Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-05-24

Hit After Hit
"Guess that's bad" said an old
man. war man looking on admir-
ingly at the third shot, as the guns
crew got the range and the pillar of
white water leaped into the air.
How would that do for Fritzy ?
| Suppose that had been submarine
and
The buzzer. the roar of the gun
and the hiss of air interrupted him.
Another hit! Gee whiskers, that's
shooting"
On the after deck latest arrivals
aboard the ship were set to work
that day, and every other day, in
| fact, upon the loading machines.
They consist principally of breach
and block and a slide that carries
away dummy projectiles and powder
bags.
officers with stop watches in their
hands set one crew after another to
work, the idea being to develop eX-
treme loading speed by competition.
The newest members of the ships
companies work for days at these
loading machines. The next step in
their training carries them to the
guns. But they are not yet ready to
fire the regular charges. One pound
ers, that go off with sharp crack,
are lashed on top of the big guns
and the crews go through all the mo-
tions of firing, but instead of big
shell, little one weighing a pound
speeds for the target when the buzz
zer sounds or when the turret cap
tains in charge of the bigger rifles
yell "Fire!"
Real Battle Practice
After a period of firing with the
subcaliber arrangement the crews
n q.
There are few buster places than a
turret in action. Concave steel walls
are all around. and a steel roof is
Just above the heads of the gunners.
The pointers sit far forward, under
meath the barrels of the guns. Little
seats like those on motorcycle are
there for them and on every side are
instruments. AS the turret begins to
fire, a lift, bearing the huge pro-
jectile, bangs up from below, great
bags of powder slide from the maga-
zines into a long brass trough. Husky
bluejackets toss the powder into an
other brass trough that is slipped
into position at the gigantic breach.
The projectile, almost as large as q
man, meanwhile has been rolled in
to the trough, a long automatic ram
mer has jumped from the rear and
showed it into the barrel. The powder
breach swings a lever, a ton of steel
swings up with hiss of compressed
air. The breach block turns and
locks, a buzzer sounds, the charge is
ignited and with q rush of air the
guns recoil about 4 yard and then
jump back into position. There is a
loud "swish-swish" as the guns
come back and then go forward. In
side the turret not much more than
that is heard
Outside, it is much different. There
is a flash, roar, ring of smoke
and the loud whistle of the projec-
tile rushing through the air. So
great is the conclusion that every
man outside has cotton or some
other substance in his ears to save
his ear drums from being broken.
Fifteen Seconds
Fifteen seconds from Commence
firing" to Fire" is considered pretty
good time for the big guns in the
navy. They have new guns crews
in training now who never saw salt
water until three weeks ago who are
doing the thing easily in sixteen sec
onds.
While the guns crews are being
trained on some of the ships, aboard
others are being trained men to run
the hundred or more German vessels
the United States will operate as
soon as repairs are made to their
engines, and the feet of merchant
men being built to carry food and
supplies to the Allies. The fleet is
training engineers, electricians-men
to fill every position. The Atlantic
feet is confident that it will be able
to supply a full complement for
every ship, for the navy is getting
men now faster than ever before,
and If the officers are proud of their
ships, the guns on the decks and the
power of the engines in their hulls,
they are doubly proud of the spirit
of the new men who are coming into
the navy.
A large majority of the new men
in the fleet, their officers said. have
come from farms, especially in the
middle west. On any ship may be
found youths who until the war
began were following plows. "In
the first place." said an officer, more
than ninety per cent of the men are
native Americans. There are few
foreign-born men here"
All u. S. Represented
On any ship may be heard the
drawl of a South Carolinian or a
Georgian, the New Yorkese of the
East Side; the twang that is New
England's. the rising intonation of
Western Pennsylvania and the tone
that only comes from west of Chi
cago. So fast is the enlisted per-
sonnel of the navy growing that
there is no room for the new men
at the training stations ashore. A
man enlists one day in Kentucky
and three days later finds himself
at loading machine on the deck of
dreadnaught.
On nearly every ship are men who
used to be in the navy and who have
gone back to their old and usually
low. ranks because their country
needs them. They are regular Of
ficers.
On one of the ships is a Wall
street broker. He graduated from
Annapolis many years ago, resigned
and later came back into tho service
during the Spanish-American war.
He commanded the Hist in several
! fights in Cuban waters and knows
how 1t feels to be under fire.