Heretofore the concrete which was available for this purpose required at
least a fortnight of exposure before it was sufficiently firm and
hardened; but when Fraulein Bertha Krupp's engineers escorted the
Fraulein's newest and most impressive steel masterpiece to the war, they
brought along with them the ingredients for a new kind of concrete; and
those who claim to have been present on the occasion declare that within
forty-eight hours after they had mixed and molded it, it was ready to
bear the weight of the guns and withstand the shock of their recoil.
This having been done, I conceive of the operators as hoisting their
guns into position, and posting up a set of rules--even in time of war
it is impossible to imagine the Germans doing anything of importance
without a set of rules to go by--and working out the distance by
mathematics, and then turning loose their potential cataclysms upon the
stubborn forts which opposed their further progress. From the viewpoint
of the Germans the consequences to the foe must amply have justified the
trouble and the cost.
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