Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1912-11-18
Great Artillery Duel.


London. Nov. 19.-The Times corre-
spondent at the Tchatalja lines tele-
graphs.
"The Bulgarians unmasked their ar
tillery positions at daybreak and
opened heavy fire along the front from
the Hamidieh forts at Papas Burgas.
This is the first real endeavor they
have made against the Turkish lines.
THE position the Bulgarians selected
is fronted on the left by the Papas
Burgas marshes and on the right by
the gradual glacis of the two Hamidieh
forts. The Turkish front is connected
by trenches worked into the alignment
Of the old Notifications.
"All the permanent works have, how
ever, Krupp guns in emplacement, and
other large caliber guns have been
mounted in the recently built works
facing the Papas Burgas valley. Above
these. field artillery batteries are dug
in at intervals all along the line.
THE Turks have placed trenches in
front of the permanent works in which
the infantry are disposed.
The Bulgarian artillery positions are
not SO advantageous. There appears to
be three batteries in action against the
Papas Burgas front and seven in front
of the Hamidieh group.
THE opening of the battle was a
wonderful spectacle. The black face of
the Bulgarian position sparkled with
flashes. Some of the Turkish heavy
guns fired black powder. The bursting
of heavy shells soon raised curtain of
smoke. which, mingled with the morn
ing mist. rolled majestically down the
valley between the combatants.
"A Turkish warship in the bay
Joined the concert, firing its heaviest
guns in broadside. Gaping the Bulgar-
ian right with a great pillar of mud
and fire.
1T was certainly the heaviest artil-
lery combat seen since the Japanese
massed corps of artillery pounded
Grekoff's devoted rear guard outside Of
Liaoyang.
Working my way under the shrap-
mel fire, ! discovered that during the
night the Bulgarian infantry had passed
down under cover of the banks of the
Karasu and were trying to 'hke possess
sion Of the upper loop Of the railway
Small groups of Bulgarians rose out Of
the shelving banks and advanced eau
tionsly and slowly.
"The Turkish gunners found them
nicely and the attempt failed.
''The whirr of machine guns and the
crash of infantry magazine fire in the
direction Of the Hamidieh first told us
that another infantry effort was being
made there but the fire died down and
as here was no movement on the part
of the Turkish reserves 1t was pre-
sumed that this attempt had failed.
This was 10 o'clock In the morning
The armament was still ringing with
the crack Of shrapnel and the dull rev.
erberations of heavy ordnance. The
Bulgarians scorched us heavily but in
my part of the field there were but few
casualties.
Toward II o'clock there was lull
and as could not make out the slight
est movements among the Turkish re-
serves, 1t seemed to me that the Bull
garians had found their opponents less
easy than they had expected. It cer-
tainly looked as II the taking of this
Turkish position on the left will only
be by the slow process Of stealing posi-
tions under cover of heavy artillery
fire."
Marines to Embark.
Constantinople. Nov. 1S.-The United
States station ship Scorpion has sent
a detachment OF marines to the Ameri-
can embassy. The ambassador says