24 HOURS IN TRENCHES

Timaru Herald, Volume CI, Issue 15505, 16 November 1914, Page 11

24 HOURS IN TRENCHES

WOUNDED SERGEANT'S VIVID STORY. MAKING THE GERMANS WASTE SHELLS. ■-' The following is a description of 24 hours in the ."French trenches as described by a wounded sergeant!— Before dawn No. 4 Company turns out of . its quarters in the village. Biscuits, bully-oeef, water, and orner things are packed, and whilst it is still dark the company flies silently up/the ,?ig-zag road (soon; aftenv-aird's'-a perfect hell of bursting shrapnel) to the little farm visible from the valley. The men pass, an open glade halfway up the hillside, where the enemy had entrenched a week ago. Then the road swings back again, and so between the dense growth on either side to the steep fall below the farmhouse. Yesterday there were. 80, German prisoners and some of ■their wounded in the square courtyard. Now there is a blackened ruin and under the ruins some charred German corpses. No. 4 Company halts, leaves the road, and files, away through the forest, passes the crest, and slips into the cross-trenches as No. 3 Company relieved, leaves the position. It badly* needs tfhe relief, for when 4 the long "day was done and when night fell the "enemy, informed by his spies of our arrangements, made a night attack across the open fields, hoping to catch our troops just when the relief was being made.

"Cut this trench a little deeper," says an officer. ' 'lt's for your own comfoi't."

So No. 4 Company sets to work to deepen the trench. A Mttle to the right, and well concealed in the wood, are some guns. To the.left there is .aba ~a gun position, but vacant, • for the ground is torn up by shell. THE EPISODE OF THE HAYSTACK.

Day dawns across the rain-sodden plateau. Fifteen hundred yards away, beyond the slope of the stubble and root fields and out of sight, the enemy opens fire with a solitary gun. A-shrap-nel, zips overhead and bursts close to the old gun posaiion. Another follows, and presently an excellent pair of Goertk field-glasses, for which their original German, owner will never again have any use, reports to his officer that there are men climbing a disconsolate-looking haystack away to the right. The officer sends forward the report and : i no of, th*» guns opens fire- A little ball of white smoke hangs for a moment, over the haystack and then breaks. There are n 0 more.of the enemy near the haystack. . * ■ . i

But the enemy considers the posiiiion of the trenches too tin comfortable. Before long batches of his infantry appear suddenly over the slope of the fields, and simultaneously. the rifles, open fire at. extreme range. No. 4 Company is in a hob corner, for whilst attending faithfully to the enemy in front' they find themselves in danger of being enfiladed from the left. Again .and again the enemy comes on, only to. b© mown down by the steady fire of rifles and machine cams. • "For Heaven's sake don't mind that white flasii" shouts a lieutenant. !-. "All risht, sir," says ■ Sergeant ■Whit's-V-name, "it's a fine mark." The. rifle fire d'e?down a£rain: t&e enemy's attack has been beaten hack, and one can eat a biscuit or even take a pull at a pipe. A CLEVER RUSE.

But the artillery duel goes on, and the position of the guns, brought up with infinite , labour by night, is too hot. Something must be done. There is a consultation of gun-doctors, aud two guns disappear behind fhe crest. They move along a, track, prepared for them, and presently there is a roar from a new position out on the left behind the farmhouse. A moment later the enemy opens fire on the new position, but the two guns having fired their two rounds apiece have limbered up again and returned at the top of their speed to the old position. For an hour or nearly that Sergeam-"What's-'is-namo has the pleasure of watching the enemy waste shell on an empty position, »nd meanwhile the battery is having a rest elsewhere. In the afternoon the enemy made another attempt to drive the " brigade* out of its trenches along the edge of the wood, and since noon the wicked shrapnel liave burst over the position.. No 4 Company knows why it dojr the trenches deeper. But the day draws to its close. Sergeant "What's-'is-naioe looks at "his watch and 'heaves a sigh of relief as-he realises that night must soon bring cessation of the appallm"