Cutting Barbed Wire in the Single-Man Tank 



In this steel tank resembling a broken and discarded can- 

 non a scout can creep over the ground unsuspected 



The wire-cutter in the one-man tank creeping cautiously to his 

 task of destroying the wire entanglements set up by the enemy 



WE hear comparatively little of the 

 work done by the scouts of the 

 army. And yet they are called upon 

 to take risks which the rank and file seldom 

 dream of, acting often on their own initia- 

 tive and unprotected in exposed territory. 



They have well been called the "nerves" 

 of the army, and it is high time that the 

 genius of the inventors should be directed 

 toward them. In the illustration above is 

 shown a device which has been employed 

 by the French to enable the individual 

 scout to make his way over exposed coun- 

 try and to find out the lay of the land under 

 cover, to a certain extent. 



The device is made to resemble a cannon 

 which it is hoped will be considered by the 

 enemy to be broken and discarded. It is 

 provided with slits and larger openings 

 through which the scout may see and get 

 air. The wheels, though apparently rusty 

 and old, are smooth-running and noiseless, 

 and the legs of the scout, moving cautiously 



at the rate of perhaps one-half inch per 

 minute during critical times, resemble the 

 drooping muzzle of the gun — or it is hoped 

 that they will. 



It is also considered among the possi- 

 bilities that the device will be of service 

 when it is necessary for a bold and death- 

 defying dash to be made through showers of 

 shrapnel into the teeth of the foe. But this 

 is problematical since the device is not 

 made for rapidity of movement. 



The chief advantage to which it has been 

 put thus far is to protect the soldiers whose 

 duty it is to cut down the wire entangle- 

 ments set up by the enemy. Heretofore the 

 wire-cutter's life has been a poor risk for the 

 insurance companies. Even under such 

 protection as this tank-shield affords, his 

 is not the easiest of tasks. His one chance 

 lies in concealment, therefore such a device 

 as this, in which he may creep forward or 

 backward, slowly but surely, may prove to 

 be his salvation. 



702 



