KRAUSS AND REDDEMAN

Otago Witness, Issue 3380, 25 December 1918, Page 58

KRAUSS AND REDDEMAN

MOST HATED MEN IN GERMANY, Henry Weilback, a Dutch chemist, resident here, who during the first years of the wax worked in Leipzig laboratories, says the two most hated men in Germany to-<iay are Professor Krauss, the inventor of poison gas, 'and Major lieddeman, who invented flamenwerfer and the method of hurling boiling oil (writes the New York correspondent of the Daily Telegraph). When the gas and liquid flame were first hurled against their enemies the Germans proclaimed the two inventors heroes. They were feted, decorated, and recognised as master geniuses. Later, when the two frightful weapons were turned against the: German soldiers, with more deadly consequences than they have ever achieved, and when trainloads of Germans gassed by then: own deadly vapours began to arrive from the front, Krauss became the object of rage and hatred. In the' same manner, the German people were surprised and delighted when Reddenxan developed the flamethrower, but when the Allies made a betr ter flamethrower they cried "Atrocity,* and began throwing things at their former idol The Germans are terribly sorry now, according to Weilback, that they ever developed gas and flam© as weapons of attack but onlv because the weapons reacted powerfully against them. This is particularly true in Flanders, where the winds from the Channel have mostly favoured the Allies. Both Krauss and Reddeman underwent severe strafing by German public sentiment, although they retained their decorations. Reddeman, who used to be known as "Lord of the Flamenwerfer has now been rechristened the "Prince of Hell.''