Page:The Great War.djvu/263

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CHAPTER XLI GERMAN SURPRISES. HOWITZER, SUBMARINE AND ZEPPELIN A T the very outset of the war the world was "^ ^ warned that Germany had " surprises " in store for her opponents. Not " surprises " in the sense that the general staffs of the Allies were un- informed, in some measure at least, as to the innova- tions which their great opponent had planned to introduce, but " surprises " which would astound and terrify the people of France, of England and of Russia, who were naturally uninformed on technical military matters. The first of these surprises was the great siege gun. Of its achievement at Liege the world knew little, because after the first days of confused reports a veil settled over this city, a veil which was not lifted until long after the last fort fell and the first war correspondents were permitted to inspect the ruins of the steel turreted concrete forts which had been destroyed by the opening salvos of the howitzer. It was, in fact, the fall of Namur which first warned the general public that the reliance in for- tresses had been vain. From the first operation against Liege on August 4 until August 20 the Bel- 231

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