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[Page 15]
The enemy was watched by a device called a periscope which is composed of two mirrors set at a certain angle, and for a man to put his head above the trench was to court death as the Turks were very good shots. A periscope rifle was used for sniping and is an ingenious arrangement. Both sides indulged in smashing the mirrors and shooting a man who incautiously exposed himself. The Turkish periscope was different to ours but none the less efficient. I reckon, we beat the Turks at sharpshooting and put more men and periscopes out of action than they did ours. The flying glass from the broken mirrors made nasty cuts on the face, but none proved serious, except when it entered the eyes.
The Turks shelled heavily at times, but we were well entrenched, and had dugouts to get into, when the shrapnel flew around. The casualties were few as a rule, but still mounted up. The enemy mostly generally used the French 75's which are wonderful guns and throw shells incredibly fast; all that is heard is, a "whish bang", and then comes a shower of shrapnel. It doesn't give one time to get into shelter like the other shells which came droning over and gave giving good warning before exploding. The shell of the "75" is about 3 inches in diameter, and some of the shells from other guns were from 8 to 10 inches, but had poor explosive power. Some of these shells were from 15 to 20 years old and were almost entirely coated with lead, and had to without any copper driving band.