The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-02-01
BIG GUNS BROKE /,
/ GERMANS HEART
Capture Of Great Fortress o.
Laon Due to yank Navy
\. Cannon. 4.
Big SURPRISE FOR HUNS
Only Five Of the Monster Guns We're
in Action, but Enemy Heard
Thlrty'--WouId Have Blasted
y Frontier to Pieces. 4

New Y0rk.--That the capture OF
the great fortress of Laon WAS
due TO American naval guns nouui-
cd on fiat ears and manned by
naval gunners and that The navy
men would have blasted the Ger
man frontier TO pieces if the war had
continued was the assertion of NAVAL
railway battery men who arrived here
recently on the transport Henderson.
The appearance fof the big naval
guns of the 14-inch type on the west
FROM was one of the most unpleasant
SURPRISES the Germans got throughout
the whole war, they declared. There
were only five of them in action, but
they were handled with such rapldity
that the bewildered Teutons believed
there were 80 of them in France,
Msngin Gives, U. S. Credit.
General Mangin, the famous French
commander in that sector, himself
credits Rear Admiral Plunkett and his
, naval gunners with the taking of Laon.
The big 14-inch guns pounded the for
tn,ss to pieces and hurled giant shells
on railroad lines communicating with
the city. When the guns got into ac-
lion they were fred every three min
ntes. speed which the Germans con-
sidered impossible in handling such
monsters. 1t was this which gave rise
TO the belief of the Germans that there
were 30 instead of five Of the guns in
/ action.
There were six more of the giant
/ caiHlon on the way TO France when
the fighting ended. They were of the
same bore. hut were far more mobile.
MS the FIVE in action could only be
used from pit when they had to be
| fired at an angle Of more than j. de-
grees.
"Gee, II the war hadn't quit we
would have shown those Germans
something about handling big guns, "
1 sighed John Mason Of 1894 Mason ave-
( nue., Chicago, ''but we showed them
plenty as it vas
Three OF the five guns, the naval
glinners said, were in the American
sector in the Argonne and the other
two were with the French. One was
AT SCISSORS. They had range slightly
i'm excess of 80 miles. Each shell fired
weighed | 400 pounds aud II took 470
pounds OF r. \. r. to send ii on its
path Sof destruction back of the Ger
man lines. When the She1 hit and ex-
plodcd II opened Il crater In the earth
lin which large-Sized American rail-
way box car could be comfortably in
tered. al m
Amazed the PoiIu..
On the American sector the three
big guns were mounted within 200
Yards of one another and were always
fred IN rapid succession. The concus-
sionswns terrife. gff ila'fsssis'f
The gunnerS told IA story of a French
soldier who happened to be standing
too near the giant cannon when they
were fired. When tho first one was
fired the conclusion hurled him VIC
lcnily TO the earth. He staggered to
his feet Just as the second one let go
and down he Went again. Up he
climbed again. only TO be dashed to the
ground for the third time as the third
gun roared.
He got up. pale but excited, crying
In French what in American would
mean:
"ThlS will end the war. This Will
finish the Germans"
The last shell fired by the navy mel
left the American lines at exactly
10:2S O'Clock ON the morning of No
vcmher II. il was so timed that II
would explode back OF the German
lines mt exactly II o'clock, or on The
second that the armlstlce went into
effect
AMIN r