Page:History of the 305th field artillery (IA historyof305thfi01camp).pdf/124

 The regiment went about its business with its former eagerness. We were told that our first rolling barrage was worthy of veteran troops. It certainly made enough noise and black smoke. The next, with the guns of the two light regiments in a long row, was as good. We ad- mired the dust clouds half obscuring the quickly sliding Lubes, and the changing black curtain drawn across the range.

"No one," we told ourselves, "could get through that."

Our instructors admitted that there didn't seem to be any holes.

Such perfection wasn't reached without delays and adventures. The weather had grown stcadily warmer. There had been scarcely any rain. Consequently the range was abnormally dry. When the 306th got its 155 howitzers and opened fire with practice shells these factors produced worse conflagrations than we had had at Upton. They stopped our work. They sent us to warm and uncongenial labor. Towards the climax of a delicate adjustment it was distracting to hear someone say to the instructor:

“Isn't that smoke over there sir? I think it's a fire on the range.

The instructor always looked through the binoculars, and nearly always in a tone of helpless disgust, called to the operator.

"Cease firing! Fire on the range."