The Washington herald., 1916-02-13
By JOHN l.. BALDERsTON.

powerful war minister, EnVer Pasha, told
the Turkish parliament at Constanti-
nople this week, after glorifying himself
for organizing the successful defense of
Gallipon. The coming campaign against
Egypt was thus pronounced a success IN
advance by the dictator. It Is now pos
sible to outline the course which that
campaign will take up to the time when
the issue Of battle is Joined.
The army Of Egypt" which, when IL
gets ready to start, will muster not less
than 10000 men, is concentrating in
Palestine and in the neighboTing Of
Aleppo. II is composed of Turkish
troops in the main. though a stiffening
Of German regulars may be introduced
before the Islamic crusade commences.
The field artillery Is, in great part, Ger
man, the heavy artillery entirely Ger
man and Austrian, served by Teutonic
gunners.
The army is, at present, under the su-
preme command of Field Marshal Won
der Goltz, grand old man" of the mil
litary machine. Won der GoltZ, whose
exact status IS uncertain, seems to be
actually experimenting all the Ottoman
campaigns, having in turn appeared IN
Thrace, the Caucasus. and Mesopotamia-
although Enver Pasha has not offended
Turkish susceptibiitles by appointing
him generalissimO.
Germans to Head Expedition.
When the march across the desert Of
Sinai commences, the fifteen or more d.
visions Of Turks and Germans will prob
ably be under the nominal command or
the Turkish crown prince, who will have
as much to say about running the cam
paign as one Of his camel drivers. Gen.
Won Kressenstein, officially chief Of stan
to the crown prince, will be in charge
OF the expedition. He knows the route,
having been chief of stan to Djemal
Pasha in the abOrtive attack upon the
Suez Canal year ago. Gen. Won kres-
senstein at present occupies headquarters
at Beersheba, town OF Bible fame
which lies in the south Of Palestine, on
the very edge Of the great desert, 1I5
miles away from the real goal of the
campaign, the great canal which has
been called the juZuIar vein of the Brit
Ish empire.
Not the least of the miracles perform
ed by German organization in this war
has brought about the fact that at this
little Syrian town of Beersheba boxes of
shells. cannon. provisions, water tanks,
equipment of all sorts are arriving daily
from the munition centers of the father
land.
How shells Are Sent East.
Let us follow the adventures Of a great
shell made in the DEVILS workshop OF
Essen, and destined, if the fates are kind
10 Germany, 10 eNDlOOe some time next
spring upon a British gunboat in the
Suez Canal, hurled from a howttzer
miles away in the desert.
The shell journeys by rail through
Germany and Austria and Is loaded on
a barge at Semlin, on the Danube, op-
posite Belgrade. Thanks to the con-
quest of Serbia last autumn, It sails
peacefully down the river, passing at
OrsOva another railway head, where
thousands OF its brothers are being en-
barked for the same journey. Through
the Iron Gate OF the Danube. and fol-
lowing the twistings of the river until
a journey Of nearly 200 miles has been
accomplished, the shell arrives at Lom
PaIanka in Bulgaria. Here 1t is unload
ed and placed on a train which carries
II 100 miles more along a little branch
line, doUble-tracked since the war began
by German engineers. At Sofia, the main
line TO ConstantInople is reached.
Within a few weeks, probably by the
time this article appears, the railway de-
stroyed by the Serbs, which, after cross
ing the Danube at Semlin, ran through
Belgrade and Nish to Sofia, will have
been completely restored. Already a
great temporary bridge, across which
trains are running, has been built at
Semlin. This reconstruction will make
the journey of the millions Of shells to
follow the one whose adventures we are
tracing more simple. No more will the
delay incident to embarking shells from
train to barge at Sernlin or Orsova, and
from barge to train again at Lom Pa
lanka, be experienced. From Essen to
Constantinople. munitions will be able
to travel without change.
BaEdRd Railroad Unhnished.
Our shell. at Constantinople, is ferried
across the Bosporus, and commences
Journey of $50 miles along the Bagdad
I "a
from its truck and trayels a few miles
by road. Particular attention is called
TO these two interruptions, because II
they did not exist the chances Of the
Turks in the coming campaign would be
very much better than they are. The
Bagdad railway is not finished; there was
a break Of twenty miles existing last
autumn in the Taurus mountains. where
several tunnels. including one long one,
and a number Of small viaducts had not
been completed. No engineering skill, It
would seem. could close this chasm IN
few months. but first-class roads have
been built and motor transport provided
10 move munitions across the passes.
This gap passed, after a short railway
trip through Adana the shell is again un-
loaded and taken across a break of some
fifteen miles where the railroad has not
yet pierced q small range Of mountains.
At AleppO, reached without further ad-
venture. the truck containing our shell
Is switched or the Bagdad railway to the
line from Aleppo to Mecca. and journeys
800 miles to Derat. passing through Da-
mascus. Since the war began, German
workmen under that interchangeable en-
gfneer. Meissner Pasha. have changed
the gauge OF the railroad between Aleppo
and Derat to correspond with that OF the
Bagdad line. and have double tracked It.
At Derat, the Mecca line is abandoned
and the shell runs half way along the
short branch line which leads from Derat
TO the sea at Haifa. At a point some
Twenty-Five miles from the sea, Meissner
Pasha commenced. about a year ago, a
double-track line down through the scenes
OF the New Testament It passes through
Jerusalem and Hebron, and ended, when
the last, definite report reached allied
sources, at Beersheba. It does not end
at Beersheba today. and only British can
non can prevent the rails from passing
through the waterless desert to a days
march from the very edge Of the canal
within. some experts calculate, ten weeks
49,