The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-09-23
IMMENSE GERMAN ORDNANCE
Especial Despatch by the Interna-
tfonal News Service)

New York, Sept. 23.-Despatches
from the European war, telling of
the great 15-inch siege guns of the
Germans, which are capable of bat
tering down the sturdiest fortifica-
tons and yet may be transported
with great swiftness on motor trucks.
are attracting the interest of Amer
lean military men. !.
photographs of Liege and cNamur
after the Germans demolished their
forts show the terrible execution of
the German gSfs, which fire their
explosive shells upward at sharp
angle and crumble the. enemy's fUrti-
fications by a vertical plunging fire.
= One retired ordnance officer who
was questioned today said that bear
ing in mind the superior roads of
western Europe and reports that the
Germans had been spending much
money for years in developing their
heavy artillery, it was easily conceiv-
able that they had perfected expedi-
tious means of transporting their
heaviest pieces.
-'FOf coure,' he said, none of us
knows anything at first hand. All
that we do know we learn from the
newspapers. IF the Germans have
such pieces, it is safe to say they are
not showing them to military OBJ
servers of other nations; and on the
other hand, l think it is equally safe
to say that there is nothing startling
1y new about these big guns. They
are probably much the same as the
11-inch coast-defense mortars the
Japs brought over to Port Arthur,
and without which it is questionable
whether they would have ever. reduc-
ed the Russian fortress. We have
similar pieces in our own coast-de-
Tense Notifications.
ut has for years been an open
secret that the Germans were spend
ing considerable sums of money on
perfecting their heavy artillery, just
as we have known that the French
were devoting their energies to per-
fecting their mobile field artillery.
Doubtless the Germans were in
1uenced to some extent, at any rate
by the knowledge that in fighting
France they would have to reckon
upon overcoming the numerous pow
erful fortresses which the French
have scattered over northern and
northeastern sections of France.
Bearing in mind the fact that the
roads in western Europe are excel
lent, it is not hard to believe the
Germans have evolved a very heavy
siege gun which can he transported
by motor, thus making it infinitely
more mobile than if it required to be
hauled by horses.
without any accurate first-hand
knowledge of the gun in question,
should venture to say that an eleven
inch piece of the kind reported tC
have been employed against Liege
and Namur forts would weigh about
| fifteen tons Now, it would he per
| fectly feasible to build special car
riage for the transportation of gun
of even this weight, and to this car
riage you might hitch a powerful
motor of, say 100 horse power i
/ stands to reason that you would ge
results from such a means of trans
portation. The same gun could read
lily be hauled by twenty or thirty
horses. but it could not be advanced
| at anything like the rate of speed
possible with motor transportation
and speed seems to be an Essential
| factor with the Germans That i
why I am ready to believe that tbs
| Germans and Austrians really d.
/ possess siege-batteries mounted OF
/ heavy motor trucks.
/ LAS to the value of such guns fo
use against Notifications there cal
4 be no doubt. Most Notifications ar
built to resist horizontal fire. Thes
guns deliver huge shells at angle o
forty-five degrees falling practican
straight down out of the sky. One
such guns have found the range O
a fortified place, it must be practical
| " untenabIe Their shells woul'
probably contain thirty or fort
pounds of some high explosive an
bursting in the narrow area of fort
or gun-pits, they would have mos
destructive effects. 1t will be inter
esting to see how the theories o
ordnance worked out by Frenchme
and Germans develop in actual prac
tice.