WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.
CHEMISTRY A DEMON OF DESTRUCTION--POISON GAS BOMBS--GAS MASKS--HAND
GRENADES--MORTARS--"TANKS"--FEUDAL "BATTERING RAMS"--STEEL
HELMETS--STRANGE BULLETS--MOTOR PLOWS--REAL DOGS OF WAR.
Things new and passing strange--thousands of them--have been brought
into being by the great world war. Human minds have developed things
undreamed of by science or fiction--things that a few years ago would
have been considered too strange and fantastic for even the professional
romancer to weave into the tissues of his stories.
Every known science has been called upon to produce its quota of new
things which might be used for the destruction or the protection of men
at war. The wonders of chemistry have always lent descriptive
inspiration to the pen of writers, but mankind to get a vivid conception
of the horrors of chemistry has had to wait for the great world war.
The conflict which has involved the entire world might almost be termed
a warfare of chemists. Without their diabolical products, ranging all
the way from high explosives to poison gases, it would have few of the
characteristics of ultra-frightfulness that render it unique in the
history of international struggles.
But of all the instruments of destruction used in this war, there is
none more horrifying than the so-called "incendiary bomb," which sets
instant fire to whatever it touches and which spreads flame in a manner
so terrific that three or four such gravity-projectiles dropped from an
aeroplane burned up the whole of a peaceful Dutch village in a few
minutes.
Now, what is the fearsome stuff with which such bombs are loaded? A new
chemical compound? Not at all. What they contain is simply the mixture
of two of the most harmless things in the world--oxide of iron (which
is simply iron rust) and powdered aluminum.
When these two innocent substances are mixed together the result is a
compound truly infernal in its potentialities for mischief. It is not an
explosive but if set on fire it burns with an intensity that is
positively appalling. Nothing will put it out; no quantity of water has
any effect upon the raging flames it engenders.
This is the material used for loading incendiary bombs. It is ignited in
such projectiles by a mercury-fulminate cap that sets off a fuse
containing powdered magnesium--the stuff photographers employ for
flashlights.
THIN SHELLS OF STEEL.
These bombs are thin shells of steel or iron--mere containers for the
mixture before described. They are so contrived that the fuse is
instantly ignited when they strike.
Whereupon the shell is melted by the heat generated within it and a
flood of fiercely burning metal is scattered in all directions. All of
this seems rather extraordinary, and it is worth explaining.
Oxygen has an affinity for iron, readily combining with the
latter--which is the reason why iron is liable to rust. This rust is a
chemical compound of iron and oxygen; in other words, oxide of iron. But
oxygen has a much greater affinity for aluminum. And so, when the two
metals are powdered and mixed together and heat is applied the oxygen
flies out of the iron rust and combines with the aluminum.
The process is started in the bomb by the burning magnesium. And then
the oxygen passes out of the iron and into the aluminum so rapidly that
an enormously high temperature is developed. It runs up to 3500 or 4000
degrees Fahrenheit--which means, of course, a tremendous combustion. The
mixture of aluminum and iron burns like so much tinder--though such a
way of putting it is absurdly feeble.
The present war has been conspicuously marked by reversions to ancient
methods of fighting. In this line the incendiary bomb offers an
excellent illustration. It is in effect merely an adaptation of an idea
utilized by the Saracens--we should call them Turks nowadays--in their
warfare with the Crusaders of the Middle Ages.
DREAD INSTRUMENT OF WAR.
The instrument of war most dreaded by the Crusaders, as they found it in
the hands of the Turks, was the incendiary bomb--a projectile that flew
through the air "like a fiery dragon" as they described it, and set fire
to whatever it touched. Sometimes it was provided with iron barbs, by
which it clung to buildings.
This was one of the ways in which the Saracens employed the celebrated
"Greek fire"--an inflammable compound that is understood to have been a
mixture of petroleum, saltpeter and pitch. The chief horror of it, from
the Crusaders' point of view, was that it was unquenchable. Mere water
had no effect upon it. Hence they were sure that it must be of
diabolical origin.
But the up-to-date incendiary bomb is a great improvement on its
original of the Middle Ages. The modern contrivance is thoroughly
scientific, and it does its destructive business with certainty and
dispatch.
No less effective are the gas bombs which were introduced by the German
soldiers at Rheims, and which when exploding near the trenches occupied
by the French and English threw off vapors and poisonous gases which
killed or overwhelmed thousands of brave men. These devices used in
violation of all rules of civilized warfare sent hundreds to the
hospitals. Seventy-five victims were taken at one time from the trenches
to the hospital at Zuydcoote, north of Dunkirk, where it was found that
some of those who had inhaled the fumes turned a violet tinge.
Altogether it was estimated that from 3000 to 5000 men were affected by
the gas fumes in this first onslaught and at least 10 per cent of those
who were overcome succumbed to the deadly fumes. Many of those who
inhaled the poisons expectorated blood and for days afterward were
racked by terrible coughing. In many cases fever developed in a few days
ending with pneumonia. When the men were not sufficiently poisoned to
cause death they were so affected that their usefulness as soldiers was
ended for all time. The poison made them confirmed invalids.
INTRODUCTION OF GAS MASK.
Naturally human ingenuity was called into play to protect men against
the poisons and the gas mask came into being. These were of many types.
The early creations consisted primarily of a nose and mouth covering
with a receptacle for inclosing a sponge or gauze soaked with a chemical
which possessed the power to neutralize the gas fumes. Such devices have
been used by fire fighters in large cities the world over where the men
battling to save buildings have been compelled to enter smoke-filled
rooms and cellars. Other types which have proven more effective are
designed after the fashion of the diving apparatus, and having a small
tank of compressed oxygen with feeding tubes running to the mask. The
oxygen combines with the contaminated air breathed through absorbent
cotton or sponge and provides the wearer with the proportion of oxygen
necessary to existence. And even the horses have been provided with such
masks.
But to go back to bombs. All through France and Belgium, and wherever
the Prussian soldiers found their way, there was evidence of the use of
hand grenades which were thrown against the sides of or into buildings
to set them in flames. Some of these devices, made of sheet metal, were
in their action similar to the "Fourth of July torpedoes" familiar to
every American school boy. When thrown they exploded throwing oil and
chemicals over walls and floors. Some of them seem to have been loaded
with bullets and were in effect hand shrapnel.
Then there developed from the primary use of these nefarious weapons the
recognized hand grenade, which is actually hand-shrapnel, plied by men
at close quarters. Thousands of these have been thrown by the armies in
their charges on the trenches. And then, to offset the use of these
devices in the offensive, there came into being also the smoke bombs.
These when exploding throw up great clouds of black smoke which hang
over everything.
EFFECTIVE IN A HUNDRED WAYS.
The use of such bombs has proved effective in a hundred ways. They have
been used to create a perfect shield of smoke to conceal the movements
of troops, or prevent the enemy from finding the range with their long
distance guns. Similarly bombs which contained burning chemicals have
been used to hold in check the approaching enemy forces.
Half way between the great gun and the hand grenade stand among war
weapons the trench mortars. The first of these were used by the Japanese
in their war with Russia. The Japanese mortars were mere logs hollowed
out and strengthened by wrappings of bamboo rope. The projectiles fired
from these were empty provision tins filled with high explosives, scraps
of metal, bits of stone or whatever, in the emergency, could be found to
fill them.
The mortars are pitched at an angle and the projectiles are shot with a
skyrocket effect, to land in the trenches or camp of the enemy. The
Germans developed the idea and the perfected mortars are of steel, and
capable of throwing bombs weighing several hundred pounds.
And then the great moving fort which has been called "the tank!" Those
snorting, fire-spitting dragons which were depicted for us in childhood
can scarcely bring to our mind a greater element of the fanciful, the
horrible, and the powerful than the steel hulks which came into being in
this war under the name of "tanks."
We see them in our mind's eye spitting fire as they crossed No Man's
Land, amid the smoke and dust of bursting shells. Keeping steadily on
their courses they dived into huge craters made by exploding shells;
stretched themselves across trenches, brushed trees and boulders aside,
and kept steadily on their courses. German wire entanglements were as so
many pieces of string before their huge frames. Nothing deterred them.
They moved forward into the face of the enemy, reaching the first line
of German trenches. There the soulless devices sat complacently astride
the trenches, and turning their guns along the ditches swept them in
both directions.
THE TANK DEFIES ALL OBSTACLES.
The tanks which were introduced by the English, move along on revolving
platforms, so to speak. These platforms enable the tank to overcome all
obstacles as the caterpillar tread is curved up in the arc of a huge
circle at the front which gives the vehicle its wonderful tractive
powers. This large curvature acts as a huge wheel with a tremendously
long leverage equal to the radius of the circlet or the spokes of the
imaginary wheel of the same diameter. Only that portion of the assumed
wheel which would come in contact with the ground acts as the lever, and
it is just this portion that is reproduced in the front end of a
caterpillar belt.
Although varying in size and details, all tanks have the common
characteristic of being divided into three main compartments between the
two side caterpillar frames. The first is the observation compartment in
which the driver and his helper are perched high above the ground to
direct the movements of the huge steel beast.
In the middle is the ammunition room from which the guns carried in the
two side turrets are fed. At the rear is the engine room. From two or
four gasoline engines are used--these driving the rear axle and its
integral sprockets over which the caterpillars run. The latter run an
idler pulley or sprockets at the extreme front ends and are supported by
means of rollers attached to the upper portion of the frame on each side
when passing over the top. This movement of the caterpillar belts is
exactly analogous to that of the ordinary variety of garden insect with
the same name which similarly lays down his own track by humping his
back continuously and regardless of the land surface.
The tanks are steered by a pair of small ordinary wheels at the rear.
These are supported in a pivot on a frame extended from the rear. They
are merely for steering, and support none of the weight of the tank
except when bridging wide trenches or dips in the surface. Steering can
be accomplished by making one caterpillar go faster than the other by
manipulating clutches on the driving mechanism.
TANK'S "CATERPILLAR" FEATURE.
The "caterpillar" feature of the tank had its origin in the caterpillar
belts or shoes which were first used on the great field guns and
mortars--those tremendous weapons which shoot bombs and shells weighing
tons and containing 500 or more pounds of guncotton or explosive which
on contact is discharged, rending everything for yards around.
These guns, as well as the smaller field guns, have had attached to them
great shields of steel behind which the gunners stand, so that they are
protected against the old-fashioned sharpshooters whose duty it was to
pick off the gunners.
The caterpillar or wheel belts on the big guns consist of flat blocks,
or shoes, wider than the tires of the wheels. They are hinged and
fastened together so as to form a great chain, and when placed on the
wheels present broad surfaces to the ground and keep the gun carriages
from sinking into the soft earth. With a set of these shoes a heavy gun
can be drawn over soft and irregular ground, which would be almost
impassable where the gun is mounted on wheels of ordinary width.
Before these belts were devised it was necessary for every gun crew to
carry a supply of beams, jackscrews and devices to be used in
extricating the heavy guns when they got fast in the mud. Now every gun
has these belts which can be put on or detached in a few minutes.
Paradoxically, this is the day of the big gun's greatest effectiveness,
and the day of its greatest limitations. The war has taught us more in
two years about gunnery and the effect of various types of ordnance
under varying conditions than could have been learned in twenty years of
theoretical research--for actual experience proves where theoretical
research merely gives ground on which to base an opinion.
NATIONAL RESOURCES TO DISLODGE A MAN.
One of the things that we have learned is that when man takes unto
himself the humble pick and shovel and proceeds to dig a hole for
himself in the ground, we can get him out of that hole only by drawing
on the combined resources of a nation, by constructing one of the most
complex and expensive instruments in the world, and with it hurling at
man dug-in a projectile weighing a good part of a ton.
The blunder, perhaps unavoidable, which stands out with equal emphasis
among the preliminary preparations of all the nations engaged in the
struggle was the underestimation of the artillery power required for the
conduct of a successful military campaign under modern conditions of
warfare. It was an underestimation so great that in the light of
developments it will some day prove ridiculous.
At the opening of the war two opposed theories of artillery
effectiveness were held by the combatants. The French swore by the
medium calibre, rapid-fire, low-trajectory field piece. The Teutons had
devoted their best efforts to the development of guns so big that their
opponents were tempted, before they learned better, to regard them as
too unwieldy for effective field service. Both were right, the French in
the full sense and intention of the term, the Teutons by pure accident.
It should be explained here that the word Teuton is used advisedly, for
in reality it is to the Austrians before the Germans that the
development of the 11-inch and bigger field gun, with its special
carriage and caterpillar-tread wheels owes its existence. It was
Austrian guns and Austrian gunners that first made the heavy artillery
of the Teuton armies famous.
The French field piece performed all that was expected of it, but it was
handicapped by unforeseen conditions of warfare. The heavy Teuton guns
performed their mission in the very introductory stages of the war, then
failed, and later, by the irony of fate, proved to be the very things
required when the unforeseen war conditions developed.
A WONDERFUL GUN.
The Germans and Austrians believed that they could develop a big gun
which could be given sufficient mobility for use in the field, and with
commendable and methodical application they proceeded to do so. The
theory was, first, that it could batter down any permanent
fortifications that man could build, and when it was pitted against the
concrete ramparts of Liege and Namur it blew them out of existence in a
few hours. The Teutons had scored, and scored so heavily that the Allies
barely escaped the fate the Germans had prepared for them in an
overwhelming sweep on Paris. That they did escape this fate is no doubt
in a large measure due to the fact that the second effectiveness claimed
by the Teutons for their heavy ordnance failed in its full
accomplishment. Used in open fighting, the great explosive shells hurled
by these guns did not do the damage expected to the wide, open firing
lines of the Allies, nor did they produce the moral effect expected. The
great shells tore tremendous craters in the ground, from which the
force of the explosion was expended upward in a sort of cone-shape,
shooting above the heads of any troops in the vicinity except those
immediately adjacent to the explosion. In the meantime the field pieces
of the French, with their extreme mobility and rapidity of fire, were
scattering death and destruction with their straight shrapnel fire in
the solid formations which were so popular with the Germans in the early
stages of the war, and which today they do not seem to be able to drop
entirely.
So far the French piece did all expected of it. The German piece had
proved its ability only to blow up permanent fortifications, and this
was nullified immediately by the action of the French in abandoning the
concrete shelters and moving their own guns into newly and
quickly-constructed trench forts.
A THING UNDREAMED OF.
But the thing that neither side had dreamed of was the settling down of
the war on the west front into an eternal line of opposing trenches to
face each other for years. That it did so was due to the monumental
blunders on the part of the German staff in allowing itself to be
outmaneuvered and beaten back from the gates of Paris by numerically
inferior forces, and still further outmaneuvered in the extension of the
lines northward in that famous series of flanking movements which
finally reached the sea.
It was their success in driving the German army to earth when it was
stronger than they were that saved the Allies, and gave them the
breathing time required in which to further their preparations and train
new troops, and likewise it is this same mode of trench warfare which
has made their task so difficult when they have taken the offensive.
Against ordinary trench lines, as known in the early stages of the war,
the French field pieces were more effective than the heavy cannon of the
Teutons, just as they had been in the open. Shooting in flat trajectory
across the trench, and exploding just above it, the shrapnel scattered
more death downward than the heavy projectile could scatter upward after
it had buried itself in the soft earth.
But with the continuous line of trenches stretching from Switzerland to
the sea, with consequent impossibility of out-flanking, demonstrated by
the Germans to their sorrow in repeated repulses of their drives to cut
through to Calais, each side felt justified in replying to the artillery
of the other by digging deeper and more permanently, with many feet of
shelter overhead. This ended the effectiveness of shrapnel except for
the repulse of attacks, and again the heavy guns swung into the position
of pre-eminence.
A SITUATION ALMOST BEYOND CONTROL.
It was at this stage, however, that both sides realized how totally
inadequate the supply of these heavy guns and ammunition was to cope
with the situation. While the heavy gun was more effective in blasting
out the enemy from his dugouts than the field piece, it required many
times the artillery power which either side possessed to handle the job.
Then commenced the race of the ammunition and gun factories to turn out
their products by the ton where they had been turned out by the pound
before; a race in which the Allies took and held the lead.
With the greatly increased number of heavy guns it became possible to
develop the famous curtain of barrage fire, also known as drum fire,
with this type of ordnance, as well as with shrapnel.
It is with this form of attack that the Allies blasted their way slowly
but steadily through the strongest networks of trenches which the
Germans were able to build.
Along a given section of the front, or rather just behind it, the guns
were placed singly or in pairs, widely scattered, some close to the line
and some well back from it, all concealed as far as possible from enemy
aviators. There were also many dummy batteries, so that if the enemy
air scout saw a gun or group of guns, he had no way of telling whether
they were real or imitation.
In such an instance before the actual advance of the troops the fire of
all these guns is concentrated along parallel lines to the enemy
trenches, first, second and sometimes third. Each gun has its work
mapped out for it in advance on a map covered with tiny squares. The
actual point may be well beyond view of the gunners. The shell is landed
in its appointed square solely on mathematical calculation. The
commander of each gun knows, for instance, that he must fire into this,
that or the other square for so many minutes or hours, and exactly at a
given minute change his fire to another source.
RAIN OF SHELLS LIKE STREAMS OF WATER.
In effect on the enemy a continuous rain of shells, comparable to
streams of water from hundreds of hoses is poured in a line right down
the trench. At the same time a parallel line of fire is concentrated at
a given distance back of the enemy's first trench and in front of the
second, or in it. This means that the troops in the first line must not
only take their bombardment without hope of retreat or escape, but that
it is impossible to get reinforcements to them through the second
curtain.
When it is calculated that the first line has been destroyed or
demoralized, the troops leap from their trenches and advance strictly
according to schedule over the ground between the opposing trenches.
Their arrival at the enemy's first trench is timed to the second, and
just as they are on the verge of plunging into their own curtain of fire
this latter is gradually thrown forward, forming a screen between the
newly captured trench and the enemy's second line. This means two
curtains of fire through which the enemy would have to advance to
counter-attack.
Time is given to rout out what remains of the enemy from the first line
dugouts, and then the troops advance again. In the meantime the curtain
of fire has preceded them as before, moving up to the line of drum fire
which has been playing on the second line of trenches or just in front
of it. If any of the enemy have attempted to flee before the attack from
the first line they are caught between these two barrages which are
gradually brought together.
When the first and second lines of fire have been brought together they
are poured with redoubled fury into the second line of the enemy
trenches, and then moved forward again just as the advancing troops
reach this line.
DEPENDING ON LOCAL CONDITIONS.
The performance is made continuous so far as possible under the
conditions peculiar to the given section in which the attack is being
made. Sometimes it is possible to advance over three, four or five
trenches in a single attack. At others it is as much as can be
accomplished to capture one, which must be consolidated before further
advance is made. It depends on the strength of the trenches, the nature
of the ground, the distance apart that they are, and, of course, the
amount of artillery fire which the enemy is able to concentrate in
return.
When a sufficient advance has been made, it also becomes necessary to
suspend operations for a time while the guns behind the lines are moved
forward to new positions.
This is always the period of the counter-attack in force by the enemy,
who seizes the opportunity when a certain proportion of the artillery is
unable to fire because it is being moved. And it is during this period
that the infantry have to do their hardest fighting, which consists, not
in making the advance over no-man's land to the enemy trench, but in
holding that trench afterward when the bringing up of their own
artillery behind them to more advanced positions robs them of some of
the support of the drum fire.
Still another factor of delay at this period is the time required by
the air scouts to find the rearranged positions of the enemy guns after
the advance, for these must be taken care of also before a new advance
can be made.
An explanation of this form of attack shows why news dispatches have
told first of an advance of the British, followed by a period of quiet,
during which an attack by the French in some other section of the line
was in progress. Then suddenly the scene of action switched back to the
British lines again while the French were consolidating their new
positions preparatory to pushing the general advance a step farther.
GERMAN EQUIVOCATION.
It also explains just what has happened when the Germans state that the
"enemy penetrated our first trenches in a small sector, but his attack
broke down before our second line." When the next attack is ready, of
course, the former second German line is referred to as the "first," and
so, on paper, as far as the uninitiated are concerned, the German
publicity office is able to build up a continuous series of enemy
attacks which "break down," and somehow never, never "penetrate our
invincible line." Actually an advance of this nature is extremely slow,
but it is sure, and it is made at the expense of tons upon tons of
ammunition rather than at the expense of lives, for ammunition can be
made faster than soldiers.
Even the old battering ram of feudal times with which the ancestors of
Kaiser William used to knock down the castles of the baron robbers has
been approximated by his warring tribes. With the retreat of the German
troops from Flanders the Allied forces found crude battering rams such
as have been shown in the stirring "movies" when the ancient warriors
stormed the gates of the city.
One of such devices was in the form of an upright frame made of heavy
timbers. An immense log was suspended from the cross-piece by a heavy
chain. An iron band circled one end of the log which was used for
battering purposes and at the opposite end were handles, used by the
operators in their nefarious work. The ram was used to batter in the
doors of houses which had been locked or barricaded against the German
soldiers. In their most destructive moods, it is charged that they used
these devices to destroy the standing walls of houses and cottages after
they had been gutted by fire. The Germans would not permit even so much
as a wall to stand which might be used by the poor peasant in
rehabilitating himself and building a new home.
NEW METHOD OF WARFARE.
The new method of warfare, with men working in trenches and dugouts and
millions of shells breaking over head, while missiles rain all about,
necessitated the development of some device to protect the heads of the
fighters. Therefore the steel helmet.
It has been shown that, due to trench warfare, about seventy-five per
cent of the wounded on the western front had been hit with shrapnel or
pieces of shell traveling at a low velocity and therefore had torn
wounds and in many cases smashed bones. About three per cent of the
wounds were in the head and about fifteen per cent in the face or neck.
This led to the adoption by the French of a steel helmet called after
its inventor, Adrian. The helmets were first used in May, 1915. That
their use is justified is shown by statistics. Among fifty-five cases of
head wounds, forty-two happened to soldiers without helmets.
Twenty-three of these had fractured skulls, while the remaining nineteen
had bad scalp wounds. Of the thirteen who wore helmets, not one had a
skull fracture. Five had slight wounds only, while none of those who had
worn a helmet died. Quite a number of those who had not did.
In the Academy of Medicine Dr. Roussey brought up the point that due to
the helmet the number of cases of sudden death from wounds in the head
had been so decreased that the number of wounded with head injuries
treated in the hospitals had materially increased.
The French helmet proved such a success that Belgium, Serbia, Russia and
Roumania equipped their troops with the same model. The French helmet
has a bursting bomb as insignia on its front and is light blue or khaki
color, depending on whether it is worn by the metropolitan, the French
home army or the French colonial army.
THE BELGIAN HELMET.
The Belgian helmet is khaki-colored, with the Belgian lion on the front;
the Italian, greenish blue, with no insignia; the Serbian,
khaki-colored, with the Serbian coat of arms; the Russian,
khaki-colored, with the Russian coat of arms, and the Roumanian,
blue-gray, with the Roumanian coat of arms.
The French have made more than 12,000,000 helmets, using about 12,000
tons of steel. In other words, a ton of steel will make 1,000 helmets.
The British also equipped their troops with a steel helmet, which has no
ridge running from front to rear, as has the Adrian, no decorations, and
a rather wide brim, which runs all the way round. It is of a khaki
color.
The Germans issued to a certain number of their men, generally those
most exposed in trench fighting, a steel helmet considerably heavier
than any of the allied helmets. It has a much higher crown, and comes
down more over the eyes and the sides and back of the head.
All these helmets are supported by means of a leather skull cap inside,
which fitting closely to the head, distributes the weight over the whole
of the skull, instead of simply around the edge of it, as is the case
with ordinary headgear.
Of course, these helmets will not protect against high velocity
projectiles. However, as they do protect the wearer from low velocity
projectiles, and as these are, because of infection, often as fatal as
severe wounds, it can easily be seen how much good has been
accomplished.
A French writer in La Nature shows that 332 out of 479 abnormal wounds
were caused by shrapnel and pieces of shell having a low velocity.
In 13 out of 15 cases of lung wounds, the projectiles did not have
velocity enough to completely traverse the body and come out.
In 71 cases of joint wounds, 66 were due to low velocity shrapnel and
only 5 to high velocity bullets. Practically every one of these wounds
could have been prevented by breast and body pieces and knee and elbow
caps of armor.
LOW VELOCITY MOST EFFECTIVE.
As for every man who afterward dies from a wound made by a high velocity
bullet there are about ten who die from wounds made by the low velocity
shrapnel and shell fragments, the importance is seen of protection
against these low velocity wounds if it can be had.
The wearing of armor means the lessening of the mobility of the soldier.
In the open field lessening of mobility means a decrease in efficiency,
which cannot be tolerated. However, in trench warfare the mobility of
the individual does not count for so much, as even during an attack he
does not have to go far, and generally does it at a walk in the rear of
the barrage fire of his own artillery.
Efficiency in warfare, as indicated by the keeping of such records, has
set the brains of the world at work, and armor is used to a limited
degree for the protection of men in greatly exposed fronts or open
positions.
The Japanese in modern times were first to resort to the forerunner of
armor. They used shields of steel and in the siege of Port Arthur such
shields were strapped to the front of the body. The Germans in the
charges have frequently used double shields, advancing in groups of four
behind a steel protector carried by two men, leaving the other two free
to fire at the enemy through port holes in the armor shields.
None of the armors has, however, proved its resistance to the high
velocity bullets which the powerful field guns rain against it.
Experiments are being made continuously along these lines, and Guy Otis
Brewster, of New Jersey, has developed a bullet-proof jacket and
headgear which it is said approximates perfection.
In the presence of ordinance officers from the Picatinny Arsenal he
invited an expert military marksman to fire at him from a distance of 60
yards. A Springfield rifle was used, with regulation ammunition. The
steel bullet had a velocity of 2740 feet a second. Only one shot was
fired, but it failed to penetrate the armor.
COMPOSITION A SECRET.
The composition of the latter is a secret, beyond the fact that it
consists in part of steel. Jacket and headgear weigh 30 pounds; but the
material is so flexible that the soldier wearing such an outfit can
kneel, lie down, rise and run, charge from the trenches, use the
bayonet, or throw hand grenades, without impediment to his movements.
It has been denied that dum-dum bullets, placed under ban by all
civilized nations, have been used by the Germans, but there is no doubt
that explosive bullets have been used. The report of the Belgian
Commission, which investigated the horrors when the Germans first
invaded King Albert's country, contains testimony which proves
conclusively that such missiles were used. These bullets were, in
effect, small shells containing an explosive chemical which was set off
by contact. Photographs taken of wounds show the effect which these
bullets produced.
More than that, the Russians charged that along the northern frontier
the Germans fired glass bullets, although there is nothing to sustain
the belief that such missiles were generally used. The dum-dum bullet
is a soft-nosed missile which, when it strikes a bone, flattens out and
splatters, creating a jagged wound which it is almost impossible to
treat or heal. The Germans, in ordinary, use a steel jacketed bullet
which possesses high penetrative powers, while the French at the
beginning of the war were using the ordinary lead bullet.
AN AMERICAN BULLET.
Among the recent developments is a bullet which had its origin in one of
the United States arsenals for manufacturing ammunition. This is a steel
bullet covered with lead. The effect of such a combination on the
penetrating quality of the bullet may be readily understood by anyone
who has ever tried the experiment of driving an ordinary needle into a
board through a cork. If the cork is placed on the board and the needle
pressed down through the cork until it touches the board, a powerful
blow from a hammer will force the needle into the board without
breaking. In the application of this principle to the manufacture of the
bullet, experiments proved that the soft lead acted as a guide or
sustainer which permitted the inner steel to penetrate without
deviation.
And just as these oddities of warfare have been created to meet arising
situations, others have been created to care for the sick and
injured--those who have fallen victims of the agencies of destruction.
Who ever heard of a sand sled?
Such sleds have been used effectively on the Eastern fronts to carry
wounded soldiers to the hospitals. They are long, staunchly constructed
sleds similar to those used on the farms in America for hauling plows,
cultivators and other agricultural implements across the fields which
have been furrowed.
The sleds have broad runners which do not sink into the sands and can be
drawn easily. In winter these same sleds have served to haul the wounded
and sick over miles of snow and ice on the Russian frontier.
Then, though it is not a weapon of offense, there is the tractor plow
which works at night. It is a war device to the extent that as England's
need for food has been great and constant the tractor plow has been used
to solve the problem of working the ground. On the estate of Sir Arthur
Lee, the director-general of food production in England, great
agricultural motors equipped with acetylene searchlights were kept at
work in the fields day and night.
Dogs too have been ushered into the arena. No longer may the old English
expression, "Let Slip the Dogs of War," be regarded as a mere figure of
speech. The war dogs, and particularly the animals used by the Red Cross
on the battlefields, have assumed a regular status in the armies of the
world. In the European armies are thousands of dogs which have been
trained to act as messengers or spies, or to seek out on the
battlefields the wounded. The Germans use a canine commonly known as
"Boxers." These animals are a cross between the German mastiff and the
English bulldog, and on the fields of Europe they have proved to be
"kings" among the Red Cross dogs. The animals are first taught to
distinguish between the uniforms of the soldiers of their own country
and those of the enemy. Then they learn that the principal business in
life for them is to find and aid wounded soldiers.
The animals are trained to search without barking and to return to
headquarters and urge their trainers to follow them with stretcher
bearers. Sometimes the dogs bring back such an article as a cap, tobacco
pouch or handkerchief. The dogs of the Red Cross carry on their collars
a pouch containing a first aid kit, by means of which a wounded soldier
may staunch the flow of blood or help himself until assistance arrives.
It is reported that one of these dogs rescued fifty men on the Somme
battlefield in France. The animal known as Filax of Lewanno, is a
typical German sheepdog. Such dogs weigh from 50 to 65 pounds and are
very powerful, but the Irish terriers and Airedales have also been
trained to do effective work, as have the Great Danes and St. Bernards.