The sun., 1919-04-30
CHEMICAL WARFARE
SECRETS DISCLOSED
Remarkable Exhibition of Bat
tie Methods Given at Van
Cortlandt Park.
SOME NEW SINCE TRUCE
Scene at Night One Of Bewil-
dering Beauty-Will Be Re-
peated Tonight.
SOME NEW SINCE TRUCE

peated Tonight.
Blasting new tricks of warfare which
most of the world has read about but
never seon, and some OF which It hasn't
even read about. for they are so new
that the armistice came too soon for
their employment, we've exhibited in Van
Cortlandt Park yesterday.
Under the biggest stop" OF all, the
clear blue sky, the Ordnance Depart
ment and the Chemical Warfare Service
gave show that for fireworks alone
beat all Independence days and shamed
the aurora borealis. II was a great,
genuine, spectacular demonstration of
modern methods of war given by SOL
| diers who had used them In the field or
prepared them in secret. A few thou
sand persons saw 1t yesterday. AS the
| programme will be repeated this after
, noon and tonight and tomorrow after
noon and tomorrow night the witnesses
] should be numbered by the hundred
/ thousand, for they will not see its like
again.
| After dark last night the pyrotechnic
| display was simply bewildering. Star
| shells and high flung flares Illuminated
| the whole region with all the colors of
the spectrum. White smoke screens
roared across the parade ground. driven
| by the wind into the faces OF SUPPOSE
titious foe. Rockets screaming toward
! the zenith and burst in great. lasting
balls of orange and red fire.
Real shells Used in "BattIe."
BY day the same field was the scene
| not only of a demonstration of gases,
| smoke screens, wicked combinations of
| oil which. fired in projectiles from a new
! mortar. sets the very water or rocks
| ablaze. and all the other deadly offensive
! and protective paraphernalia Of the new
chemical warfare, but of a battle prob
ably as realistic as anything that could
be staged after November IL last
Behind trenches big guns and in the
trenches machine gums hurled real pro-
jectiles and real bullets at the enemy
trying to approach from behind "A hill up
Moshulu way. And il that wasn't
enough projectiles were fired from
trench mortars which burst in air over
the enemy's head and sprayed molten
metal upon him.
And finally q flock Of tanks came tee
terins from behind the woods--lumber-
ing granddaddy tanks and the spry 1T
tie whippets. cutting circles around the
big ones and firing from every port The
tanks finally reached the trenches, but
that apparently did not signify that they
always are bound to do so in the opinion
of the army officers who were runnine
the show in connection with the Victory
Liberty Loan campaign.
| From Fire Control Hill, an eminence
just east OF Broadway at 252d street
Lieut-Col. f. J. w. Raesdale. chief Of
trench warfare of the army. directed
operations from a telephone station In a
10
Department was in general charge OF
Lieut.. Col. Bernard Lentz of the General
Staff and for the Chemical Warfare Ser.
vice of Brig.-Gen. Amos A. Fries. the
man who developed that branch of the
American army dusng the war.
North OF the hill six ten ton tanks
were in ambush They were coming
past swamp and over a level green
space south Of the hill where line OF
trenches with sand BAG. parspets were
filled with soldiers commanded by Mato,
Arthur Franzen. Most of the soldiers
are veterans OF active service at Chateau
Thlerry and St M!hlel. Back OF the
trench was a battery OF four eight liner
howitzers These and the other ar.
tllery were under the command of Col
Robert c. Garrett, who was In France
eighteen months with the Forty-fourtf
Coast Artillery, regulars.
The men in the trenches let loose first
with machine guns against the imagi.
nary enemy. their bullets singing up the
ravine between the two hills. Their
, they spattered hand grenades. as the
enemy got within fifty yards. thirty
yards ten yards. The enemy must have
been driven back by the grenades, fol
a barrage of three inch shells was
dropped from guns back OF the trench
into a swamp 1900 yards to the north
Three hundred six inch shells followed
them from another battery. They trav
, elled through the air six at a time. ant
the eye could easily follow their flight
! Some OF them exploded near the camou
, tagged tanks still lurking in the woods
but did no damage. Meanwhile tn,
Thigher atmosphere was full OF brigh
parachutes, which in a real battle a
, night would carry signal lights, but OF
this occa aston were freighted only will
American flags.
A shower of six inch shells. purposel
fired so they fell short. failed to sto
the tanks, which sailed down the ravin
!! as II unaware that they were theoretical
ly junk by this time. The tanks. reach
ing the trenches. shifted a second an
then waddled Off to prove they cou
have crossed the parapet II they wante
! to, by climbing a hill the side OF whic
was nearly straight up and down.
At ST. Mihiel and In the Argonne tn
| American Army found that one of tn
surest ways OF disposing OF machin
4 gun nests was to spray them with meta
0 ! heated to about 5000 degrees Fahrer
= heit. From Stokes mortars, after tn
= tanks had disappeared. these same ther
. | mite bombs were fired into the air yes
= terday. Exploding, they shot forth
= burst OF yellowish green smoke and the
y a widely scattering rain OF white he
\ | drops OF metal.