Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-12-26
CATAPULT TO HOWITZER.
Difference in Detail Only Through a
Period of 1000 Years.

From the stones cast from sings
with which the natives of Gaul sought
to repel the advance of Caesars Ro-
man legions to the huge German how
itzers hurting 16-inch explosive shells
against the allies is as long a step
mechanically as it is in point of time.
But except for the temper Of the weap-
ons, there is no appreciable difference
between the hand-to-hand conflicts
short sword against spear--of SO B. c.
and the bayonet charges of the French
and English against the Germans in
1914. For nearly 1000 years the ground
on which the great war is being fought
has been almost continuous battle
field.
Every form of weapon and every
type of armor ever used by civilized
man in the settlement of international
differences or private quarrels has
been tried, tested and developed al
most on the same spot where the eff
cheney of the most modern implements
of warfare is now being put to the
supreme test. Omitting the one dis
tinctly modern military arm-the fly
ing corps-the differences between the
weapons of 1000 years ago and the
weapons of today are differences in
detail only. and excepting the class
for the propulsion of missels it is ques-
tionable whether there has been any
marked increase in efficiency, either
of men, or of arms. AS last resort,
when the order comes to rush the
enemy's intrenchments, battles are still
decided by brute strength and hand
to-hand fighting-sword to spear, bay
onet to bayonet-just as in the days
when Caesar wrote, The Belgians are
the bravest.''
When Caesar invaded Gaul, his SOL
diers carried, besides their curved OBJ
long shields for protection, the famous
Roman short swords, sharp-pointed
and two edged, for close infighting
with javelins or throwing spears as
missiles. These were also useful in
hand to- hand conflicts and were the
prototype of the modern bayonet. Steel
had not yet come into general use, but
these soft-iron weapons had at least
the merit of being easily sharpened on
any convenient stone. And backing up
the foot soldiers and horsemen just as
the artillery does today. was the
Roman artillery, consisting of cata-
hurting large rocks into the ranks Of
the enemy, and the ballista, a devise
working on the same principle, for
throwing quantities of arrows. In each
of these the propulsive force was pro-
duced by the sudden releasing of a
great beam or tree trunk which had
been bent by means of ropes and
winches to form a huge spring. A
shower of arrows hurled from a bal
lista must have created as much havoc
in the ranks Of the oncoming Gauls as
the bursting of a shrapnel shell among
the foot soldiers does today, while the
great stones thrown by the catapults
were often as large and heavy as the
shells of the modern howitzers.
The one important addition that was
made to the armament OF European
soldiers, prior to the introduction of
gunpowder, was the bow 1t
was nearly 1000 A. D. before the bow
became what it afterward was for more
than four centuries-the principal
weapon of the European foot soldier
occupying in one form or another the
same position that the magazine rife
does today.
The superiority of the long bow over
the crossbow was demonstrated at the
battle of Cressy in 1916, the decisive
battle of the 100 Years War between
the English and the French where as
the old chroniclers relate it, the long
arrows of the British archers flew in
such clouds that they obscured the sun.
The man with the long bow could shoot
several arrows while the crossbowman
was shooting one.
In this battle, fought only a few