Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/236

 The Hell-Trench of the Piave

How an attacking German force was electro- cuted as it rushed a second line of trenches

By E. T. Bronsdon

���How eight thousand Germans were electrocuted near the Piave River. They rushed a trench filled with scrap-iron charged to high voltage by power plants from two adjacent towns

��delaying the

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��WHEN the Italians stopped, a few weeks ago, with their backs to the Piave River, in northern Italy, with the intent of Austro-German advance as much as possible, an in- cident occurred which il- lustrates the scientific re- sourcefulness of the Ital- ians and also shows how much of a factor the unex- pected can become, even in this warfare of to-day.

It was certain that no long stand could be made on that side of the river; the Teuton preponderance in men and guns was too great. Any expedient which might gain hours, however, was worth con- sidering.

An Italian engineer by

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Cormections the Italians may have used. Instead of the single-phase and three-phase circuits above shown, direct cur- rent may have been available

��the name of Mertilli was responsible for the plan.

��Before the final German thrust was de- livered, Mertilli caused the second-line trench to be evacuated over a front of eight miles, except by workmen.

In this second trench he placed some discarded machine guns, plates of corrugated dugout armor, and even some veteran field pieces, which seldom made an appearance in the trenches. The whole floor of the trench was lined irregularly with pieces of metal of different kinds, so that no matter where a man might step he WL,s likely to touch one of the pieces. Then serv- ice electric cables were stretched to the trench, across the Piave, from two of the small towns just on the other side. These carried the heaviest charge of

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