WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 259, 12 April 1915, Page 8

WAR NOTES.

CONSTANTINOPLE COAL SUPPLY. The position of Constantinople, so far as its coal supplies are concerned, is set out in Near East, an authority on ail mutters connected with Eastern Europe. It appears that the ordinary coal con-! sumption in Constantinople 'in times of peace amounts to about 30,000 tons per month. The local Bupply, restricted to some 13,000 tons a month, was derived from the mines of Eregli, recently bombarded and destroyed by Russia.' The remainder is imported. Further, that which comes from Eregli is, so far as 70 per cent, of its bulk is concerned, obtained from a French-owned mine, which is, of course, now shut down, and is situated at the adjoining town of Zunguldak, which has a fairly good harbor, as against tho open roadstead of Eregli. With the investment of the Dardanelles by the Allies all supplies are now shut off, and Turkey finds herself at her wits' end to provide coal for transports, her warships, her military factories, and the thousand and one purposos for which heat ia required. This shortage *ay hare an important bearing upon th« position in the immediate future. ORDNANCE SUPPLIES. Si*, John French's remarks with regard to munitions of war made an enquiry into the conditions of ordnance supplies worthy of study. It has been calculated that each modern army in the field uses shells to the amount of 2,000,000 lb in weight per diem. In 1870 the German record* show that they expended 8S shells per cannon, and in 1004 the Japanese army records exhibit an expenditure of 500 shells for each piece of ordnance used against the Russians. The demand for shot and shell for Great Britain and her Allies is met by several sources of supply. Not only are the markets of the world open for the purchase of material, but more than one neutral nation ij busily engaged in manufacture for France and England. The command of the sea, which is maintained by the British Navy, enables a steady stream of metal to pass to the great arsenals of England, France and Russia, and whilst the strain on the workmen employed is strenuous, it is possible, with proper organisation, to maintain a constant and steady supply for all the armies in the field. Our great fleet has so far not been obliged to expend any great quantities of ammunition. The Admiralty has reputedly always held a reserve stock equal to 500 rounds for every gun afloat; hut this, of course, pre-supposed that on the outbreak of war further supplies would be rapidly manufactured. Naval ordnance requirements are very different from those of ordinary, military artillery. Our heaviest land a.tillery—excluding the new howitzers, of which we have no details—only require 1001b of metal to make a shell, but for, the 15in guns of the Queen Elizabeth nearly twenty times as much material is utilised in every projectile turned out. The wastage of small-arm ammunition in war-time is enormous. It has been ascertained by statisticians that during the Boer war, for every man placed on the casualty list ammunition was expended of more weight than the soldier himself. GERMAN LOSSES IN POLAND. "The more they are reflected upon the more important do tho consequences of General von Hindenburg's reverse in Poland appear," says the military correspondent of the London Daily Citizen. "There are different estimates of the total of German infantry who took part in this fatal effort to force the llussian lines behind the Rawka. We have ourselves, making due allowances, put the total roughly at 120,000. The point i 3 that these undoubtedly were the best troops of von Hindenburg's army|; his most solid and reliable effectives; evidently selected for this work on that account. Now the destruction, for that is what it amounts to, of such a force of his best infantry is for General von Hindenburg a disaster of the first magnitude even in a war like this. It means that the fighting strength of .big army must have been enormously lowered, for there is not merely the reduction in numbers, but the lowering of morale which the failure of such an effort inevitably entails, Great importance was attached by the Germans to the Rawka battle, and its results will prove to be far-reaching." "ThaWtrcmendous German effort in front of Warsaw has been absolutely stayed," says the Westminster Gazette. "The Germans have failed in perhaps the fiercest individual battle of the war." LIFE OF NAVAL GUNS. , There is a good deal of misconception about the life of big naval guns. An idea exists that after firing a comparatively small number of rounds the guns are useless. This ia not altogether the case. At one time, when cordite was first introduced, the explosive had a moat injurious effect upon the grooving of the guns, and after firing some 80 rounds of full charges tho gun deteriorated to the extent of being inaccurate. It could, of course, have continued service, but would gradually havo become worthless, owing to the destruction of the' grooving, and perhaps also to some risk of being dangerous. It became necessary under these circumstances,- to replace the gung by others, the old weapon being sent tack to the factory for retubing. To a very large extent this deteriorating effect of cordite has been overcome, anl our guns now have a very much longer life. At tho same time", the actual life of a heavy naval gun is still numbered by minutes. It takes quite 12 months to build the 12in and larger eali'bred weapons, but in actual use, firing as fast as she could be loaded, it is doubtful whether she would live as many minutes as it takes days to construct her. Ammunition supplies for these monsters are also limited. The Queen Elizabeth, for instance, probably only carries SO rounds for each of her 15in guns, but she would blaze away at least £IO,OOO worth of ammunition fqr each minute she was engaged in a fleet action.