INTERESTING WAR NOTES

Lake County Press, Issue 2637, 22 June 1916, Page 7

INTERESTING WAR NOTES

WHERE SGOUTCRAFT WINS. The trenches we are in (writes a soldier from Flanders) run through a large wood, so wo have got to he very careful and alert", and there is plenty of work for our scouts to do. Many men who are town bred and unaccustomed to country life, get plenty of excitement in observation, hut quickly become clever observers and good scouts. It tests a man's physical powers, patience, and enduring energy. The ]{\m is not a good wood lighter; ho is only a well-drilled machine, and that is why the British soldier beats him hollow as regards wood fighting. Of course, experience counts everywhere. Imagine yourself on sentry in the trenches in the daytime. Being a- trained observer, you get into your brain every detail of the ground in front and around, so that when night conies you are able to tell in what direction any prominent object is, even supposing you can't see it. But if it was a moonlight night and you happened to see what wasn't there in the daytime, you would at once report what you saw. An officer then hurries up with his night glasses, and, after careful examination, exclaims:—"Sentry, that's

splendid; you have been properly on the alert. By jove, they are. machine Runs that you liavo seen." Very soon the artillery officer has a look also. Ho then gives his" battery the ranee or distance, and lo! and behold in about, five minutes there are no machine gnus left. The next day you arc promoted to sergeant because you have proved yourself a very skilled observer, and perhaps saved scores of your comrades' lives. That is a little illustration of having the advantage of being a skilled scout in war time. WORK OF SUBMARINES. Evading A Torpedo. "Surprisingly big guns can be carried now by submarines," stated Mr. A. H. Pollen, a naval critic, in a lecture in London recently. "The largest guns before the war used on a submarine were 12-pounders. The new submarines are armed with much more powerful weapons. They have higher periscopes to allow them to sink to a greater depth under water. They can submerge nearly 100 ft. and remain submerged for 24 hours, when the air supply requires renewing, unless artificial means of cleaning it are on board. The newest submarines can stay at sea six or seven weeks and travel 4,000 to 5,000 miles, including 100 miles under water. "The speed of the torpedo has been increased by the use of not air in the engine instead of cold air. As compared with seven or eight years ago, the torpedo can travel 50 per cent. Caster and twice the distance; it can ■ do 12,000 yds. at 35 knots. "In clear weather the torpedo can l)e seen travelling under the water. In the battle of the Heligoland Bight, Captain W. R. Hall, while on the conning bridge of the battle cruiser Queen Mary, saw a torpedo a couple of hundred yards off coming at the ship full tilt at the speed of 40 knots. His own ship was going 30 knots. He turned sharply full-helm, and instead of the tropedo striking amidships the Queen Mary and the torpedo went along side "by side. It was a very pretty piece" of seamanship and a wonderful piece of vigilance. ' SUBMARINE CHASERS. British Navy's Scheme. Among the many defensive methods which have been adopted by the British Admiralty against the German submarine attacks on merchant shipping was the creation of a large fleet of small motor-boats, each armed with a rapid-fire gun. These crafts were distributed methodically over the areas which were known to be infested with submarines, or along the routes by which they approached and left their hunting grounds, and the moment they sighted a periscope or the hull of the' submarine as she approached the surface, they made a swift dash for her and opened fire with the hope of penetrating or breaking off the periscope, or better yet, holing the hull of the vessel itself. This mosquito fleet was built very vapidly—orders being widely distributed'. Forty were built at Lawley's yard, Boston, which have been shipped to England for use in guarding the coasts of Great Britain. There were six in the first shipment. All of these craft are named after various fish of the sea. They are 100 horse-power, gasoline launches of uniform design, capable of making 25 knots. The contracts were awarded last spring, and it is stated that they cost £BOO each. Thev have a strongly-built deck forward, for the purpose of mounting a rnoid-fire gun, probably of three inches, and below is a commodious trunk cabin containing accommodation for two or three men. They are of the V-bottom type, and the motors are equipped with a special carbureting device, by means of which either gasoline or a" heavy oil may be used. INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE ON J DISEASE IN WAR. ! In all wars of any magnitude, other than the one now in progress, the loss ] of life from disease has been consideri ably greater than that resulting from wounds. In the present war the bacterial foes are being so efficiently • dealt with that the state of affairs is i likely to be reversed, thanks to the j trreat efforts that are being made to I lessen both medical and surgical m- ! fection. i There are many causes operating to produce this result. Of course, gene- . nil hvgiene has been very carefully i attended to, so that the sanitary con--1 ditions in camps and other places i where men are gathered together for training are very much better than i have ever been obtained before. At the same time, the method of vaccination, particularlv against typhoid and ' tetanus, has been exceedingly efficient. '• In the case of typhoid, which has been the most prevalent of all epidemic disi eases in previous campaigns, the resuit has been nothing less than extra- ! ordinary, and the method of antii typhoid inoculation has proved a mar- -! villous success. > I One important factor- the water ( '' supplv--has been dealt with very l i thoroughly, and it is not too much to r say that at the present time arrangements are in force which, if only car-

ried out thoroughly, as they should be, leave little room for any danger occurring either to the men under training, or to those actually on service* at the front. As to the danger of wound infection, that is a very real "'one. Those lighting hi France are under the influence of a soil that is highly manured, and which is as a result highly productive. Its very productivity shows that it is a good bacterial culture medium, and the result is that a wound, when it occurs, is at once exposed to a chance of bacterial infection against which it is extremely difficult to provide, although the men are supplied with first-aid appliances of the best description. As a result, it is a point for discussion whether an aseptic or antiseptic method of dealing with wounds is, under such conditions, the more efficient. There is much reason to expect that the methods of Lister and antiseptic methods in general will have to bo re-introduced, and may prove the soundest and most practical when dealing with infected wounds. "MEANING OF A MILE." The British Advance, Only those who know the country whore the British advance has been pushed can fully appreciate' • the "meaning of a mile" (says a correspondent), and the meaning is at least as intense at Souchez where one platoon of French fought for thirtyone hours to gain twenty-five yards. Round and about Lens the Germans long ago fortified the low solid lines of miners' dwellings which are a feature of the district with machine-guns and sandbags. The French at one place in recent fighting actually introduced a field gun into one of the end houses of a line and blew their way along. Coal mines are everywhere, and the little railways, which take every direction, make admirable defensive lines. Away on the left is seen the Aubers Ridge,* which is the best tactical position that the Germans possess north of Albert. Since October last we have been fighting in the most literal sense of the phrase, an uphill battle, with a definite handicap measureable in inches above sea level, in observation and sniping as against the Germans, and we have had, on the whole, the wetter trenches. If we once can push up to Lens—at which we now look down at two miles' distance from Hill 70— there is no defensive position of like value left to the Germans within forty miles. The spongy and quite stoneless soil is the greatest contrast imaginable to the sand and silt of the open and spacious Champagne country where the French are advancing. . But a mile means a good deal even in those ample regions." The Germans have enjoved for nearly twelve months the <rreat advantage of the unfinrsheti, dismantled forts : on the hill outside Reims. I saw a Jack Johnson- shell fired from there fall into the vineyards south-west of the city in the first week of October, 1914. If that position, impregnable in itself, is rendered untenable the Germans will lose a pivot ohlv less valuable than the tunnelled hill" near Novon, where the line turns abruptly to "the west. The country north of that, opposite our newly extended line, becomes nrore normal up to the singularly level plain of Arras, on which the Germans have directed a continuous vigour of attack only exceeded at Ypres. WAR AND HORSES. The Pacific Rural Press says: During the four months. September to December, 1914, inclusive,- about 7;* i 000 horses were exported from the United States. In addition to these, several thousands more have been purchased bv the agents of the warring nations. ' It has been feared by some that there would be such large numbers exported as to cause an acute shortage of horses in America. There is, however, no apparent immediate danger of this. The 1910 census gave 3,182,(89 as the number of horses not on farms. There has probably not been any appreciable decrease in that number since then. That number added to the 21 195 000, the number estimated by the Department of Agriculture, on farms, January 1, 1915, makes a total of over 24,000,000 horses in America, and we could sell two or three times the number already exported without there beinc; an appreciable shortage or work horses. Three times the number exported during the last four months of the past year, or 225,000 would be less than V per cent, of our - horse stock. Furthermore, the kind of horses which have been purchased are for the most part very mediocre animals, which would ordinarily sell for less than 100 dollars per head, and are a class of which we can well afford to be rid But a small percentage ot the animals exported are mares and most of these are doubtlessly either old mares or non-breeders The big demand for horses will probably occur after peace has been declared. At that time the countries now at war, with the exception of Russia, will, no doubt, be very short of horses for their agricultural and other work. According to the best information obtainable European Russia had. prior to the outbreak of the war, about 25,000,000 horses, and is the only country. having more horses than the United States. America and Russia, together have 50 ner cent, of all the horses, in the world The world's stock is estimated to be about 100,000,000 fA large number of the horses in Russia will be destroved in the and the remainder will no douhi.be needed bv Russia for her own agricultural and other work. . . , , The demand on America, which has one-fourth of the world's supply of horses, will, therefore, be large and will probablv continue for a number ot vears for the rehabilitation of the .depleted horse-stock of any •country is a slow process. America, however, will be in a position to meet this demand if the farmers owning good mares will see that they are bred to high-class stallions and produce the kind or stock for which there is always a good market. The production of superior animals of any kind is generally profitable, while the production of inferior ones is seldom so.