War Game

On a little knoll near Leuthen, Saxony, stood Defense Minister Gessler of the Reich, last week, with General Mueller, commander of the Saxon Reichswehr, and some seventy of the highest officers of the German Army. Before them a body of infantry "advanced" toward the town in "war games." Lest the maneuvers should lack reality a battery of heavy machine guns, planted out of sight behind the officers, prepared to lay down a "protective barrage" before the infantry as it advanced.

Came the moment of firing. General Mueller raised his field-glass to observe the effect of bullets which were to whine harmlessly over many a German head. An instant later he dropped the glass, clutched at his side and fell dead. Lieutenant Colonel von Hoeruf, a staff officer, was wounded in the leg at the same moment. Aghast, Defense Minister Gessler and the military observers, realizing that the barrage had somehow fallen short, signaled frantically to the gunners to cease fire.

Upon investigation it was found that seven-year-old deteriorated War ammunition had been used in the guns. Although they had been properly elevated and fired, the "half dead" propelling charges had carried the bullets just far enough to spatter them down among the officer observers!

Seasoned U. S. commanders expressed their utter astonishment at the whole affair. Said one: "It is all but incredible that such maneuvers should have been planned by any general staff. Never before has an actual barrage been laid down over troops in peace time."