SICK " 75's."

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13275, 2 September 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

SICK " 75'5."

iliy 11. Warner Allen, Special Correspondent with the French A_rmy.) It W.ls 111 a village a few miles behind the front hue. and the guns were tiring heavily. "You have lome to visit the front'.'' a.skrd a major. He rather <l»'in ii i red to the reply that it was not so inn h the trout that we were anxious to see as the services of the reus. "You can hardly call this the rear." he said, ''when \oii lieai all the noise of guns." We i niuproiiiised with the suggestion that his post .was to he described either as the imet or else a.s the rear of the front. In any ca.-e, the "75" repair depot, which was under his command was well v\ itliin range of the I lermau guns. It stalled as a nieie held workshop capable of doin,g iio more than the casual obvious repairs needed by the "75" gun on active semcc. It was not expected to cope with really serious damage, which was left to the good utli eti of the gun hospitals in tie- rear. However, like a number of other field depots, it lias grown enormously in size and etliciencv since the

beginning of the war. Ihe premises consist of a number of tarm buildings, which have lent themselves excellently to the work required of them. '1 he ingenious officer in charge ot it has had his eyes open for anything abandoned m the deserted \ Mages of the lighting /one that might prove serviceable. Kngines of all kinds, left by their proprietors in their flight before the Germans, have proved useful in hundreds ot unsuspected ways, and the ingenuity ot the Fieii.-h engineers has converted tlieui to sen .' many valuable purposes. Sometimes the recovery of these machines tiom a point of view where they were within range of the enemy's fire has furnished abundant opportunity for heroic effort.

Jhcie was once a threshing machine just behind the first line of trenches which attracted the covetous eye of a, certain engineer officer who told me the story. It was standing in some farm buildings most of which had been knocked to pieces by the enemy's shell, but by one of those fantastic freaks of chance so common in this* war, the wall of the sheet flint hid it from the euemv was still untouched and the engine intact. It was only a few yards from the shed door to the highroad, and the engineer officer vowed to (any off the engine out of the German range, thinking' with glee of the many useful services to which he could apply it.

Jlie first thing was to borrow a gun team, the second to find a few reckless spirits like himself. When night fell they carelully prepared a path from the shed down to the road. Then they brought their horses, with feet muffled in sacks, Irom the, rear, and harnessed them to a long rope, of which the further end was firmly fixed to the engine. The horses' feet were then unmuffled. A few cautious tugs brought the engine out of the shed down a little incline into the road. 'lhe commotion roused the Boche sentinels, and a star shell soon threw a far too vivid light on the proceedings. There was 110 further need for concealment, and the artillery horses, urged to their utmost with whip and spur, dashed off at a wild gallop along the road: while, creaking, groaning and swaying, there followed behind them the threshing engine. What impression the liqise of the horses' hoofs made on the Germans in their trenches it is impossible to say. They probably thought it was a cavalry charge. At any rate, they passed a wakeful night, breaking continually into intermittent bursts of filing, while the engine, unscathed, was carried out of jeopardy into a place of safety, where to-day it furnishes the motive power for an electric light installation.

In a neighbouring shed is a "75" repairing shop. Here most ordinary repairs can be done efficiently, with an immense saving of time. At the present time a gun must indeed be badly damaged—say, for instance, have had part of its barrel removed bv a shell —if it is necessary to send it to the factory in the rear. During some recent hard fighting this depot proved itself capable of repairing two or three guns a day and sending them back to the front within twenty-four hours. In these field depots the various ingenious ideas invented by the men using such weapons as the "75" and the machine gun are applied and developed, provided that they do not require alterations of too essential as character. Often a simple notion suggested by practice has been the cause of saving many lives, and has doubled efficiency. The French soldier has a special gift for discovering what he calls "the egg of Columbus"—that is, those simple, obvious devices which seem to stare one in the face, and yet are so hardly found. The machine gun, of which the use in trench warfare becomes more and more extended, has its own shed, where experts repair and tune it up to the utmost pitch of perfection. The officer in charge is particularly proud of the success of his men in this delicate piece of work, and is prepared to back the machine guns that lie lias tended against perfectly new ones just out of the factory. "Warranted never to jam," he said, contentedly, as he pointed to a phalanx of them that had just passed through his hands. Another shed is devoted to rifles, automatic pistols, revolvers, and bayonets. Here the weapons found on the field of battle or, it may be, between the opposing lines, are mended and prepared for further use. It is a favourite amusement in the trenches for a soldier to creep out and recover from somewhere in the barbedwire entanglement a comrade's rifle, or, perhaps, if occasion is very kind to carry off in triumph from an enemy listening post a German rifle. These weapons are collected and sent down to the repair depot, where, as a beginning, they receive a thorough washing and polishing. A gang of expert gunsmiths perform all repairs that can be done on the spot, with the result that there are racks of rifles and revolvers lining the shed, filled with weapons which are spotless, and look as if they had just come out of the factory.