Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-10-08

SO true of the necessary ammunition
supply To move these along an ex-
tended line OF small forts is a heavy
task"
From other sources il has been
learned that Notifications of the type
favored by General Brialmont
would have served their purpose well
had the Germans failed to provide
themselves with the 42-centimetre
pieces, has been shown at Givet that
the Austrian -centimetre morton
batteries though smaller in calibre
and OF lesser force of penitration, suf-
fee amply To reduce a unit fort in lit
tie time General Brialmont and the
French military engineers, 1t is said.
made the mistake of taking 1t for
granted that the q centimetre gun
! OF the Germans, and their own arm
les, were the last work in armament,
having accepted that the steel they
were familiar with could not stand
greater chamber pressure. That
heavier piece would give more pene
tration than they calculated in their
plans, they are said to have known,
but they accepted that it would be
| impossible to transport such giants.
In view of the fact that even SO
horses have difficulty moving one of
the German 42s, this conclusion was
reasonable enough, explained Dutch
artillery officer, but neither General
Brialmont nor the French engineers
could foresee that motor traction
would make such tremendous prog
ress since the forts they built were
! planned.
That the Germans and Austrians
have moved their 42's and 55's, res
pectively, by horses is a fact. But
this seems to have been done in ter
rain where the roads permitted Of no
other course. Invariably they are
moved by powerful traction engines,
which in addition to the piece itself
pull from three to four caissons. Re-
Gently a type of traction engine, known
as Caterpillar" has been observed,
for use on bad roads and across
plowed fields. In addition both the
German and Austrian heavy pieces
are mounted on a carriage, the wheels
of which are fitted with fianges for
use on the railroads. Whether or not
| this latter device has been suggested
! by the war cannot be said. but a few
| days ago several heavy German bat
teries were taken in this manner over
| the Belgian railroads, the road tractor
running on the rails also. Ordinary
railroad cars trailing behind the cais-
sons carried the personnel of the bat
| teries.
| What sort of explosive the Germans
use in the AZ centimetre shells is still
a mystery. French officers of forts
| bombarded by the Germans maintain
! that the charge of the projectile is
melinite. but others have expressed
| the opinion that the explosive Is
something entirely new and that the
gases formed by 1t have even greater
| expansion than those Of nitro-glycer-
| Inc, the strongest high explosive
! known. There is no doubt that the
vapors of the explosive have violent
! toxic effect and nothing but strong
application of oxygen will revive those
succumbing to them.
The German AZ Is made with two
barrels long one for fat range lire,
and q short one for high-angle fire.
| In the former the ballistic charge is
necessarily much stronger, and with
projectile Weighing from 1900 to 1870
pounds the pressure exerted by the
| explosion upon the chamber walls
I
cannot be less than $50 tons to the
square inch, 1t is said. The high-an-
gle or mortar AZ requires slightly
| smaller propclling charge. The long
| barrelled gun is used against the
faces offered by Notifications, while
the mortar drops it's shell from high
elevation into the fort or redoubt
Their sight ranges are said to be. res
pectively, and S kilometres, while
| according to the Koelnische Zeitung
| the fight OF the shell exceeds twelve
and ten kilometres. The flight Of
both Shells is attended by a number
of interesting aerial phenomena, which
so far have been merely limited at by
German experts. One of them, how
ever, Is that the gases Of the cham
Der explosion travel ahead Of the pro-
iectile for long distance but that