One day while he was busy upon a patent catapult the major came
to X---- and showed him a message from the corps, who, introduced
suddenly and unexpectedly to that formidable engine of destruction,
the _minenwerfer_, desired urgently some improvised machine or gun
wherewith to retaliate until supplies of the new weapon arrived from
home arsenals. Nor were the elaborate specifications peculiar to all
staff instructions lacking. The proposed machine must be capable of
hurling a heavy bomb a distance of not less than two hundred yards; but
at the same time, if a gun, it must not require a powerful propelling
charge. It must be portable and sufficiently compact to allow of its
introduction into a front-line trench; its working must not demand
intricate mechanical knowledge, nor must more than four men be needed
for its crew, and so on and so forth. X----, if I recollect his
narrative aright, remarked, "Jehoshaphat!" and went away to a nearby
_café_ to ponder out this problem in mechanics. By the next morning he
had planned and partly constructed the first of his famous simplified
mortars.
It was, so far as I remember the constructional details, merely a large
tube, about three feet long and with a diameter of six inches, made
of very thick sheet-iron and closed at one end by a block of wrought
iron, pinned and welded on. The barrel mounted on a cradle, the bed
weighed under half a hundredweight, and was secured to the ground by
long iron pins like glorified tent-pegs. The ammunition consisted of
huge canisters packed with gun-cotton and exploded by a time fuse or a
simple percussion detonator. And if one did not look what he was doing,
the bomb might easily be slipped into the mortar detonator first--to
the dire confusion of the gun-crew. Gunpowder, rammed and wadded and
ignited through a touch-hole, discharged the canister upon its travel.
This creation was dispatched with precise instructions as to its use
and probable eccentricities, and all hoped it would "make good."
Two days later came the report that at the first discharge the mortar
had burst. It was requested that a stronger one be made, and, further,
that the engineer-constructor should accompany his engine into the
trenches, there to superintend its working. Thus one day X----
descended upon the lines with a new and larger mortar of more solid
construction, one dubious artilleryman as assistant gunner, canister,
a bag of powder, and a ramrod.
I can imagine the breathless interest with which the garrison in the
trenches observed the loading of the mortar, the swift retirement from
its vicinity, and the stunned confusion following the first shot.
It went off with a stupendous roar, belching forth smoke and flame.
The canister, turning over and over in the air, was seen to describe
a mighty arc and fall upon a ruined house behind the German lines
and there explode mightily, demolishing the place as completely and
spectacularly as if a mine had been sprung beneath it. A great cheer
burst forth. The delighted soldiers promptly poured in "fifteen rounds
rapid," and a machine-gun rattled through a belt in honour of the
occasion and to follow up the bomb. The new weapon was voted a huge
success.
It was fired five times in all, two bombs failing to explode, one
excavating a ton or so of earth from the centre of No Man's Land,
whilst the fifth fell plump into the German fire-trench, levelling it
for half-a-dozen yards in either direction and sending high into the
air a vast shower of earth, rent sandbags, timber, and human fragments.
Then, just as a sixth projectile was being loaded, the German artillery
got to work. A storm of "whizz-bang" shells hurtled over, exploding
everywhere--in the air, on the ground, and sometimes against the high
parapet, which was sent flying. Two batteries of heavy howitzers
concentrated a slow, deliberate fire, dropping 5.2 and 9-inch shells in
the zone of the mortar, which was buried under tons of earth. At length
the bombardment ceased, and rescue parties came to dig out those men
whose dug-outs had fallen in upon them or who had been buried in the
ruins of the trench. X---- had remained by his mortar and was rescued
unconscious.
Yet, with the tenaciousness of his breed, he came back again--having
spent a week at the field ambulance's barn hospital and a few days at
his company's quarters--armed with a third and more powerful mortar.
This time he had taken the precaution to provide himself with smokeless
powder. The German artillery observers, however, were on the look-out
for him, and although there was no longer a mountain of smoke to serve
as a target, the position of the mortar was disclosed by the enormous
roar of its discharge, which could be heard four miles away. Not five
minutes elapsed before half-a-dozen batteries, informed by telephone,
opened a tremendous fire and speedily rendered the vicinity untenable.
Casualties were high, and X---- and his weapon lost favour with the
neighbouring infantry.