The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-10-29 00:00:00

THE SERIOUS BOMBARDMENT OF IRIS.

"The really serious bombardment of the Paris forts," writes
Gen Wicked' to the Colay,,e Gazette, . . . when once
begun will be uninterruptedly continued. To be begun
and then perhaps suspended for two or three days I, r want
of ammunition Is not the intention of Colonel Von Itletf,
the commandant of the whole siege artillery to be employed
before Paris. There are great difficulties In bringing heavy
guns, each requiring 10 or 12 horse, to draw It, by road 60
miles from Nogent, up to which point the railway can be
used, and the transport of the enormous masses of ammu-
nition required for a tolerably warm fire Is still more diffi-
cult. Thousands of erste. of ammunition will be hunched
in a few days with these siege guns against the Paris
forts if the bombardment is once seriously begun,
and 1,000 carte are necessary to bring up four or five days'
supply. Most of those torte are armed with heavy, long-
range, fortress guns, Mont Valerien, the strongest and
largest, having 72, and limy, Moutrouge, Vanvres, Blestre,
Tyry, Charenton, Nogens, Vincennes, Soapy, and Romani-
villa, 60 or 60 each. It is calculated that the forts round
Ea& have altogether about 1,000 cast-iron heavy guns.
People in Germany should therefore wait • little patiently
for the opening of the bombardment. A useless fire, such as
unfortunately happened In the first instance at Tool, would
only tend to increase the defiance of the Parisians The
interval will seem longer to them than to no, for their pri-
vations are incalculably greater and more dispiriting
than those undergone by our troops. If the French
will not admit themselves conquered, and accept a
reasonable peace, they may prolong the war for weeks, or
even months, but they will suffer ten times more than Ger-
many, which can regard the matter more composedly, much
as it wishes for a speedy peace. So much has been effected
in a couple of months that we should be satisfied, and not be
Impatient if the thing doss not progress so rapidly se is
desired by many eager people unacquainted with Its diffi-
culties, The siege of Sebastop ci occupied more than • year,
and for every day which the war lasts France will ultimately
have to pay us some million, of francs indemnity. lien
Wickede adds that "In order not to afford the French the
practice of tiring at night at lighted windows, all rooms
whose windows can be e'en from the forts are not
to be occupied, or else the windows are to be thickly
covered with curtain.. on hie visiting an officer in
• country-house near Rsres, exposed to the fire of Fort bray,
they were drinking • bowl of punch in the drawing-room, by
moonlight, when, the moon having apparently lit up the
windows, half a-dozen grenades from the fort were aimed at
the house, two of them striking It •00ve the windows. They
lost no time in covering these, whereupon the fire named.
Such things are of daily occurrence along the whole line, and
, there are posts where the men live under an almost constant
cannonade. As, however, the balls seldom hit, the soldiers
eat, drink, and sleep quietly under It. Ouch exposed posts
are relieved every four or five dam and recruit themeelvee
at Versailles or other positions in the rear."