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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