The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1919-02-01
BIG GUNS BROKE
GERMANS HEART
Capture of Great Fortress of
Laon Due to Yank Navy
Cannon.
Big SURPRISE FOR HUNS
Only Five of the Monster Guns Were
in Action, but Enemy Heard
Thirty"-Would Have Blasted
Frontier to Pieces.

New York.-That the capture of
the great fortress of Laon was
due to American naval guns mount
ed on flat cars 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 of the big naval
guns of the 14-inch type on the west
front 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 rapidity
that the bewildered Teutons believed
there were 80 of them in France.
Mangin 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
tress to pieces and hurled giant shells
on railroad lines communicating with
the city. When the guns got into ac-
ton they were fired every three min
utes. q speed which the Germans con-
sidered impossible in handling such
monsters. It was this which gave rise
to the belief of the Germans that there
were 80 instead of five of the guns in
action.
There were six more of the giant
cannon on the way to France when
the fighting ended. They were of the
same bore, but were far more mobile,
as the five in action could only be
used from a pit when they had to be
fired at an angle of more than 10 de-
grees.
"Gee, if the war hadn't quit we
would have shown those Germans
something about handling big guns"
sighed John Mason of 1894 Mason ave-
nue., Chicago, "but we showed them
plenty as it was"
Three of the five guns, the naval
gunners said, were in the American
sector in the Argonne and the other
LWO h6lG Will llIC oAS go
at scissors. They had a range slightly
in excess of 80 miles. Each shell fired
weighed HOO pounds and it took 40
pounds of T. n. T. to send it OF it's
path Aof destruction back of the Ger
man lines. When the shell hit and ex-
ploded it opened a crater in the earth
in which a large-sized American rail-
way box car could be comfortably in
tered.
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 ncu
sion was terrific.
The gunners told a story of a French
soldier who happened to be standing
too near the giant cannon when they
were fired. When the first n was
fred the conclusion hurled him VIC
lently 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:
This will end the war. This will
finish the Germans"
The last shell fired by the navy men
left the American lines at exactly
10 :2S O'Clock on the morning of No
vember II. 1t was so timed that it
would explode back of the German
lines at exactly II o'clock, or on the
second that the armistice went into
effect.