Evening Star Newspaper, April 13, 1930, Page 85

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Fiction Art PART SEVEN. rue Story Of The Paris Gun First Newspaper Publication of How the German “Big Bertha” Fired Upon French Capital, Seventy-Five Miles Distant—One of the World War’s Most Terrible and Persistent Mysteries—Twelfth Anniversary of the Good Friday Bombardment. The Sunfly Star Magasine WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY, APRIL 13, 1930. Features Books 24 PAGES. The great German “mystery gun” that fired shells at & distance of 75 miles into the heart of Paris. By Lieut. Col. Henry W. Miller. (ChiefEngineer of the Heavy Artillery of the A. E. F) EDITOR'S NOTE—In this, the first of, & series of ghree articles which solve the mystery of ‘‘The Paris Gun,” Col. Miller tells of Paris under shellfire. ‘‘Be- hind the German Lines” and “Misfortunes of War" @are the subjecis of the articles that are to follow. ATURDAY began to dawn in Paris as one of those rarely beautiful early Spring mornings, for which France is famous. A persistent dull rumble, as of an apppoaching storm, came out of the north from the savage offen- sive begun two days before, in the early morning hours, by the German armies of Von Hutier, Marwitz and Below against the British fifth army under Gen. Gough before Amiens and Byng's third army*to the north. Slowly the mists last to rise over the Seine floated away, and by 7 o'clock all Paris was a-sparkle with bright Spring sunshine. All over the great city, men and women were preparing to leave for their early morning ap- pointments, offices, factories and stores. By 7:15 the streets began to fill, metro lines were working up to their 8:45 heaviest morning load, the whole great City of Paris was tuning up for another of its busy days, withal an anxious one, as was evident from the intent faces on the streets and in the subway cars, eagerly examining the early papers to learn of yesterday’s happenings on the front. Time’s pendulum and fate’s plans worked on inexorably to 7:20, when the few people about me on the Quai de Seine in the north- eastern section of the fortified portion of Paris were violently startled by the crash of something that exploded on the stone pave- ments in front of house No. 6 along the Qual. Fragments and missiles hissed through the air, spattering the stone buildings and breaking windows. Seemingly no one was hurt. The im- mediate question to every one near-about was, “What was it?” To soldiers it sounded like the explosion of a 77-mm. high explosive shell, to clvilians it resembled the crash of a 22-pound air bomb, the sound of which was becoming familiar to people of Paris. Examination of the exact spot of the explosion failed to an- swer the question. As always, a few hurried to the scene, curiosity overcoming caution. Fragments of metal were found, some of them too hot to hold. Most of the people of the city had not heard it at all, so by itself this one explosion meant but little. To those who heard it, it was just an- other of the multitude of unusual things to be dismissed with a resigned shrug, and the familiar “C'est la guerre.” A’r 7:40 a second explosion occurred, not so loud to those at the scene of the first be- cause it was a mile and a half away. But the sound and shock were terrific to the hundreds about the Gare de I'Est, where it occurred. The pavements here were crowded, even so early. In front of the railway station there is an entrance to the three metro or subway lines which have a junction at this point. The bomb struck on the cobbles of the Boulevard de Strashourg, not a hundred feet from one entrance to the subway lines, and exploded entirely above the surface of the street. Eight of those who lay about on the streets and pavements were dead. Thirteen others were more or less seriously hurt. When the first effect of the shock had passed, some of the crowd and proprietors of shops hurried to the dead and wounded and carried them into the shops or assisted them on their way. If those who launched that bomb could have seen the effect, they probably would have felt that they had made a very effective beginning. President Poincare, M. Clemenceau and Gen. Herr's artillery office were called from police headquarters and told such details as were known. Officers of the army technical offices were already inquiring about the sounds, why and where? They took nothing for granted. Artillery and air service officers and experts on explosives departed at once to investigate. There was intense activity at the aerodromes on the northern edge of the city, and airmen were climbing into the sky to find the sup- posed planes that were dropping the bombs. Five more explosions occurred before 9:15, when the order was given to sound the sirens and declare a general alarm. This instantly stopped all business—offices, stores, subways, busses and trolley cars were emptied while the people sought shelter. By 9:30 the artillery offices were beginning to admit to themselves that the projectiles, for such they had been proven to be by the fragments, might be coming from within the German lines. The grooves in the steel and the enormously heavy side walls and base of the projectiles indicated an extremely high power pressure, hence probably a correspond- ingly high initial velocity of the shell. It was true that the nearest point of the German line was 67 miles away. The gun would certainly be at least 8 and possibly as much as 10 miles behind the lines for even moderate safety. This made at least 73 and perhaps 77 miles. No such range as this had ever been heard of. More definite information on the locations of ts of impact with the buildings which had struck were on the north and east sides. the projectiles were coming from the north- ps of the army fronts were consulted for ues on locations. A line running due north- east through the center of Paris passed through the center of the pronounced “corner” of the German line created the year before when they nearest point of the German line to Paris. Some officers remembered, and by reference at once confirmed, that during the previous Septembef formidable excavating, possibly for large gun emplacements, had been noticed in this salient. And an air photograph taken in merely general reconnaissance over this region on March 6 revealed two new railway curves of the kind commonly used in the French army for rail- way artillery, leading off to the southwest from the Laon-Amiens railway line near the little village of Crepy. The railway lines were very distinct on the photograph, but whatever was at their ends, if anything, where the excavaling had been seen in progress, had been so well camouflaged as to defy detection. In such an emergency one is sorely tempted to accept seemingly reasonable conclusions, Perhaps it was not surprising then that cer- tain artillery officers came to the conclusion as early as 9:30 that Paris was being bombarded by & new long-range gun of about eighi-inch caliber, probably located in the region of Laon, and more than likely on one of those two new rallway curves at Crepy, about 120 kilometers, or 75 miles, from the center of Paris. HAD the bombardment been started in the night people would not only have soughs: shelter promptly, but would have remained there. But in the day, in the morning, om’ Saturday, & beautiful Spring day, it ferent. One imagines so much when not see. Sunshine seems to mock danger. By 11 people were out on again in spite of the fact that tinued to fall at more or less regular From 7:20 until 2:45, when ment ended for the day, 25 struck in and about Paris, killing 16 people wounding 29. A number of world’s greatest c! of the places where projectiles the day showed many interesting them the definite fact that the passing addition, the sound ranging division at the Laon corner reported noticeably increased vol- umes of sound at somewhat the same intervals as those between explosions in Paris. When this information, together with much other data, had been assembled in the artillery office late in the day, the officers there thought on March 6, housed the gun or guns. thing had to be done to stop the bombardment, and at once. Orders were therefore telephoned late in the evening to Group Commander Stap- fer at Mont Notre Dame to detach a battery of his 305-millimeter, or 12-inch, rifies on Batig- nolles, Railway carriages and start them at once for Vailly on the Soissons-Rheims Railway. They were to be emplaced as quickly as pos- sible on any available siding near Vailly and would begin firing at the earliest possible mo- ment on the map point whose co-ordinates were 47.23. This was at the end of the shorter rail- way curve on the air photo of March 6. IN Paris Sunday, March 24, began as beautiful a day as the never-to-be-forgotten Saturday. It was cool, and early pedestrians walked briske ly. Eighty miles north the offensive continued

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