The Wonder of War on Land

ran had gone, "that they'd let me join in the

e hunchback answered, shaking

ty well," suggested the boy. "I used

on smiled i

ow about cavalry maneuvers? Why, boy, you'd bungle up a cavalry charge so badly that the kind

len but he knew his co

e said, "but I don't know anything about

know the first thing about it. With continuous work eight hours a day, it takes at least two years to make a real soldier. You don't know how to use a sin

e all th

ine ri

the diff

He called to a soldier who was st

they are not called so. The Lebel is an old type and has a tube fitted in the rifle under the barrel, the cartridge

armies, what gu

tish have a short Lee-Enfield. All of them have magazines under the bolt wa

is th

en cartridges in its magazine against the Mauser's five. But," and he patted his rifle affectionately, "I like my Lebel bett

jump right into the fighting-line without jo

nto the fire of his own artillery. When there's a retreat, he starts a panic. When he's on sentry-duty he hears a suspicious noise about once in every three minutes. When he's told to do something he doesn't like, he tries to argue about it. If you want to be a soldier, boy, join it in

" said Horace mournfully, as

hunchback, a curious glint in his eyes.

two?" haza

," came the reply, "that is, unless the Germans smas

"if it lasts a year

roquier, "we'

officer sent for Hor

" he said, as soon

er's j

d. "I thought it would

low seems to have learned from Li

k answered; "we lived just

e any of th

he bomb

r any d

m the wounded. I was in hiding, though, a

, of the fearful loss of life in the massed attacks and of the valor of the def

to waste men when guns will do the trick. It seems he brought his 42-centimeter guns into position five miles from Namur abo

a German. The hail of death on those trenches was so furious that no troops could live through it. There was no resistance. The guns of the forts could not reply, they were outranged. There was no possibility of a count

e on the forts. Fort Maizeret received 1200 shells, at the speed of twenty to the minute, but was only able to reply with ten rounds. In that sixty minutes, the fort was reduced to a mass of crumpled masonry and a few shreds of armor

ts up to stiffen General Michel's defense, but they arrived too late to be of any use to th

ours. Apparently there is nothing made by the hands of man that can resist the incredible destructiveness of those huge high-explosive shells. Our point of defense will have to be at Charleroi. Our airmen report a

supplementing from time to time. When he had finished,

ere they came from, who commands

er was

his brain, "but I think the woman whose boy

bout the best troops in the German Army, pretty clean fighters, too, as a rule. I hope

e Meuse near Namur, ridden through Charleroi and trotted on towards the Sambre. At first they were mistaken for British hussars, to whose uniform theirs was similar. Soon, however, they were recog

ved with a point-blank military order. He decided to chance it, not being punishable for disobedience as a soldier. The boy was wild to see a battle, if there should be one, but Croquier forbade his attaching himself to any infantry regiment. He, himself, had made friends with one of the gunners of a "Soixa

t, back here with the art

at him with his mout

oy," he said. "I'm thinkin

f battles," reiterated the l

near by. It sounded like the crackling of dry wood in an immense bon-fire. Horace look

g shells, except o

unner answered. "Something's goin

by, marching north, wit

n had white eyebrows and either a gray beard or a gray stubbly chin. It took a moment's thought to realize that this was the effect of

machine-gun began its

on," said the hunchbac

to see a battle slipp

ntinued. "I hope so. We're considerably too cl

nd the horizon and the machine-guns yapped from a hundred points ahead. But, over all, the great guns boomed. It was as though

for a

xante-Quinze" sprang to his post. The gun-numbers, who had been clustere

enti

ficial Ph

nfantry

ustrirte

nfantry

they made sure that the sighting-gear was in place and tha

orace," said Croquier, pointin

disappear as they threw themselves down. Jets of up-thrown earth showed where the shells were striking, and a rising cloud of dust, like to that r

ward!" came the

pa

two points this side o

see

e t

ave the elevati

hes returning smoothly to res

ready

st r

mastering desire to watch the modern

r bent down to s

ir

ch believed-and rightly-to be the best field-gun in the world. It cracked deafeningly, stridently. The flame which darted out of the muzzle was long and thin and seeme

hundred!" the batt

e of the gun

sand, fiv

ir

frenzy, loading, extrac

ute, poured out of the flam

moving with the precision of things of steel. Cartridge-cases littere

e fir

nds over their foreheads,

rk!" sa

o were men jumped up to run ahead and then fe

his side of the hi

Croquier, "on t

Germans ca

N

s? If they're not in sight of the Germans, what di

k. Therefore every man standing up, within the distance of 700 yards, who is in line with that bullet, can be hit by it. A man, lying down, can only be hit by a bullet which is dropping to earth, so that the zone of danger is low. For example, a man standing at 1000 ya

e shell and shrapnel was bursting overhead, filling the air with splinters of shell and bullets. Now and again a clang on the gun

e, swaying in the breeze a couple of arm's-lengths away, and found

ddenly, the thistle was no more to be seen,

ely afraid, his experience in the woods near Embourg had freed him of fe

gunner, "they'r

rmations under the orders of their officers, others scattered and disorganized. The roar of the artillery took

ve us on the run,"

" said Croq

st machine-guns to break the spirit and numb the hope of victory. A machine-gun spitting 600 bullets to the minute, swaying its muzzle from side to side like a jet of murder, is

ast, but their officers were there, cool and masterful. On the very verge of disgraceful rout, the Fre

ficent evidence of co

e lic

had bleared eyes looking wildly out of sweat-rimmed sockets. The way was littered with mess-tins, cartridge belts, kepis and broken rifles. But training, only a little less strong than the instinct

t his par

stay here and be

moved by the imminent peril, an

he guns ha

like a living thing. Men dropped on ever

ave the guns?" gasped the

e battery commander, as cal

Croquier admiringl

ng's lost!" g

said the

der, followed by correcti

undred a

and f

ir

but half-way on its mission of revenge, when, as t

concentrated fire of those batteries of seventy-fives and melt

as though they had not been marching for hours and had not encountered the débr

up!" th

said the batt

some of their guns. As they wavered and gave way, the French cavalry, who had bee

ing!" came

themselves down on

d, a whip-like crackle, of little sh

ne-gun," said one of

gun to return when the cavalry made their triumphant da

elow. The men watched him, and, ignoring th

ool to risk his neck in

with orders for the of

ber

a new position. The German infantry rush had failed

only five for the gun. They strained at their c

ed murderously. A

cried the

, where two gunners were lifting, shouldered the men aside, stooped and

re strong!" sai

ck replied, "I am almo

ved off at

n wagon. They had not gone a hundred yards when a shrapnel b

commenced

dropped from the wagon, run forward to the gun and leapt on the plunging horse. O

team tro

ajor caught the stran

you come f

rd to do it with military

of "L'Ill

Do Not

teran's

hich awoke red-hot interest in F

remarked, in a conversational tone of vo

id the boy, "but I'm in no mor

at of c

for me, too, sir, if you

er his grizzled must

lighten the loads, the gunners ran alongside the guns and ammunition wagons. Darkness fell over the scene. The ba

first batt

int on which a man could lie or sit was crowded with wounded. Many

, dying, as the batter

he end?"

o, my boy," s

son to France. Tell her she

geon told him that one leg

ce has made me a gift of a leg.

er, none of the women raised a word of blame. The men drove through with hanging heads, downcast, humiliated by the mute reproach in the eyes of the village

ng the chores of a driver attached to a gun. Croquier, in a manner attached to the battery, felt he could be

ned?" Horace

me like a sh

have reache

what this might mean, then raised hims

cried. "They've pierced our li

rimly, "but unless something happ

city, at Chatelet and Thuin, fell under the impact of the combined light and heavy field howitzers, and, before noon, Charleroi was in German hands. Von B

happens to-morrow!

ething d

arrived unexpectedly in Charleroi during the middle of the engagement. They were too late to keep the Germans from entering

word and bayonet, than in Charleroi. The Germans were more than five to one, but they could not stand cold steel. T

sticks before a whirlwind's blast, factories crumbled into ruin under the disintegrating effects of high explosive shells, burying Fre

hoolroom, but a savage, primitive combat, where each man fired, stabbed, thrust and clubbed to save himself and to fell his foe

eluged Charleroi with

troops, against the wearied but still defiant Turco and Zouave regimen

town. The French Army, however, had almost ignored the development of howitzers, which proved so valuable to the Germans. They had but few of their 3.9-inch (105 mm

know the character of the engagement, the night before. All next morning he stayed by the battery, acting as a driver, but the battery was not in action more than an hour. Th

a road which was nothing more than a series of holes and ruts. A few guns fired from time to t

wo o'clock the

ery Two. There's co

ires in the village streets wavered in the chill air of the early morning. A heavy dew had fallen

irteen-centimeter pop-guns

the world, there," added another, "he

nt flashes of the heavier guns, like the glare

or a moment and then vanished. An 8.2-inch (220 mm.) shell buried itself in the ground behind the battery, drawn up at the ed

came the clacking

ying rider, though his ears warned him of a heavy shell humming on its way,

) shell[14] burst with a slow majestic grandeur. A tree near by, at whose roots the shell had fallen and burrowed, was tossed into th

en the motor-cycle. It had plunged off sharply from the road, jumped a low ditch an

ran across the road. The lad stopped the motor while the gunners lifted the cyclist fro

voice so full of agony that it was a

the edge of the road, grass scorc

up and saw the major, wh

re life or death fo

an guttered out a few sentences, while f

sufferings must have been intense, he said

e disp

ldier should not die in the despair of an un

e delivered.

der smiled thro

red proudly, and tried

hand lightly on the

alute me," he said, "

dispatch-rider joined the immortal

TNO

articular type of gun was not i