NEW AMERICAN TRENCH GUN.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 November 1918, Page 3

NEW AMERICAN TRENCH GUN.

A GOOD MAX-STOPPER. The trench shotgun, iisea ny the [Americans which the Germans object to I carries six shells, each containing nine bullets. It was used by the Americans at Seiehprey—one of their first battles. Describing the new weapon the New York Sun says:— ! "The new trench gun was first suggested by a general officer with the American F.xpcditionary Forces in France —General Pershing himself, it is said—and was perfected by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company engineers, working in conjunction with experts of the Ordnance Department at Washington. The new trench gun is, elementally speaking, a comparatively short repeating shotgun of the 'pump' variety, capable of sending 54 gleaming little globes of buckshot, each about the size of a .32 calibre bullet, all over the anatomy of as many of the Kaiser's six sons as' could be crowded into an area measuring nine feet horizontally and about three feet vertically. In other words, the average American soldier could, at 50 yards, make a polka-dot pattern all over the grey uniform of three or four bodies just where the doses would do the most good—between the neck and the knees inclusive. "Attached to the single-barrel shotgun is a bayonet, long enough to penetrate a Teutonic waistline, especially as waistlines mado in Germany measure these days. The bayonet takes the new shotgun out of the "sporting arms class. "American army men abroad made it plain a few months ago, when the Winchester firm first took up the work of turning out the* gun, that when the American soldier goes over the top he absolutely insists on having a bayonet fixed firmly to the muzzle of the arm 1 e carries. Immediately a difficulty presented itself, inasmuch as the comparatively small amount of metal in the thin barrel of a shotgun did not offer a. substantial enough base upon which to fasten a bayonet that might be called upon to withstand a thrust into Teutonic solid ivory. The lack of stability, however, was overcome by the Winchester Company. The muzzle end of the barrel was covered with a second skin of steel, which, being perforated and not quite touching the barrel proper, acts not only us a brace for the bayonet, but also, owing to the free passage of air, as a ventilator that keeps the barrel from getting too hot. "The gun holds sbc paper shells such as are nsed in duck shooting. In each shell are nine pellets of buckshot, or a. total of 54 excellent reasons why the world shortly is to bo quite safe for democracy. Although a shotgun, the arm is equipped from muzzle to stock with a leather rifle-sling, so that it may be slung over the neck and shoulder. "Shotgun and bayonet complete weigh 831b. At" 40 yards the buckshot will go completely through a 2in. pine board." When the Australians and New Zealanders were holding so bravely to their precarious perches on the crags of Gallipoli a proposal emulated from some Melbourne shots to arm a section of the 'men with just a deadly short-distance arm, as it was held that in a night attack, or an attack from contiguous trenches—on Gallipoli Turks and Australians were often only 25 yards apart —enormous stopping power would be held by the men with shotguns. The '. proposal was vetoed by the military authorities, however, as being contrary to the Geneva Convention in not being a "service 1 ' arm.