SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 1922 THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE 8
Locating the German Long-Range Gun
(By G. P. 0.) lized. But with a gun of sufficient different guns in their bombardment! cuipped with two fuses. To this is
The news that Paris was being bom- length and a suitable powder they con- of Paris. All were constructed from at lust.d the fact that not one of the
sidered such an accomplishment pos- torn out 15-inch naval guns. Each 13 p ctiles fired on Paris failed to
barded by a long-range gun within the sible. By the end of the first day of- gun was bored out and lined wiit'i a -xlid'. The amount of explosive ma-
German lines served in March, 1918 to ficers of both the French and Ameri- very heavy tube having an inside di- :ter:a.?=nainsed in the shell was comn-
startle even a world grown accustom- can armies were certain that the pro- amtaier of 21 centimeters, This tube partitvely small; consequently, the
ed to receiving each new excitement jectiles were being fired from a newly projected some distance beyond the dimage was usually not great. When
show l oftemotion.of hemthing. designed long-range gun located within end of the original gun, and over this the projectiles struck buildings, they
with little the German lines and operating at a projecting portion anotler hoop was frequentlty exploded in the interior
came so suddenly and seemed so far probable range of 100 kilometres, or shrunk and locked. The main section without showing any serious signs of
beyond the realm of probability. 68.8 miles. The actual distance was of the gun was 98a feet in length and damage on the outside.
But the shells continued to drop on approximately 70 miles. rifled the entire length. Ass additional The gun was operated at an eleva-
Paris just the same. While many Numerous theories were instantly unrifled section 23/ feet long was as- lion of 55 degrees. Formerly, it was
weird theories as to the gun were ad- advanced in the newspapers. One was sembled in the field. Tue weight of supposed that the maximum elevation
vanced through the newspapers, al-f to the effect that the projectiles which the gun was approximately 318,000 vas not more than 45 degrees. Each
lied artillery experts turned their at- arrived in Paris were being fired from pounds. shell left the gun at a velocity of from
tention to the solution of the prob- another much larger projectile, which The recoil mechanism consisted" of 4760 to 5090 feet per second-approxi-
lem. Owing to the secrecy surround- served as a gun. It was asserted that; two hydraulic recoil cylinders and one mately a mile a second. It attained
ing military affairs, little authentic in- the larger projectile was fired from a spring-pneumatic recuperator cylin- an altitude of 24 miles and traveled
formation became public at the time, gun within the German lines, and up- der, the approximate length of recoil a horizontal distance of about 75 miles.
and to this day very few facts con- on attaining a certain height a charge being 50/ inches. The elevating e- Each gun had to be rebored after 50
cerning the long-range gun have been of powder within the larger shell was chanism was unusually heavy and runtids had been discharged, the ac-
circulated beyond military and scien- automatically ignited, firing the small- somewhat complicated. The railway .uracy of fire decreasing rapidly with
tific circles. er one to a much greater distance. i carriage consisted of two heavy side succeeding discharges.
One of the men most active in the "Within a very few days from the girders connected by strong structural Col. Stiller seriously questions the
search for the big gun was Lt. Col. beginning of the bombardment it was steel transoms, or cross-beams. value of guns of such range. "The
Henry W. Miller, then in charge of the possible, through careful examination The emplacement consisted of two Germans must certainly have known
engineering work on the heavy artil-f of the direction of the passage of the 1main sections, one a base in diameter that their gun was not a profitable in-
lery of the American Expenditionary projectile through various buildings, and supported on 112 8-inch steel balls vistment for the destruction of prop-
Forces and at present a member of the to determine quite accurately the di- The weight of each projectile yas city,' is says. "They must have con-
faculty of the engineering college. For rection of their arrival and the prob- 264 pounds, while the powder neces- ttined the bombardment purely for
his services to the French army Col. able place from which they were com- sary for firing it was at least 50 per its destructive effect on the morale of
Miller was decorated with the ribbon ing," says Col. Miller. "This place cent heavier. The shells were approx- the Parisians and its beneficial effect
of the Legion of Honor by Marshal was in the Forest of Gobain, south- imately 19 inches long and each was (Continued on Page 8)
Petain, west of Laon. Very soon thereafter
Soon after the Germans had sprung the French Air service was able to ho-
their big surprise Col. Miller was as- cate in this same forest three post-
signed to help determine the location tions from any one of which, or possi-
of the gun emplacement. Later when bly from all of which, the guns were
the allied lines had advanced beyond being operated."
this point, he studied such materials A French heavy gun on rsilway d
as the enemy had been forced to leave mount was brought up and opened fire
behind, and following the armistice on the position nearest the lines. Air
he gathered further data in Belgium photographs taken at the end of a half- For the
and Germany day's bombardment showed that the
The first shell from the new gun position had been destroyed. The other
dropped on Paris at 7:15 o'clock on two positions were beyond the range
the morning of March 2, 1918. The ex- of allied artillery, and airmen under-
plosion was heard throughout the city. took the demolition of these. They did: 3/0u1want
Another explosion followed at the end some damage, but apparently scored
of 15 minutes. A third came just 15 no direct hits, as the-gun contnued to
minutes later. Parisians thought they fire without any long intervals be-
ware hem,, bombarded by a new type tween shots.
of aircraft that was being operated at "Much has been said with reference pe t
such a height as to be practically in- to the effect of this bombardment on
visible. Air patrols were unable to the people of the city of Paris," Col., I.
find any enemy lurking in the clouds. Miller remarked. -My first direct ac-
Information of the extraor'dinary quaintance with the bombardment was
bombardment was telephoned throug- during the third and fifth days. With
out France within a few hours and was considerable surprise I observed that
received everywhere with amazement, the people were taking it quite plil-
Col. Miller says. Early in the day a osophically; in fact, it could not be V cstsocket
sufficient number of the fragmsents of seen that they were paying munch at-
the exploding agent were collected tention to it at all. At intervals of
by officials in Paris to identify it as about 15 minutes muffled explosions A utograp iC K o a
a projectile being fired from a gun would be heard in different parts of
rather than a bomb being dropped by the city, seldom two consecutive ex-
an aeroplane. s plosions in the same vicinity. Many
Representatives of the artillery sac- people would stop for an instant and
tion of the American ordance depart-I attempt to decide from what direction
ment, located at Tours, made prelim- the sound had come, after which they IT looks Special with its rich finish of fiest
inary calculations on the basis of in- would go on their way apparently un-
formation telephoned from Paris. They concerned. It was, of course, still pin grain morocco leather, but more important
estimated the probable muzzle velocity sufficiently novel to be of consider-
of the projectile, if actually fired from able interest, and people were talking of course is the way the resulting pictures are
within the German lines as 4500 feet about it everywhere."goingto look-and the high grade anastigmat
per second. No such muzzle- velocity Information gathered by Col. Miller
had, to their knowledge, ever been rea- shows that the Germans used seven lens equipment sees to that.
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