The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1900-01-06


tween the Beers and the British in
South Africa.
The armOred train has been a par
ticularly prominent feature in this
Transvaal wal because of the position
of the contestants and the long, UNI
protected plains along the different
boundaries.
The idea of the armored train, how
ever, is by no means a new one, for,
although past experiences with such
trains in open warfare have revealed
little concerning their more or less
problematical value as an offensive and
defensive factor, trains covered with
armor and filled with sha%rpshooters
had been used in the neighborhood of
Paris even SO early as the Franco
Prussian war. During the Cuban re-
bellion the armored train was used
quite often by the Spaniards, though
the most successful recorded operation
of such a train occurred in 1882, when
the British feet was bombarding
Alexandria. During this b~ombardment
Capt. Fisher, an officer in the British
navy, conceived the idea of taking an
ordinary locomotive and several cars
and covering them with good heavy
boiler plate. When this was done the
train was equipped with field guns,
manned with blue jackets from his
ship, and then started along the rail-
way line that skirted the coast where
the enemy lay in force. When the
Egyptian troops we're suddenly con-
fronted with this unexpected engine
of war. they straightway took to their
heels.
Armored trains mounting field pieces
and machine guns have been, and for
hat mater, are even now being used
by the American troops engaged in the
rounding up of Aguinaldo and his
men. The successful engagement at
Calumpit, for instance was largely at
tributed to the opportune arrival of
just such a flying battery on rails.
Gen. Lord Kitchener also made fire.
quent use of the armored train in his
advance up the Nile. During this
Egyptian campaign it was found that
rifle bullets fired at short range pierced
the plate with which the British cars
were armored, so for extra protection
sand bags were piled up along each
side of the cars, and behind these the
sharpshooters of Kitchener were quite
invulnerable.
In the armored trains which have
been spreading CONSERVATION among
the belligerent burghers of the Trans
vaal the locomotive is the only part
that does not carry guns. The cars
themselves are simply box cars, COW
cred by steel boiler plating three
quarters Of an inch in thickness. This
is firmly riveted on a steel framework,
while the locomotive itself is well in
cased in the same plating, particular
care being taken to protect securely
all vital parts of the machinery. In
stead of hauling the cars in the usual
manner, the locomotive is always
placed in the center of the train for
the sake of extra protection to such
an important part of the flying bat
terry. Portfolios are made in the armor
plate sides of the a through which to
operate the quick-firing and machine
guns, with smaller apertures lower
down through which the Tommy At
:kins sharpshooter pokes his deadly
rifle barrel. 1t requires a very steady
aim to send it's bullet home from a
fast moving train. so the deadliest
marksmen are always selected. A
powerful railway crane and a strong
searchlight are also usually included
in the equipment of such a train.
When in operation, the armored train
is usually preceded by an advance
guard of cavalry, regarded as necessary
to insure protection to the roadbed and
to report on Interruptions In rail con-
nection or obstacles along the line.
y The armored cars which Col. Baden
Powell hastily improvised for the pro-
lection of Mafeking were simply or
binary fiat cars with armored walls
made Of steel rails firmly bolted to-
gether. When the town was invested
this ohicer, it will be remembered,
surrounded his position with a rail-
way about which circled his train, well
loaded with machine guns and sharp