THE EYES OF THE GUNS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 16775, 16 October 1916, Page 6

THE EYES OF THE GUNS.

(By "THREE STARS" in the

"Daily Mail.")

The guns themselves are blind. On the western front —which :s essential!./ our front—the days of direct fire havi passed. They went away after Mons and the Great Retreat, the Alarm:, ths Aisne, and the degeneration of op.en fighting. into the siege warfare. It is true that on very rare occasions since — Ypres h:«s seen most of the occas;ons — gunnars have been presented the target they delight in, something they can SEE. But Urltish artillery as 'a whole has been tiring by the map tor many months.

How. then, are guns directed upon suitable objects which may present themselves, when the gunners cannot &cc them? They arc guided by observers stationed in favourable placri from which the;enemy's territory can bo overlooked. The observers are linkei ivzth the batteries by telephone. Tha observers are the eyes of the guns. There are several systems of observation in use at the present time. Sornw of them are secret and therefore sacred. But the three most extensively used are comnon property and will pass the Censor.

Practically all the observation for artillery is done by officer's, as the wont is of a highly technical and complicated character. Observation posts —commonly spoken of as "O. Pips" —perform the greater part of :t. Forward Observing Officers-—better known as "F.O.O.s"—do most of the remainder. And aeroplanes, with kite "sausage" balloo: , do the rest.

We deal with aeral observation first, as being the system which is least commonly employed. The work of the Royal Flying Corps is too widely known to require description. They are out in all weathers and they spy out the land for our heavy guns. By a, wonderful code of signals they "tip the wink "to the great creatures of iron and steel concealed below them whenever they sight a target/far behind the enemy's lines worthy of their attention.

The "sausage" balloons stand sentinel over the distant territory, lying behind the German lines. They are a permanent watch, whereas the aeroplanes are scouts. The " sausages.' J floating h'gh in the air like mines set in the depths of a light blue sea, form a chain of guards along the whole of the British front. Sitting in the light basket suspended from his balloon the officer in charge sees below him a vast panorama of country rolled out like n great map beneath,hjs feet. At present most of it is as inaccessible to our troops'a-s the moon, but —some day

On this enormous map he sees threads of silver along which clouds of white smoke travel up and down. The threads are raiway lines, the smoke rises from the stacks of locomotives pulling German troops. Occasionally he telephones to his batteries far below him, and immediately, afterwards the trains or the caterpillars disappear n a cloud of smoke. There are other things which do not move — fortified houses, camps, dug-outs—and when our artillery choose to destroy them the " sausage" directs their fire.

The observation posts are numerous Every mile of German line is watched by several of them which spend the" t time^ noting every movement and reporting on the result of each Britisi shot. The gunners are a curious so 1; of men. They do not deal in blood likj the infantry, and the work of smashing up the Boche is to them merely a scientific process. The subaltern who sits in his "0. Pip" takes the same pride in the ability of his battery to demolish an enom'jr earthwork with one shell as that of a crack bowler m taking wickets.

Through the narrow slit in the "O. Pip," cunningly sited and hidden, he sees a picturu. The, scene contains a few shattered houses, perhaps a \voo,i or two, rows of' shell-stripped trees and far away an indistinct line of grey, which wriggles across the country from one side or the picture to the other. Seen through the subaltern's telescope the grey Line becomes the German parapet of sandbags and soil. On hjs map that strip is represented by a bewildering embroidery of Ijlood-r.ed lines. The officer sits in the "0. Pip" ani watches the bursts from the shells which liis guns are firing, telephoning to them the result of each shot. During a b'g "shoot,!' which is a bombardment intended to wreck the enemy's positions without attempting to take them, he sees a white fog gather and thicken, eddying and swirling m the wind, aboce the tortured trenches When the fog slowly drifts away during a pause in the firing he informs the guns as to the result of their work. Sometimes the, merciless fusilades of our batteries will so batter and destroy a trench that the Germans will at last abandon it and fall back a few yards into another. Then the joy of the observing officer reaches it;, climax. Ha takes his psncil and scribbles a wavy line across the thin red vein on his map, which represents that trench. So do:ng, he marks the gradual retirement of the enemy towards Berlin Wers we to attempt to retake the lost provinces of France by this method we would nsver finish the war. But the subaltern is pleased all the same.

Lastly comes the forward observing officer. His is undoubtedly the most dangerous and exciting duty open to an artillery officer. The British Army instituted him at .the first clash of armies in 1914, and he Las been at work ever since.

The " F. 0.0." conceals himself in the front trenches with a telephone, ami from this close proximity to the German line keeps the guns informed *s to the result of their firing. When tho powers of Germany and Britain a.r« united in one stupendous effort to hammer the hostile trenches out of all recognition his place is no sinecure, is can readily be understood. But he sticks there and gives orders in spite of everything- Gas may sometimes shift him, as one cannot telephone through a respirator. But the bayonets of enemy infantry have often found him, the' last man alive among a shambles of dead, cooling directing Irs battery to wipe those bnron.pts cut of existon co. FOR THE EYES OF THE GTTNB MUST SERVE THETR MASTERS AS LONG AS THEY CAN SEX. That is the law. They have not been wa-iting upon

the hungry giants behind the British front for two years without performing ep;c deeds of heroism. They live a hazardous —if interesting—life. They die a very lonely death. The stories of voiced gasping along the humming wires a message—"My God! Bill! They've got me ! A bomb !" —and then sobbing into eternal siieuce are too numerous to repeat. We have most of us heard the story of the observation officer who fell at the telephone during the Great Retreat. His last words were: "Do not obey any further orders from here. The Germans are here."

From those days to these is a far cry, but they are still doing these things. Less than a month ago, when the Huns at one point drove into our front line and our men were forced to withdraw for the time, a "F.U.0." was left behind in our trenches. He stayed there undiscovered, serving his Battery, -]ireeting it on to good targets, rmd giving it little items of information as to the enemy's actions, for nearly two hours. After that shrapnel cut his wire. As ho saw that he could do no more good by rsmaining, he camlly ♦r>oV the toienbone in his arms, scrambled out of the dug-out, arid fled towards our linns. The enemy pursued, but he escaped nnd won through to his guns, as he deserved. This w:ll help to tell yon what th« eyes of the guns are doing out here. They nre strong eyes and they are nev,er closed.-