Inside the face piece is a small wire clamp with rubber pads, which fits on the nose and forces the wearer to breathe through his mouth. The end of a flexible tube has a rubber mouthpiece, through which the man breathes. The incoming breath comes through the canister, which is filled with several layers of special chemicals of an absorbent nature, that neutralize or render harmless the gasladen air. The outgoing breath passes outside the face piece through a small rubber valve. Q. Is the American gas mask like the German? A.-No. In the German mask the container for the neutralizing chemicals is screwed into a ring in the bottom of the mask. There is no outlet valve for the exhaled air, both incoming and outgoing air passing through the container. Q. How are the gas masks used? A. The mask is carried in a knapsack at the left hip, supported by a shoulder band. When troops approach a danger zone, the straps are shortened and the knapsack is shifted to rest high on the This is chest, ready for instant use. known as the "alert position." The soldier has merely to open the knapsack, pull out the flexible hose with the face piece attached, put the rubber mouthpiece in his mouth and adjust the bands over his head. The nose clip can easily be adjusted from the outside after the face piece is on. This nose clip insures that even if the fabric of the face piece should be pierced, the soldier would still be breathing entirely through his mouth. Q. Do the American gas masks furnish absolute protection? A. The present American mask affords more protection than any other device in existence. The chemicals in the canister will neutralize the heaviest concentrations of gases for a period at least ten times longer than the possible duration of any gas attack. For every mask there is at least one extra canister. These canisters are detachable from the tube. When a canister has lost its efficiency, it can be detached, and a new canister put on. A Gas Defense School has been established in each cantonment, and a gas mask factory, with 4,000 workers, has been organized. Q.-Was gas ever used before? A. The Chinese used the famous "stink-pot" ages ago. Devices that made strangling smoke were used in the siege of Troy. Q.-What is a glacis? A. The name given to the ground in front of a fortification. It is sloped so that it can be covered thoroughly by the fire from the guns of the fort. Q. Are the tanks really of much service in the war? A. When they first appeared the tanks seem to have done excellent work, but there has been no weapon ever devised against which more or less effective defence has not been found. Had the British marshalled a huge array of tanks before the enemy lines they might have pushed their way through, but the few tanks first employed, though very useful, could not alone smash the enemy defences. When the British had more of the monsters ready, the Germans had discovered a more or less effective reply to them in the shape of a field gun, which they were able to bring into the trenches. The Germans made the same mistake when they first used poisonous gas. They experimented on a short front, and, when they were ready to utilize the new weapon on a great scale, gas masks had rendered it more or less harmless. Had they begun on the entire front at once they might have reached Paris. Q. How are the British tanks armed? A. There are two types of British tanks. One carries two six-pounder, rapid-fire Hotchkiss guns and four Lewis machine guns. The other is armed with six Lewis guns. Each type weighs about thirty tons, and is manned by an officer and seven men. The armor plate is of 14-inch steel of a special composition, and has great powers of resistance against rifle, machine gun and shrapnel fire. Q. What is the best weapon used against the tanks? A. The most efficacious weapon against the tanks is the armor-piercing bullet. It is feared by the crews of the tanks, because it pierces the armor and produces flame which frequently sets fire to the fuel reservoir. Hand grenades, employed one at a time, are useless. It is necessary to employ a Q. Is the tank not a brand new war invention? A. They were used exactly 2,157 years before they made their appearance on the British-German lines. In the tremendous siege of the "Queen of Africa" Carthage, the Romans attacked the walls with "tortoises"-immense tortoise-shaped tanks on wheels, whose backs, covered with timber, iron scales, hides and straw padding protected the soldiers underneath against the liquid fire, projectiles and boiling water that rained down on them from above. They also attacked with a huge armored tower on wheels, the famous "Hellepolis." The attacks failed. The Carthaginians devised a defense against each new apparatus in turn. Q. What does the word "abatis” mean? A. It is a military term to describe one of the obstacles which, when the war began, were used in defense of field works. Such defense is probably obsolete now. It was formed of the limbs of trees, twelve or fifteen feet long, laid close together, the larger branches pointed towards the enemy and the stems secured to the ground. The object of an abatis is, of course, to break up the enemy's advance. Nowadays heavy explosive shells sweep such obstacles out of the way with ease. Barbed wire takes its place now. Q. Who used barbed wire first in modern warfare? A. The Boers in South Africa, and then the Russians and Japanese in Manchuria. It is now one of the most important of defensive appliances. Q.-How is barbed wire cut by the soldiers? A. The wire is not actually cut, it is swept away by the blast made by special shells. These are not made with thick walls, as it is not the flying fragments which do the damage when the shell explodes, but actually the wind of the explosion. A Dumezil shell will clean up a network of wire over an area of about 100 square feet. These special shells are thrown a distance of about 1,200 feet by small trench howitzers. Q-Can the most complicated wire entanglements be swept aside in this way? A. The ordinary entanglements cannot stand against these shells, but there are methods of arranging the wire in spirals, which effectively defy the shells. In fact, the more the spirals are bombarded the more the different coils become entangled, forming an inextricable jungle, on which hostile attacks are vain. The French have greatly developed this method of wiring, which they call Brun networks. Q. Who invented barbed wire? A.-An American, Colonel Elbridge who, it is said, used his wife's hairpins for barbs in his early experimental work. Q.-Is gasolene used much in modern war? A.-It has made an immense difference. Owing to its use transport has been greatly accelerated, and guns especially have been moved with wonderful speed. The Germans have perfected steel-clad motor-cars from which heavy, rapid-fire guns pour with disappearing turrets, streams of lead. It is these "moving forts" which have given the Germans an advantage, and made up, to some extent, heavy howitzers and field guns are dragged the poor shooting of their infantry. The by gasolene or oil-driven engines, and it is used for the ambulance cars, and all manner of transport. Q.-Does anybody know the amount of British orders for munitions placed here? A.-From August, 1914, to the middle of July, 1917 (about 3 years), the British Government placed orders for ordnance of all kinds and all kinds of ammunition, totaling $1,308,000,000. An illustration of the scale of American preparation is the fact that in the seven months following the entrance of the United States into the war (from the middle of May to the middle of December, 1917), the Ordnance Department of the United States Army placed orders for $1,500,000,000. Q.-Were dum-dum bullets actually used in this war as charged by both sides? A.-Probably not, although both sides have accused each other of making use of them. There is no doubt that the wounds men have received on both sides appear to have been caused by this expanding bullet. The explanation is that the German Army, the British Army, and others use what is called the "spitz" (pointed) bullet. This, when it goes through soft parts, makes a very small hole, but when it encounters an obstacle, like a bone, sometimes turns sidewards, and inflicts a horrible wound. The scarcity of antimony for hardening the lead has probably caused very soft bullets to be made in Germany. Q. Do the British shells contain far more copper than the German? A. They used to, at least. The British fuses contain 24 ounces of gunmetal, and the French and German only 32 ounces. The Germans are fully aware of the fact, and offer rewards for all British fuses collected. Assuming that their artillery fired 40,000 rounds into the German trenches in a day, and only half the fuses were collected, the guns at very great cost would actually have supplied the enemy with enough copper for 250,000 shells! Q. Is it true that Germany was short of shells after the battle of the Marne? A. Apparently she was, although in those early stages of the war, before the trench dead-lock was established, nothing like the number of shells and guns was needed as is required to-day. Q. What is meant by bridgehead? A.—A bridgehead is a position which commands the crossing of a river. It is not necessarily at an actual bridge to span the stream. Owing to the long range of modern guns a bridgehead may actually have to be a long way away from the river itself, as its function is to pre vent the enemy artillery from interfering with the crossing army, and to hold a position that shall enable the big body of the army behind to form in security. Q.-Is the French 75 the greatest artillery weapon? A.-Among quick-firing guns it is said. to be pre-eminent. It has this immense advantage that it does not require to be re-aimed after each discharge. The recoil is entirely taken up by the shockabsorbers and the gun points at exactly the same mark all the time. The following comparison between the 75 and its German rival is interesting: French 75. German 77. 8 feet 734 feet 334 miles 3 miles 9 14 lbs. Length 2520 II lbs. 1510 feet 300 1950 lbs. 8 6 24 3600 Q. Has the shell of the French 75 been altered since the war? A. The main alteration has been the increased number of fragments into which the projectile breaks. One of these shells now bursts into more than 2,000 pieces, some of them so small as to wound fatally without making a conspicuous abrasion on the skin. The tiniest of particles possesses so great a velocity as to inflict grave injuries at 30 or 40 yards from the spot where the shell bursts. Q-Why have the Germans not mastered the secret of the French 75's? A.-Presumably they do know the secret, but evidently do not find it practicable or advisable to replace their own 77 quick-firing gun with the French model. Q.-How fast can the 75 fire? A. This trench, known by the soldiers as "C. T.," is a trench leading back from the front or firing line to the rear, as protection to those bringing up supplies, etc. Q. What are dug-outs? A. They are the underground shelters or caves in the trenches in which soldiers on duty may rest, relatively safe from the danger of exploding shells or bullets. They constitute also a definite part of the front-line fortifications, as soldiers can be dislodged from such cave-like strongholds only by throwing bombs into them or employing suffocating gas. Q.-Is direct injury achieved by artillery fire against enemy batteries? A. It has been thought by some that the only thing that counts is bombardment of the infantry. General Ludendorff, Chief of the German General Staff, in a report dated October 4, 1917, shows, however, that artillery fire against artillery positions is a very serious matter. The average number of guns lost by a single German Army in a single month were stated to amount to 1,455, of which 870 were field guns and 585 heavy pieces. Of the total of 1,455 about 655 were lost through wear, and 800 through Allied bombardments. Q. What is meant by a "Silent Susie"? A.-A German high explosive shell not heard until it bursts. As most of the large shells can be both seen and heard, because their swift flight makes a loud screaming or whistling sound, the “Silent Susie" is more to be feared than some of the others. Q-What is meant by a "WhizBang"? A.-The lightest shrapnel shells used by both sides. Q-What is shrapnel? A.-Shrapnel is an explosive shell, fired like other explosive shells from a rifled cannon. But, unlike all other explosive shells, which have thick steel walls to make their bursting power effective, the shrapnel shell is only a thin steel casing -a "can," so to speak. The old term "cannister" is based on this very fact. The shrapnel shell is filled with explosive like other shells, but, in addition, is packed with bullets by the hundreds. A time fuse is so adjusted that the shell shall explode when it is over a position occupied by troops. The bursting of the shells drives the bullets in a spreading rain of metal with deadly force. It is the most savage form of artillery attack known against troops that are at all in the open. To be truly effective, however, it requires extreme accuracy. Q.-Why is it called shrapnel? A. It is named for its inventor, a British General named Shrapnel, who served in the early part of the nineteenth century, dying in 1842. Q. Are trench periscopes like submarine periscopes? A.-Very much so, both in principle and construction, being a tube, more or less long, with prisms and mirrors in it which reflect to the observer below the image seen by the great glass "eye" at the top. The trench periscope, however, is easier to hide from the enemy than the submarine periscope. It can be erected among tree branches, or in similar "camouflage" so that no hostile watcher is very likely to sight it. Some of the periscopes are small, but others are giants that are moved from place to place on little carts. These monsters have telescopic tubes, which can be raised so high that the observer can look over all sorts of obstacles into enemy positions. OUR ARMY Q. What officer commands all the American war forces? A.-No officer can ever have their command, because the Constitution of the United States makes the President Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy. His powers as such are those of military command and include, of course, the right to dispose the national forces where they can be used to best advantage. In the War of 1812, in the Mexican War, in the Spanish War, in the Boxer rebellion, and, recently, in Mexico, American troops were thus sent to fight on foreign soil. These, however, were all either volunteers or regulars. Q-What is the smallest army organization? A. The smallest unit or "team" in the Army is the squad. A squad usually consists of eight men, one of whom is the leader; he is called the "corporal." The object of the company commander is to make this a permanent unit by putting men together who will work well in uni son. Two, three, or four squads (usually three) may be joined in the next higher unit, which is called a "platoon." The platoon is not so permanent as a squad, but is formed whenever there is need for it. -How is a company made up? A. The company is made up at full strength of 150 men; this is about 18 squads or 6 platoons. This number is "war strength" in our old tables of organization; the first division now in France has 200 men per company. It is probable the strength may become 250 per infantry company. Figures for the number of squads and of platoons are never definitely fixed. A company in the field is seldom at full strength, and it may be convenient at any time to change the numbers of squads and pla toons. Q.-What is an army division? A. A division is a group of various branches of the Army, making the whole body complete in itself-that is, able to fight by itself, feed itself, transport its supplies, etc. Thus, the American In Q. What was the strength of fantry Division, as organized for modern America's army in 1918? A. At the beginning of 1918 the regular army consisted of 10,250 officers and 475,000 enlisted men, the National Guard of 10,031 officers and 400,900 enlisted men, the National Army of 480,000 men, and the reserve of 84,575 officers and 72,750 enlisted men, a total of 1,539,485 officers and men. Q. Is there a National Guard or ganization in the U. S. army? A. The National Guard service, approximating 300,000 men, was incorporated into Federal service August 5, 1917. war, has not only infantry, but cavalry, artillery, engineers, signal and quartermaster corps, medical and sanitary troops and supplies, etc. It should be noted that in newspaper articles the reference to a "division" frequently means a mere body of men detached on some special expedition. This is not an Army division. It is an expeditionary force only. But such an expeditionary force, if operating far away, may have all the organization of a division on a miniature scale. Q. How big is an army division? A.-A United States Army Infantry Division has two infantry brigades (four regiments), two machine-gun battalions, |