Penetration

“ but she readily saw what a penetration she had to deal with, and measured me very rightly in her manner of whistling to me, so as to make me pleased with my cage, and blind to the wires. ”

“ As we neared the hostile trenches their entire front lit up with red flame from machine-guns and rifles.
Humming bullets, fierce screams, hoarse attempts at cheers, guttural shouts, the clatter of machine-guns, all blended in one demoniac roar as we piled over into the enemy’s trench. The foe at first resisted, but at last yielded before the impetuous assault of our bayonets and fell back through their communicating trenches. I saw one sticking out his head from behind a traverse as much as to say, “I am at home.” Another big German, swinging his rifle by the barrel for a club, confronted me. ”

“ Then, as you realize with a flash that these are the sounds of war, and begin to distinguish between the rap-rap of the machine-gun, the hard crepitation of the rifle-bullet, and the dull boom of a shell, you find you are in the firing-line.
What the eye focusses is merely a scene of some disorder, where the communication trench debouches into the open and fades away opposite a line of sandbags. ”

“ It was always plugged in, and I said:
“No. 3 gun, after gun, train on the starboard quarter, and when you see a submarine and periscope or conning tower, report.”
The gun crew reported control. “We see it—no, no—it has gone. There it is again.” I picked it up at that moment with my high-powered glass, and I gave them the range—1,000 yards. Scale 50. She was about 800 yards away from us. I gave the order, “No. 3 gun, fire, commence firing.”
I had my glasses on them, gentlemen, and I saw that periscope come up. “No. 3 gun, commence firing, fire, fire, fire.” ”

“ The gun-layers are standing at their sights, the guns' crews are working levers to and fro, the big breech-blocks are swinging on one side, the huge pointed projectiles rising on their hydraulic hoists till they come in line with the bore of the gun. ”

“ That came along soon after. I have heard this affair told in three or four ways,—and, indeed, it may have happened more than once. But which ship it was on I cannot tell. However, in one, at least, of the great frigate-duels with the English, in which the navy was really baptized, it happened that a round-shot from the enemy entered one of our ports square, and took right down the [Pg 220] officer of the gun himself, and almost every man of the gun's crew. Now you may say what you choose about courage, but that is not a nice thing to see. ”

“ Then, panting, they cast themselves back into wrecked trench and blood-spattered shell hole while the enemy’s guns roared and thundered anew, and waited patiently but yearningly for another chance to “really fight.” ”

“ April 1.—I go walking near barracks; see man looking quietly at building. Suddenly fires the sentry with his long distance rifle, so that the straight onward through the harmless onlooker's heart and through my never sufficiently to be regretted right arm passing bullet in the remote distance a child kills. ”

“ CHARGE. The proportional quantity of powder and ball wherewith a gun is loaded for execution. The rules for loading large ordnance are: that the piece be first cleaned or scoured inside; that the proper quantity of powder be next driven in and rammed down, care however being taken that the powder in ramming be not bruised, because that weakens its effect; that a little quantity of paper, lint, or the like, be rammed over it, and then the ball be intruded. If the ball be red hot, a tompion, or trencher of green wood, is to be driven in before it. ”

“ Defense, Line of. Represents the flight of a rifle-ball from the place where the soldiers stand, to scour the face of the bastion. The line of defense should never exceed the range of a rifle. It is either fichant or rayant. The first is when it is drawn from the angle; the last, when it is drawn from a point in the curtain, ranging the face of the bastion in fortification.
Defense, Lines of. Are the distances between the salient angle of the bastion and the opposite flank; that is, the faces produced to the flanks. ”

“ When the opposing trenches lay near each other, it was dangerous for a man to show himself above the surface, and a method had to be discovered by which hostile positions could be attacked without the aggressors having to expose themselves to rifle or machine-gun fire. ”

“ Over the trenches the star shells of the infantry may be seen, occasionally the flash of a badly concealed gun glints in the darkness or the exploding bombs of a trench raiding party cause tiny sparks to glimmer far below. ”

“ But the duty of observing the results of destructive fire on the enemy’s first line is carried out with the help of the infantry observers. Each regiment must observe the front upon which it is to make the attack. 165Special attention is paid to the destruction of barbed wire entanglements and machine gun emplacements. The interested infantry does not content itself with a passive observation, but must send out at night, or even in daylight, offensive reconnaissance parties. ”

“ In a convoy the troop or merchant vessels sailed in echelon formation with destroyers or cruisers steaming in front and at the rear while a destroyer ranged in zig-zag course along each side. Naval gun crews manned each ship and on each one, in addition to the watches kept on board the escorting vessels, keen eyes constantly swept the surrounding waters, every moment of the day and night. ”

“ It is indeed difficult to conceive that any one should expect half-a-dozen expert gunners, each shut up in an iron box with a gun, to stop the rush of a thousand men, even by day. But imagine the feelings of the gunner on the night of a big attack, alone in his box, his nerves already strained by a preliminary bombardment and nights of watching. ”

“ If the enemy has not retreated he is in force on that ridge. The investigator will encounter nothing less than a line-of-battle; there is no need of pickets, videttes, skirmishers, to give warning of our approach; our attacking lines will be visible, conspicuous, exposed to an artillery fire that will shave the ground the moment they break from cover, and for half the distance to a sheet of rifle bullets in which nothing can live. ”

“ At the turn of an angle, or the mouth of a communication trench, the men on either side would suddenly find themselves face to face with the enemy, and a combat, waged for bare life with bombs, bayonets, and revolvers, ensued. ”

“ If a siege is to be undertaken, place in each vessel with each piece of artillery its implements, ammunition, and the carriages necessary to [Pg 122] transport the whole or a part; the platforms, tools, instruments, and materials for constructing batteries; skids, rollers, scantling, and plank.
3. If a particular calibre of gun is necessary for any operation, do not place all of one kind in one vessel, to avoid being entirely deprived of them by any accident. ”

“ We see with our field-glasses that the enemy has sent out detachments to advance the line of their trenches. We fire at them, and find that our shrapnel falls far short. The enemy, seeing this, advances and digs trenches close up to the limit of the range of our guns. ”

“ Officers raced to their posts as orderlies galloped through the streets sounding a general alarm. We were to be attacked, and a man can serve his guns, can ply his rifle, can stand to his post in evening pumps and dress trousers as efficiently and as thoroughly as he can were he clothed in the coarser habiliments of the trenches. ”

“ At 7, the enemy bore up in a line for the rock, the gun-boats, &c. keeping within them, crowded with troops. Seeing the impossibility of defending the lower works against such a force, and the certainty of our being prevented from gaining the heights without considerable loss, and which could not bo defended for any time without us, with the greatest reluctance I ordered the whole above the first lodgment, leaving a man, at each gun to give the enemy their contents. ”

“ The captain of one of my guns is struck full in the face by a solid shot and his head is severed from his body; as he falls the lockstring in his hand is pulled and his gun is discharged! “Hurry the body below and load again!”
I call my junior officer to take my place while I go to my forward gun, and as I turn a shell explodes and tears his right arm away! ”

“ No Enemy in Sight.—Hold your rifle up at the full extent of the arm, gripping it at the small of the butt, muzzle uppermost.
Enemy in Sight in Small Numbers.—Weapon held up above, as if guarding the head. ”

“ The casemate thus has the disadvantages that the arc of fire of the gun, which has to fire through a fixed embrasure or port-hole, is very limited, and that the muzzle of the gun and the port-hole, the weak points of the system, are constantly exposed to the fire of the enemy. ”

“ All of the essential elements of a position, emplacements, dugouts, etc., are more or less without value if they can be seen by the enemy and subjected to heavy artillery fire. Everything that is possible must be constructed without the observation of the enemy. ”

“ But when the fortress, arsenal, or place to be attacked is only approachable by a narrow and intricate channel, through which ships can only pass singly, or nearly so, there can be no manœuvering for position. ”

“ Operating in an enemy′s country, and being supplied always from a distant base, large detachments had at all times to be sent from the front, not only to guard the base of supplies and the roads to it, but all the roads leading to our flanks and rear. ”

“ On the morning of the 1st our cavalry were busy with their horses, while the artillery devoted themselves chiefly to their guns. All that day our infantry stood in the trenches, and the smoke from the enemy's shrapnel made fantastic shapes against the leaden grey of the Northern sky. While I sat writing a young officer rushed in. He had kindly returned from the firing line especially to tell me of a little incident he had witnessed there. ”

“ But this feint was closely watched; for there is a custom, peculiar to the British army, of sending mounted officers, singly to observe the enemy’s motions; and, such is their habit, that they will penetrate through the midst of his cantonments, cross the line of his movement, and hover, just out of musket-shot, for whole days, on the skirts of his columns, until they obtain a clear notion of the numbers and the true direction of the march. ”

“ When all these principal persons were down below in the gun-room, all our people being armed and in readiness, and dispersed in different parts of the ship, some on deck, some between decks, and others in the gunroom, to arrest and disarm the traitors ”

“ Each movement of the two ships, whether they keep steady courses or turn, alters the range and the rate. As projectiles take an interval of time to travel from the gun to the target, the range must be forecasted. ”

“ The sections of the enemy's line that we are to cover with our fire have all been pointed out and each of us is familiar with same. We have located the enemy's loopholes and are doing our best to keep them under fire. ”

“ He found the enemy much stronger than was expected, consisting of seven large gun-boats, each mounting one eighteen-pounder in the bow, three smaller gun-vessels, with a four-pounder in the bow, and fourteen sail of merchant-vessels under their convoy, four of which had guns in the bow also. ”

“ In attack: to act on the enemy’s flank to facilitate the infantry advance; to open fire on the decisive point, whether flank or front, from a dominating position, either over the heads of the infantry or by carrying the machine guns up into the firing line. ”

“ You wondered which were the French and which were the German trenches. Now a white spot suddenly appeared, exactly upon one of the black lines, and in fancy you heard the explosion of a shell and the groans of men, and you wondered if observers had seen officers coming up and if that shell had been particularly well aimed. A patch of earth, purplish gray in that hastening dusk, and illimitable lines of black stretching away, puffing white smoke quickly coming, quickly going; that was the battlefield as I saw it below the clouds. ”

“ It's a harsh promise, my boy, but it must be. For a border fist fight leads to knives, and knives lead to revolvers, and they lead to rifles, which lead to artillery. The next step in the scene is the works, complete and whole. ”

“ Cast loose your guns. “The muzzle lashing is to be taken off from the guns, and (being coiled up in a small compass) is to be made fast to the eye-bolt above the port. The lashing-tackles at the same time to be cast loose, and the middle of the breeching seized to the thimble of the pomillion. The spunge to be taken down, and, with the crow, hand-spike, &c. laid upon the deck by the gun. ”

“ When the general who is in charge of the attack judges that the artillery preparation is sufficient, that the supply systems for the attack are properly organized, that all is ready and, in short, that the psychological moment has arrived, he gives his order for the attack. ”

“ With faces protruding through the strong beams, and with hands through two holes, secured and helpless, they were made to stand defenceless before the crowd as targets for any missiles that might be thrown. ”

“ Sometimes our artillery opens up and then you lay down your book for a while, and, looking through a peek-hole, watch the 75's and 120's throw up fountains of dirt and débris all along the line of the enemy's trenches. ”

“ A messenger carrying despatches, in whatever form, from one portion of the army, or from a besieged place, to another portion of the same army, or its government—if captured while doing so, in the enemy’s territory, or in the territory occupied by the enemy, is treated by the capturing enemy as a spy. ”