The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-07-28
GERMAN INGENUITY REBOUNDS
AS DEADLY INVENTIONS ARE
Reversed UPON Their RANKS
Military Observer in France Describes With Vivid Pic
turesqueness Terrors of Warfare at the Front.

| British Headquarters in France,
July 27-The arrival of the first con-
tingents of the American army in
France serve to recall the fact that
the United States is entering a war
already old and wise-wise with the
dearly bought wisdom of three long
adventurous years-and stepped in all
the diabolical wickedness that inces-
SAINT delving into the deviltries of de-
struction can bring to it..
Having escaped the first terrors Of
weapons which German science had
evolved through toiling years of mill
ttary preparation, the American divi-
|sions will nevertheless plunge eventu-
ally into a seething cauidron which
has grown from the unavoidable poll
icy Of fighting the devil with fire.
They will have quickly to learn not
only to take the awful German
ifrightfulness with calm endurance.
but to return it with an ever in
creasing measure. In doing this many
nerve-testing and soul-searching ex-
periences undoubtedly lie before
them, but there are already thous-
ands of young Americans in the Ca
madam and British ranks who have
proved themselves additionally wor-
LILY LII l11S SCOIC1lIlS lldIlGS O1 IIlOu-
ern war.
The American forces are fortunate
indeed to be able to pase their edu-
cation upon the bitter lessons learn
ed by the French and British sol
diers in all the eventful days that
have followed that first rush of battle
| in 1914. -Marvelously complete books
of instruction have been builded up
on those experiences and out of these
the American soldiers will CLEAN the
last word knowledge that will fit
them for the foremost trenches.
| First of all, when they take their
place, will come the baptism Of fire
from the noisy black high-expIosive
German shells that scream in from
afar and burst with terrifying reports
sometimes in most unexpected
places. The Germans are great be-
levers both in noise and high explo-
sive. They even mix their adored
"H-R with their shrapnel shells
which break high in the air and send
! their bullets showering down with
the whine of an angry winter wind.
The Americans soon will learn to dis
tinguish the individual songs of the
various shells for there is not the
slightest doubt that the moment he
discovers they are in the "line," the
German will turn every available cal
! ibre of weapon against them in a
flourish of ntroductory 'hate." They
will come over in order-these Shrek
ling, grumbling missiles ranging in
size and noise all the way from the
nasty little pip-squeaks or whiz-
bangs, up through the four-point-
twos,s the five-point-nines and then
| ont to what the British Tommies la
conical1y call ''the big. stuff'-the
| eight and eleven-i1ch howitzer shells
and the projectiles from heavy cali
/ bred long range naval guns, known
without affection as "Whistling
I Percys."
/ There will be Slittle opportunity to
4 hear a big Bertha for those fam
Gus old 42-centimeter howitzers are
seldom used nowadays. It is believ-
ed that the Germans planned to bonn
bard Arras with them, using prussic
acid shells, but the British advance
on Easter Monday last put a stop to
that particularly nefarious scheme
against the already sadly battered
little Artois cathedral city.
There is also awaiting the new
American army a bounteous baptism
of bombs and hand grenades and the
still more dismaying Introduction to
the CHASTITY rattle of the machine gun
and it's sinister swish of spraying
lbul1ets-sounds well calculated to
stab with moment Of fear the heart
of the bravest man.
! But above all the American sol
diers must equip themselves to en-
dure the 1ethal gas that will be sent
over against them in poisonous, va
perish clouds, or showered upon
them in a deluge of heavily charged
cylinders and shells. They must pre-
pare to deal also with the PREACHER
GUS lachrymatory gas which while
not dangerous to life irritates the
ltearducts until one cries with blind
ed snarting eyes for hours. The sur
prise of both these gases is their al
together pleasant smell, the letha
variety suggesting thee lean odor o.