Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-09-21
u. S. SPLIT "TRA|LERS, F"
ALLIES BEST GUNS
New American Field Piece Will
Soon be Put to Test on the
Battlehelds.

Central France. Sept 2l.-American
ingenuity is fast making itself felt in the
construction of field guns in the vast
| workhouse of the ordance branch of the
| American, army here.
One of the American designs which
has won strong favor with the French
experts is the split trailer which extends
back of the gun from the wheels down 10
| the ground From the earliest days Of
g,nnery this trailer has been n single
piece But the Americans have split IL
| in two from the ground up so that two
great legs spread ont backward from n
| cannon.
The results have been astonishing,
permitting an ordinary field piece 10 he
elevated to SO degrees. or almost straight
up.
The American design has now been
| adopted as the standard French model
and il is going into all the new guns
made at French arsenals. Official photo
| graphs mnde hy the ordinance branch
are now going fornari for public exhibit
ion in America showing this split trailer
| firing at an elevation of q 40 degrees
Here could I've seen also every form of
| the death-ciealng machine-gun which
| became such formidable weapon IN
the pnasent war
This ia an age of mechanical warfare. :"
said the officer as he pointed out the
different types. French. English, American
as we'll ms German and Austrian
There were no nachlncs-guns used in
the civil war only a few in the Spanish
American and I5oer wars. more IN the
Russo-Iapanese and Balkan wars, and
now they have developed 20 a foremost
place rs an effective aud deadly means OF
warfare =
Most OF tho nations arc making two
forms of these machlne-Wins, the heavy
type weighing about 30 pounds, mounted
on triped and drawn hy "A mule, and the
lighter automatic nflc. weighing about
Is pounds, fired from the shoulder like
an ordinary rifle. and carried by hand as
il is not much heavier than the standard
10 pound rifle Both types of these guns
fire steady streams OF lead as the belts Of
bullets are fed into the reservoirs, the only
limit being the amount OF ammunition
which can he carried With each automatic
ri1ethr are three men one 10 fire and two
keep up the steady feeding OF ammunition.
The new type of Amencan machine
gun makes favorable appearance in
this array of makes from all the nations.
II is coming over in large quantities now,
arriving come with their machine-gun
sections equipped with the new American
model At the training camps the tests
have given the hest results, but the real
test of battle action is still to come as
most of the divisions on the fighting line
obtained their machine-gun equipment
before the new model was ready.
In this same arsenal one could com
pare the rifles and bayonets of all the
cornbatant troops. The American bayonet
looked like a long sharp-edged knife.
But the French bayonet was more like
a slender rapier, two feet long and with
out cutting edge. meant for stabbing.
The Russian bayonct has no sharp
point but is like a screw-driver with
a fiat-edge, cutting and stabblng at
the same time.
And besides the guns of all kinds is
the ammunition stored in vast guam
titles in arsenals and warehouses and
in huge parks and ammunition dumps
all the way from the coast up to the
fighting front. The great stacks of shells
are very orderly IN arrangement. each
stack representing q carload and each
graded by caliber and lot-number Each
lot of shells differs slightly in power,
and the only way To insure uniform
III tiit lIt vi q pdtttIs Is To
keep it supplied with the same lot of
shells.
Separate from the shells are the
fuses and grenades kept in small detach-
ed lots owing to their highly explosive
character In one of these grenade
dumps there were iS different kinds
of gas hand and rifle grenades.
There are now some :, 400 men, former
ly skilled mechanics in large American
factories. who are enlisted soldiers carry
ing on this huge work of keeping up
the supply of guns and ammunition
Realizing the need of highly skilled
men for this work in France, a special
recruiting campaign was carried on in
many of the American industrial centers
last winter The result is shown in the
equipment of the ordnance branch with
staff of skilled workmen comparing
with the best factory sections.
1t is largely a patriotic service in
which skilled mechanics have given up
large wages to accept the soldiers pay
of $50 month The foreman of one
Of the extensive Detroit automobile
factories. who received $500 week,
is now volunteer among these enlisted
men receiving $50 a week There are
scores of cases of this kind
TN the WaV from tfe SeacoaSt to
this great center on American ordnance
supply, one sees along the way not
only vast stocks of material and gums.
but that other very vital factor of artillery
the human element, the man behind
the gun 1t is stirring sight us these
huge camps of field artillery are spread
out for miles. In one of the zones back
of khe war zone brigades Of artillery.
with T,4O0 men TO the brigade, were
completing their training and equip
menf and about to move forward men
ith their fie!d-guns and this was
but one branch of that tremendous
weight Of men and metal which is turn
ing the tide and wearing down the enemy