New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1915-08-25
NEW ULM co. GETS ! y;
HIGHEST AVERAGE
MACHINE GUN co. RETURNS
FROM TEN-DAY STAY AT
SPARTA.
GIVEN PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION
IN FIELD ATTACK AND
DEFENSE.

The soldier boys" of the local Machine
Gun Company are walking the streets
of New Ulm in the midst of their adj
miring friends with chests just little
fuller and chins a trife more elevated,
and they have their reasons for it. They
went on a ten day encampment to
Sparta, Wis.,, and came back with several
festoons of glory in the shape of the
highest average and the highest score
of any, company present, and this in
spite of the fact that they we're con-
siderably handicapped by a shortage
of men. Instead of eleven men for
each gun they had only five, yet their
record scared quite bit above those
made by the other companies from
several different states.
The boys returned last Friday morning
with the feeling that they had learned
in this ten day period more about the
practical handling of machine gun
in actual service than they had known
in all the time of their enlistment.
Eleven men, Capt. Ed. Juni, Lieut..
Dengler, First Sergt. Jahnke, Sergeants
Koeck, Stone and Hahselbruck, Corpor-
ais Herrian and Hesse and three others
we're the New Ulm representatives at
Camp Robinson at Sparta. The FEEDER
al Reserve at Sparta consists of about
$4,000 acres of reservation, most of it
rolling sandy country, with long ranges
of low hills crossing it in parallel lines,
very little of it covered with shrubbery
or woods. All civilians have it fore
IDLY impressed upon them that they
must keep out, and within the reser-
walton every move is made on absolute
schedule time so that the shooting
ranges cross and recross each other,
and companies go about their work
with shrapnel flying overhead without
the slightest danger of the fool killer
getting in his inning.
The work of the machine gun COM
panies, especially the four detachments,
three from Minnesota and one from
Missouri, at Camp Robinson,-is de-
scribed by the New Ulm boys in way
which will interest most people,
especially in these times of Mexican
Villas and Carranzas and German sub
marines.
Sergeant Herman Jahnke gives an
account of the concentrated dose of
practical experience which was dished
out to the Machine Gun Companies.
''The mornings from $50 until 1870
were spent in firing on the rifle and ar
tillery ranges, beginning with the 500
yard range and gradually working up
to the 1900 yard range. The targets
used were the 'E'' type, which con-
sisted of a canvas sheet 4 by feet on
a wooden frame, over which the. paste
board target, by feet, was fastened.
The bullseyes ranged from eight inches
in diameter on the 500 yard range to
fourteen inches on the 1900 yard range.
The twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth
of the month were spent firing for record
on these ranges.
Score in Tactical Work.
''The following week was spent in
tactical work. Tuesday night they were
given night attack problem. A little
before dark they were told that they
were to be sent out to protect the rear
Of an advancing column. After sunset
we took our position on the range and
awaited developments. The targets used
here were what are called the figure
targets, that IS, they are built to repre-
sent the upper part Of a mans body as
he would be seen standing in trench
or marching up to an attack. We were
told that there were four groups of
targets somewhere out in the dark, to
represent four attacking parties. We
used the Weldon range finder in this
work, which is about the best in use
although not quite what it should be.
The signal for an attack consisted of a
light burning about ten feet before the
target groups which were located any
where from quarter Of mile to two
miles distant. This fire burned for five
minutes, and in that time we had to
figure out the distance and the range
sight the gun, and fire our volley. We
made forty eight hits out Of ninety
shots fred on fifteen targets, so that we
practically hit every man three times,
which was quite enough to put him out
Of commission. One Of the Minnesota
companies made as low an average as