Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1916-09-21
Hell Machines"
New British Invention Now
Used in Battle.


in Europe, was recently put in action
by the British forces.
An account given by Frederick
Palmer of a days fight in which these
machines were used fellows:
At the British Front, Sept. 16, via
London. Sept. 17.-With ceaseless
shell fire from unprecedented concen-
trations of guns, the battle ragged fur
iously all day, with the British max
ing good their advance of yesterday,
while the Germans were rushing up
reserves from other parts Of the west
ern front.
The generalization of their infan-
try yesterday by the use of the new
British armored motorcars called
tanks" was freely confessed by pris-
oners talked with today.
There was no standing against
that sort of thing" said one German
officer. "Of course we surrendered, :,
those of us who were alive. We fired
at a tank with our rifles. Our ma
chine guns were turned loose on it.
But the bullets were only blue sparks
on the armor. We thought the Brit
ish slow and stupid, despite their
courage and stubbornness, and they
gave us surprise like this"
A column of German prisoners
passing a tank" rejoicing in the
nickname of creme de menthe," "
which had returned from battle and
was resting from its labors, spread
out their hands and shook their heads
and looked at it, exclaiming in a
chorus: 'Mein Gott i'm Himmel J"
Is it under control? 1t won't break
out and begin firing again? Will we
ever forget our first sight of the thing
as it came at us out of the morning
mist? Ii wasn't war, using a piece
of machinery like that; it is butch
cry"
To this a British officer replied:
No, it is quite peaceable and tame
now. 1t has just been fed. AS for
it not being war, it is quite in keep
ing with The Hague convention,
which your gas attacks at Ypres was
not"
The Germans themselves were
massing in at many points, it ap-
pears, with view of making attacks
to recover some high ground they
lost. The British anticipated the
German attack with their own on
slaughts, assisted by their new hell
machines" whose secret they had
been keeping up their sleeves for such
an occasion as this.
information regarding these tank"
cars or hell machines" is given in
a letter from Washington, a portion
of which we reprint.
Washington, Sept. 1S.-The British
tanks" the armored motor cars
used in recent assaults on German
trenches in Northern France so sue
cessfuily as to attract world wide at
tention, were built for the most part
in Peoria, H., in the form of cater
pillar tractors designed many years
before the war began to meet some of
the difficult problems of modern farm
ing. Except for their armor, the
machine guns and their crews, thous-
ands like them are in use today in
the United States, plowing, digging
bitches, and performing other labors
less heroic than war.
NJ. NJ. Baker, vice-president of the
Holt Manufacturing Company, ex-
planned here today that it was ma
chimes made by his company at its
Peoria plant that had hurdled Ger
man trenches, walked through forests
aud crawled over shell craters in the
face of intense gun fire.
1T is true," said Mr.. Baker, that
these tractors can go ahead over al
most anything or through almost any
thing. They can straddle trench,
go through swamp, roll over climb
through shell craters like a car of
Juggernaut. 1t looks uncanny to
see them crawl along the ground just
like huge caterpillar. In thick
forest if they encounter trees they
could not brush out of their way they
could easily be used to uproot them
and clean their own paths"
Mr.. Baker said the tractors sent to
England weigh about $4,000 pounds
each, develop 120 horsepower, and
are built of steel. The caterpillar