SOLVE PROBLEM OF POISON WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1916, Page 8

SOLVE PROBLEM OF POISON WAR.

- rr ■ , % GERMAN PRISONERS TELL 0.1? NEW HORROR DEVICE. Petrograd, August 11. German prisoners taken on the nortli front say that the problem of poison gas shells was solved at the German laboratory some weeks ago, and that bombs are now being prepared in vast quantities. They will probably l)e used on all the fronts in the near future. Tests have established the fact that these poison missiles nullify the main present drawback to the use of poisonous gas. This is the impossibility of determining the direction of the wind before an attack is to be made. The shells can be exploded by means of a time fuse, releasing a great volume of highly-condensed poison gas. They can he dropped accurately to the windward of enemy positions many miles away and they are especially efficacious in damp and windless weather. Prisoners say Germany is transferring to these shells the high hope at first entertained for the flame projectors, which are now acknowledged to be failures. The projectors certainly are weapons capable of inflicting terrible injuries, but they are not sufficient to stem a charge against their operators. , Many of the charging enemy are put out of action, but often a number of them reach the trench, and then the manipulators of the flame projectors are promptly shot or bayoneted, as they are unable to protect themselves. Confusion is caused to those using them, as the noise drowns orders and the flames i'.nd smoke obscure the vision of the trench defenders. The manipulators in the throes of a hand-to-hand struggle frequently turn the projectors by accident 011 their own comrades, and it is said that tne Germans have sustained nearly as many casualties from the flame projectors as they have inflicted by using theia,