South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-11-09
GUNNER s DREAM
COMES TRUE
Member OF British Machine
Sun Company Has Vivid
Experience.

south Dakota. and now Of machine
gun section 80. Is. third brigade.
Canadian expeditiOnary force. de-
cribed a recent Gerlnan-counter at
tack south or Lens.
Yes. that's the only way I can
decrbe IL. IL was machine gun
ner's paradise. said Boucher. I'm
describing the affair TO several
American soldiers In a certain bar
ia Paris. for Boucher was or leave
IN the French capital, enjoying the
nrst furlough in IS months. too.
Our section numbers L 3 Vickers
machine guns. none OF your little
.ight Lewis guns. but every one n
Vickers. as steady as q house and
heavy enough 20 Keep on firing for
ever unless they are knocked out
with a direct hit.
We were posted right up in our
front line-our IS Vickers were
spread out in shell holes and era
ters half fun % water and once in
= while we would be using a bit OF
old Hun trench. The ground slop-
ed away before us. down 10 another
set or shell holes that Fritzy was
lying in
"FritZy has been lighting mighty
hard around Lens because he knows
how valuable that mining town and
railroad center is and how much
good it's going 10 do US when we
get in there. Old Kaiser Bill has
thrown away a lot OF good soldiers
around Lens. but we have suffered
pretty heavily, too.
Wei, the ether morning just be
fore daybreak, the Hun began toss
ing over some 5,point II. f..
(Which means high explosive shells
~ Eve and nineteenth inches cal
ibre) After about Is minutes or
that he slapped OF a barrage he
hind Us. and the next thing we
saw, Just as the dawn was break
ing. was the old Hun coming down
toward US for "A big counter attack.
tie was 1900 yards of when he
first came in sight and was march
ing like on parade-in a column OF
20 us. tiat kept pouring out Of a
communication trench and into a
semi-sunken T0ad--it seemed as
though that column had no end.
They were all marching gOOse-step,
and through our glasses we could
see the different detachments carry
ing flame projectors and all the rest
u the contra ptiOns they like TO use
in a big attack.
II guess they didn't know how
near our machine guns We're 10
them OF else they thought that their
preliminary artillery preparation
had knocked out most OF our guns.
Because we held our fire and never
set off a round, and that column de-
oloyed down the road until Il got
within LOO yards OF Us. Then the
men began TO form into little
aroups Of from Is 20 % in a bunch
and TO spread out along the front.
getting ready 70 make a rush for
a.
There must have been a couple
OF thousand OF them, and all the
while the column kept streaming
cut OF the trench. four abreast. 500
Yards further back. and they kept
.,oose-stepping forward. Finally
when the first bunch had grouped
themselves in the little knots Of Is
or 20 in each. they began 10 come
toward Us.
Five OF our 10 machine guns had
direct action on Fritzy, and two Of
the other guns could be maneu-
rered into position 10 get him when
he started % run Because We knew
well enough he'd have TO run. It
sure was a machine gunner's dream
come true. that layout
we waited a couple of minutes
more until the nearest punches of
Germans were within less than 500
Yards OF us, and then our five old
Vickers began 20 rattle. We didn't
lare let them come any nearer.
here were too many Of them. and
after all you can never tell when "a
machine gun, even a Vickers. is go
inS TO tam on you, and If you have
let the Hun get too near before
starting i'm. he may swamp YOU be-
fore YOU can get the sun shooting
gain.
I'VE opened on him AT less than
500 yards range with these dve ma
chine guns. and what we did to
those little lunches of Huns was
shame II YOU have ever SPRAYED =
stream OF hot water on q cake or ice
and seen the way 10 cuts IL of and
re ice melts down like nothing. you
know how we moved down those
Huns
That's just exactly the way we
broke up those little groups Of Frit-
les who were coming toward us
My old gun began splitting lead in
o one group and just as our stream
urned on them-they were all jam
ned together In 2 compact little
bunch. YOU understand they all
vent knocking around sky high like
when YOU make q strike bowling
some went straight down. OF course.
and some seemed 70 go up In the
air and some sidsWaNs We drilled
about 500 TO 'nds OF bullets into
bat group and then We swung over
onto another. Five or Fritzies
10 the bunch We had peppered jump
&C up and began 20 crawl back but
or rifle Ere was too good for most
- them. and they fell down where
hey were and lay quiet
III was the greatest sight YOU
have ever seen % see our i've Nick-
srs travelling al0ns the lire, picking