Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-01-16
FRENCH WANT
! SUPER-CANNON
AS SOUVENIR
Movement Began to Have
Foe Surrender One of
big Berthas."

Paris. Dec. neutrality-suspicious. OF
The Associated Press.)-The French
people want n Of the German Big
Serthas" or supercannon which bonn
barded Paris to display in the Place
de la Concorde as a souvenir of Ger
ma frightfulness hat failed of its
purpose to destroy French morale.
The armistice does not stipulate
that one of these instruments shall
be surrendered but there is a move
ment to urge the government to de-
mand 1t. There is no expectation that
the Germans will include one Of these
weapons among the $500 guns they
are required to give up under the ar
mistice.
Facts obtained by military experts
show that the first guns that fired up
on Paris on March %, last, number
ed three, They were installed near
Gobain. Two were On the same rail-
road spur leading out Of Laon while
the third was a little further east in
the vicinity of Creepy.
According to the latest information.
the guns were pointed at an angle OF
more than 65 degrees, a charge of
three hundred pounds of powder pro-
polling the projectile to a height of
m hundred thousand feet (nearly 10
miles) on it's murderous mission to
Paris. With every shot ten or twelve
marine guns Of sixteen or seventeen
inch calibre fired simultaneously Up
on targets unknown in order to con-
ceal the location of ~supercannon. The
shell was of 21O millimetre calibre
(about eight inches.) 1t weighed
three hundred pounds but the charge
Of explosive contained therein varied
between thirty and forty pounds.
In the manufacture of the shell re-
sided an innovation of the Germans.
1t is said to have been made of spe-
cial steel treated with tungsten so as
10 offer the maximum Of resistance
Tor a minimum of weight. The guns
and it proved to be no protection at
all as Allied aviators soon located
them. There is a report that several
aviators Americans, French, British.
lost their lives in locating the first
three Berthas in the forest of St.
Gobain but upon that point officials
are silent.
However on March 81 n Of the
Berthas vas blown up by an aerial
torpedo which tore a hole in the
ground more than fifty feet in
been taken. The second was put out
Of business in the last days Of April.
while the third of the original three
was silenced in May.
1t is now asserted that two of these
gun were remodeled into a larger
calibre, nine-inch, and that these re-
modelled guns were the ones which
resumed the Smelling Of Paris late in
May last.
Subsequently the Germans succeed
ed in utilizing larger calibred guns
for long distance firing for, in August.
they used a marine gun from near
Scissors. firing a twelve and a half
inch shell. They were preparing to
subject Paris to an intensive bonn
bardment such as Dunkirk had to SUI
FER when they were driven out of
their Soissons-Chateau Thierry line
by the counter-offensive of the Allies.
Commandant Mirbel, the military
expert, who organized the Turkish ar
tillery before the Germans assumed
charge of the military affairs of that
country, told The Associated Press
that the whole secret of the German
long distance gun lay in the invention
Of a special high explosive powder
which could only be used in guns con-
structed with a special steel Of extra
ordinary resisting power. The Ger
mans had commenced the generaliza-
ton Of the process and they were
manufacturing several guns similar
to their scissors n but Marshal
F'och's offensive deranged their plans.