Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-02

werfers the Germans call them
explosives forty or fifty feet into the
other trench. At first they were un-
| satisfactory because they were mac
curate. Now accuracy has been Sc
| cured, so that the gunner can drop
the bombs in the trench or on its lip
No effort has been made to give them
force. One can plainly see the BONN
as it end-over-ends toward you. 1T
blows in the wall of the trench and
| kills those nearest by sheer force of
the conclusion. The trench mortars have
been enlarged in size. so that some OF
them now throw very heaVy charge
of INT For other bombs. the con-
tents of which are so wasp-tempered
that they go off on the least provo
cation, the Germans have devised cata-
pults.
We are not so far away from the
| days of the robber barons of the
Rhine what with the armor that men
on both sides are wearing more and
more, and the long knives they fight
with in the trenches. after discardlng
their rifles. and the saw edged bayo-
nets the Germans use l have seen
these weapons in German hands. The
official theory is that they are fur
nished to the sappers for legitimate
use as saws in bridge and barricade
work No sapper in his senses ever
tried to saw wood with these things.
They are for use against soft human
flesh.
There are other ways in which the
practice of war has become more eff
cient in 1915. There are the hand
grenades both sides throw. Some have
a. strap tied to the thrower's wrist.
AS the bomb leaves his hand this strap
jerks the fuse. Other hand grenades
explode on impact and still others on
time. The Germans have way of
burying bombs between the trenches.
Each bomb has several little triggers
of wire attached to it When the
French or English troops charge some
unfortunate is certain to hit one of
those little wires. He dies and those
neares. him die.
The Germans are said to dig shallow
pools and concrete the bottom and NIL
this bottom with acid, which is masked
by boughs or straws. The acid burns
the feet of advancing troops. l do not
know that this is true. Lately they
have begun to use an aerial torpedo
This device is torpedo shaped and car
ries sort of propeller in front. No
one has learned yet how it is thrown
from the trench. but presumably it is
discharged from a catapult. The little
propeller in front is supposed to have
something to do with directing the
flight.
Machine Guns and Wire.
The wire entanglements has been
saw line. There they have enwired
ground a mile or more, every inch of
which is covered by their machine
guns. No troops on earth could get
through those wires except by first
Smelling the defenders out of their
position. Presumably they are pre-
pairing for a tremendous western often
sive, for they are said to have massed
thousands of machine guns on this
eastern zone of wire. One machine
gun with an operator and two assist
ants is more than the equal of fifty
men with rifles. Wire plus machine
guns means that this front can be held
by reduced force The French learn
ed the lesson of machine guns very
quickly 1t is said they have as many
as the Germans. The British are still
under equipped.
There are a score of other ways in
which war making has been perfect
the flare lights and parachute lights
and rockets which are used at night
between the trenches, and the armored
cars and the arrows dropped from aero
planes Now the snipers are putting
telescope sights on their rifles. so they
can pick the other fellow off at ex-
IRENE range, and the Germans are
making use of that American invention,
the silencer, and the noise of the shot
is not heard. They have long been
yellow and gray and green, to simulate
the colors Of the landscape. Now they
are painting the faces of the snipers
and coloring their rifle barrels. Because
the wire of a field telephone is easily
cut. wires are now being laid in sort
of ladder formation. A dozen wires
may be cut without breaking off COM
munication. When the noise is so
deafening that the voice cannot be
heard on the field phone communication
is carried on by giant buzzer in the
Morse code.
The English call the various forms of
German trench bombs rum jars and
GOGGLES and pip-squeaks and Percys
and what-not. But no one has yet in
vented a name for the invention that
has made it possible for these men to
stay in the trenches month after
month-the great force pump that is
operated at night, and which throws
lime and carbol!c acid nthe unburied
dead.