PILL-BOX FORTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1917, Page 3

PILL-BOX FORTS.

MARVELS OF STRENGTH AND INGENUITY. CUT OUR fcULUIKJIS i!EAT XllL.Yj. In the Daily Express the following description is given of the "pill-boxes" in the German defence system, which have been so frequently mentioned by correspondents in accounts of the fighting in Flanders. Tlie shell-holes are the enemy's first lines. There is wire in front, but this, instead of revealing the position of the defence, as it did in the old days, is put down with a view to concealing positions. Behind this lightly held front line the pill-boxes are placed in support, echeloned one behind the other, each sustaining and covering the other by its fire. There are different kinds of pill-boxes, but they are nil of much the same material—re inforced concrete. ■ The struqjure to which the name of pill-box was originally given ns a concrete cell, more like a ,log-kcnnel or fowlhouse than a. box, because it has a little entrance at the back—a little entrance closed by a. very massive steel door as a protection against prowling British foxes. The pill-box may be square or oblong and of different sizes. It may bold a section or a platoon or more, and he armed with a number of machine-guns or only one. From fl/or to roof is about fft. the depth from front to rear about (Ift. The length of a single compartment varies, but seldom exceeds 12ft. IMMENSELY STRONfI. If the pil!-box is a big one ih has more than one compartment. The roof and the walls at tlie front and sides are Immensely strong, often sft thick, with the concrete well reinforced with steel rods. The floor and the back walls are less massive, but still substantial. There /ire ventilating shafts and flues for ftoves, loopholes for machine-guns and rifles, and magazines let into the concrete walls for bombs and ammunition. The structure is led into the "round for about half its height, so that, the loopholes are almost flush with the ground level, and the entrance door has to be reached by a trench. Total concealment is impossible, because the loopholes must be above ground, and that le'aves the massive roof standing out like a mound. Still, clever camouflage iv'ill do a lot, espeeialh- in the way of hiding the place from tftc observer in the tiir. The resisting power of the pill-box is extraordinary; it will take a direct hit from the biggest shell and remain mibroken, though it often happens that Ihe tremendous shock of the impact kills the whole of ihe garrison inside. There have hci>n cases of pill-boxes lining turned over by a hi; shell striking Ihe ground-in front and httrstinjr underneath, leaving t'c front loopholes staring up to the sky ready for the. boiri-s which our men will presently drop into them as an invitation for the inmates to come outside ISLAND FORTS. Tn a big push tlie pill-boxes become pn island fori in the sen of the attackers. \\ o have our own wav of dealing with them, and it is an effective one, 1.00. Atany a ITnu finds his last restingplace hermetically sealed in an upturned pill-box. An older form of the pill-box is known ns the Mobn. a name coined from the first letters of the long official German title. Tt was to be found in the original trench system, a «ort of strong point made of concrete with machine-gun emplacements, fire stens for riflemen, posts for observers, and casemates for the gmrison. Very solid works that, are but less effective than the latest pillbox, probablv because thev are in connection with a less effective general system of defence. The Hun builds his pill-boxes in the foundations of the farm buildings, and then pulls the buildings down on the top of his concrete roofs, thus adding enormously to their strength. And in the pile of tumbled bricks and rafters It is bard indeed to pick out the places from which the machine-guns spit. Tim Flanders line is vital to the Hun. in.l he has spared r.o labor on its defence. All over the marshlands and the forests, among the dykes and rivers and canals, for mile on mile in depth the farms are fortresses, and the pill-boxes stand tiihk as mushrooms in a September meadow. Nevertheless we find our way through.