Evening journal., 1915-08-25
british ARMY MAY
Be ARMORED. TOO
Because of Battered Soldiery
Suggestion Is Made For
Their Protection
BREASTPLATE TO SHED
ALL KINDS OF BULLETS
BY WILBUR S. FORREST,

United Press stan correspondent
LONDON, Aug. 14.-(By Mail)-
The 1916 British army may be an
armored army.
The great casualty list that filters
through the war Office every day from
the front. the convalescent, wound
ed and battered soldiers that are al
ways on the streets and the over
flowing hospitals are beginning to
have their effect.
Many ask Isn't there a way to
minimize this appalling situation?"
Somebody has answered: "Armor."
And it's beginning to look like ar
NOR for the British soldiers of 1916.
While the British war Office is con-
sidering whether it shall slip back
to medieval methods of warfare so
far as the protection of the soldiers
is concerned. we'll known Britishers
ar telling the war office through the
press that armor is a natural neces-
sity in these days Of machine guns
and high-powered rifles.
Scores of suggestions for modern
1916 armor emanating from scientists
have narrowed down to the practica-
bility of a three-piece suit of tenn
pered steel that would protect the
forehead, breast and abdomen-the
three vital spots of the body. The
favored headpiece, will, if authorized
by the war office. take the form Of
the highly tempered steel skull like
cap protection now worn by the
arI, 20 afr1fr ,f1r 80
shrapnel The breastplate would be
a thin leather covered hardened plate
of steel curved to fit over tho chest
and held by straps that go over
the shoulders and around the waist.
The abdominal protector is suggest
ed in the form of another curved
sheet of steel fitting over the lower
ribs and extending down to the bones
of the hips.
The British war office four years
ago experimental with a bullet proof
breast plate at Aldershot where the
device shed all the rifle and machine
gun bullets that were fired against il
at ranges of one foot to five hundred
yards. The breastplate was rejected
on the ground that it added too much
weight to the equipment of the sol
dier and reduced his marching ef-
ficiency.
With a war of great proportions
that will probably last many more
months or perhaps years and with
the thousands of dead and the tens
of thousands OF wounded. the war
office is reconsidering its objection to
armor.
The men of the trenches at least
probably will be ,hus equipped, ac
cording to information today.
One of Britain's leading advocate:
Of armor is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
the noted author of Sherlock
Holmes"
In a lengthy message from his
home at Windlesham, CrowbOrough
Sussex, to a London daily Sir Arthur
cited an action Of the British in
northern France on May 9, when sew
eral brigades we're decilnated in ar
effort to rush across 300 yards in.
tervening between the British and
German trenches He warned:
you must either abandon such
attacks or you must find artificial
protection for the men,
Sir Arthur suggests three-piec'
suits of steel plates for the soldiers
but goes further in advocating z
modern "testudo"-a cover used b.
the Roman soldiers in attacking
wall, formed by overlapping their
oblong shields above their heads. Si
Arthurs modern testudo, he woull
put on wheels to cover the men a
they charge the German trenches. HI
SAYS:
These numerous armor plated bod
les could rush with small loss owe
a space which had already been clear
ed as far as possible of obstacles
and so have some chance of reaching
the enemy's line, not as an exhaust
ed fragment but as a vigorous storm
ing party with numbers intact. Sucl
apparatus would not necessitate
great addition tc the impedimenta o
an army It would be a separat
item, like the Iontoons or the sieg
train only TO be brought up on spe
cial occasions to the point where
is needed for the assault. The vita
body plates. however, should be use
in the every day equipment of 4 fight
ing soldier"
Armored shields on wheels sucl
as Conan Doyle suggests were use
by the United States infantry durin
the last days Ct the Spanish-Ameri
can war in Cuba. according to al
English authority on armor. They
were invented by General Roy Stone
of the British army. Each shield la
horizontally and carried the impedi
menta of marching soldiers when nc
placed vertically for sterner use.
Due to the rough character of III
ground and the predominance q
mounted forces in the Cuban cam
paign, the American experiment wa
failure it was stated.
Whether the government will &C
cept the "testudo" is uncertain. bu
it is strongly whispered that armo
will have TO do with British armie
II the coming year.