WAR INVENTIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 May 1920, Page 9

WAR INVENTIONS.

HUGE HOWJTZKKS AND JIKSSAUE ROCKETS Only the edge of the dark Veil which war drew across its inner secrets lias so far been lifted, however much of .the general operations in the field have been disclosed (savs the Sydney Kun). In .the lartii'le nndevmfit.li is told for the lirst time I!ie intimate details of some of the marvellous inventions that the war brought forth—in some cases too late for use. The wrjter is Captain W. If. (J. Geake, A.M., M.8.E., who was the Australian representative for the British War Board of Inventions, and whose first-hiinit experience has enabled him to write with authority THE SUPER TANK. Perhaps tfte most bitter regret of llie war to those who were familiar with the wonderful inventions perfected is the fact that not more, than o per cent, of the greatest inventions was completed in time to ever reach France. This is entirely attributable to the fact that up to the end of 1011], invention, if not definitely certainly did not receive the slightest help or encouragement from the "War Office.

The recently cabled description of a super-tanh, with a speed of twenty miles per hour, does not in any way adequately convey the progress that wag eventually madfe in tanks. The Mark 11 ■tank, upon the trials of which the writer spent three month:? at tank headquarters just befe" Hie armistice was declared, -watf as different from; the early Sonime tanks as the early automobile is from that of 1907.

This super tank had a speed of twenty miles per hour, and sufficient fuel was carried for 40 hours' continuous run, it could climb lip an incline of 45 decrees, and as itfl weight was in excess of iliirty tons, nothing constructed-by the hand of man could stop it. AH the weaknesses discovered in previous models had been successfully overcome. Land mines—sunken mines exploded by the weight of lite tank were provided egainst by filling the tank with a forward roller which exploded the mines before the tank proper reached them. A WONDERFUL SMOKE SCREEN. As protection against artillery fire, the truly wonderful smoke screen apparatus was fitted, and by using the new chlorosuphonie acid smoke, a wall of dense grey, low-lying fog was formed round the tank at a distance of a hundred yards on all sides, which rendered it absolutely impossible the gunners to discern any exact target at which to aim. 'Die improved armorplating was also of such sufficiency that a direct hit by a three-inch shell was the only possible means' of putting the tank out of act ion, and this had to be an armor-piercing shell, ordinary highexplosive shells having no effect.

The 4">-calibre anti-tank rifle used by the enemy with success against the early tanks meant only the smallest dent in the arnionr of these super - tanks. And whereas in the early tanks it needed the whole attention of two of the crew to steer the tank, in the modern land "battleship steering could be done by the pressure of one finger, the famous William Jamie gear (for many years used in swinging the turrets of our battleslups) having been adapted to the tank. Wireless communication -between tank and tank, and between tank and aeroplane, had been perfected to such a degree that a whole line of tanks could advance at given intervals, and a complete smoke screen could be set up by the combined tanks over a continuous five-mile front.

THE THAGEDY OF THE EARLY TANKS.-!

While recognising the modern tank as indeed a triumph of British ingenuity, those who have watched it develop will never forget some oE the gruesome failures which occurred perhaps owing to the smallest oversight. As an instance, the Mark 8 Tanks, produced early in 11)18, and looked upon then as the very last word in tank design, utterly failed in service by the smallest possible oversight. After triumphantly going through all tests in winter in England 'oOU were sent in action in the following spring; and to the horror of those who had the greatest faith in them, every one that was actually hit by the enemy anti-tank tank fire exploded, burning the crews to death, and wrecking the tank. This awful debacle occurred simply owing to the fact that in making these tanks proof against the enemy bullets' insufficient ventilation had been provided The summer sun in Prance rendered the' gases thrown off by the engines highly inflammable. In fact, the inside of these tanks, after running for several hours, was almost identical with the inside of | an ordinary carburetter, and the flash generated by the friction of an antitank shell hitting the steel exploded the gases which, in turn, exploded the .ammunition. One of the most pathetic sights in France is a minature cemetery near a tank workshop, where the padre has buried all that remained of the gallant crews of some of the tanks, the remains being only the metal parts of their uniforms and identification discs. An air fan subsequently fitted to this class of tunic nbsoltuely prevented this unforgettable mUtakg.

MKSSAGE-CAIiRYING SOCKET. By the use of the self-propelling l-oeket messenger-carrier written communication could be kept up continuously during an advance with headquarters anywhere within two miles in the rear. In addition to four machine-guns, each having an all-round traverse, two much improved Stokes mortars were fitted by which an automatic barrage at the rate of 20 shell* per minute from each gun could be kept up. A new aiming device (the invention of ail Australian) allowed ea<>li gun to drop a shell every ten yards over a front of (ifM) yard.';; in addition, there were three high velocity guns, one at each side and one in front, and two smoke barrage mortars. Message carrying indeed a knotty problem, and one in which the whole of the warring nations had spent, many vonrs. The ability to get back information from the front line position to divisional headquarters is of far mont reaching importance than is generally conceived. Oil many occasions during the late war the lives of a thousand men and (lie expenditure of a. million pounds has depended on the success or failure of &et( insr ■ back a five-word message from an advanced position to those in authority in the rear. Modern artillery has made if impossible to lay telogpaph cable;; in the actual front lines; no matter how deeply Ironed, fhey were al-,

ways destroyed at the critical moment by delay .action shells-

The device nought after was some type of projectile which would lie self-pro-pelling, as it ,was impossible to carry equipment in action wherewith to shoot it back. It must travel at least a. mile and a half or any lesser distance. It must have means whereby it could make itself known on arrival at its destination, and it must be possible for the man who fired it to know that it had been correctly received, it must be constructed that it would fall where directed, and not bo lost if it should fall in mud or water, v

AN AUSTRALIAN INVENTION. It remained for an Australian inventor to produce a device which more than fulfilled the above specifications, and this message-carrier was used in the last tix months of the war and by its aid communication-was never lost.' Briefly, the device may be described as a superrocket, but the comparison, ends there. The range obtained was over two miles; no apparatus for firing was requiredTiie rocket was simply placed 011 the pnrnpet of the trench, pointing in the direction of headquarters, or other destination. A friction disc would be drawn across a short fuse; with a roar like the discharge of a gun, the rocket would leap into the air, and speed on its way in the direct ion pointed. Immediately it obtained its maximum height, an intense white Hare came into action, which would be visible even in the brightest sunlight; at the same time a powerful siren-whistle would shiiiek by the pressure of the air through which the projectile was travelling. On arrival at its 'destination the white flare would give place to a dense volume of smoke, which would continue burning for ten minutes. Should the rocket, by chance, fall into a shell-hole or Wiltei, the smoke would not be extinguished, -but would rise to the surface in the form of bubbles giving off smoke for ten minutes. The message was contained in a water-proof container in the body of the rocket, and so successful was the mer.as of identification both bv day and night that only sis out of 28,000 used'during the final offensive were lest.

Whon if is considered that, this device only weighed, a pound and th.it it could be adjusted in tile fraction of a second so as to travel any distance from one hundred yards to two miles, it will not appear extraordinary that, this was considered one of the very truly valuable discoveries of the last year of the war, and was utilised by the Allies.

-.l'rom the earliest types of bronze cannon up to the tilne (lie lirst shi-il fell on Paris from "Big Bertha"' seventy-five miles away, there has been no revolutionary change in the construction of big guns. It was an axiom with Hie designers of big guns (hat the greater the projectile fired, and the greale.the aim ranged at, the greater must be the length of the barrel. This is illustrated by the terrific length of the 12 and loin, guns on the modem battleships. Imagine the surprise and incredulity of the \\ oohvieh Arsenal experts when at about the end of 1!)17 a civilian engineer submitted drawings of a smooth bore gun having a'2oin. bore, and with a liarlel only .liiin. long. Tlii* gentleman, without any military training, had entirely revolutionised the world's knowledge of gunnei'y.

Experiments were instantly undertaken with the greatest secrecy—not. more than six experimental officers in the whole of Britain were aware of the secret. It is fjiiite impossible to realise now what the potentialities of this levolutionary discovery meant, but it will be readily understood that the reason big guns could.not be used in the front line was because of their immobility. Even a lOin. gun can only be used on a specially constructed railway, and here lvfis n design of a gun with 'a 20in. bore that eould be lifted by four men, and which could be manufactured at the rate of thousands per day.

The astouncilngly simple secret was that the shell, instead of bring free to travel when the charge was fired was tied to the base of the gun by a ' steel connecting rod which held the shell in position until the colossal pressure of gas behind it was great ' that this connecting rod was sheared. To understand just what this entirely original innovation meant, the reader must understand that the great length of ban el is absolutely necessary in the old type to allow, of the complete burning of the propelling charge before the shell escaped from the barrel, and also tor this reason that the rifling is designed to help to retard the shell in its travel through the barrel—all with the object of generating terrific pressure behind the shell before it is released. It will now be seen that the whole of these objects were obtained by simply tying the shell in with a steel rod, and ™7Z g - S ' ml t0 bG Bna PP ed ThP wr-i ProMnre had bfien roacheil ' the wnter was present at the trials of f m ng mvention ; and shells cnirymg five cwt of high explosive were feed a distance of ten miles from ° SrS^ r fiat loohej 101 all the world like a steel drain r,with a bottom in it. No elevating S l^s:r tar beiDana tlie lango governor w+l thickness of the steel tie rod used to hold the projectile in. i!r <ndsof tT s iA'IVYT" ° £ >««ctnrc is ■ f. S 0f Ihe and it tal : F . ,m|,OS ? ill! f t » eoticeive of warfare, that a '! y ty P e of the rain of -,nni \ , carriwl °" t£ k,y ™ dcCa^ s,; s fS r dVS « : i ,i i\v 7p 1C ,)oSitiollS ' their Was ah »«t that of the