THE NECESSARY SANDBAG.

White Ribbon, Volume 21, Issue 242, 18 August 1915, Page 6

THE NECESSARY SANDBAG.

MILLIONS WANTED. HOW THEY SAVE LIVES IN TRENCH WARFARE. An urgent need of the hour—indeed, of all the hours to come, so long as this trench warfare last —is sandbags (writes the.i-ondon Correspondent of the “Sydney Morning Herald”). People on th': other side of the world, who feel that it is not worth while setting to work on things like respirators, because of the constantly changing conditions and requirements of the war, will be quite safe in making sandbags. It is doubtful whether, even over here, anyone not actually in the field, can realise at all what the word sandbag means to the soldier in the firing line, or how urgently millions and yet more millions of sandbags are needed to stem the. casualty lists. Mrs Tyler has tried sending out a circular letter, in which she quotes letters of officers at the front. Here are a few extracts that interested me particularly : An infantry lieutenant writes: —“We want a tremendous lot of sandbags. Our division alone has been using a million a month. For our battalion alone we usually require about 2000 a day for their present trenches, but we have not been able to get them in sufficient quantities lately. If you saw a shell burst on a parapet w: tK sandbags and on one without you would see how many lives they save, and if it is to be a war of attrition we want to take every possible means of avoiding loss of men in the trenches.”

A colonel commanding a brigade of Royal Field Artillery writes:—“lt is quite mild spring weather now. Now, we do not want any more mufflers or caps for warmth, but we always want sandbags by the million, and if the kind people who helped us so greatly during the winter with warm knitted things wanted to help still, they could not do better than make sandbags for cur protection. We must have hundreds of millions of sandbags in use, and we always want them. To make a nice commodious house for a few officers in their gun-position, for instance, will require some 2000 sand-

bags, and the number wanted for a single battery, for protection for guns, men, officers, and telephone operators, will run into tens of thousands. A mile of trenches will require perhaps 100,000, and each little post, obSv*rvation station, or shelter of aify kind behind those trenches, requires many more. Then, every house, barn, or other locality occupied in the area in which shells fall tor a depth of two or three miles behind our trenches ought to have its own dug-out for use when necessary, into the making of which the sandbag enters, and when we advance we have not time to empty our old sandbags, and carry them on. We require fresh ones.” A captain of the R.F.A. describes the way in which the infantry advance

—“Each man takes ten empty bags under his arm as he runs out. When fired at he drops, and fills a bag as he lies, for cover. Then he dashes on again with his nine remaining bags, to repeat the manoeuvre again and again always leaving the filled bag to cover some man behind his. « In this way the whole line advances with temporary cover, till they can dig themselves in. We are told that ‘the men will do almost anything if they can have enough sandbags.’” .a I have looked out the official regulations with regard to size, etc., and give them for the sake of convenience, though, no doubt, Australia has them already. The sandbags should be made of jute Hessian; not too heavy, because they have to be carried miles ?n the trenches at night, under fire. They must be strong to stand wet and weight. When complete they should measure 33m by 14m and tin turning should be allowed for seams, or they will burst, however well sewn. Seams must be strongly over-sewn, with double thread of fine, strong string, or machined with thread in two rows of stitching close together (chain stitch is no good). The mouth must be left open, and a piece of stout string ?ft long must be tied on jin below the mouth, ready to close the bag when filled.

In connection with the above the Lower Hutt Branch purchased a bolt of jute Hessian, and the necessary string at a cost of a little over £s• This made a hundred and twenty bags, the work being warmly taken up by the Union and friends. It is hoped to send away a hundred a month.