New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-19
BRITISH PLAN
Big COUP WITH
NEW EXPLOSIVE
Kitchener Delays Advance
for Powerful Guns
and Shells.
PROMISES HAVOC
UNPRECEDENTED
Returning Travellers Reveal
Significance of Hint of
Special Programme.

Recent arrivals from England arc
able to afford some explanation Of the
delayed British advance, which as much
in England as throughout the rest of
the world, has caused considerable be-
wilderment.
Their explanation is that Lord kitch-
oner has been waiting to launch "his
great surprise" And this surprise lies
in the competition of new guns and a
new type of she'll which it is believed
will revolutionize artillery operations
and make the path of the Allies to Ber-
In more possible than hitherto.
Soon after the beginning of the war,
when it became patent that high ex-
plosives were to be the dominating
factor in the struggle for victory, the
combined efforts of British chemists
and ordnance experts invented a shell
unquestionably more powerful than any
previously used. In destructive power
it was without doubt superior to any
previously known. A variation in eX-
plosive composition rendered it likely
TO supersede all types in use.
The government ordered experiments
10 be made with big guns then being
manufactured at Woolwich Arsenal.
These took place, with a result that
every gun so used was either almost
blown TO pieces or rendered unfit for
ervice for a considerable period. The
cnly way out was TO find guns suitable
for the task.
As far back as last November govern
ment experts were at work on this
problem. They experimental with va
ricus alloys of steel, trying TO find one
that would stand the strain of such a
shell. Finally they succeeded. They
produced a l7-inch gun that would suit
this purpose. Various experiments have
been made, and are believed to have
been entirely successful. Ii is stated
that the shell will De carried twenty
five miles and will work havoc on a
scale entirely unprecedented.
Thus is answered the question why
no advance was made when warsaw
was about to fall and the main bulk of
the German troops were concentrated
on that front. 1t also explains why
after the great movement of kltch-
ener's army to France early in July
the troops were not used. Nothing was
to be done until these guns, which the
great armament factories OF Britain
have been working on for six months,
had been delivered in sufficient guam
titles at the front.
Last Wednesday the second Cana
dian contingent, numbering $4,000
picked troops, an overwhelming ma
jarity of whom had seen previous SER
vice, sailed for France. With their dis
patch Kitchener's movement was ready
20 begin. The result may soon be APP
parent
Speaking in the House of Commons
OIL July 28, Lloyd George, Minister of
Munitions, said:
I'VE have reserved a good deal Of
the available shell power for special
programme we are about 10 develop,
and if members who know that III their
districts there is a good deal of lathe
and machine tool power which has not
been used yet TO the full extent will
only wait for short time they Will
know the reason why we have not
utilized those workshops for the mo-
lent. Il is because we need them for
another purpose which in our judg-
nent is for the time being more i'm
portant."
Although the phrases relating to
time doubtless deliberately. refer more
70 the future than TO the past, the
ministers meaning was an open secret
in the House of Commons when he re-
ferred to the special programme" and
another purpose" IL was to kitch-
ercr's great guns and wonderful shells.