OCR Text |
Show Flowers on Atlantic Coast Hide Engines of Warfare Prepared for the Enemy Famous Camouf leur Tells of Defensive Work Performed by Government Under Very Noses of Unsuspecting Denizens of Seaboard Communities. NEW YORK, March 7. Huge mortars, mor-tars, standins on concrete emplacements emplace-ments and abundantly supplied with half-ton projectiles, were ' erected during the war among the flowers and shrubbery of private gardens in New York City and elsewhero along the Atlantic coast, ready to repel the attacks at-tacks of German naval or airships, Maximilian Maxi-milian Toch, ono of the first American camoufleurs, told the New Tork section of the American Chemical society tonight. Mr. Toch described how honeysuckle, morning glory and Ivy, as well as paints, had been employed to conceal or .lower the visibility of coast fortifications. Ambrose channel, the mouth of New York harbor, was protected, in addition to tho guns in the regular army forts, by mortars having a range of twelve miles, said Mr. Toch. Some of these auxiliary cannon, he declared, were placed two and a half miles inland on private estates and so concealed by arrangement of trees,, .shrubbery, .and . towers that passers-by were ignorant of their erection erec-tion and even aviators found "little or no evidence" of their location. They .were manned by army gun crews, ready for instant action. The camoufleur described also his work in disguising navy yards and docks along the Atlantic coast, near the Pensacola ! and Key West bases, which were exposed 1 to attacks by German raiders and sub-; sub-; marines operating in the south Atlantic. I The navy believed. Mr. Toch asserted, ; that the Germans had a secret base on I tiie north coast of Cuba, adding that I "rich German firms in Havana were no-: no-: loriously aiding the central powers," and that there were "more German spies and , propagandists on the island than in the United States." Mr. Toch declared the army "did not take kindly to camouflage at the beginning begin-ning of the war," and said that he had "great difficulty" in convincing army of-. of-. ficers of the necessity of camouflaging fortifications adjacent to navy yards. . Prior to the war, Mr. Toch gained a ; reputation as a camoufleur by lowering j the visibility of the forts at the Pacific entrance to "the Panama canal. |