped, and will be stopped, at this point.