St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1918-06-29

the poilus, who returned to the com.
bat with redoubled Yigor.
Then of course the Germans, left
d~efense1ess by their trick, paid the
penalty. Thousands we're killed and a
greater portion of the remainder, at.
ter seeing how futile the spring bay
onet really proved, surrendered in.
| stanter. The attack was a complete
failure, a boomerang, in all senses OF
the word, for after the first surprise
the Huns had nothing to fall back
upon.
Thousands of the spring-bayonet
guns were captured by the allies.
These possessed, in addition to the
regulation equipment, a guard n
spring that released by means OF a
wire arm attached to the trigger
guard. For a space of eight or ten
feet the bayonet thus would fly point
foremost. but the force behind it was
not as great as that delivered by W
muscular arms. In many cases the
antagonist uniform turned the point.
The allies, after examining the Weap-
on. and a~nalyzing its possibilities, de-
cided it could not be made practical.
At Havrincourt Wood, eight miles
northeast of Bapaume, the Boches had
their west-front airdrome headquar-
tiers until the beginning of the drive
on Amiens. On the edges of this
shamrock-shaped forest nc less than
twenty large airdromes were situat-
ed, each under the direction of n OF
the German air stars. In the reign
of Boelcke, the best-advertised IL not
the greatest Of German sky duelists,
the headquarters was lev really
endangered.
Later, however, the British Royal
Flying Corps established a chain of
airdromes near Bouchavesnes, and
gradually increased the number OF
planes, personnel of fighters and abil-
ity. Raids on the German headquar-
tiers became ordinary, though at first
they met with no startling success.
The incessant worry kept more and
more Boche planes at home for de-
purposes as time went on. AS
the allied filters grew able they veil
ed their reconnaissance flights by.
making raids on Havrincourt Wood
simultaneously.
Then came the tower of ivory"
This queer phenomenon was one OF
the most spectacular sights OF the
whole war. It looked to be a thick
column of creamy white smoke OF a
peculiar stick consistency. It rose
from the ground to a height of 5000
or 1000 feet, and sprayed at the top
until the bullying cloud resembled a
huge mushroom at the top Of a 81
gantic stalk. The Germans would
send it up at times when there was
little or no wind, and it would re
main for upward of a half-hour he
fore 1t disappeared.
The roots of this odd growth ware
in the ground at a point near the cen
ter of the cluster OF German air
dromes. AS the apparition seemed
to do no harm, NO allied flier went
near it, but speculation was rife con-
corning it. The prevailing opinion
in a belief that it was an
attempt by the Boches to poison the
air above their headquarters SO that
enemy planes could not attack.
The last occasion on which the
tower of ivory appeared put it in
the class of boomerangs without a
doubt. Through atmospheric condi-
or for some unexplained rea-
son, this time the column did not re-
stationary in the air until cur
rents waited away, but majestically
and slowly descended on its own base
filling the greater part Of Havrin-
court wood with the sticky vapor.
For two days the filters who passed
over Havrincourt went unchallenged,
and one British airman, flying low,
reported a s~uffocating stencil of
phosphorous gas rising from the re-
gion. That experiment apparently
enough-Brandon Tracy, in
Popular Mechanics for July.