THE GERMAN SCIENCE OF ARSON: INCENDIARY DISKS CARRIED BY THE KAISER'S SOLDIERS—A SPECIMEN BEFORE AND DURING IGNITION.
It is clear that the German incendiary outrages in Belgium and France were premeditated, and German scientists devised special apparatus for setting fire to buildings. Our informant, who bought some incendiary disks from a German soldier near Antwerp, states that every man carries twenty bags, each containing about 300 disks. Mr. Bertram Blount, the analyst, found the disks consist of nitro-cellulose, or gun-cotton. They may be lit, even when wet, with a match or cigarette-end, and burn for eleven or twelve seconds, emitting a strong five-inch flame, and entirely consuming themselves. The Germans throw them alight into houses. The photographs show (1) a bag of disks as supplied to German soldiers; (2) a disk burning; and (3) a disk, actual size, before being used.
THE ILLUSTRATED WAR NEWS, NOV. 18, 1914—23
"BLACK MARIA'S" LITTLE BROTHER: ONE OF THE GERMAN 15-CENTIMETRE HEAVY POSITION-GUNS IN THE ACT OF FIRING.
The German heavy "batteries of position" are for the most part armed-with the 15 cm., or 6-inch howitzer, throwing a shell of 90 lb. with an approximate range of 6650 yards. The howitzer type of mobile heavy gun is much favoured for defensive work in both the German and the Austrian armies. The howitzer is capable of elevation up to 65 deg., the idea of this high elevation being, it is stated, to obtain a steep angle of descent for the shells at comparatively short ranges, in combination with a high remaining velocity so as to ensure the penetration of overhead cover. These howitzers are also employed in siege and fortress defence warfare. They have been used along the Aisne positions as auxiliaries to the giant Krupp siege-howitzers.
24—THE ILLUSTRATED WAR NEWS, NOV. 18, 1914.
CHARGING ON FOOT WITH THE LANCE: BENGAL LANCERS ATTACK GERMAN TRENCHES.—From the Painting by R. Caton Woodville. (left half)
Cavalry engaged in the Belgian frontier battles are fighting in all sorts of ways: repeatedly, for example, as infantrymen in the trenches. On occasion, also, they have even charged on foot, with bayonet or with their lances. The Life Guards, according to a letter from the front, charged the German trenches the other day with bayonets. A squadron of French dragoons dismounted and crept through a wood on foot, surprising a German infantry company and overpowering them in close-quarter fight with lances and clubbed carbines. (continued)