Evening star., 1918-12-29

for France and England, along with
waste contracts for powders.
So we were old at the game OF big
guns.
"There were no better. guns in the
world than those made in the United
States before this war started" said
the general LAS for the high-angle
fire of mortars. it was invented IN
our country where we carried 1t IN
seacoast defense farther than any
other nation, obtaining almost Vertl-
cal fire.
"The monster German and Austrian
mortars of which they boasted so
much in 1914. sending. Photographic
over the world like advertising mat
ter. were new only in their manner
Of bringing them into the field. Be
fore we got into the war our own big
guns were shooting the same sixteen
inch shells thirty miles. At Panama
and disappearing mounts. With the
single exception of the very long
range so-called Berthas (whose
shells were of small explosive force
and no efficacy at all in attempting
to demoralize Paris) the boche had no
guns superior to ours"
I think that the general was right,
here.
Really. did not the event prove it?
Once went to lnger at the railroad
station, where something fine was due
to pass.
(Ths story was twice suppressed by
American field censors, as they said, be-
cause of Operations" then sin course" :;
but they did not prevent the photographs
or captions already mentioned going
overD
The something fine due to come along
the French railroad was a battery OF
monster guns mounted on railroad
trucks, the whole constructed by our
Navy for the A. e. F. Never before
was seen such massive rolling stock.
These railroad mounts are as heavy In
proportion as the guns themselves,
them.
Equally notable were the two "pilots,"
captain and lieutenant Of our heavy
artillery. The captain was college
man from st. Louis. the lieutenant an
old big gun sergeant from Panama.
forty years Of age, raised In Texas and
promoted in France. The difference was
typical. The lieutenant sergeant had
experience. His young captain had edu-
cation. intensive training and the high
heart of youth. Really, these young
officers are admirable! A year and a
half ago they were on tho farm. in busi-
ness or in college. Yesterday they were
hurting tons of explosive steel thirty
miles, over hills and valleys. against
targets they had mover seen, but had
read about in books when they were
boys.
"These big guns" said the captain,
shoot one and half miles per inch of
caliber, but a number Of them have re-
Gently developed two miles per inch. So
twelve-nch gun will carry eighteen to
twenty-four miles and q sixteen-inch
gun twenty-four to thirty-two miles"
Both sides of the firing line have got
them" said the "old' lieutenant.
"a projectle fired at As degrees ele-
walton, which gives maximum range,
said the captain, goes up into the air a
If fired at twentyfour miles 1t falls on
the target from a height OF eight miles
Imagine a freproof safe falling from q
twentieth story, and by comparison you
will get an idea Of the impact OF a
2,OOO-pound projcctile falling from eight
miles-its mere crushing effect to pene-
trate the target before the bursting OF
the high explosive inside 1t, timed by q
fuse. The explosion Of big shells is
past imagination"
"They are also used against big CUR
batteries--our own, when the boche is
firing back at u.s." mused the other
big guns are used against big guns a.
we'll as against frontier fortrcsses -
/ told him he was pesSimiStic.
There is too much bull In the papers.
said the "old' lieutenant. There was 0