Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-05-14
Americans Like the Rife.

why didn't you use your pistol? his
comrades asked. 1t had been forgot
ten. The faculty to make proper use
of a soldiers proper weapons had afro
phied. The British soldier had become
a bomb-thrower. His superiors recog-
nized the fact. and last spring began to
train him to make use of his gun. The
French still like the hand grenade, but
the Americans never have followed the
new fashion in warfare to such an ex-
tent that they have displaced the rife
for the bomb.
"A rife is better than a grenade" the
Americans say, with the bayonet to
follow"
An example of the value of the Amer
lean theory is found in an incident just
The Germans raided a trench salient
one night. The raiding party was a
small one. and the trench angle was
occupied by Just one man. He heard
forced to depend on grenades for de-
Tense he must have waited for them
to come so near that they could also
use a bomb or better weapon. But he
knew the use of his rife. He waited
| for the boche to get to the wire. :.
Then I showed EN-" he said, I'M
dramatically. but accurately. ~
| of at
Whom he heard them at the wire he
opened IRE. He showed clips through
! his gun until the barrel got hot. By
| that time the Germans had run away
He must have got" some of them, fol
they could be heard crying like chill
S.en =, as one man put it: on their wa,
there were trails Of blood found on the
ground. The rifle in the hands of one
man had made good where the gre.
made could not have succeeded. 1t ID OBJ.
vious that II the fight turns through
open country the Americans proficien.
cy with the weapon of his daddies viii
come in good play.
| Knows How to Shoot.
Because he is proficient. 1t is lfkel,
that when the history Of American pa r.
ticipation In this war is written Their.
| will be cause to thank the America
staff. which refused to follow false god,
| away from the tool they knew. Mayb.
there is something in the theory tina,
the American In "natural-borp' rife
man.
in all the things that any other soIdie,
has been drilled in, and then he ha.
been given little extra drill in rife
work. The automatic and machine-gur
teams can take down and set up thei,
weapons blindfolded. SO they can max.
repairs on the darkest night without
showing light. The man who canno
| play his part in this exercise canno,
| stay on a team. The team that cannot
make q winning score on It's target.
is pulled about until team Is created
| that can. The man who has been 81,
months In the field with the American
Army can hunt squirrels for a living
when he goes home.
| Not Now on the Menu.
But rife practice Is not on the menu
| today. Through all the green meadow.
! of this part Of northern France Ameri-
can soldiers are working in open order
One gees them in skirmish formation
| in the long strings In which they NC
| forward to assault. rushing trenches
working their way into the edges oil
the woods. All that might be done by
amateurs in war. but these men are nc
longer amateurs. They carry them
selves we'll They are hard ard self
confident and clear-eyed. The officers
have found themselves. Their cont
| mands come with a crash and a snap
They are obeyed.
They. are the future executives of
| America" the colonel said today They
have learned how to get action and get
II quick. They are not nice young men
any longer. They're damn fine young
officers"
This afternoon the maps came. They
will show the roads on which we will
| march TO the front.