The New Era. (Davenport, Okla.), Vol. 6, No. 35, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 8, 1914 Page: 2 of 8
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DAVENPOR T. OKt'A., NEW ERA
NEW FRENCH EXPLOSIVE KILLS
EVERYTHING WITHIN 400 YARDS
BRESLAU MAY BE BESIEGED BY RUSSIANS
( London.-4"One wonders what kind
f shells the French must have been
using to cause a regiment of German
Infantry to die In their trenches,
standing bolt upright and still holding
their rifles In firing attitude," re-
marked a London paper the other day.
and another correspondent quotes an
American member of the Crois Rouge
as having seen "the Oerman trenches
as the French guns had left them, but
with dead In auch a posture as the
world had never seen since the de-
stroying angel passed over the Philis-
tine camp In that avenging night of
Scripture, a «i|ent company of ghosts."
But there Is no secrecy about what
Is now an open secret, "Turplnlte," the
latest French "hell-producer," Is the
invention of M. Turpin, the "parent"
inventor of melinite and lyddite, which
latter la merely so named because the
first experiments were made by Lydd.
In Kent, in presence of the French
inventor. How far this turpinite has
been or is being used by the French
artillery ia not known, and may not
be exactly known till after the war,
but one of the aalient features of this
novel terror Is that it cannot be fired
from an ordinary field gun, and for
its use guns of particular and diffi-
cult construction are required. The
handling of these guns is at present
confined to specialists. Had the suc-
cessful experiments carried out at
rha)ons-«urMarne taken place ear-
lier, the result of this war, in bo far
as its primary stages were concerned,
might well have been different.
So lethal in its effect is the new
shell on explosion that, should its use
become widespread, whole armiea, in-
deed, entire nations, would be com-
pletely exterminated In the course of
a few weeks.
Offered to France.
M Turpin is not only a remarkable
man, be is also a man who for many
yeara nursed a serious grievance, and
who conaidered that he had been
deeply wronged in connection with
the discovery of his previous inven-
tions, melinite and lyddite, fle be-
came resentful and suspicious, and de-
termined to discover some new ex-
plosive that would completely throw
into the shade his previous discover-
ies, which had been "improved" by of-
ficial French technicians.
For years he worked in his quiet
country home some twenty miles from
Paris, and it is not long sgo since the
French government made him the
"amende honorable." Thia mollified
him considerably, and he offered his
new discovery to his country; but
France, at the imperious demand of
her democrats, had for many years
been cutting down her military ex-
penditure, while Germany had been
steadily Increasing hers. In such cir-
cumstances there waa little money to
spend on experiments with explosives,
and the outbreak of war found France
not nearly so prepared with artillery,
in munitions, in reserve forces, as was
Germany.
M Turpin, however, used as he was
to war office procrastination, had had
a special gun and shells made "on
his own." and conducted experiments
on the Atlantic coast before carefully
■elected and Invited officers.
A man who witnessed one of these
early demonstrations of the possibili-
ties of "turplnlte" sends to the Dally
Express a description of its terrific ef-
fect a
* 'On a stretch of sand 600 yards
from high water level a temporary
sheepfold had been erected, about four
hundred yards square, and railed off
with wooden hurdles. In this space
were some dozen sheep and a couple
of aged and worn-out horses.
"One of the horses was contentedly
munching away at some hay in a
trough, the other was rubbing himself
against one of the hurdles, while the
sheep were huddled together in one
corner.
As If Petrified.
"This was what I saw through my
glasses when, from behind a ridge
some twenty-five hundred yards away,
there came a sharp, loud thud and the
shrieking sound of a small shell, just
as If somebody had taken a piece of
silk and rapidly torn it in two. It
was the same tearing sound, only
louder.
"There was an explosion in the
open space In the middle of the Impro-
vised sheep pen. The sheep were still
all huddled in a corner some distance
off, one of the old horses waa appar-
ently leaning up against the railing,
while the other, the one that had been
munching hay at the trough, lay on
his side.
"When, ten minutes later, I reached
the pen, the sheep looked for all the
world as if they had been suddenly
petrified. They were mostly standing
up one against the other.
"Three or four were lying down, but
all were dead, with their eyes open
and lower lips hanging.
"It was absolutely ghastly. Yet of
all the animals only the old horse that
.had been munching hay was hit by a
fragment of the shell. The other old
horse was half falling, half leaning up
against the fence, his fore legs
stretched out forward, his bind feet
doubled up on the sand beneath him
Both had been killed instantly.
"There was a faint odor In the air
which I can only describe as (hat
given off by methylated spirits yet
mixed with a pungent Bmell of men
thol.
"There waa no wind at the time,
the air being practically still. I should
like to have seen the gun, but this, at
well as the shells, was surrounded by
a canvas screen. That the experiment
made a deep impression on those pres
ent was quite obvious, and 1 was not
surprised therefore to bear that the
experiments had been repeated on a
much larger scale at the French per-
manent camps of Chalons and Mailly.
Behind Locked Doors.
"1 am told that the experiments got
to the ear of the German general staff,
for it appears that various plausible
people, self-styled journalists, business
agents, and others, began to call upon
M. Turpin. After the war broke
out a special guard was placed outside
M. Turpin's residence to warn off
all unauthorized persons. Within the
last few weeks, however, Mr. Tur
pin has taken up his quarters at a
magneto factory in a populous Paris
suburb, where a number of men have j
been engaged in preparing the com
ponent parts of the turpinite shells,
which are finished off In a private lab-
oratory by Mr. Turpin and two assist-
ants, who work with the doors locked
"For special reasons, which it would
be unfair to divulge at the present
moment, I am strongly of opinion that
these shells have not been used to
any extent by the French armies in
the field. Probably an actual test un
der battle conditions has been made
once or twice, but no more. A num-
ber of people, however, have got wind
of the matter, and imagination has :
done the rest.
"That this terrific explosive will,
however, be used in case of such an
eventuality as. say, an attempt tc
take Paris by storm I have no doubt
but 1 am convinced that, despite the
thousands of bombs now prepared and
the special apparatuses that are being
cast, this explosive, a single 56-pound
shell of which is able to kill—so to
speak—to "petrify' every living thine
in a apace of 400 square yards, will .
not be u«ed unless in very desperate
circumstances, and only with the full
consent of France's allies."
HE'S BRAVE FIGHT
Tried Vainly to Save Cathedral
at Reims From Fire.
Hreslau, capital of Silesia, the stately city hall of which Is here shown, is in some danger of being besieged by
:he Russians, and has been prepared for a stubborn defense.
FRENCH MITRAILLEUSE IN ACTION
CARRY GERMANS OFF
FEET IN LONG FIGHT
Parli/—A fine story of heroism la
told about a certain infantry regiment
which was fighting near Solaaons for
three daya. The regiment made incea-
sant assaults on the enemy's positions,
but time after time was compelled to
retire under the heavy German fire
Toward nightfall on the third day
the regiment gained the poaltion at
the point of tbi bayonet and swung
around a height which waa an impor-
HALF WORKS WHH.E
OTHER HALF SLEEPS
t<ondon.—The secret of the tremen
dous German dash through Belgium
and on the outskirts of Paris now ap-
pears to be explained, according to a
British officer who has returned
wounded to England. The German
artny was organized as are the work
era In a factory or a coal mine. That
ia. they worked in two shifts. Through
out the advance from Liege half the
army waa sleeping while the other
half was attacking or advancing, and
by these tactics they kept the allies
constantly awake and wore them out
by sheer want of sleep.
The fall of Namur was almoat «n-
tirely due to the two shift tactics of
the German army. The bombardment
of that town, it will be remembered
was coninuoua for three days—from
Thursday, August 20, until five o'clock
on the following Sunday afternoon.
It is obvious that the German attack
era must have worked two shifts to
have carried on such a bombardment
Even If the gunners were beyond the
range of Belgian fire and safe from at
tack, they could not have kept It up
for 70 consecutive hours. In the gar
rlson of Namur sleep would have been
impossible under such a terrific can-
nonade. and want of sleep ia a
stronger engine of war than even the
German 11-inch howitzers.
From Namur right down through
the northwestern part of France the
German advance waa conducted on the
"two shift" principle, which means
that twice a day when the "shift' that
has Just slept, comes up to the front
to relieve the "Bhift" whose time for
sleep haB come, the firing line is re-
enforced to the full strength of the
army and vast attacks can be
launched. TheBe, It will be observed,
have been the tactics employed for
the great German dashes have not
been continuous, although the general
movement forward during that stage
of the war was.
Only soldiers who have fought
through arduous campaigns can real-
ize that sleep is a thing to which the
bravest soldiers must eventually suc-
cumb. It Is a struggle to beat off the
healthy approach of sleep only for
24 hours; 70 hours is longer than most
human beings can resist it, and by
that time It Is so strong that It out-
weighs other conslderaions.
unt poaltion to the German force.
The French general In command ob-
tained re-enforcementa of fresh troops
and ordered them to capture the hill
while the regiment which had been
fighting he told to take a much-needed
rest.
This announcement caused much
disappointment to the men of the
fighting regiment, and they sent a
petition to their colouel asking that
they be allowed to complete their
work. The request waa granted and
the regiment carried the hill.
nmm*,wm•-*-
RUSSIANS BEHIND BARRICADES
CAPTURED A GERMAN COUNT
BRITISH CYCLE CORPS WITH COLT GUN
V- s.
Private J. J. Rousseau of the Fourth
regiment of Belgian chausseurs cheval
Is one of the heroes of the war by rea-
son of his capture of Count von Bue-
low, son of the German chancellor. In
the photograph he is wearing the Mil-
itary Gold Cross, presented him by the
Belgian king, and is to be tbe re-
cipient of the Order of Leopold. Rous-
seau waa Injured by a kick from Von
Buelow's horse. He took from tbe
count his dispatch box, his uniform
and 166,000 francs which be turned
over to the Red Cross.
Then Heroically Kept Enraged
Frenchmen From Driving Wounded
Germans Back Into Flamee.
London.—The correspondent of tha
Daily Mail gives a story by the Abbe
Gamu of the terrible scenes in the
cathedral when it was set on fire. He
said:
"It was all over in an hour. There
were two separate fires. We put the
first out with four buckets of water,
all we had in the place, but soon an-
other shell struck the roof, and the
wind drove the flames along the raft-
ers inside the nave. We rushed up
again, but It was flaming all along
and as we could do nothing we hur-
ried down.
"There are holes in the ceiling of
the nave and sparks began to fall
through tbem into great heaps of
straw ten feet high and twenty yards
long tbe Germans had piled along the
north aisle. We tried to catch the
sparks in our hands as they fell and
those of the German wounded that
were able to walk helped us. But
the first spark that fell on the pile
Bet It blazing.
"There was time to think of noth-
ing but getting out the wounded.
They screamed horribly. We carried
many of those that could not walk,
while others dragged themselves pain-
fully to the side door in the north
aisle. Those who had only hand and
arm wounds helped their comrades.
We got out all except thirteen, whose
bodies lie here.
"When at last I came out of the
blazing building I found all the
wounded huddled together around the
doors. Opposite them were a furi-
ously hostile crowd of civilians of
the town and a number of soldiers
with their rifles leveled.
"1 sprang forward. 'What are you
doing?' I cried.
" 'They shall all burn,' shouted the
soldiers In answer. 'They shall go
back and burn with the cathedral or
we will shoot them here.'
" 'You are mad!' I exclaimed in re-
ply. 'Think of what this means. All
the world will hear of the crime the
Germans have committed here, and if
you Bhoot these men the world will
know that France has been as criminal
In her turn. Anyhow,' I said, 'you
shall shoot me first, for 1 will not
move.'
"Unwillingly the soldiers lowered
their rifles and I turned to six Ger-
man officers who were among the
wounded and asked if they would obey
me and do everything I told them. They
said they would, and I asked them to
tell their men to do the same. Then
I made them up In a solid body, those
who could walk unaided carrying or
helping those who could not. I put
myself at the head and we set off to
the Hotel de Ville, which is only a few
hundred yards away.
"Well, then the crowd, mad with
grief and rage, set on us. I can't de-
j scribe It. You never tiave seen any-
thing so dreadful as that scene. They
beat some of the Germans and some
of them they got down.
'"Can't you help me?' I called to a
French officer I caught sight of.
" 'You never will get to the Hotel de
Ville like this,' he replied, so I forced
my wounded through the gateway of
a private house and we managed to
close the gates after us.
"They had been roughly handled,
some of them, and they stayed there a
day and a night before we could move
them again."
NO THOUGHT OF SURRENDER
German Warships Sunk Off Helgoland
by the British Went Down
Fighting.
London.—A gun-room officer in a bat-
tle cruiser that was in the engagement
off Helgoland writes:
"The particular ship we were en-
gaged with was in a pitiful plight
when we had finished with her—her
funnels shot away, masts tottering,
great gaps of daylight in her sides,
smoke and flame belching from her
everywhere. She speedily heeled over
and sank like a stone, stern first. So
far as is known none of her crew was
saved. She was game to the last, let
it be said, her flag flying till she sank,
her guns barking till they could bark
no moi^.
"Although we ourselves suffered no,
loss we had some very narrow escapes.
Three torpedoes were observed to pass
us, one within a few feet. Four-inch
shells, too, fell short or more ahead of
us. The sea was alive with the
einemy's submarines, which however,
did us no damage. They should not
be under-rated, these Germans. They've
got guts.' That cruiser did not think,
apparently, of surrender."
Four 8ona of Rival Arma Die.
Bordeaux.—A Swiss woman living at
Basel married a German. Two sons
were born to them. Afterward ahe
married a Frenchman and had two
more sona. All four of her sona were
called to arma, two on each side. The
mother has juat received news that all
four have fallen In battl*.
)*
Black Cat Saw Sea Fight.
London.—How a black cat saw the
British fleet sink several German war
ships off Helgoland Is tohl In a letter
from Alfred Bishop, who was in the
fight. The cat Is the mascot of one
of the British cruisers, and was on
deck throughout the engagement. She
is immensely potiular now and In dan-
ger of becoming spoiled. "Our dear
little black lucky kitten cat sat un-
der our foremost gun during the whole
of the battle, and wasn't frightened at
ail, only when we first started firing-
But afterwards she sat and Uckod her-
self We all kissed her afterwards,"
writes Bishop.
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Tryon, W. M. The New Era. (Davenport, Okla.), Vol. 6, No. 35, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 8, 1914, newspaper, October 8, 1914; Davenport, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc109964/m1/2/: accessed April 24, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.