The daily progressive-miner., 1918-10-25
GREAT ARMY STATION
FULLY CAMOUFLAGED

| in fhANCE-INOtuiuS Is IcoA III INC
great American camouflaged station
here. All is deception, says cores.
pendent.
! Huge willow trees. like those in
! Flanders, with trunks two feet in d.
ameter and a mass of sprouting bran
ches at the top are steel tubes design.
ed to hide an observer. Even on close
inspection they looked like real trees
! to the Associated Press correspond
ent vho visited the station and, with
the co.nmandant, explored their mys-
. terious underground recesses.
They were Of plaster cloth, wound
about the central steel tube and with
pieces of real bark fitted around the
trunk A small gauze orifice, painted
to match the bark, was not noticed
until pointed out by the officer. This
was for the observer standing within
the steel core of the tree.
Ten feet away the turf opened, dis
closing a passage with steps leading
to tunnel and thence to the base Of
the tree. With light we CROPPED
through the tunnel and up into the
tree. II was tight fit in this tree
trunk, but from the gauze orifice one
had a sweep OF the whole nearby
country.
A huge boulder, such as one sees
along country roads, was noticed
among the trees. The big stone, five
feet high and seven across, looked
very real and yet. this too, was cam
oufiage--a make-believe in which an
observer and machine gun could lurk.
Exa,nining the stone. it felt rather
like a big cardboard box, and gave
slightly to the pressure Of the hand.
The frame was wood, the covering
bur,aa painted a gray-brown with pat
ches OF moss And buried amid the
moss the canvass flap raised to let
through the nozzle of the machine
gun.
TEN" vas remarked on observing the
line of telegraph poles stretching
across the plain.
The commandant smiled. Those
are pe-iscope telegraph poles" he ex-
plainel.
The poles were veritable telegraph
poles, with wires strung from the tops,
Just as they are seen along country
reads But each pole was hollow, to
permit : periscope to be raised to a
aign observing point, while cover
ed pit at the base Of the pole accom-
modated the observer taking the
readings of the periscope.
Beside the periscope poles, there
were periscope trees, with hollow
stumps, from which the observers
instrument was manipulated and the
readings made in pits below the roots.
A camoufage stone wall was an
other curious device standing among
he camouflage trees and poles. This
wall, looking like the ruin of an old
mill, was painted and weather-worn
20 resemble a real mill.
"a wrecked house often serves US
IS vev good camouhage,' said the
,ommandant. I'VE had one with the
windows all gone, so the enemy could
'ook straight through to the walls in
side. BY painting false canvas walls
,ust oack of the windows. the enemy
still thought he was looking at the
real walls opposite. But back of the
canvas our observers and snipers
we're al work and the device was very
effective"
A pie of gravel stood near the wall
or what appeared to be pile of
gravel, for this, too, was camouflage
The pebbles were heaped around a
hollow frame with it's gauze opening
tor the observers and the flap through
which the machine gun parked. Fur
Their alorg was a pile of brick-cam-
outage, and over in the field was a
stack Of hay-camoufiage. Each one
of them was small fortress as we'll
as a post of observation.
!