The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-09-13
big BERTHA"
FIRED AT PARIS
THROUGH MISTAKE
Continued from page one)

|
end, the bore of the forward tube
being smaller than that of the rear.
The aiming apparatus was separate
from the gun, off little to one side,
connected with the gun by an intri-
cate and delicate system of levers.
"Thc gunner played on it," said Mr..
Schauffler, "just as an organist plays
on detached electrical keyboard. "
The gun stood in regular heavy ar
tillely emplacement. 1t fired at an
angle of 60 degrees. Forty-fve de-
grees is supposed to achieve the max
imum carrying distance for shell.
| When the Is inch shell of the Big
Bertha reached certain height the
force of gravity naturally began to
pub it down.
The principle upon which it work
cd, and which it shot smaller shell
"a 0.845 inch shell-which did the
actual damage when it reached its
mark.
This theory had been advanced by
one or two allied artillery experts,
but the objection had always been
raised that the first shell would not
have stability enough to fire a second
shell and that, therefore, there was
nothing in the idea. Mr.. Schauffler
contended that the tremendous rota-
ton of the 15-inch shell, when fred
at an angle of GO degrees, would give
it sufficient stability to fire the sec
ond shell. This second shell, being
smaller, would be carried further by
the tremendous velocity than the
larger shell would be blown back,
thereby reaching an unheardof dis
lance.
This is what actually happened.
"The gun was built to fire 60 Kill
ometres," said the old major. "On
the first day it was to be fred every
thing was in readiness. Fifty-eight
kilometres away our airplanes waited
to spot the shot.
"The gunner was given the signal.
He fred. He waited for the report
on the shot. Something was wrong.
The spoilers reported that they could
not find ito all appearances the
shell had gone floating off into space
like planet. 1t was battling.
"The next day complaints began to
come from peasants in a country 118
kilometres away that an unseen air
plane was bombarding them with
heavy stuff. They wanted protec-
ton. Our airplanes flew over. To
their amazement, they found that the
shell of the Big Bertha had landed in
the village, 118 kilometres away.
They reported the extraordinary
event to headquarters.
"Then and there the idea of she'll
ing Paris was conceived. The gun
was not built for that purpose at all
it happened through a remarkable
case Of miscalculation. 1t took q
hours to make the calculation for the
first shot on Paris, and when the
Gun was fired German airplanes were
over the city to spot it. The first
three Big Berthas fired three times a
day, but the fourth shot eight times.
d day.
Another interesting piece Of infor-
nation which Mr. Schauffler got
from the major was the distance at
(which the Germans kept the guns
THE allies believed that the guns
were long distance behind the Ger
man lines. They were in error. The
Big Berthas were a scant seven kilo-
x,,o+ror boL;,J 4bo frOp+ Cn1,,,o,, limo
At first they were camouiiaged in
thick woods, but later, when The
Germans found that the smoke hung
heavy in the branches, they removed
the guns to ordinary barns in open
fields The major told Mr.. Schauffler
that at times over 100 allied air
planes circled over the barn who
"Number 8" was concealed, but that
they never spotted it.
The old major evidently thought he
had said enough, but he did not reck-
ON with American persistence. Mr..
Schauffler wanted to know few
more details.
"What's the inventors name" he
asked.
The major would not answer this. \
He did tell Mr.. Schauffler, however,
that the inventor had been captured
by the British, and that they had
never known the prize they had. La
ter, when Mr.. Schauffler told the
British authorities about it, "they
didn't seem to be interested" he
said The major further told him
that the constructor of the gun was
man about 40 years old, and that
when the gun was being made no one
guessed that it would ultimately over
shoot its mark by distance of So
kilometres.
Later, Mr.. Schauffler learned t.
the guns all stopped firing when the
Germans realized that they could
never break through the western
front. Number g." which had she'll
ed Dunllirk, blew up, owing to some
faulty construction in the two inner
tubes. The other three, including
''number 81, together with emplace-
ments, aiming apparatus, ammuni-
ton, ETC., were destroyed by the |
Germans to prevent their falling in
the hands of the allies. The British
captured one of the two tubes of one
IF +hern and +bo,1ob+ for n time +ho+ |