NEW ENGINE OF WAR

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 173, 20 January 1912, Page 8

NEW ENGINE OF WAR

■Some interesting experiments have recently been carried out by the German military authorities at Doberitz with a new type of siege gun constructed by Krupp's. According to present "siege technique," the artillery of an attacking army as soon as the storming infantry gets to close quarters, has to cease bombarding the enemy's entrenchments, otherwise the stormers are likely to he shot down by their own guns from the rear. The new gun has been devised to overcome this difficulty. It has an extremely narrow, unrifled bore, and is of very light construction, easily capable of being carried by two men, and is intended to be carried in the front lines of the advancing infantry. ' Its most remarkable feature is its projectile, which consists of a round bomb of great diameter loaded with a very powerful mixture. The bomb is of far greater diameter than the bore of the gun which throws it, and is provided with a long stick-like tail, which is -loaded into the barrel of the gun, its lower end, which is enlarged to a wad or piston-like form, resting on the guncharge at the bottom of the barrel. The bomb itself merely lies on the gun muzzle, quite outside the bore itself. On being fired, the trailing tail serves to keep the -bomb in its proper direction of flight, and only detaches itself and falls to earth after a certain distance has -been covered, leaving the bomb to pursue its course alone. The experiments have shown that a reasonable precision can be obtained with, the nity- missile up to a distance of 300j>r 400 yards.