War Notes from all Quarters

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 1073, 28 March 1917, Page 7

War Notes from all Quarters

THE EYE OF THE CUN., This is called the telemeter and is used by all artillerists in some shape ■°r other.. The telemeter is really a tube with two_telescopic lenses, one on each end. The "objectives'' of the two lenses are placed inside the instrument and towards the end of the tube. Prisms with five faces act as reflectors, Jso that the person looking in has t mechanically spread his eyes to the two j ends of the tube, with a tremendous range of vision. 1 ii- « ours o> the ends are so arranged that they may be directed at a single I object at the same time, thus making ; it possible for the observer to see what I would otherwise be beyond the power of the human eye, and to know, by the : angle at which it is viewed, the distance away. It requires a little practice to use this wonderful instrument, but in a few days the operator ascertains how easily he can determine the precise distance he is from the object he is looking at, and by a quick calculation he directs the pointing of the gun so that it cannot rail to strike at the desired spot.

RUSSIA'S ROADS. . Russia is almost a roadless land. It ls , inconceivable to the foreign visitor I who has ever left the beaten track of j the railways in Russia how a great em- | pire can have subsisted so long and so j successfully without even a pretence at roads. The secret lies in the fact that tor nve or six months in the year Nature herself provides roads over the greater part of Russia—admirable, smooth, mu y roadways over hard-worn snow. Ihe traffic is further cheapened over these roads by the substitution of a sledge-runner for the wheel and axle. This brings the cost of land carriage as near the cheapness of water-borne freight as possible, and it is the principal reason why Russia in the twentieth century is still a roadless land.

RUSSIA'S VICTORIOUS LEADER

Who is Pressing on To Berlin. General Brussiloff, commander of the southern Russian Army, which has dealt such a staggering blow at the Austro-Germans, like General French, first established his military reputation as a cavalry, leader. Then came the great war. Brussiloff quickly became famous for his skill in manoeurvring large bodies of troops and artillery, skill which enabled him to deal the lightning strokes which have had such a paralyzing effect on the enemy in Galicia. At the beginning of the war Brussiloff was in command of the 14th Army Corps on the Galician frontier, but soon rose to the position of almost joint commander-in-chief with that brilliant soldier General Ivanoff. When, in April last, Ivanoff relinquished the* command of the southern army, General Brussiloff succeeded him. The victorious commander is among the oldest generals serving in the war, being sixty-four years of age. His vitality, however, is He is reported to be a picture of health at present, in spite of sixteen hours' work per day. In all weathers he will inspect his troops and visit the vital points. If his motor-car" is unable to proceed in consequence of the bad state of the roads, he will continue his journey, for many miles if necessary, on horseback; "We have undertaken a big operation. With God's help we will conduct it to a successful conclusion," was all he said when congratulated on his wonderful victories. . Brussiloff. however, is a man of very few wordß, and known for his laconic orders. "Hold positions at any price," he said, in those black days when the Russian troops, owing to lack of munitions, had to fall back. And the positions were held. Brussiloff has the greatest admiration for the French and British armies. The French army he knows very well, having visited France in peace times on many occasions. Many a tribute has he paid to Joffre and his army, and his confidence is such that even during the Russians' retreat from Galicia in the early days of the war he never had any doubts as to the final and crushing victory of the Allies.

ABOUT THE NAVY.

The Sure Shield of the British Empire.

What is the Navy doing? is the question one constantly hears. Here is a fact, apart from Admiral Beatty's great; achievement off Jutland, which will help you to realise how it. is guarding our coasts and keeping clear the seas. * - During twenty months - of war, 21,000 merchant vessels have passed a certain patrolled East Coast area, and of all that number only three have come to grief. Thousands of mines have been swept up. Half the vessels engaged on this work are craft that in peace times go a-fishihg or do a coastal_ trade. There are very few bluejackets amongst their crews t the greater number of the ships being manned solely by the brave fellows of the merchant service, the fisheries, and the coast trade. The huge 15in. and 13.5 guns with which our latest type of battleships are equipped are handled by our naval men almost as quickly and easily as would be a revolver, although the 13.5 fires a monster shell of 1,250 pounds in weight, while the 15in. fires a shell of nearly a ton weight, with a smashing power of 'nearly three times as great as that of the 13.5. In spite of this enormous weight of the projectiles, the guns can be loaded in less than twenty-four seconds from the , time of the order. The modern big gun is made with a core of steel, around which is wound steel wire. In the biggest guns in use now there are between 140 and 170 miles of this wire. In the great naval munition works and ship-building yards thousands of women are now employed, usually apparelled in trousers. They are-found to excel in the control of machinery In one huge munition factory 25,000 persons are employed, of which number 13,000 are women. The scope of their work will he realised • when it is mentioned that there are seventyseven, kinds of "shell. _ .«■ Women'- also excel in that \delicate and difficult work, the blading of turbines," and it is satisfactory to; know that in turbine machinery Great Bri-

tain is 'two. years ahead of the * Germans. In the shipbuilding yards,' when the present orders are completed, well over 1,000,000 tons of shipping will have been •■ turned out during the war. A ship which used to take eighteen months is now executed in twelve, although extravagant acceleration rates have been abolished. . • . „ ?. n , on » yard; which has never yet •■tailed to keep the appointed day for delivery, the rate of work in v the last twelve months has been one destroyer every seven weeks. Three aeroplanes a weefe are also part of its product; and this m spite of the fact that skilled men :have been taken from the shipyards for, the Army, and there is a cry, for more men. They are building ships so fast in one yard that only one side of certain vessels can be finished till the ship next to it has been launched on account of lack of space. Not a yard of ground, not a minute of time, is. wasted. " The heads of these wonderful yards are enthusiastic over their work' and ■ its efficiency. One of these, men spent £25,000 on an experimental tank for models of ships, while another spent £32,000 on a similar experiment. The tools and machinery for these colossal ship-building operations are huge. At one of the yards on the Tyne there is a crane that could lift an express locomotive off the Tyne highlevel bridge, while some of the tools for the boring and lining of large projectiles Weigh twenty-four tons. . The sides of the turrets which protect the guns and men in the newer ships are of 13£ in. hardened steel armour, capable of keeping out the shells of any but .the 15in. gun at ordinary battle range, which in our day may be placed at 8,000 to 10,000 yards (five to six miles). A ships's guns are' manoeuvred by hydraulic power, with an! alternative hand-power instalment in case tfte hydraulic gear breaks down. In a few ships electrical gear is also installed.

LIVING AEROPLANES. It would be a mistake to suppose that the bird's wings enable it to fly. If wings spelt flying, any of us could' attach a pair and soar into the air. The hollow-bones make light bodies, but they are attached to a rigid backbone, which forms the main feature of the bird's body. This gives the central firmness, and the muscles do the rest. The wings balance their Owners, and the tail acts as a rudder for .steering. x Often enough the bird seems to use its tail as a sort of brake. It is interesting to compare the bird with the product of man's skill—the aeroplane. To begin with, there is no aeroplane made .which copies the up-and-down motion of the bird's wings, * all our machines having fixed wings, or * planes. But, naturally, man first tried to copy the living fliers around him* He made wings of feathers, .etc., connected them with his shoulders and legs, and found that his muscles could not raise him an incht' The muscles, or motors, "which now drive him through the air are as strong as 200 horses, so " no wonder he failed at first. Even the bird, with a body so perfectly formed for flight, has flying muscles equal in weight to all its other muscles put to* getner. '. _ ' : '

FANCY BATTALIONS. What are known in the Army as •; "fancy battalions," such as, for instance, the Navvies', Sprotsmen's, Public Bantams', Footballers', and Bankers' are not quite -the": novelties that some people imagine t them to be So long ago as 1703 a Miners' Battalion was enlisted for service under Marlborough, and did good' work during the siege of Tournay, where immense subterranean works >vere constructed by both sides. "■ The 14th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, popularly called "The Devil's Own," used to be composed entirely of members of the legal pro* fession. "What!" exclaimed King George 111. one day when reviewing them: "all lawyers, are they? Then call them 'The Devil's Own.' " And the Devil's Own they have been from that day to_this. "John Company's Quilldrivers" was the unofficial title of/ a battalion of clerks who, in the early days, banded themselves together for the defence of Calcutta. The old 10th . Foot, now the Lincolnshire Regiment, traces its origin to a Sailors' Battalion raised for the defence of' Plymouth, its n embers being recruited entirely from amongst the local sailors and \ fishermen. In memory of its inception the regiment was for a long time permitted to wear blue tunics, at a period when all the other battalions of the "line wore scarlet ones.

LIFE IN MESOPOTAMIA. Sir William Willcocks has some interesting stories to tell of the two and a half-years he spent in Mesopotamia.When he started for Bagdad the Khedive advised him "never to fall out. with the Germans on any point, as they will wreck your work," and' never mention India, as the Turks dread-the entrance of Indians into the Euphrates Delta. Life in a Turkish prison is no light matter, for the authorities provide no food, and if a prisoner's rela- : tives do not look after him he dies of > hunger, and the Government grudgingly pays for his burial. Sir . Wil-'.. liam's Arab postman was robbed of £25 and was Kept starving in prison, his release only being obtained by paying the money, which was all the ' authorities wanted. When Sir William went for a trip down the Euphrates he found there; were five bridges with boats, all but two of them simply obstructions across the river to enact toll for opening them, though there was. nothing toopen. Oh the Tigris there were two ' more of these sham bridges. Nazim; Pasha, the strongest Wali Bagdad had seen for very many years, is best remembered by his endeavour to make a wide street through the middle of the: city. He applied an old Turkish law, which allows the authorities to add a third to the width, of a. road on either side without compensation.