Evening star., 1918-12-29

guished from guns on board ships"
Most nations were more or less con-
tent to utilize discarded naval guns
for such land purposes. but the United
States, through it's Coast Artillery
Corps, designed big guns particular
ly for land defenses from fixed con-
crete platforms.
mot only this" said Gen. Hagood,
"but all our methods We're reduced to
mechanical methods, corresponding in
way to the adding machine, rather
than to the European method of maxi
time before aiming. For all the deli
cate elements of the density of the
air. temperature. humidity, small
changes due to characteristics of
powders. weight of projectiles, heat
of the gun, etc. the calculations were
all made out in advance for all pos
sible cases and mechanical devices
were designed to give rapid results to
within the minute for entirely new
Eets of conditions.
X X
''They worked out these scales, ETC.,
so that an ordinary intelligent SOL
dier who did not know a logarithm
from a ballistic coefficient could read
off the mechanical results.
THE United States developed, in the
same way. very simple methods Of
range-finding, far superior to any
thing known to the military world
at the outbreak Of the war. (Of course.
there may have been secret methods,
say in Germany, but 1t does not look
SOY. The best of these was invented
by Lewis, the coast artilleryman who
is also responsible for the Lewis
gun. 1t is known as the Lewis range
finder"
All of which turned out advan-
tageous.
When we got nito the war certain
French and British officers visited
the United States to study our meth
DDS and give us advice toward meet
ing actual conditions. We. or! our
side were able to advise them of cer-
tain things of ours which we thought
they should adopt. All very modest,
but good reading.
In August, 1917, the first brigade
of American heavy artillery came to
France. 1t consisted of three regi-
ments Of regulars. every officer and
perience In our own methods Of coast
artillery warfare. And r was found
that only two or three days instruc-
tion with the big guns which were
being fired at the front were enough
for even these enlisted men to UNDER
stand the entire operation.
Our home coast defenses, of course,
dared not be left unofficered and un-
manned. They were not. In this way
1t resulted that many who came to
France as captains and lieutenants
were soon commanding battalions
and regiments, and practically every
one of those enlisted men-experi-
enced regular artillerymen before the
war-came to be promoted officers.
$50 that" said Gen. Hagood, while
in details of technique our American
heavy artillery officers found much
to learn in France, in all the fhnda-
handling of high explosives etc, our
heavy artillery has been just as much
at home on the German frontier as
our Navy is at home in the North
sea-"
All the problems of high -angle fire
and long range with big guns had
already been worked out in the Phil
ippines in Honolulu and In southern
parts of the United States, where our
coast artillery had target practice
with 12-inch guns firing 1,000-pound
some of these identical guns. the gen.
eral adds, are now In France.
X X
The United States, for that, has been
the reservoir of guns and munitions
for the allies. Even before we got
into the war enormous contracts for
otool forptpps and puna Jyera ma de