“LITTLE BERTHA.”

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 44, 17 September 1918, Page 3

“LITTLE BERTHA.”

HOW IT WAS CAPTURED.

London, August 20,

The German 11-inch railway gun, which' was captured on August 8, is now being exhibited in Paris. The story of the gun is related by Australian officers who saw the incident; On the morning of the first advance

Queensland infantry, advancing near iHarbonnieres, saw before them a train shunting, apparently trying to get • off the on-line on to the. other in order to escape, In the centre of the train was a great sheeted object, difficult to recognise. A British aeroplane, which was 'passing; saw

the train, and dropped a bomb near the engine, which apparently damaged it, for a groat cloud of steam went up. The crew, who were afterwards captured round the train, were terribly scalded. The ’plane then dropped a bomb on the tail of tbe train, which blew up. The train remained out and beyond our’final objective. Cavalry and infantry both •visited, it-. Then the' : prrthlcnt arose as to how it could*he removed from its position in No Man’s Land, where it then was. An engineer, working with the Queensland infantry, went out. ■ The engineer, who was Able to handle a railway v engine, got up steam, Unhooked the tail df the train and shunted the gun through No Man’s Land, on to the-rail leading to -our lines. By the afternoon .“Little Bertha” was brought,, in over our lines, which had been repaired by engineers- to a point a milo behind pur lines, where it temporarily, ran ! off the rails till the engineers again repaired them.