CHAPTER XXI
DEVASTATING FIRE
Modestly enough Tom and Jack took the new honors that came to them. As amatter of fact they were in no wise sure that they had discovered thelocation of the German giant cannon. It was all well enough to come inand report seeing some strange-colored flares of fire. But Tom and Jackfelt that they wanted to see a thing with their own eyes before surelybelieving.
Of course, though, the French experts knew about what they were talking,and the major and the lieutenant seemed very sure of their ground.
"I only hope we have had the good luck to have spotted the beasts'machine," said Tom.
"You will have the honor of proving it to yourselves in the morning,"Major de Trouville told them. "You shall accompany the first scoutingparty that goes out. We will send out two photographing machines, andenough of a squadron to meet anything the Huns can put forth. Parisshall be delivered from the Boche pests!"
"We'll do our best," said Tom, and Jack nodded in agreement.
It did not take long for the news to spread about Camp Lincoln that thetwo young United States aviators had, very probably, discovered byaccident the big German gun.
And in telling what they had seen Tom and Jack remarked that thepeculiar tri-colored fire had been in the midst of other flashes offlame, and, doubtless, smoke, but that could not be seen on account ofthe darkness.
"The other flashes were probably guns fired to camouflage the flash fromthe giant cannon, or possibly cannons," observed Major de Trouville."But we shall see what to-morrow brings forth."
The hours of the night seemed long, but there was much to do to getready for the next day's operations. More aviators were sent for, andthe men of the air spent many hours tuning up their motors and seeing totheir guns, while the big machines, which it was hoped could takepictures of the giant cannon's position, were gone over carefully.
In addition some powerful French guns were brought up--some of thelongest range guns available, and it was hoped that the big aeroplanesmight signal by wireless the exact location of the super-gun, so that adevastating fire could be poured on it, as well as bombs be droppedfrom some machines especially fitted for that work.
Camp Lincoln, where the picked squadron was situated, was in theneighborhood of Soissons, France, in a sector held by the French troops.The lines of German and French trenches, with No Man's Land in between,was about ten miles to the east of this point. This section had changedhands twice, once being occupied by the Germans, and then abandoned bythem when they made the great withdrawal.
Now, perhaps ten miles back of the German trenches, the great gun washidden, making its total distance from Paris about eighty miles, but itsdistance from Camp Lincoln something less than twenty miles.
Modern guns easily shoot that distance, but the commander of the forcesin this section was going to shorten that. Soissons was the nearestlarge city to the camp. As a matter of fact the air squadron was somedistance east of that place, and nearer the battleline. So that it wascomparatively easy, once the location of the big gun was known, to bringup heavy artillery behind the French lines to batter away at itsemplacement.
After a night of arduous labor, during which there was anxiety lest theGermans find out what was going on, morning broke, and to the relief ofall it was bright.
There was an early breakfast, and then the aviators' helpers wheeled themachines from the hangars. Several big photographing craft were inreadiness, and ten bombing planes were in reserve.
Major de Trouville inspected his brave men. They were as eager as dogson the leash to be off and at the throat of the Huns. A wireless messagefrom Paris had come in soon after breakfast, stating that nearly a scorehad been killed in the capital the previous night by fire from the"Bertha."
"And it's up to us to avenge them!" exclaimed Jack.
"That is what we'll do if we have any luck!" added Tom grimly.
There was a last consultation of the officers, instructions were goneover, and everything possible done to insure success. The moment a biggun was sighted, the signal was to be given and the French long-rangecannon would open fire, while the bombing machines would also do theirpart.
"All ready! Go!" called the major, and there was a rattle and a roarthat drowned his last word. The men of the air were off.
Led by Tom and Jack, the others followed. Up and up they arose, thesmaller planes flying high as a protection to the more cumbersomemachines of the bi-motored type. And soon the squadron, the largest thathad yet ascended from Camp Lincoln, was hovering over the German lines.
The Huns seemed to realize that something more than an ordinary attackfrom the air was impending, for soon after the anti-aircraft guns beganfiring a swarm of German aviators took the air, and there was noshirking battle this time. The Huns so evidently felt the desperate needof driving away their attackers, that this, more than what the major andlieutenant had said, convinced Tom and Jack that they were at last onthe track of the big gun.
Of course the two boys could not communicate with one another, but theysaid afterward that their thoughts were the same.
The battle of the air opened with a rush and a roar. The Germans, thoughoutnumbered by their opponents, did not hesitate, but came on fiercely.They attacked first the big photographing planes, for they realized thatthese were the real "eyes" of the squadron. The impressions theyreceived, and the views they carried back, might mean the failure of theGerman plans.
But the French were ready for this, and the swift little Nieuports,dashing here and there, swooping and rising, attacked the other planesvigorously.
It was give and take, hammer and tongs, fire and be fired on, smash andbe smashed. It was not as one-sided a battle as it would seem it mighthave been owing to the superiority of numbers in favor of the French--atleast at first. Several of the Allies' planes were sent down, either outof control, or in flames. But the Huns paid dearly for their quarry.
Jack and Tom ran serious risks, for the Germans, realizing that the twoleading planes had some special mission, attacked them fiercely. Tommanaged to shake off and disable his antagonist. But Jack's man shotwith such good aim that he pierced his gasolene tank, and had it notbeen that Jack was able to thrust into the hole one of some wooden plugshe had brought along for the purpose, he might have had to come downwithin the German lines. But the wood swelled, filled the hole, and thenthe petrol came out so slowly that there was comparatively littledanger.
And having, with some of their companions, fought their way through theGerman air patrol, and having escaped with minor damage to their guns,Jack and Tom looked down at the place where they had seen the queerlights.
And then, high up and at a vantage point, while below them hovered theirphotographing planes, the two young aviators beheld a curious sight.
In German-occupied territory, but on French soil, they saw near arailroad junction, where they were fairly well hidden in a camouflagedposition, not one, but three monster Hun cannons. The guns looked morelike gigantic cranes than like the accepted form of a great rifled pieceof armament. The guns were so mounted that they could be run out on asmall track at the moment of firing, and then propelled back again, likesome of the disappearing cannon at Sandy Hook and other United Statesforts. Only the German guns advanced and retreated horizontally, whilethe usual method is vertically.
"We've discovered 'em! There they are!" cried Tom, but of course hecould not hear his own voice above the roar of his motor. But he knewthat he and Jack were over the very spot where the night before they hadseen the colored flares from the great guns.
And they had, indeed, by a most lucky chance, located the big Germanguns, for there were three of them. They were placed almost midwaybetween the railroad station of Crepyen-Lannois and the two forts knownas "Joy Hills," forts which had fallen into German hands. There weretwo railroad spur lines from the station, and on these the heavy gunswere moved to position to fire, and then run back again. Other spurlines were under course of construction, Jack and Tom, as well as
theother airmen, could observe, indicating that other guns were to bemounted, perhaps to take the place of some that might be destroyed.
As a matter of fact, as was learned later, there were but two guns inservice at this time, one of the three having burst.[1]
[Footnote 1: While of course this story is fiction, the descriptiongiven above of the great guns and their method of firing and concealmentis strictly in accord with the facts, and made from a sight of aeroplanephotographs taken by the French, and from an official report, publishedApril 26, 1918, by Deputy Charles Leboucq of the Department of theSeine.]
Even as the French squadron came hovering over the place where theGerman monster guns were placed, the advance of Tom, Jack and theircomrades being disputed by the Huns, one of the super-guns was run outto fire on its specially constructed platform.
That this should be done in the very faces of the French was probablyaccounted for by the fact that the Germans were taken by surprise. Ittook some little time to arrange for firing one of the big cannons, andit was probably too late, after the French airmen were hovering aboveit, to get word to the crew not to discharge it.
As it happened, Tom and Jack, with Boughton, who had kept pace withthem, witnessed the firing of the big gun. As it was discharged, tenother heavy guns, but, of course, of much less range, were fired off,being discharged as one to cover the report of the giant mortar. And atthe same time dense clouds of smoke were sent up from surrounding hills,in an endeavor to screen the big gun from aeroplane observation. But itwas too late.
In another moment, and even as the echoes of the reports of the tencannons and the big gun were rumbling, the bombing machine of the Frenchcame up and began to drop explosives on the spot. At the same time wordof the location of the great cannon was wirelessed back to the camp, andthere began a devastating fire on the guns that had been, and were eventhen, bombarding Paris.