Show COLOSSAL BATTLE OF BIG GUNS IMPENDS Millions of Earths Earth's Wealth Will Vanish in Smoke on West Front B By y Henry Wood United Press Staff Correspondent WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES ARMES I ITHE IN INTHE INTHE THE FIELD March 2 2 When the 1918 offensives begin on tho the French front whether front whether they be allied or German Ger Ger- man they man they will be bo preceded by the greatest and most costly artillery preparation the tho world has yet s seen en During every day of or prelim nary lary artillery battles millions of dollars dollars dollars dol dol- lars of the worlds world's wealth will disappear lisp lisp- pear ear in smoke gas explosions and iron fragments The battles will mark the culminating ing point in the concentration anc and power of artillery S Since nce tho the first firs i months of the tho war demonstrated that the he decision must rest largely largel with heavy artillery the allies have been carving carrying out a steady program of in increase increase increase in- in crease that has now reached its run mil development What this program was and what wha I Ithe the concentration now Is military expediency expediency ex ex- renders it impossible to di I Suffice to say the tho allies will enter the 1918 campaign with the highest concentration of or artillery that tha it is practical to utilize HUGE COST CITED While it Is doubtful f if Germany has been able to keep up with wIlh the allies allies' heavy artillery program yet owing t to the tho practical elimination or of Russia Russ she sho will wUl have at her disposal as grea great greata a concentration of artillery as it i is possible to use In the matter of ammunition hoever ho ever the allies will have an Incontestable incontestable incontestable incon Incon- testable superiority This advantage will be greater even than that of last las spring when the tho French were able t to fire shells a day during th the April offensive e Military l expediency again makes it impossible to give a precise idea of what each day of the 1918 artillery preparations are arc going to cost A few t general figures can be given however that will enable one ono to arrive arrhe at some Idea of the titanic contests of ma material ma t and wealth that are about to open It has been demonstrated that to de destroy destroy de- de stroy an enemy battery five or six miles behind the lines Unes a n. meter gun must fire no less than Ulan SOOt shots One shell costs about abou i 45 In other words It costs about to silence nence a single enemy but bat tery tev In past offensives It has been nothIng nothing nothing noth noth- ing uncommon for the tho Germans to concentrate batteries on a sixteen t sixteen sixteen- mile front This means for this one item alone on a front that size j I RAVENOUS SHELL EATERS j t But Dut It Is not impossible that actions actions' may occur this spring on fronts of miles which would increase this one item to more than Another task of or the artillery is to to cut away tho the enemy's barbed wire en entanglements en- en At a distance of two or three mile miles 1000 shells from a seventy five meter battery are aro necessary se 1 to cut a a breech of twenty-five twenty yards ards in the wire In a huge offensive such a as t may mar be expected this year ear wire must tt be destroyed on fronts of ot or l O miles I Barrage fires are also terrible shell caters Thousands of shells are consumed consumed consumed con con- in a minute in this way Anti Ann some times Umes the barrages must last for fork hours oJ Shells will largely win the war this year The allies are already alread- of a superiority But Dut an ever-anu- ever ever increasing superiority in shells shells that can come only from America will shorten the war as ns nothing else cIse |