Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-01-19
f||lENCH PEOPLE WANT
Is ONE Of BIC BERTHAs
Desire to Place on Exhibition mt
= $50 Paris Weapon Used in Bonn
bardmcnt.
ORs LOCATED CANNON
~ Three Silcnccd before End of
Saved From Further
SMELLING by Allied Advance i'll
Summer.

sss SAR1S. January Is tSpcc!aD. The
French people want one OF The Ger
\ nlan big Berthas" or supercannon
Which bomharded Paris to display i'll
s5th6tPlace de la Concordc as II souvenir
trightfuness that failed Of
Il It's purpose to destroy French morale.
he armistice does not stipu!a,c thar
$ one of these instruments shall be sur
rendered, but there is "a movement 10
urge the government 10 demand il
sIhere is no expectation that the Ger
hands will include one of these
weapons among the 2.5oa guns they
areHrequired to give up under the ar
smfStice.
go Facts obtained by military experts
show that the first guns that fired
upon Paris on March IS last numbered
three. They were installed near Mont
Joie.fin the forest of Saint Gobain. Two
were on the same railroad spar lead
ana. out OF Laon, while the third was
little" further east in the vicinity OF
rRoJECTILEs REACHED uEIGuT
OF NINETEEN MILES
according to the latest informa ton.
h the guns were pointed ~ an angle of
more than siNty-fivc degrees. Il charge
projectile TO height of 100000 feet
cnearly nineteen m:les) on its murder
GUS mission TO Paris. With every shot
tenor twelve marine guns Of sixteen
or seventeen-inch caliber fired stimuli
stapeously upon targets unknown in
order. to conceal the locatiou of super
=.
meter caliber tabout eight inches). 1t
weighed 800 pounds, but the charge OF
explosive contained therein varied be-
tween thirty and forty pounds.
49, In the manufacture of the shell re-
sided an innovation OF the Germans
II IS said to have been made of special
of1cer the maximum resistance for Il
minimum OF weight. The guns only
protection was in eamouiiasc: and it
proved to be no protection at all, as
There Is report that several aviators.
american, French. British. lost their
fhat point officials are silent.
n. HSwsver, on March q one of the
torpedo, which tore hole in the
9ground more than fifty feet in diane
tsr. a p hotosraph OF which has been
business in the last days of Aprii,
sNhtle the third of the original three
sT T,svo s' or GrN ,ast n MSXi
$3.50 AND USED AGAIN
now asserted that TWO of these
snns were ere rem remonslcd inso nrger
we're the ones which resumed the she'll
H.nE1of Paris late in May last.
ed In. Within larger calibered guns
for long distance firing. for. in .Au
.sus., they used marine gun from,
.haif-inch she'll. they were rreparing
TO subject Paris 10 an intensive hon.-
bnrdmcnt such DunlIirk had TO
suffer. when they were driven out OF
their Scissors Chateau Thicrry lire by
the countcroffensive OF ,he allies.
{eS Comnandant M!rhcl. the military
lcIncrt, who organized the Turkish ar
FtNlcry before the Germans assumed
charge OF the military affairs Of that
country. told the Associate Press that
sac whole secret of the German long
distance gun lay in the invention OF
az special high explosive powder. which
Scnuid only be used in guns constructed
With special steel OF extraordinary re
sistfng power The Germans had com
me1lced the generalization Of the pro-
cess. and they were manufacturing
several guns similar TO their scissors
one. but Marshal Foch's offensive de-
ranged their plans.