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Show BERTHS IN TRENCHES FOR BRITISH SOLDIERS London, England. A descriptive account ac-count of recent develrpments in France, sent by an eye witness attached at-tached to the British general headquarters, head-quarters, has been given out in London Lon-don and is in part as follows: "On the firing line the men sleep and obtain shelter in dugouts they have hollowed or cut under the side of the trenches. These refuges are raised slightly above the bottom of the trench, so as to remain dry in wet weather. The floor of the trench also is sloped for purposes of drainage. drain-age. Are Appropriately Named. "Some of the trenches are provided with overhead cover, which gives protection pro-tection from the weather as well as from shrapnel balls and splinters of shells. Considerable ingenuity has been exercised by the men in naming these shelters. Among the favorite designations are the 'Hotel Cecil,' the 'Ritz hotel,' the 'Billet Doux hotel' and the 'Rue Dormir.' "On the road barricades also are to be found boards bearing this notice: 'This way to the Prussians.' "Obstacles of every kind abound and at night each side can hear the enemy driving pickets for entanglements, entangle-ments, digging trous-de-loup, or working work-ing forward by sapping. In some places, obstacles have been constructed construct-ed by both sides so close together that some wag suggested that each side provide working parties to perform per-form this fatiguing duty alternately, inasmuch as the work of the enemy is almost indistinguishable from ours and serves the same purpose. Quarries Make Spacious Halls. "Quarries and caves, to which allusion allu-sion already has been made, provide ample accommodation for whole battalions bat-talions and most comfortable are the shelters which have been constructed in theiX The northern slopes of the Aisne valley fortunately are very steep and this to a great extent protects pro-tects us from the enemy's shells, many of which pass harmlessly over our hecls to burst in the meadows along the river bank. Bomb Dropped on Ammunition. "It clready has been mentioned that, according to information obtained ob-tained from the enemy, 15 Germans were killed by - bomb dropped upon the ammunition wagon of a cavalry column. It was thought at the time that this might have been the work of one of our airmen, who reported that he had dropped a hand grenade on this convoy and had then got a birds-eye birds-eye view of the finest display of fireworks fire-works he had ever seen. "From corroborative evidence it appears ap-pears that this was the case; that the grenade thrown by him probably was the cause of the destruction of a small convoy carrying field gun and howitzer ammunition, which now has been found . total wreck. Along the road lie 14 motor lorries, their iron skeletons twisted and broken. Every-' thing inflammable has been burned, as have the stripped trees some witb split trunks on both sides of the road. Only Clothing of Drivers Left. "Of the drivers nothing remains except ex-cept tattered boots and charred scraps of clothing, while the ground within a radius of 50 yards of the wagons is littered with pieces of iron, split brass cartridge cases, which have exploded, and some fixed gun .ammunition with live shells. "If it were possible to reconstruct this incident, if it was, in fact, brought about as supposed, the grenade gren-ade from the aeroplane must have detonated on the leading lorry on one side of the road and caused the cartridges car-tridges carried by it to explode. Three vehicles immediately In the rear must then have been set on fire with a similar result. "If this appalling destruction was due to one hand grenade it is an illustration il-lustration of the potentialities of a small amount of high explosive detonated de-tonated in the right spot, while the nature of the place where the disaster occurred a narrow forest road between be-tween high trees is a testimony to the skill of the airman. "It is only fair to add that soma French newspapers claim this damage to the enemy was caused by the action ac-tion of a detachment of their dragoons." |