The soldiers used to call the 77 mill. shells of the Germans "Pip-squeaks." They used to give a "pip" and then a "squeak." If you heard the first and did not hear the second you were dead, while, if you heard them both you could consider yourself still alive. Another familiar name for them was that of "Cheeky Charlies," from the fact that they had the habit of coming in without being announced. In addition to the field guns there are the "Mediums" or guns of about 5 inches calibre. The familiar name for the German shell fired from them was "the Crump"--by reason of the fact that they sat down alongside you with a terrific "Crump" as their greeting. As in the former case, those who could report having heard the "Crump" were still alive. Then there are various long range guns between five and nine inches in calibre. But long range guns do not play the part that high-angle or Howitzer guns do. The Germans wasted a good many shells in firing at targets even as far away as twenty-three miles, but nowadays shells are usually kept for targets that there is a fair chance of hitting and not for blind firing. The Howitzer that has come to play a very large part in the operations of the British is the gun that is familiarly called "Mother"--a gun of 9.2 inches calibre and which projects a very weighty shell. The Germans have a corresponding gun of a little larger bore. Last of all there come the great guns of 15 and 16 inch calibre. These guns need concrete foundations and cannot be set up in a hurry. Fortunately--for them--the Germans had a number of these foundations already prepared in unsuspecting France and Belgium long before the war. Our own gun of this size we call "Grandmother." The shells that fall from the German guns of the largest size we call by various names--either "Bertha Krupps" from the name of the proprietress of the great gun works at Essen; or "Fat Berthas" for the same reason; or "Jack Johnsons" from their hard-hitting capacity; or "coal boxes," "black marias," etc., etc. The effect of these shells was terrific, as may be imagined, but there were many occasions when they pierced so deep into the soft ground that a good deal of the force of their explosion was lost. Of course for work against forts there is nothing like them. They opened the eyes of the world from their terrible destructive force shown at Liége and Namur.