The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1917-08-01
THE EVENING BANNER
BENNINGTON VERMONT
Wednesday, August 1, 1917.
TRAINING OUR "sAMMIEs".
Throwing Of Hand erenades Requires
Much Hard Practice.

MUCH haru Practice.
Three months training in France, |
where we know war to its ultimate
possibilities, will save the lives OF
more American soldiers than three
years training at home says Fred b.
Pitney of Leslie's.
That is why the American troops
will 90 straight from the glad hand to
the training camp. To save lives.
For three months, at least they will
remain in the camps. During that
time we may hear very little of them.
We may wonder where they are and
what they are doing.
Don't worry! They will be in train
ing camps. getting ready for the big
job to come For II is still to come
Germany is still long way from be-
ing beaten and she will not be beaten
this year. There will plenty of fight
| ing for our men to do next year.
The life in these training camps is
very simple and very complex. 1t Is
the complex simplicity of the life in
the front line reproduced with the
| fewest possible differences. The
men will live in barracks instead OF
dugouts. That Is one difference, and
a highly important one, in so far as
comfort is concerned. There Will be
| the uninterrupted RAJ Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
OF the machneguns, in practice, the
| short, high bark of the field guns,
and the heavy roar of the big guns,
but there will not be the long whine
and deep explosion of the arriving
shell, with its clouds of earth and
| thick black smoke and flying pieces
of jagged steel This difference is
even more important from the point
Of view of comfort t4
Thus are disposed fof1the most i'm
portant differences between the train
ing camp and thetfront The men will
then begin to learn the differences
between war as 1t is and war as it
should be. One of the first things
they will learn will be that 999 out
of every 1000 hand-to-hand combats
are fought at distances yerying from
ten to forty yards from ones oppon-
! ent.
| They will be taught this when men
are picked out from every company
and squad for grenadiers, throwers
| of hand grenades, called In the Eng
| lish army "bombers" We have still
| to develop an army slang of our own
| for this war Under French instruc-
tors. privates, corporals and segeants,
| the champion grenadiers on the
French army our men viii put in
hours every day, standing with their
toes to a line. learning to throw hand
| grenades with long, straight
armed overland swing. beginning
near the ground behind like an out
fielder throwing to the plate and end.
ing with a carry through like golf
stroke. Some Of the best French
grenadiers can throw n hand grenade
close to fifty yards-which is some
| fea:.
After they have learned the art Of
throwing with unloaded grenades
they will take up practice with live"
grenades, Hand grenades explode at
various intervals after the cap Is set
off, some of them very soon, others
after a few seconds. 1t is a tickllsh
business to detonate q hand grenade,
make that long swing and land It in
the enemy's lines forty yards away
while one is counting five. You can
make the experiment yourself very
easily
Take two d-one-half-pound
weights, one in each hand and strike
them together, holding them in front
of you Then throw one OF them forty
yards, using the long swing. starting
from the ground behind. DO this with
a stop watch and you will get an idea
of the quickest and accuracy with
which .grenadier must work. More
than few unfortunates whose
thoughts have not co-ordinated quite
rapidly enough are trying TO do work
in munitions factories with the hand
Yet the French soldiers become such
expert grenadiers that not infrequent
ly they can return a grenade to the
German trenches before 1t has time
to explode.
Our men who are picked ont for
grenadiers will be trained unceasin