THE NEXT WAR.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4783, 1 December 1924, Page 2

THE NEXT WAR.

FRIGHTFUL WEAPONS IN STORE. THE BOMBING OF CITIES. Major-General Williams, Chief of the U.S. Army Ordnance Department, addressing the Franklin Institute at the centenary celebrations, described some new and improved war weapons, namely : High-speed tanks with guns turreted, a new and extremely accurate trench mortar, a 75mm. field gun with a range of 15,000 yards, a 50-calibre machine gun, a semi-auto-matic rifle, anti-aircraft guns capable of destroying any number of ’planes with a horizontal range of 17,000 yards, an increase of one-quarter n the range of all types of gun, and increased weight of projectiles. He, however, emphatically denied that aircraft were eliminating warships. General Williams declared that the next war would witness the introduction ot an anti-aircraft gun firing a 15-pound shell with deadly accuracy, and constituting an almost perfect defence against- the bombing of cities from the air. He also spoke of smokeless, flashless powder, which it was expected would afford scarcely any clue to the enemy as to the location of anti-aircraft batteries.