Captions and Calibres. Technical Inaccuracies in the Current Press.
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Elsewhere in this issue we draw attention to an example of the technical inaccuracy which charac terises so many of the general Press reports to which currency is so readily given in many of the daily papers at the present time, in the absence of what, in previous great wars, has been received from special correspondents at the front. We can only excuse this neglect to check technical details, statistics and probabilities by the fact that the Press censorship, as it quite rightly exists at the present time, imposes entirely new conditions on the Press as a whole.
On page 144 post, we offer a few criticisms of a tale of the rescue, single-handed, of five motor lorries, to which currency was given recently in various quarters. Similar lack of technical accuracy characterises other tales which have reference to the mechanical branches of our combatant forces. We learned the other day, for instance, of an accident on one of the smaller warships which was attributed to the bursting of the piston. Then, again, with regard to artillery, there is the same tendency to talk of all German howitzers as of 16-in, calibre, or even more, in the same way we speak airily of the 250,000 Austrians who are slaughtered daily, or the rapidly-rising millions of the available Russian army. Calibres and armies grow apace as swiftly and as readily as the famous tale of the Russians. We are in a credulous mood—not critical of news so long as it be news of a sort.
We have done our best, during the past weeks of stress, to correct, where it has. been in our power, rumours and ill-informed tales that have had reference to the mechanical transport—our own particular sphere. In the public interest, we shall continue to check the circulation of inaccuracies of this kind. We scotched the tale of the B-type bus dashing into action, with its top and lower decks crammed with ammunition, and still proudly flaunting its Hendon destination board, early in the operations. It will be news to many of our readers that only last week have any very large numbers of London motorbuses been detailed for active service.
We are led to indulge in these remarks because of the reproduction of the photograph of a, remarkable siege train, which appears on this page. This picture is actually of one of the big howitzers belonging to the Austrian Army, and it is of the 11-in. type. It has been published, in several instances elsewhere, as being one of the 42-centimetre German guns with which Antwerp was reduced, and which, we are told, were hauled into action by endless strings of steam traction engines. The gun which we illustrate is not German, its calibre is not 16i ins., and no guns of that size, we believe it is correct to state, were employed in the reduction of Antwerp. Its interest for us lies in the fact that it is motor-hauled by one of the big Austro-Daimler petrol-driven tractors, which we have described and illustrated in the past.
As a matter of fact, no detail particulars are known in this country of the 42-centimetre howitzers ; it may be interesting, as general topical information, to record, however, that the particular gun which this giant tractor is seen to be hauling weighs 10 tons, fires a sbell weighing 748 lb., and has a, muzzle velocity of 1133 ft. per second. The maximum range capacity is a little over six miles, and the shell in its flight of 50 seconds reaches a height of 9000 ft The angle of descent is 50 degrees, and the striking energy is nearly 5000 foot-tons. These are particulars which are vouched for by the military correspondent of "The Standard," and we have other information which justifies our recording them as correct. They are of topical current interest.
As we go to press, there is a crop of discoveries of concrete gun platforms, which "news" finds much favour with the poster manipulators. That nothing more harmful than ferro-concrete building construction is involved appears to be of little moment.
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