Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-03-25 | Page 27 | Stone Age and Modern Times Knock Elbows

k Stone Age and Modern Times Knock Elbows Primitive Rock - throwing ! Catapult and the Latest Howitzer in Company, COMEX, Austria, March 2 t. In the Aiistro-Italiun theater of war may j be mot the erudei-t. and most primitive, alons; with the most i advanced, of military equipment. Arms j of the stouc ae crowd nere the most j up-to-date instruments the electrically-controlled, electrically-controlled, indirect lire forty -two centimeter centi-meter howitzer stands beside the rock-throwing rock-throwing catapult. From the ancient siege tower to the modern turret gun is often but a single step, figuratively. Here may be found infantry trained in throwing stones, or liberating avalanches ava-lanches of rock by moving a single lever. Several boards fall out of their place and dowa the mountain-side ric-Lt ric-Lt tons of boulders to kill and maim uio attacking forces. Tho knife and mace are preferred to the bavonet in r many places, because advance upon the enemy s position by stealth, over boulder boul-der fields, does not favor carrying a rifle. The medieval petard, now known as hand grenade, is a favorite. On the Tsonzo the Italians 'uso a Hying mine, an aerial torpedo of fifty-two cente-meters cente-meters caliber, a return to the days of the Thirty-Years' war, when artillery did just that and no more. Though the rock catapult be handled bv modern artillerymen, officered by individuals in-dividuals well versed in artillery mathematics, mathe-matics, who can place a shell ten miles off in the very spot whore they want it, one finds that the machine used differs nowise from the one employed by the Bomans in the siege of Jerusalem. Its main principle is a beam thrown forward by steel springs. The chemical fire which the Greeks used to destroy the Persian fleet is one of the other ancient war means found along the Italian front, though it is by no means limited to this theater of war. The cousin of this noxious arm, the gas bomb, and the gas distributor generally, is well known along tho Isonzo. Both sides have placed ga.3 in their service, and both have been obliged to adopt the 2as mask. The Italian front has other striking contrasts. In southern Tyrol and on the Krn men fight either in or on the edge of eternal snow, while at Monfal-eone Monfal-eone the temperature hardly ever reaches the freezing point. While on the Krn faces may be blue from the cold, the men on the shores of the Adriatic Adri-atic mav stifle in a damp heat. Not long ago the Italians tried steel armor for their infantry. But this relapse re-lapse to the day of the Crusader had to be abandoned. " The Austro-Hungarians nniwear a helmet whose prototype was . jTorn bv the Soundheads under Crom--"vell. The Italians have a steel head-- head-- r piece that reminds of the gay Gascon. V" Some Austrian troops have taken to the club, others to the mace.