HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1914-11-19, Page 6AN AVIATOR'S EXPERIENCE
DTTSCRIBES A I%A.'1nta SEEN
FltOIL AN AEROPLANE.
Sl
'Prised That Malty More flits
Are Not Blade By German
G miners.
An interesting account of the ap-
pearance of i 'battlefield as seen
from an aeroplane is contained in a
+letter from one of the aviators with
the British expeditionary force to
this mother in England, He sags:
I am having a grand time, the
time of my life, and I wouldn't
have missed it for anything, Life
out here is ,so totally different from
anything you would possibly imagine
that it is almost impossible to de-
scribe it, As I write I hear the
sound of a greet'battle-••guns firing,
shells bursting; men are being kill-
ed and wounded, while here I aau
comfortably writing a letter after
a comfortable breakfast and expect-
ing an equally comfortable lunch.
But that is because it doesn't hap'
pen to be my turn for reconnais-
sance, worse luck.
It is most amusing to compare
• one day with another, or even one
hour with the hour after it. For
instance, take atypical day. At six
o'clock you are just finishing break -
fest. In less than an hour you are
up in the air, twenty -odd utiles
away, with a battle going on under
your very nose—hundreds of thous-
ands of men in various positions
pegging away at each other from
their'various trenches (a good many
of them pegging away et you). It
looks so funny front the air, be-
cause you can see it all and both
sides, whereas, down below they
can't see what they're firing at in a
good many cases; it is mere scien-
tific slaughter. A' battery will per-
haps know that some of the enemy
are entrenched in a certain area.
It will train its guns on to that
area without perhaps even seeing
if their guns have effect. For in-
stance the other day I saw guns
dropping shell after shell into a
certain area and there wasn't a
man within .miles of it!
Grand Sight From Shove.
The day before yesterday I saw
some German shells bursting bang
in the middle of some of our
!trenches—one after another. The
slaughter must have been terrific.
It's a grand sight from above. We
have our share as well, because
they have anti-aircraft guns pop-
ping at us all over the place, not to
mention rifle fire and shrapnel. It
is awfully interesting to notice the
old positions which have had to be
abandoned owing to shell fire. You
can see great holes where the shells
have burst all round them. I wish
I could describe some of the things
I have seen.
The Germans •havee some special
guns for dealing with aircraft.
They consist of a gun which fires a
kind of shrapnel shell which bursts
at a certain height. As soon as
they find your height they let off
their shells. about seven or eight at
a time, avhich burst all round you.
Hach shell is loaded with round bul-
lets about the size of a marble, and
these shoot about when the shell ex-
plodes, Whenever we go up we have
these anti-aircraft guns popping off
at. to, We have nicknamed one of
them "Archibald." He has a very
distinctive way of firing at you.
He'll let off one. just to see where
it bursts, and then find out his
range by it, and then let off six—
one after another. We take them
more or less as a joke, but I think
they are pretty sure to bring one
at u, down sooner or later. it is
really only a matter of time.
Baptism of Fire.
Did I tell you about my fiesb re-
connaissance? It was at Mau-
bouge. I started off to fly over by
Mons and Eng'hien and Ath—in that
direction. We ran into clouds just
beyond Mons, so had to turn back.
As we were coming back over the
French ,lines 1 saw a movement and
bustle among the troops, and thea
there was the noise of about 1,000
rifles cracking at, us. They had
mistaken me ,for a German because
any machine was different from most
of the others! That was my bap-
tism of fire" and 1 shall never for-
get it.
My first sensations were al sur•
prise, which rapidly developed into
a kind of fear, which in turn
ohangecl to Fascination. l.t positive-
ly fascinated me to Ace the holes ap-
pearing in the planes as each bullet
ripped its way through (although
there were only a .few' of them).
was looking at my' ',instrument
board to. sed what height I was,
when suddenly a bullet bit the
board and a splinter jumped up in
front of me. :it the, same time a
bitlletpierced the petrol tank and
all the petrol ran out. Another
one hit the instruments and'smash-
eel it. When the etrol ran out
there'Vhen pwas.nothing for .it but to
conte down, eo 1 trusted' to hick.'
and came down in the first good;
field 1 sew.
lititanium :Ewe 1iil.es Awny.
A dozen or so Belgian and Freneb
suldier'e rushed out, minaret bly
sent MUT. whether 1 was 1.+',nglisli or
A Tragic Scene in the Firing -Line of the French Army.
This photo iBlue:ra,tee the. remarkable spirit cf the French troops which has so often been the boast of
the official eon inniques. A soldier tries to aid a, wounded comrades and with grim determination contin-
ues his unceasing fire at the enemy.
German till I shouted, "Anglais,
Anglais 1" Tthen they bustled to
and did all they could for me. I hap-
pened to have two tanks, so I filled
up the other one and got ready to
start off .again. The odd part of it
was, shrapnel began bursting in
the field next to us—one after an-
other—which seemed to point to
the fact that Germans 'had brought
me down and not the French as I
had supposed. A French major
came up in a car and entreated me
to hurry away. "Vibe, vibe," he
said, "les Allemands ne cont pas
loin—trois kilometres!" ("Quick,
quick. The Germans are not far
away—about two miles l")
The nest reconnaissance I made
I had a taste of "Archibald"—the'
anti-aircraft gun. We were up by
Valenciennes, which was infested
with Germans. 'Suddenly I saw five
or six thick white puffs of smoke be-
neath us, which 'were shells burst-
ing. The next time they made a.
better shot and were on the same
level, but to the left—and so on. At
one time we had eight shells burst-
ing round us at once. Another ma-
chine was about 1,000 It. abovb us
at the time, and when we got back
the people in it told me that they
really thought we were going to be
done in that time. Since then the
old gun has been at sus every day.
One day I took up my camera and
waited until it had .sen( up about
six or seven shells and took a photo
ol them bursting. I hope it will
come out well—although there
won't be much to see.
•u --
An Electrical Farm. •
Norway is fortunate in having
many waterfalls to furnish "white
coal," or electric power, at very
low cost. At an agricultural ex-
hibition at 'Christiana, visitors saw
a model farm at which electricity
does much of the work. At 'night,
the farmhouse, yard, stables and
sheds are brilliant with electric
lights. Electric stoves do all the
cooking. A small motor runs a cof-
fee mill, a knife polisher, a fruit
parer, a sausage mill, and a bread
cutter. There is an electric dish
washer, a clothes washer, a centri-
fugal drier, an electric mangle, and
electric irons. In the workshop
there are a lathe, a saw, a grind-
stone, a glue heater and a. soldering
iron, all driven by electricity. In
the stable, an electric ender runs
an apparatus for robbing down
horses and for shearing sheep. By
way of climax, the fields of the farm
are fertilized with an artificial
manure made at the Norwegian
electrical nitrate works,
'k
Three Ages.
The new Berlin botanical gardens
are wonderfully beautiful, but to
small children they are a forbidden
paradise. Boys and girls under
ten are not permitted to enter,
Herr and Frau Muller found this
out to their disappointment when
they planned to take their little
Paul on a Sunday trip to view the
beautiful gardens; nevertheless,
they gavetheir young hopeful a few
instructions, and started out.
At the gate, the porter stopped
the young Muller. "How old are
you'(" he inquired. Paul answered,
'Six for the electrics; really eight;
for the botanical gardens, ten."
Khat Pussy Sold.
"Mine, why did you lett the eat
out?"
She asked me to, mamma.'
"What do you mean. child 1"
'She scratched at the door and
said, 'lie out; me out.' '
--..r
O(1 On Her Guess.
Jail Visitor (sympathetically) -
Vott' poor man ! You'll be glad
When your time is Me, won't you/
Convict =- Not paa'ticularly, miss,
I'm in for life,
CULT�I D CLIA EN FkURSES
SCRUB GRIME AND BLOODY
SWEAT FROM SOLDIERS.
Women of France to Wear Tiny
Pendant of White in Memory
of Their Dead Heroes.
This is .about women. Traveling
about for +bbe London Daily Express
in Belgium and down here in the
lush valley of ,rho Garonne, France,
I have seen what leads me to ex-
claim, "The, woanen are splendid!"
Not theirs the wild intoxication
of the charge, the thrilling joy of
riding full dash .at the roevs of the
enemy, of "sabring , the gunners
there" or of swinging pennoned
lance to still the Kaiser's fine Uh-
lans and stem the title of oppression
and win glory or death in a race
nerve -braced with joy.
Tender, gently ,nurtured women,
French and English, down here in
the valley of the Garonne .are sooth-
ing the anguish of the, twenty-five
thousand wounded French and Ger-
man soldiers, privates and officers,
who have been brought to the re-
gion of the new capital of Franca.
When you have been dglttang like
fury, driving or being draven, day
after day, you have had no time
for baths and rose water. Some of
the .soldncrs—Kaiser's men and
freedom's men—have been brought
here covered with , blood, swewb, "Little Willies•"
dust, and dirt. I have been watch- Th,e outer Linc of trenches, where
ing them to day cowing in on the men ere posted first +to draw the
are helping to keep "business
usual" ;and earning money reward
the ,maintaining 'of the children of
the men in red and blue and khaki
ordered north.
So, by the .sides of the incoming
trainload of men stretched on the
floors of railway wagons or away in
the scores of hospitals, among the
rows of 'wounded• getting better by
their help, or amid the smiles and
garlands that make it easier for 'the
mon to leave their homes and dear
ones for the stricken field, or in the
jostle of the tramcar crowds, keep-
ing things going' with is brave heart,
"the women are splendtcl."
"WAIT AND SEE” MATCHES.
So Tommy Atkins Calls Them "As-
gniths"—Other -Nicknames.
Soldiers' letters from the front
continue to reveal the aptitude of
"Tommy Atkins" in the invention
of nicknames. There have been a
number of puzzling refer•enoes to
"Asquiths," and the expression re-
mained a mystery until ares write'
explained that this was the new
name for French matches. They
are so-called because you have to
"wait and see"—a famous: expres-
sion once used by the British Pre-
mier when baited by the Opposition
to disclose the Government's plans
with reference to. the veto bill.
The Kaiser is now generally re-
ferred to as "Crazy Bi11" and the
Crown Prince as "Five Bob Bie."
Ger'nean snipers are known as
Boors of trains on beds of soft hay,
friend ,and foe. Tender women, see-
ing that the great thing needed was
scrubbing, scrubbed.
The nurse's duty does not begin
and end with the holding of a man's
hand, the 'cooing of soft words into
his languid.. ear, the holding of +a
cool cup to his parched, grateful
1ipe. I:t includes this—and more.
So women of the British colony in
the French capital, and women, of
France, are scrubbing floors and
men.
Women Ready and Calm.
Bordeaux, truly French, has
glorified woman Inc generatlens in
her big public squares, streets., and
gardens, in bronze and stone. In
this lavish, cxultan+b statuary wo-
man is clothed only in beauty. In
the countless hospitals where she
is tending the wounded and nus+tur-
ing men back to strength and the
battlefield,. she is clothed sweet in
white, with the small •red erose on
breast or arm. There is nothing
voluble, excitable, mercurial about
her. She is ready and cahn
German fire, is known as the
!/drawing room," and the inner
line, where the attaoka are really
met, is called the. "reception
room." The ground at the rear,
where the dead are buried, is ealled
the "dormitory"
In the navy they refer to Admiral
Von Tirpitz .as "old Tirps," and
they have always called Sir John
Jellicoe "Hellfire Jack," Submar-
ines .are called "weave."
'I
[cT� u„a,rr�- We unhesitatingly
recommend Magic Balcing
Powder as being the best, purest
and most healthful baking pow
der that it is possible .to produce.
CONTAINS NO ALUM
ill cpgredients are plainly printed
on the label.
EMILLIETT CO.LTD
TORONTO , ON A,
NVINNIPEG•I4ONTREAL
IISEOIYDEMOM GliS
A REBELLION
Food Demanded.
The human body will stand a lot
of abuse, but sometimes it will sure-
ly rebel sad demand proper food in
place of the pasty, starchy, greasy
stuffs on winch it has been made
sick.
Then is the time to try Grape -
Nuts, the most scientific and per-
fect food in the world.
A woman writes: "Three years
ago I was very ill with catarrh of
the stomach and was given up to
The French women hereabouts clic by one dooto . I laid in bed
are thinking of copying ,the British
example of not wearing the "cus-
tomary 'black" of mourning for
their husbands, blathers, 'cousins,
killed in the war. Some are in fa-
vor of a tiny pendant of white;
small, modest, to be worn at the
throat -simple symbol that their
men have died for freedom and for
Prance,
Wounded Mostly Recover.
What bile nurses and doctors find
is that most of the wounds are in
the some and lags, and of the
twenty-five thotlsand wounded here
scarcely any have died. So the
merciful work of these devoted wo-
men has all the more hope in it—
that of mains fighting' men to fight,
again.
When 'sonic of the men working
the tramcars in • this fine city,
were called tip for the w,ai', women
stepped on the footboard and filled:
their places.
I•let'e they aro, acting as tram
conductors, gii ing the tickets and
taking the money, and expediting
the getting in and out alt the
crowded taros with gentle pressure
of tai, luiud, as calm and serious
about it es though they had been at
it all their lives. 'Thusthe women
FIRST RECORD OF USE WAS
four months and my stomach was
sur weals that I could not kce1a clown
medicine or hardly any kind of
food and was so weak and emaci-
ated ,after four menthe of this star-
vation that my daughter could
easily lift me from bed and put me
in my chair.
"But weak as my stomach was,.
it aocepbed, relished and digested
Grape -Nuts without any difficulty
the first time that wonderful food
was tried,
"1 am now strong and in better
health than for a great many years
and am gradually growing still
stronger. I rely on Grape -Nuts for
much of &;he nourishment that I
get. The results have certainly
been wonelerfttl in my, case and
prove that no stomaoh is so weak it
will not digest Grape -Nuts.
"My baby 'got :fat from feeding
on Grape -Nuts. I was afraid 1
would have to stop giving the food
to him, lint I' guess it is a heathy
fat for hie health is just perfect,"
Name given by Canadian Postum.
Co„ Wieels°r, Ont.
Look in pkge. for the famous
littler book. The Bond to. Well-
mils• 7.hcre s a Renson.
Ever fled -ted ABM tetter• a Cow o'ai
itaevars OW trete to tide, They awn
((muffle, 11110, zed tall' 01 Wynn) interest,
BY THE JAPANESE.
Biggest Gun of the Present Day
Can Throw a Sltell Thirty
Niles.
The evolution of .the big gun goes
back over 600 years. The naval gun
seems to have been the natural suc-
cessor of the incendiary tube fixed
in the bows or galleys of vessels for
discharging "Greek Fire," an in-
cendiary composition containing
back gun powder and other ingre-
dients. When guns were first used
ab sea is not absolutely certain, but
in a celebrated old Japanese paint-
ing of the repulse of the Mongol
fleet off the shores of Japan in A.D.
1`81, the Chinese vessels are shown
wreathed in smoke from their gone.
No records of the use of guns on
board strip in European naval 'bat-
tles give a date for such ase earlier
than 1350.
01 the early guns, the smaller
ones seem to have been :generally
,forged, and the larger one (built up
of iron bars ,put together and hoop-
ed like the staves of a barrel. They
'were nearly all breach -loading. The
earlier projectiles were of stone or
forced iron, :but bags or bundles of
,small balls, stones, or ibits or iron
were often used. The greater
+stren,gbh ol the cast guns led to at-
tempts to increase their power by
larger powder charges. The dif-
ficielty encountered of a •rise in the
gas pressure in the gun marking it
awtmvard to keep the breech tight
ted to the adoption of the muzzle-
loading gun, which remained in
common use until within the last
forty years,
Mounted iil.Poits.
The guns of :the early ships were
carried on the upper deck and fired
over the rail, the avaita+ble space on
deck limiting their number. A'bactt
the year 1500 a shipbuilder of Brest
firet suggested mounting them in
ports cut through the ship's aides.
howitzers. In guns, . the length is
relatively great; in mortars, rela-
tively small; howitzers are a class
!between guns and marten. All
modern cannon are rifle and bre sell -
leading. According to the purpose
for which they are intended to be
used, they .are further classified as
machine, field, siege, and sea -coast
guns.
Machine guns are those in which
the operations of loading, extract-
ing the empty shell, and firing are
wholly or partly performed by ma-
ohinery. and can ,be worked by one
or two wen. They are chiefly useful
ler supplementing e deficiency in
infantry fire, the defence of .passes;
etc. The Galling and Gardner guns
are good examples of those operat-
ed by hand power, and the Colt,
Hotchkiss, and Pom-Pom of those
operated by the force of the power
gasses.
The biggest, most powerful gun
being used in the present wax can
hurl a shell 'weighing one ton a dis-
tance of nutria; thirty miles. It is
fired each time with a 1,600 -pound
shot of powder,' at a 'cost of $9,500
per shot. And after 120 shots, the
gun, which costs $465,000, is use-
less.
FUTURE OF CANADA BRIGHT
d•
ARMIES ADVANCE SLOWLY,
Necessary to Keep Lines Intact in
Moving Against Enemy.
The apparent inaction at some
points on the greet army lines in
the European oonflicth, as repented
in the daily despatches, is apt to be
confusing to the peaceful citizen,
but to the student of the art of war-
fare the reason for this is frequent-
ly clear, as it is explained by a
military expert in the Scientific
American.
It may happen that when fighting
extends along a front of many
miles, some troops way be more
successful than others, and thus
gain .ground much in advance of
the general line. This, if permitted
to proceed any grearb distance,
would Have the tendency to leave
gaps in the line, or weak spots on
the flanks of the successful troops
which would prove most dangerous
to the general line, as well &Cite the
advanced troops themselves, if con-
fronted by a'tenacious and aggres-
sive opponent. Furthermore, the
Muth larger ships were then built, success of the campaign does not
but during the Nth and 17th csn- depend on isolated advantages of
Curies 'Ships increased but little in individual units, but on the success -
size or battery power.
At the end o& 'the 17th century
the 42 -pounder was discarded. As
the advantage of larger ,calibres be-
came more appreciated, about a men+t, all under the general super -
hundred years later the 42 -pounder vision of the commander-in-chief.
was revived as a short gun of 57 Therefore,it may be necessary to
cwt, It was inaccurate and had a Bold hack the more advanced pot -
very short hangs, but ab close quer- ,tion of the line until the other
fol ,advance of the entire line, the
several units (divisions, army
corps, or field armies) supporting
each other in the forward move -
Silt 11I;N1t17 PE MATT, I'1NAN•
('11;11, 18 OPTIMISTIC.
Capital Not Being Destroyed by
War, But World's Supply of
%'oTic ilig ('apical Greater.
"Within five years the ,,umber of
Canadian industries will' be doubled
and the immediate effect of a de-
claration of peace will be to stimu-
late 'Canadian growth in every
line." So declare d 4Sir Ilenry M.
Pellatt, 'whose epi tion as a financial
man of foresight bears ,smch
weight.
"However deeply Canada niay
deplore the distuilbanee of Euro-
pean peace," said ;Sir Henry, "no-
thing under the sun can withhold
from her the remarkable economic.
,benefits which are certain to accrue
out of this international tragedy.
lVho 'should be surprised, or very
much alarmed, that in a day -when
nine nations arc at War, Canada
should +feel 'depressed' ? The truly
striking feature of the war is that
we are so moderately affected and
that our industrial and other rna-
chinery is moving with such credit-
able regularity,
"One thing is certain: Canada
will not assume her regular pace
until 'the war is concluded, and the
war cannot be canoluded until the
Prussian swagger is 'booted from
the map of Europe.
"The day that peace is declared
will see the inauguration of a pe-
riod of feverish reconstruction all
over Europe, The damage caused
by marching and fighting millions
bee ,been incalculable, and, as in
the ,past, the courage and optimism
of the nations affected will be equal
to the task of material restoration
'Can one +suppose that all this re-
construction will not make enorm-
ous demands upon Canada or will
not contribute Inc her prosperity?
Ib is unthinkable.
ters it was much more destructive
than a long gun of similar weight.
'Until the end of the 18th century
sighting of naval guns was effected
bv looking along the line of
metal" el the ,piece, the requisite
elevation being obtained by aiming
.at a point on the enemy's ship a suf-
ficient distance above the point to
be. hit. Soon alter 1801 fixed sights
were ,adopted in the.Britisb navy,
but the movable rear sight slid not
appear until much later.
Explosive Shells Next.
The next important improvement.
w.aa connected with the ammuni-
tion, explosive shells being intro-
duced in place of solid shot. The
innovation 'was (brought ,about by a
general of the French army, and
explosive shells 'became the corn-
monesb form of ammunition in all
navies. This inventor foresaw that
if shell guns were generally adopt-
ed they would compel the use of ar-
mor in ships. Armpr, in turn,
caused the development of the rifle
gun, •
Previous to lee1 all •breech-load-
ing.,gratis were loaded quite slowly,
owing to inefficient operation of the
mechanism which opened the
breech. In that year the British Ad-
miralty invited design's for a gun
'which eves to be capable of :being
fired twelve time per minute, This.
gun only fired a six -.pound shell,
but 11 gave fitimnlns to the attempts
to improve the r'a'pidity of fire of
.guns of all calibres. Introduction
of the 'type of 'battleship known as
the "all -lbig-gunship" has caused a
unification in the calibres of guns,
but does not rccluce the.num'her of
different calihres used thr"ong'heet,
a navy.
Military'Cannon.
Military eannon are divided into
three elastics, viz,, mortars aged
units aro able to come up to it. To
enable them to hold what they have
avo.n the advanced troops will en-
trench.
The line or line of trenches are
not neee.ssaanly oontinuous. They
usually form irregular groups of
entrenchments distributed along
the front of the position, the fining
trenohcs, facing the, enemy's lines or
the avenues of approach.
It would be well to note at &hie
point that this advanced part ol
the line, while still a factor in the
general offensive inovemenk, has
now assumed a defensive attitude
"seeking a favorable, decision,"
which means that it ie simply wait-
ing to resume the offensive, and
that is .the only form of defence. that
can e•cure positive results. -
The Turtle.' Co.
Toronto
A
Tonic
Restorative
TU NEWS
�jT'Y.AF�ATMpOUS�(
Il1`iU
ORT.
Buy it for Purity's sake"
—It builds up nerves and
tissues, Makes yon strong,'
New Railroad Building.
"Soon after the coming of peace,
we shall see the •railways of this
country commence rebuilding their
present system and, instead of our
regarding Canada as overburdened
with transportation fines new rail-
way 'building will ibe the order of
the day. No doubt we shall find
Mackenzie and Mann utilizing the
balance of their forty-five million
bond issue to, extend rail facilities
to new areas of the Dominion."
!Sir Henry took issue with the
school of financial philosophers
which predicts a period of high -in-
terest rates following upon the war.
The foundation of this view is, in
part, that Government ;borrowings
will 'be so enormous in order' to pay
for the hostilities that the remain-
ing oapitai in the world will demand
a larger return.
"Interest sates will not be ad-
vanced," argued Sir Henry. "In-
stead of this predicted destruction
os? capital due to war, the world's
supply of working 'capital will ac'tu-
ally'be increased, Those vast heard-
ings of gold in every 'capital of Eu-
rope are now finding their way
back into productive channels,
When hostilities cease the war
cheats will probably be empty, their
contents disseminated to the ends
of the earth. All that money will
seek a profitable employment, and
what more logical than that many
millions of it should settle upon
Canadian enterprises and take up
the securities of our municipalities
and Governments? Nor do I be-
lieve that higher interest rates
either prior or subsequent to the
signing of a. peace treaty would
work the tender anything but harm ;
the ;burden he sou;+;ht to place on
others would revert to himself,
Investigated It Himself.
"Industrially, the Dominion is
certain to double the number of he
producing plants within five years.
1 do not seek to mask .the fact that
our wheels have slowed down dur-
ing the war, and that the situation
Inc some has !been dangerous, But,
looking to the, future, we meet !build
up enough industries to meet 'the
needs of en over—increasing ageieul-
tural pepailation. W. We have not
mute than we need new, The close
of the war will again let loose the
stream of emigration, and we shin
see three or four hundred thousand
people it year from {treat .Britain
and Eneope'take their places as
Canadian farmers. Their requires
rents in manuIactua'ed products
must be met, bona, the expansion'
of our industries•"
.Canadian iron and steel indus-
tries,
nduitries, Sir Henry thought, would
have to await the close of the. war
and the era el railway e.ctivity
which he had eenlldently predicted,
Ile confessed his lack of faith in the
recuperative power of an isolated
victory or two 'by the allied armiee..
The Dominion's ailment was far
more than le mere sentimental de-
pression and reguured the wane
remedy as did the commercial con-
ditions of neltrly every other na-
tion on earth—an anrsonucemtnt of
the Prussian downfall Ciel i-hc im•
posing of drastic gnaranitees d