Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1918-05-02
CHAPTER Xxx.
"chats With Fritz"


We were swimming in money, from
the receipts of our theatrical venture.
and had forgotten all aboutsthe war.
when an order came through that our
brigade would again take over their
sector of the line.
The day that these orders were is
sued, our captain assembled the COM
pany and asked for volunteers to go to
the Machine Gun school at st. Omar.
volunteered and was accepted.
Sixteen men from our brigade left
for the course in machine gunnery.
This course lasted two weeks and we
rejoined our unit and were assigned to
the brigade machine gun company. 1t
almost broke my heart to leave my
company mates.
The gun we used was the Vickers,
Light 1903, water cooled.
was still a member of the Suicide
club, having jumped from the frying
pan into the fire. l was assigned to
section 1, gun No. 2, and the first time
Gin" took position in the front-line
trench.
During the day our gun would be
dismounted on the fire step ready for
instant use. We shared a dugout with
the Lewis gunners. At "stand to" we
would mount our gun on the parapet
and go on watch beside 1t until "stand
down" in the morning. Then the gun
would be dismounted and again placed
In readiness on the fire step.
We did eight days in the front-line
trench without anything unusual hap
pening outside of the ordinary trench
routine. On the night that we were to
"carry out" bombing raid against the
German lines was pulled off. This raid
ing party consisted of sixty company
men, sixteen bombers, and four Lewis
machine guns with their crews.
The raid took the Boches by surprise
and was complete success, the party
bringing back twenty-one prisoners.
The Germans must have been awful
ly sore, because they turned loose a
barrage of shrapnel, with few Min
Mes and "whizz bangs" intermixed.
The shells were dropping into our front
line like hailstOnes.
To get even, we could have left the
prisoners in the fire trench, in charge
of the men on guard and let them click
Fritzs strafeing but Tommy does not
treat prisoners that way.
Five of them were brought into my
dugOut and turned over to me so that
they would be safe from the German
fire.
In the candlelight, they looked very
much shaken, nerves gone and chalky
faces, with the exception of one,
great big fellow. He looked very much
at ease. / liked him from the start.
l got out the rum jar and gave each
a nip and passed around some flags,
the old reliable Woodbines. The other
prisoners looked their gratitude, but
the big fellow said in English, "Thank
you. sir, the rum is excellent and ap-
preciate it, also your kindness"
He told me his name was Carl
Schmidt, of the Sixty-sixth Bavarian
Light infantry; that he had lived six
years in New York Cknew the city bet
ter than l did, had been to Coney
island and many of our ball games. He
was a regular fan. couldn't make him
believe that Hans Wagner wasn't the
best ball player in the world.
From New York he had gone to Lon
don. where he worked as a waiter in
the Hotel Russell. Just before the war
he went home to Germany to see his
parents, the war came and he was con-
scripted.
He told me he was very sorry to
hear that London was in ruins from
the Zeppelin raids. | could not con-
vince him otherwise. for hadn't he seen
moving pictures in one of the German
cities of st. Paul's cathedral in ruins.
/ changed the subject because he
was so stubborn in his belief. 1t was
my intention to try and pump him for
information as to the methods of the
German snipers who had been cans
Ing US trouble in the last few days.
l preached the subject and he shur
MP IKE clam. After a few minutes
he very Innocently said:
"German snipers get paid rewards
for killing the English"
l eagerly asked, what are theyf
He answered:
''For killing or wounding an English
private, the sniper gets one mark. For
killing or wounding an English officer
ne gets five marks, but If he kills Red
Cap or English general. the sniper gets
twenty-one days tied to the wheel of
timber as punishment for his careless
ness"
Then he paused, waiting for me to
bite, / suppose.
bit all right and asked him why the
sniper was punished for killing an
English general. With a smile he re-
piled:
"Well. you see, if all the English gen.
erals were killed, there would be no
one left to make costly mistakes"