Omaha daily bee., 1917-11-05
British Artillery Overcomes German
"Pillbox" Defense; Solid Concrete
Forts Become = n Traps for Boches
Took Heavy Toll of Allies In
fantry Until Gunners Of Heavy
Artillery Learned to Smash
Them.
By FRANK w. GETTY.
Especial Cable to The Bee.)

London, Nov. 4.-The "pillbox" has
come-and gone. Like the submarine,
the giant Gotha biplane, the liquid FIRE
and gas, and other German inventions
which were to turn the tide of battle
in Germany's favor. these much talked
Of concrete forts have been laid on
the shelf--as far as settling the war
is concerned. They are not inef-
fectuai, but they are not decisive fac
tors. ..,
The "pillbox," or pillar box, as the
German communiques have it, is rec
tangular structure, built generally by
piling boxes of concrete one upon the
other, like children's toy blocks. They
are then allowed to form into solid
mass of concrete about yard thick,
which affords the gunners inside pro-
lection against anything except a di-
rect hit by something over nine
inches.
Occasionally they have roofs Of sim
liar thickness. More often they are
left open to the sky, the better to be
concealed from hovering enemy aero
planes.
In action they bristle with machine
guns, which are thrust out through
numerous cracks and loopholes, the
gunners, safe behind their thick walls.
being able to rake advancing in
fantry without exposing themselves.
Each "piiIbox" holds from 40 to so
men, and becomes a veritable death
trap if British heavy does land a
shell on it or cloud Of poison gas
sweeps that way. .
Were Hard Nuts to Crack.
The Bochcs have shown great
adaptability in placing these pillboxes
where they will be most effective.
They had sowed them in and out
among the little hollows on the west
ern slopes of Passachendaele ridge,
frequently running up rim OF COM
crete around "a shell crater, having
the top uncovered. Where they did
this, OF course, a high trajectory Brit
ish barrage quickly made the position
untenable, but such pillboxes as es-
capped the hail of steel and lead which
the British advances were
difficult nuts for the infantry to
crack. u. q
Many decoration has been won
in the last month or two by men who,
by single act of bravery, have taken
a pillbox which was holding up an
advance. -
talked with a Tommy who was
later awarded the D. G. M. for dis
posing of one of these obstacles
ut was cinch," he said. (He was
a Canadian, by the way.) My COM
pany was held up by one of the yin-
fernal things, which kept splitting bull
let's all over the ground we had to
cross. So | took couple of Mills
bombs, and crawled up behind little
rise, hardly higher than your hat, with
bullets picking up the dirt all around
Us. Then, when | got within dozen
yards of the place | rushed it, taking
4 chance they wouldn't get me. Some
how, got through, and flattened my
self right up against the wall of the
blessed thing, where the Bocies in
side couldn't get me. could hear
EN- swearing away in their hut, know
ng was there, but not being able to
nit me. Then I just pulled the pin
out of one of the bombs, reached
around quick and showed her in past
The nose of one of THOSE little quick
irers they had playing on the boys.
The explosion darn near blew the
hing to pieces, and when we got in
by the rear door every one of those