Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-05-26
WARNED OF big BERTHA"
FRENCH WAR CHIEFS LAUGHED
Plan of Germans to Bombard
Paris Revealed Far in Ad-
vance, but Story Was Not
Believed

PARIS.-When a shell from the
monster gun, the Big Bertha,
crashed through the reef OF tbs
Church of st. Germain-des-Pres. in
Paris, during the service Of Good
Friday, 1918, killing nearly a hun
dred women and children, the Ger
mans were putting into execution a
plan the details of which had been
communicated to the French author
tiles months beforehand ignored.
Major Money, of the French coun'
ter.espionage service in Switzerland,
tells the story of his discovery of
the manufacture of the giant gun.
Established in Switzerland, with
Headquarters in Zurich, Money was
on the watch for every manifesto
ton of Germany's war intentions. In
November, 1917, he received the visit
of an Argentine engineer, friend OF
his father, who was on his way to
Germany on business. Money sue
ceeded in inducing this man, whom
he calls Lopez, an assumed name,
to undertake to inform him of any
interesting things he might see in
his visits to German war factories.
100 KilOmeter Gun
A month later Lopez brought the
news that the Germans were making
a cannon capable of launching an
immense shell distnace of 100 kilom.
eters He brought also the infor-
nation that 100000 men were work
10 iorlo iYo 10 L
tories, while the great Creusot
works in France employed only 49,
900. 1t was at this time that the
Germans were bending every effort
to weaken the morale Of the French
civilian population and Money I'M
derstood that if the report of the
Big Bertha were correct it would
have possibly had a disastrous effect.
Money sent on to Paris the report
as he had received it. Meanwhile,
the colonel who had been in charge
of the intelligence department of the
foreign office had resumed service
at the front and his place had been
taken by an. artillery colonel. The
latter replied to Money as follows:
"You seem to have given too much
attention to the report of the new
German gun. AS an artillery expert
[ may inform you that it is mate
rally impossible to construct can
non of that range"
Lopez, pressed by Money, made
another visit to Germany and came
back with the information that the
report was exact in every particular,
except that the gun was being con-
structed in the Skoba- factories in
Austria, that one of this type had
already been installed on the Ger
man front nearest Paris and that
the Germans were confident of be-
ing able to lombard the French cap
ital.
French IncredulOus
Money, whose reports to his chief
had been unanswered, decided to go
to Paris himself to make sure the
facts were laid before the govern
ment. He told the colonel in charge
of the intelligence department that
the gun in question had been tested
a Frankfurt-on-the-O that the
caliber was about 210 millimeters,
that an accident had caused the
death of score of soldiers in the
first test but that the defects had
been corrected. The artillery officer
refused to believe him. Money in
sisted. He was ordered to take the
first train back to Zurich.
Furious, the counter-spy, wrote a
full account of the affair which he
sent to the minister of war with the
request that it be laid before the
premier and the ministerial council
Then he returned to his post in
Switzerland and heard nothing more
about it. The French government
had full confirmation of his report
four months later-when the big
gun began to throw those shells at
fifteen minute intervals which did
more to unnerve Paris than all the
aerial bombardments from which the
capital had suffered during the en-
tire war