“LITTLE BERTHA."

Taihape Daily Times, 11 September 1918, Page 5

“LITTLE BERTHA."

The German flinch railway gun, which was captured on August S, is now being exhibited in Paris. The story of the gun is related hy Australian officers who saw the incident; On the morning of the first advance Queensland infantry, advancing near Harbonnieres, 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 great 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 £ail of the train, which blew up. The train remained out and beyond our final objective. Cavalry and infantry both visited itf Then the problem arose as to how it could be 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 engine, got up steam, unhooked the tail of the train, and shunted the gun through No Man’s Land on to the rail leading to our lines. By the afternoon “Little Be'r.tl|a” was brought in over our lines,, which had been repaired by engineers to a point a mile behind our lines, where it temporarily ran. off the rails till the engineers again repaired them.