The Washington herald., 1914-10-11
GREAT SECRET
remains UNTOLD
French Kill Germans in Sec
lions Through Methods Not
Known to Outsiders.
MAY BE USING FUMES
Three-ineh Field Guns May Be Means
BY Which This Mysterious
Death Visits Teutons.
MAY BE USING FUMES

London, Oct. 6-At the outset Of the
titantic European war French writers
commenting on the probable fate Of the
Germans, had much to say OF the great
secret" Of France as a factnr in the
struggle. Time and again Ssofies ema-
mating from Paris mentioned the great
secret" and the mystery" by which
their country was TO strike down the
German hosts.
Not once has there been given an ink
ling OF the nature Of the great secret 7"
but q London correspondent, writing
from Dieppe, after a visit to the battle
fields along the Marne, believes be has
found Il in the three-inch field guns
used by the French, which. according to
the stories, parslyLe the Germans a.
they stand. killing them apparently with
out wounding them and leaving them
much as they were left the victims Of
the great tragedies Of Herculaneum and
Pompei.
The writer says: "A visit to the feId
Of the battle of the Marine shows the de-
vastating power Of the French three
inch field gun TO be something OF which
We hitherto had not dreamed.
Entire sections and companies OF Ger
man troops have been struck as II by
simultaneous thunderbolts, reminding one
Of nothing so much as the wholesale ex-
tinctions Of the populations of Hercu-
laneum and POmpeii'
Such an account sounds mysterious.
Were the Germans killed where they
stood by violent and overpowering pois-
onous fumes? Is that the great secret?"
Continuing. the correspondent says:
'On the borders Of one of the forests n
company Of Prussian infantry at bivou-
ack Is laid out as II surprised by the IRE.
Two sentriss are still graspinE their
rifles, and a little way of messenger
lies by himself.
Further on an officer lies q few yards
from HIS men, who are stretched out
with loosened belts and lying in their
blankets. Two of them still hold playing
cards in their hands.
Those sleeping and those who were
awake when they died evidently were
swept out Of life together without ap-
parently having had time to move"
Secret Worth Discussing.
The same thing is noticeable on other
battlef1elds in France, say various writ
ers, but not one OF them has made any
attempt to explain the matter. Evil
IDENTIFY, when the French talked about
their great secret they had in mind
something worth talking about
The Germans, according to all accounts,
have been killed in some way other than
by bullets or fragments Of shells. They
have been smothered to death, evidently
by powerful conclusion. or have been as
phyxiated by powerful deadly gas.
Recording further instances Of ap-
parently mysterious deaths among the
Germans, the correspondent says: Even
more extraordinary is another group Of
sixty dead lying about a small haystack
as il in sleep. their rifles stacked and
their knapsacks arranged in orderly
heaps.
''In the outer ring the path Of the
shells can be traced in a direct line by
heaps Of bodies, but the particular shell
that killed these sixty struck them in
front, from behind, and at the sides with
the same sudden death and yet none OF
them bears any outward wound. They
are stretched face downward or staring
up at the sky. seemingly paralyZed by
the mere force of the explosion.