Evening star., 1918-12-29
Sterling He;1;g Writes of
the Last Terrific Shots
Before the Arn;st;ce.
Work of the Coast
Artillery Forces The
Biggest Guns Of the
War Manufactured IN
the United States.
Special Correspondence Of The Star.


FRANCE, December 18, 1918.
ME "last picture of the war"
added to the beautiful gall
lery of Photographic enlarge
ments on the walls Of Gen.
Harbords public waiting room at
Tours has the following caption:
'Men of the 35th Coast Artillery,
SOth Division, under command of Maj.
G. F. Humbert, c. A., firing a 13.9-
inch gun. This is known as the mo-
bile railroad gun, and is ordinarily
manned by crew of twenty-five
men, but in the recent drive it was
operated by 122 men in cooperation
with aeroplane observation. and it's
target was the headquarters of two
German army corps. located twenty
miles away. The plane observers
reported four hits from four consecu-
tive shots fired"
Reproductions of this fine Signal
Corps picture will always figure in
our war histories. 1t is unusually Inn
pressive.
Agan--the same thing.
\: X
American papers as early as Octo-
Der 13 We're able to publish French
official photograph of similar import
-"the first received of the American
artillery before Metz" The American
intern ediary, mere firm of photo
graph spectators, of whom art and
history cannot be demanded, added
Metz. the capital of Alsace." and
dug up an old view of the cathedral.
which we were accurately described
as avoiding" AS many people get
their ideas from pictures. it is we'll
to quote that caption. made mac
curate simply to lend high-light in
terest to the photograph of the sacred
edifice: although the city of Metz
is under constant bombardment by
the Americans. yet the cathedral is
not their target as is customary with
the boche." OF course, 1T wasn't.
Neither was the city of Metz under
constant bombardment 1t was the
outer forts of Metz that we pull
verified = composing the greatest
strong place in the world.
But here is truth.
In ILLUSTRATION of Paris the "last
war pictures" show a similar great
gun on railroad mount and the title
given it is. "The Americans in the
cannons with which the pointers Of
the United States coast artillery
crushed the German lines at twenty
miles distance"
So, call it a coincidence. The big
guns of our coast artillery closed the
war. just as the big guns of the
Germans. pounding on the forts of
Liege, opened it in 1914.
Americans can remember it with
pride. because whatever be the other
causes OF the sudden German break
down dncluding Foch's genius and
green American infantrymen) there
were, heaven knows other causes at
play. equally, when Germany invaded
Belgium: yet little Belgium did not
cry. "Kamerad" when the big boche
guns doomed.
Quite the same. yet different. isn't it?
The last boom of terrible. glorious
1918 has for its letters-C. A. U. S.
Why?
Because our coast artillery was pre-
Last summer I had the honor to
meet Gen. Johnson Hagood, distin-
guished coast artilleryman, before
the war chief of staff of the s. O. s.
in France. and more recently in
German frontier
This is what he told me. Every
American should know it.
X
X X
Back in 1884 the United States con-
vened what became known as the
Endicott board 1t was to draw up q
system of coast defenses-big guns
floating defenses. submarine mines
etc. Here was the first inception OF
the big land gun in modern warfare
anywhere.
Do you take It?
The board built enormous foundries
then selected twenty-seven harbors
of the United States for defense. Do.
ing this. we began to make the big.
eest land guns then known to the
world. and while all the navies KEEP
more or less abreast with each other
the greatest land guns which the
world had ever seen at the outbreak
of the present war were mounted ii
the United States coast defenses.
quote the words of Gen Hagood:
I'VE had 16-inch guns, but they
were more powerful than any othe,
then produced. On account of ou1
enormous coast line, we went into
harbor defenses to greater eXten
than any other nation. so that while
our mobile army was more or less in
significant in size. the land guns O
our seacoaSt fortifcationS and tn,
methods of their handling were com