American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1918-07-12

and put this gun ont Of action, but
each n proved to be a failure, and
Fritz became q worse nuisance than
ever. He was getting fresher and more
careless every day. took all kinds Of
liberties with us-thought he vas in
yincible.
Then one Of our crew got a brilliant
idea and we we're all enthusiastic to
put It to the test.
Here was his schemes:
When firing my gun, I was to play
my tune. and Fritz. no doubt, would
fall for It, try to initiate me as an
added insult. This unner and w
others would try, by the sound, to To-
cate Fritz and his gun. After having
got the location. they would mount
two machine guns In trees, in a little
clump Of woods to the left Of our Gene
terry, and while Fritz was In the middle
Of his lesson. would open up and trust
to luck. By our calculations. it would
take at least a week to pull of the
stunt.
If Fritz refused to swallow u bait,
It would be impossible to locate his
special gun. and that's the one We we're
after, because they all sound alike, a
slow pup-pup-pup.
Our prestige was hanging by a
thread. In the battalion we had to en-
dure all kinds OF insults and fresh re-
marks as TO our ability in ~sllencing
Fritz. Even to the battalion that Ger
man gun was a sore spot.
Next day. Fritz opened up as usual.
I let him fire away for a while and
then butted in with my 'pup-pup-pup-
pup-pup-pup." l kept this up quite a
while, used two belts Of ammunition.
Fritz had stopped firing to listen. Then
he started in; sure enough. he had
fallen for our game. his gun was trying
TO initiate mine. but, at first he made a
horrible mess Of that tune. Again 1
butted In with a few bars and stopped.
Then he tried 10 copy what l had
played. He was a good sport all right,
because his bullets were going away
over u heads, must have been firing
into the air. I commenced TO feel
friendly towardshim.
lLl~ uAEL went VI luz AHE NAF =
Fritz was a good pupil and learned
rapidly. In fact, got better than his
teacher. I commenced to feel Jealous.
When he had completely mastered the
tune, he started sweeping the road
again and we clicked IL worse than
ever. But he signed his death warrant
by doing so, because my friendship
..---l - 49, IT, %4rra ha Erad hn
played that tune and We danced.
The boys in the battalion gave Us
the "Ha! Har" They weren't in on
our little frameup.
The originator OF the rus and the
other two gunners had Fritz's location
tapped to the minute; they mounted
their two guns, and also gave me the
range. The next afternoon was set fol
the grand finale.
Our three guns. with different eleva
tons. had their fire so arranged. that
l opening up together. their bullets
would suddenly drop on Fritz IKE
, hailstOrm.
/ About three the next day, Fritz start
ed "pup-pupping" that tune. I blew
, sharp blast on a whistle, it was the sig
E nal agreed upon: we turned loose an'
Fritz's gun suddenly stopped in III.
; middle Of a bar. We had cooked hi
goose. and our ruse had worked. Ate
$ firing two belts each. 70 make sure o
r our job. we hurriedly dismOunted on
p guns and took Y In the dugout. "
% knew what 70 expect soon. We didn'
J. have to wait long. three salvos O
'whizz-bangs" came over from Fritz
artillery. q further confirmation tina
p we had sent that musical m~achine-gur
ner on his WeStward-bOund jOurne.
q That gun never bothered Us agar
Il We were the heroes of the battalion
our captain congratulated Us, said
was a neat piece Of work, and. cons
.e quently, we were all pulled up over III
re stunt
There are several ways Tommy use
L TO disguise the location of his machir
gun and get his range. Some Of n
N most commonly used stunts are as 70
m lows:
ls At night. when he mounts his ~
over the top Of his trench and wan
: 10 get the range or tritZS 2
II adopts the method of what he tern
re getting the sparks" This consists
ID firing bursts from his gun until 4
Of bullets hit the German barbed wiz
Il He can tell when they are cutting Il
he wire. because a bullet when IL hits
O. wire throws out a blue electric spar
Sc Machine-gun fire is very damaging
m wire and causes many a wiring par
to 90 out at night when It is quiet
repair the damage.
To disguise the flare of his gun
night when firing. Tommy uses what
n called a iare protector. This is a stow
ct pipe arrangement which FITS over d
barrel casing Of the gun and screel
the sparks from the right and left, b
ne not from the front. So Tommy, alwa
All reSourceful. adopts this scheme Abo