Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-07-27
u. 6. TROOPS WILL
HAVE PLENTY To
LEARN At FRONT
BRITISH HEADQUARTERS

BRITISH HEADQUARTERS IN
FRANCE, July Correspondent of
Associated Press.)-The arrival of the
first contingents of the American ar
my in France serve to recall the fact
that the United States is entering
war already old and wise-wise with
the dearly bought wisdom of three long
adventurous years-and stepped in all
the diabolical wickedness that inces
SAINT delying into the deviltries of de-
struction can bring to it.
Having escaped the first terrors OF
weapons which German science had
evolved through toiling years of mill
ltary preparation the American divis-
ions will nevertheless plunge eventual
| ly into a seething cauldron which has
grown from the unavoidable policy of
fighting the deveI with fire" They
will have quickly to learn not only to
/ take the awful German frightfulness
with calm and endurance, but to re-
! turn it with an ever-increasing meas
ure In doing this many nerve-testing
and soul-searching experiences un-
doubtedly lie before them, but there
are already thousands of young Amer
leans in the Canadian and British
ranks who have proved themselves ira
ditionally worthy in the scorching
flames of modern war.
The American forces are fortunate,
indeed to be able to base their educa-
ton upon the bitter lessons learned by
the French and British soldiers in all
the eventful days that have followed
that first rush of battle in 1914. Mar
| vellously complete books of instruction
have been builded upon those expert
ences, and out of these the American
soldiers will CLEAN the last-word know
ledhe that will fit them for the foremost
trenches.
First of all, when they take their
Iplace, will come the baptism of fire
from the noisy black high-eXplosiye
German shells that scream in from
altar and burst with terrifying reports
sometimes in most unexpected
places. The Germans are great be-
Ilieyers in both noise and high eXplo-
sive They even mix their adored H.
f." with their shrapnel shells which
break high in the air and send their
bullets showering down with the
whine of an angry winter wind. The
Americans soon will learn to distin-
euish the individual songs CT the va
rious shells, for there is not the
slightest doubt that the moment he
! discovers they are in the line the
German will turn every available cali
bre of weapon against them in -four
ish of Introductory hate" They will
. come over in order-these shrieking,
grumbling misunderstanding in size
and noise all the way from the nasty
! little pip-squeaks of whizz-bangs, up
through the -point-twos, the five
point-nines and then on to what the
British Tommies laconically call "the
big stuff" the eight and eleven-inch
howitzer shells and the projectiles
from heavy calibred long-range naval
guns, known without affection as
"Wsistling Percys."
There will be little opportunity tC
hear a Big Bertha" for those fam
GUS old 42-centimeter howitzers arc
seldom used nowadays. 1t is believed
that the Germans planned to bombar5
Arras with them, using prussic acid
shells, but the British advance on
Easter Monday last put stop to tina;
particular nefarious scheme against
the already sadly battered little Ar
tots cathedral city.
There is also awaiting the new
American army bounteous baptism OF
bombs and hand grenades and the still
more dismaying introduction to the
! ghastly rattle of the machine gun and
its sinister swish of spraying bullets
sounds we'll calculated to stab with a
moment of fear the heart of the BRAY
est mar.
But above all the American sold
iers must equip themselves to endure
the lethal gas that will be sent over
aogainst them in poisonous, vaporish
clouds, or showered upon them in
deluge of heavily charged cylinders
and shells. They must prepare to deal
also with the treacherous lachrymatory
gas which while not dangerous to life
irritates the tear ducts until one cries
with blinded, smarting eyes for hours
4 The surprise of both these gases is
their altogether pleasant smell, the
lethal variety suggesting the clean
odor of a sanitary hospital ward. while