Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-02-05
HIDING AN ART
lNPRESEN1 War
FRENCH AIRMAIg TELLS OF
WAYS AND MEANS SOL
D1ERs HAVE OF CONCEAL.
ING THEMSELVES.
even TREES are REPLAN1EO
Unless War Aviator Is Acquain-
ted With Landscape Identified
.p, ton Is Difficult.
Even TREES are REPLAN1EO

Paris, Feb. 4.-Etienne Poulet, &C.
scri5ing his impressions as an air
scout, says, Hiding and concealmen:
has become such an art in modern
warfare that it is more difficult to
locate the enemy than to kill him."
He says: ~.
Infantry assumes the appearance
Of stacks Of straw, cannon become to
the sharpest eye nothing but inofie1s'
i've piles of brush weed.
Conservation ladders are made up
with such perfection taht they are
easily mistaken for poplars or cypress
trees; false hedges and artificial
thickets, even, frequently conceal bat
teries of artillery and attachments OF
infantry from the eye Of the air
scout. s>:G
. Had Replanted Trees.
There is only one thing that will
enable an aviator to detect these mod
itications inthe natural appearance OF
Of the ground he is flying over anG
that is a complete previous acquaint-
ance with it. In a certain region that
I explored frequently during the ba.-
tie of the Marine there was a wood
that we airmen called the " wood;
to US it was we'll known as a guiding
point. One day the " wood present.
ed an unusual aspect to my eyes;
the extremity Of the left horn of the
u seemed to have heightened about
30 yards during the night. l took
the chance of flying low over the spo;
there, just inside the miraculous
nights growth of woods I discovered
a German battery, skillfully hid from
our artillery by a thicket Of pine
and cedars %replante0 during the
night. 7
Locate German Batteries.
On another occasion it was a herge
that I had naver seen before, though
/ had 'scrutinized every bit Of the
ground; on closer inspection I was
able to discover the newly thrown UP
ridge Of a line of trenches and tho
enlightenment OF two German batter.
les that would have given us a great
deal OF trouble on the morrow if our
3.inchers had not thus Jeen put into
possession of the secret. .
photography" adds Poulet, lis al
HIIuUSL lnulSpeuSdUIc HduJuuCt VI ttS
airman's mission" He exhibited e v
eral photographs taken on the fly,
which showed clearly the highhoad
and on both sides of it something that
rescmblrd a spiders wrtb. "Thcse
lines" Poulet explains, ''are German
trenches and not far from there three
round objects. each one between gray
lines, ara simply three German bat
teries that worked havoc in the Al.
lies,l ranks until, after three days
hunting, We located them.
Surprised Force.
Here" continues Poulet. YOU see
a, great number Of light round spots
about the form of green meas: they
are the funnel shaped holes dug III
the earth by our own 3-inch shells;
some of them are eve feet in dim
eter and four feet deep; there are a
great many of them, for there was
where our batteries surprised a r"gt.
meht. of German infantry which they
annihilated in less than half an hour.
while the rest OF the corcN concealed
in the adjoining wood. the famous
IT. wood, were obliged to break CAMP
In haste, leaving their dead an"
wounded behind them"