illustration on this page is a design for a battle-ship made by
the Kaiser in 1893, to replace the old "Preussen," then out of date. The
vessel was to carry four large barbettes and a huge umbrella-like
fighting-top. Illustration No. 2 is an Immersible Ironclad, designed by a
French engineer named Le Grand, in 1862. In action the vessel was to be
partly submerged, so that only her three turrets and the top of the
armoured glacis would be visible. No. 3 is Admiral Elliott's "Ram," of
1884. The ship was to carry a "crinoline" of stanchions along her
water-line, practically a fixed torpedo-net. No. 4 is Thomas Cornish's
Invulnerable Ironclad, of 1885. She was to have two separate parallel
hulls under water; above she was of turtle-back shape.

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40--THE ILLUSTRATED WAR NEWS, DEC. 30, 1914.--[Part 21]

[Illustration: EXPERTS IN CLOSE-QUARTER FIGHTING: SIBERIAN INFANTRYMEN
IN THEIR FIELD-SERVICE EQUIPMENT AT WARSAW.]

Our illustration shows a halt in one of the squares of Warsaw of one of
the regiments of Siberian infantry, whose magnificent fighting qualities
in all the battles of the war in the eastern theatre of operations in
which they have taken part have gained for them, as the accounts of the
different actions sent to London from Petrograd testify, the outspoken
admiration of the whole Russian Army. Particularly singled out for praise
has been their audacious expertness in close-quarter combats. They supply
both infantry and artillery, and are recruited all over Siberia, forming
ordinarily two separate commands, the East Siberian and the West Siberian
troops, which garrison the fortresses and districts between Vladisvostock
and the Ural Mountains, the dividing range between European and Asiatic
Russia.

__________________________________________________________________________
THE ILLUSTRATED WAR NEWS, DEC. 30, 1914--[Part 21]--41

[Illustration: THE LETTER HOME: A BRITISH SOLDIER WRITING IN A LOFT OVER
A COW-SHED "SOMEWHERE NEAR THE FRONT."]

One of the happiest features of the Great War, and one of its most
favourable omens, is the optimistic spirit in which our troops, officers
and men alike, are making the best of things, in spite of the trying
conditions in which they have to live and carry out their arduous work.