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{ RATRTON < T 5 oy ; ¢
Fuoro Gy PAve TucrPsown- ~NeY.
In Trench Warfare, with Night Attacks in Constant Expectation, Rockets Are Sent
Up Which Give a Momentary View of the Enemy’s Movements. In This Photo
graph a Rocket Is in Position to Be Sent Up the Moment the Command Is Received
By Rene Bache
EVER In the whole course of
N history has “Necessity, the Mother
of Invention,” proved so frufitful
a 8 in the present European war. Its
thousands of miles of networks of op
posing trenches furnish the most ideal
of “proving grounds” for new weapons
of offense and defense. Day and night
bring forth their stern problems to serve
as an ideal stimulus to invention, and
some of the results have upset mnlta;fv
theories and methods which had re
mained unchanged in principle for cen
turies.
Taking its lesson from these phe
nomena, the United States Government
is actively engaged in the preliminaries
of providing our own army with new
weapons which have turned the tide of
battle for one gide or the other in
Europe. The most novel and remarkable
of these Is light—light in various forms,
used in different ways to surprise,
dazzle, confuse and outwit the enemy.
Formerly great armies marched and
fought during the day and rested at
night. Now officers and men engaged
in the great trench sieges fight in relays
during the whole twenty-four hours. It
is adaptation of artificial light in many
ingenious ways that has brought this
ebout, and in the future no nation whose
military and naval commanders have
neglected practise with this new and
formidable weapon can expect to hold
fts own In time of war.
It 18 a wholly novel idea, fighting in
the hours of darkness having been
hitherto an occasional incident of war
fare merely. But it has come to stay,
und our own military authorities fully
realize the importance of training the
regular army and citizen soldiery in the
grlnclplel of this kind of work in tho
eld.
Hence the experiments now in prog
ress, under direction of the Secretary
of War, the object of which is to deter
mine what methods may most advan
tageously be employed for {lluminating
a 4 zone of battle in the night time. For
night-fighting is not done in the dark.
Multitudes of searchlights and many
kinds of firework contrivances are em
ployed to furnish an artificial daylight;
and the combatant whose devices of the
sort are markedly superior to those of
the adversary may gain thereby as im
portant an advantage as better artillery
g: greater numbers of men might give
m,
Artificial light, indeed, has vecome one
of the most effective instruments of war,
Consider, for example, the case of a
body of troops advancing in the dark
ness at the double-quick across a clear
field. 1t is a surprise attack; the men
are invisible to the foe. But it seems
that warning has been given; for sud~
denly hundreds of searchlights are
turned upon them, with such a blinding
blaze that whole brigades are thrown
into contusion. .
The confusion is even greater than it
& battery of fleld artillery had opened
{Uupon their ranks. They are so blinded
{by the sudden and intense glare that
they lose their sense of direction; they
do not know which way to march, If
they had nothing to do but to sit down
and rest, they would not recover their
sight for several minutes, For the time
being they are helpless,
Of course, they continue to march.
Thelr one impulse under such elrcum
stances i{s to move toward the light, as
& swarm of insects would do. They
know that behind the light is the enemy,
but an impulse somewhat the same as
that of the insects seems to actuate
them. Being in full view, and their
ranks brilliantly {lluminated. while their
adversaries are invisible, they are mowed
down wholesale by shrapnel, rifle-bullets
and machine-gun fire,
The War Department's experiments
have been conducted for some weeks
past, at night, on the grounds of the
‘.manl Barracks in Washington. They
¥e IOW been transferred to the artil
lery shwation at Tobyhanna Pa., and a
few weeks hence they will be continued
fin the seighborhood of Fort Sam Hous
ton, on the Texas bhorder, expanded to a
larger and more practical scale,
A number of new inventions are being
ried out, not only searchlights, but vari
us military firevorks designed for
lluminating purposes, Among the latter
Our Experiments with Light 25 Wars Newest Arm.
are “parachute rockets,” “flares,” “star
bombs,” and other contrivances such as,
in different forms, are now utilized by
the contending armies in Burope.
American ingenuity may Improve on
some of them. The forelgn devices,
when found worth while, will be adopted.
Take for example the “star bomb.” It
is a cylinder of thick pasteboard pro
vided with a fuse and containing a large
number of little paper packets filled
with a chemical mixture that burns
brightly when ignited, Fired vertically
from a wooden mortar, it reaches a
height of 1,000 feet, and then explodes,
illuminating a squdre mile of landscape.
Of course, the light it gives lasts only
for a very few moments, but the {llumi
nation is made
continuous for
any length of
time that may be
required by dis
charging a series
of such bombs at
regular and brief
intervals.
For a esimilar
purpose “flares”
are employed,
which are fire
works pure and
simple, being
much like the
“blue lights"
burned on the
Fourth of July to
illuminate streets
and parks, save
for the fact that
the light they
give lis white,
They burn for
quite a while be
fore going out,
and by this means
a battle front
may be kept illu
minated through
the night almost
as brightly as by
day.
The field search
light is carried by
an automobile of
a pattern special
1y constructed for
the purpose, the
gasoline t hat
propels the ve
hicle being ineci
dentally used to
generate electri
city for the light.
it is most ingen
fous contrivance,
but there are not
infrequent condi
tions urder which
it cannot be satis
factorily utilized
—for instance, in
A region of exces
sively bad roads,
or in thickly
wooded country.
Its horizontal rays are reflected by
houses, groups c:s trees and other ob
stacles to view, with such dazzling effect
that objects further in the rear, import
ant to be observed, cannot be seen.
Under these and certain other cireum
stances, when the searchlight on wheels
cannot be used to advantage at the
front-—as must often have happened dur
ing the recent advance of the German
armies through Galicla and toward War
saw—other means of {llumination must
be e&nployod for fighting at night, Con
spicious among them is the wmilitary
parachute rocket, which is not fastened
to a stick, but is discharged from a
pistol,
The pistol is fired in such a way as
to discharge the rocket at an angle of
about 45 degrees. If sent up more
vertically, the war firework would
illuminate a less area of territory. If
shot more horizontally it would stay in
the alr for a less length of time. But,
properly managed, the burning cartridge
(a paper envelope containing a chemrteal
powder) will be held in the air, sus
pended by a parachute that opens when
the rocket bursts, for forty seconds,
vielding an {ilumination brilliant enough
to enable anybody within a long distance
on the ground to read amall print. The
parachute, though itseif of paper, serves
as a reflector, throwing all rays downward
in the form of a cone.
A war rocket of this kind weighs only
six ounces. Thus a soldier can carry a
A “Star Bomb,” the
Cross Section Shows
the Arrangement of
the Separate Charges
of Illuminant, Which,
as Discharged, Fur
nish a Succession of
Brilliant Flashes,
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ful Searchlights Mounted on Motor Cars Designed for That Purpose Are a Useful Feature of Army. uipment. Th
Powlejl;i‘:ed s:utel Government Is Expcrincntln, with Them. Here an Auto-Searchlight Is Being Run Up thE: S':epl of g
the Army War College to Test Its Usefulness Over Rough Ground
Auto Searchlight,
“Flares,”’ “Star
BOmbS, 2 “Par'
achute Rockets’’
—All Sorts of
Devices to Re
veal, Confuse
and Qutwit the
Enemy, Being
Tested by lhe
War Depart
ment to Meet
the New Con
ditions of
Night Fighting
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number of them convenlently in his
knapsack. Of course, to use them, he
must carry a rocket-pistol also, but this
sort of firearm weighs not more than
three and a half pounds,
For emergency work in night battle,
and for fighting in darkness at close
quarters, the combatants in the European
war are using “flares,” which (easily
stowed In the knapsack) can be thrust
at an instant's notice into sockets con
nected with polished metal reflectors of
small size. With such help, when ignited,
even a single one of them will afford a
surprising {llumination—the soldier who
holds the reflector being himself, of
course, invisible.
Balloons also are used for dropping
paper parachutes of large size, each one
carrying a fire cartridge of brilliancy
enough to i{lluminate a whole landscape
for a minute or more-—perhaps disclos
ing the previously unsuspected position
of a hostile battery of artillery. The
light thus afforded does not reveal to
view the balloon, which remains invis
ible, and therefore safe against attack by
gun-fire
Or there may be, suspended from the
balloon, a great mirrorreflector, be
neath which the cartridges are set off
by touching an electric button. This s
the so-called "aerial searchlight,” which,
without revealing the position of the bal.
loon, hidden in the darkness of the sky,
spreads an {lumination far and wide.
If, in case we are obliged to fight,
Copyright, 1015, by the Star Company. Great Britaln Rights Reserved
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these new contrivances of warfare are
not to frighten us out of our wits by
mere reason of their unfamilitarity, it is
necessary that our troops shall be spe
clally trained in the business of using
such devices. Our soldiers have cus
tomarily been taught to fight with pow
der and guns; they must learn how to
fight with light. They have been in
structed In fighting by day; they must
know how to fight by night.
It i 3 necessary that this shall be a
part of the education of every recruit in
our army. In particular, it is requisite
that our troops of all arms——infantry,
cavalry and artillery—shall be provided
without delay with fleld searchlights, in
order that an outbreak of war may not
find them unprepared in one of the chief
essentials for fighting under modern con.
ditions,
Invisibility is the keynote of modern
warfare. To win, the fighting man must
not be seen by his adversary. Hence the
development of nightfighting. Never in
the history of war has the surprise at
tack cut so large a figure as in the pres
ent confiiet. Darkness, for such purposes,
is the best help. Advantage is taken of
the cover of night for the advance of
large bodies of troops, for flank move
ments, for the emplacing of artillery, for
the construction of cover, for the bring.
ing up of munitions. The Zeppeling are
night-birds.
Against the man who fights in the dark
the most effective weapon Is lght. The
How the “Parachute Rocket” Is Used in aNight Attack—from a Draw
ing of an Actual Attack in Flanders. Four of the Grenades Have Just
Burst in the Air Over the Attackin‘f Force, and Their Lights, “Held”
by Parachutes, Are Falling Towards the Ground. The Three Men in
the Right Foreground Have muminlting Grenades on Their Rifles,
Ready for Firing. The Havoc Which Is hown Wrought in the Ranks
of the Aduneh: Enemy Is Caused by the Marten Hale Rifle-Grenade,
Whicl; Is Imagined Being Fired by Defenders Not Visible in the
" Drawing.
best means of defense
again him thus far dis
covered is the search
light. In every one of
light. In every one of
the European armies
now in the field, each
reglment—often each
battalion — has its
searchlight, of the same
mobility as a field gun,
and considered equally
indispensable.
Up to the time when
the present war began,
the fleld searchlight of
the FEuropean armies
was commonly mounted
on wagons drawn by
horses. Even to-day
this is the case to
some extent. The Ger
mans have a search
light car specially de
signed for mountain
work—horsedrawn and
weighing less than 1,000
pounds. Its “carriage,”
on which the mirror-
reflector §s mounted,
can be detached on an overstecp road
and transported separately from the
“limber,” which conveys the power supply
apparatus.
Ordinarily, however, the searchlight
machine is of automobile pattern—the
gasoline fuel, as already stated, being
used incidentally, with the help of spe
clal apparatus, to generate electricity for
the light. The largest field searchlights
are thirty inches in diameter, but most
of them are smaller. As a rule thelr re
flectors are of glass backed with silver,
but metal compositions and even gold
are sometimes employed. Metal has the
advantage of being less fragile; it 1s also
lighter in welght. But the surface has
constantly to be repolished, as well as
cleaned, and it yields a less brilliant
ray. Besides, In a fog it quickly acquires
a film of moisture that diminishes the
efficiency of the searchlight.
Uncle Sam prefers the glass mirror
The War Department has provisionally
adopted a pattern of “auto-searchlight™
for held use which consists of a motor
car with power and light-generating ap
paratus and a “traller” that is eimply a
standard artillery calsson carry!ng a iO.
ineh reflector,
This machine has been run experiment.-
ally over plowed flalds, to prove its e
fuiness in a difficult “terrain.” and, with
the same {dea in view, it has been driven
up the rather steep steps of the War
College, in the grounds of the Arsenal
Barracks at Washington,
One of the attempts by the French to
/ solve the problem is represented by a
searchlight mounted on rubber-tired
wheels, and which, wheels and all, is
carried on the “rear platform” of an au
tomobile chassis. Thus the affair may
be dismounted anywhere it desired. »
The Germans before the beginning of
the war had so far developed the search
light idea for war purposes that a sep
arate searchlight corps was created, A
Teuton {invention was the telescoping
searchlight tower, which, collapsed when
not in use, may be elevated when re
quired to such height that the reflector
is thirty feet above the ground-—high
enough to overlook any ordinary land
scape.
Our War Department is now trying
to Improve upon this tower searchlight
by substituting for the supporting struc
ture a light tripod. The idea will be tried
out in as practical a Way as may be pos
sible on the Texas border. We may have
to use it in Mexico.
It may be sald in conclusion that, while
there are very many purposes for which
searchlights may be usefully employed
in warfare under modern conditions, one
of the most important of them, for the
defensive, consists in {lluminating points
(especially defiles) over which attackers
must advance, in order that the latter
may be brought under fire at the earliest
goulblo moment, and to observe the ef
ect of the fire,
On the other hand, searchlights may
be used to prevent defenders from im
proving their intrenchments or other
works under cover of darkness; to light
up defensive works or other artillery
targets, and to assist an attacking col
umn by {lluminating rough ground or ar.
tificial obstacles, '
Among other uses of the military
searchlight should be mentioned that of
confusing the view of balloonists aloft,
The same remark might apply to aero
plane observers, but fiying machines do
not often ascend in the night time,
Searchlights ara kept dark during the
feld artillery duel that usially precedes
an infantry engagement, They are used
under such circumstances only after the
artillery fire has ceased, and when the
enemy is advancing.
From what has been said it appears
that the new art of fighting with light
is both offensive and defensive, Light,
under up-todate military conditions, is
in & way a weapon of war—just as much
80 as the rifle or the machine gun. If,
once drawn into international confifet,
we are not to be heaten, we must learn
how to use it. Which, in a word, repre
sents exactly the problem tha: Uncle
Sam s now trying to solve.