It is reported that at one point where the French were much annoyed by the fire of a German machine gun, which was otherwise inaccessible, they drove a mine gallery, 50 meters (about 164 feet) long, up to and under the emplacement, and blew up the gun.  The man who drove the gallery belonged to a corps which was recruited in one of the coal-mining districts of France.

The German machine guns are mounted on low sledges, and are inconspicuous and evidently easily moved.

The fighting now consists mostly of shelling by the artillery of both sides and in front a line of fire from the machine guns as an occasional target offers.  Our Maxims have been doing excellent work and have proved most efficient weapons for the sort of fighting in which we are now engaged.

At times there are so many outbursts of their fire in different directions that it is possible for an expert to tell by comparison which of the guns have their springs adjusted and are well tuned up for the day.  The amount of practice that our officers are now getting in the use of this weapon is proving most valuable in teaching them how to maintain it at concert pitch as an instrument and how to derive the best tactical results from its employment.

Against us the Germans are not now expending so much gun ammunition as they have been, but they continue to fire at insignificant targets.  They have the habit of suddenly dropping heavy shells without warning in localities of villages far behind our front line, possibly on the chance of catching some of our troops in bivouac or billets.  They also fire a few rounds at night.

The artillery has up to now played so great a part in the war that a few general remarks descriptive of the methods of its employment by the enemy are justified.  Their field artillery armament consists of 15-pounder quick-fire guns for horse and field batteries of divisions and there are, in addition, with each corps three to six batteries of 4.3-inch field howitzers and about two batteries of 5.9-inch howitzers.  With an army there are some 8.2-inch heavy howitzers.

The accuracy of their fire is apt at first to cause some alarm, more especially as the guns are usually well concealed and the position and the direction from which the fire is proceeding are difficult of detection.  But accurate as is their shooting, the German gunners have on the whole had little luck, and during the past three weeks an astonishingly small proportion of the number of shells fired by them have been really effective.

Quite the most striking feature of their handling of the artillery is the speed with which they concentrate the fire upon any selected point.  They dispense to a great extent with the method of ranging known by us as bracketing, especially when acting on the defensive, and direct their fire by means of squared maps and the telephone.  Thus, when the target is found, its position on the map is telephoned to such batteries as it is desired to employ against that particular square.