American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1918-12-24
DEADLY YANKEE RIFLE FIRE

DEADLY YANKEE RIFLE FIRE.
The ANGUS accuracy OF the deadly
fire OF the ~Continentals at Bunker
Hill was repeated by the Yankee
troops OF 1918 in France. as we are
now learning. Every reader will re-
call the stories that have been com
Ing over about single American sold
found lying surrounded by a circle
OF German dead. The reason Is now
elear-the American was a dead shot.
the German was not. We also heard
early In the war that the rife was OBJ
solete and useless in modern warfare.
but our army has disproved that err
ror. Machine gun nests we're often
taken by Americans with this suppos-
eddy useless weapon. The rife Ia all
right: 1t merely needs the right man
behind II. Mr.. william Atherton Du
Pay. correspondent of the st. Louis
Post Dispatch gives some facts which
prove that American skill. with small
arms is still valuable either In attack
or defense. What u riiemen ac-
complished at BelIeau wood Is thus
described:
When the Yanks swung into action,
the French army observers Witnessed
what was to them an astounding
sight. In the face OF the enrolling
columns OF Hun shock troops, every
American soldier deliberately adjust
ed about his left arm a loop OF leather
formed by his riie-sling 10 steady the
hard7kicking weapon, took time to es-
innate the distance between him and
the attacking Germans. and carefully
adjusted his sights for the exact
range before loosing OFF the bullets
that accurately singled out individ-
ual enemies, cutting -gFeat-gaBs In ths
advancing line. and finally turning
the tide OF battle-the tide which
grew in volume and eliminated in the
smash of the Hindenburg line.
To the man who has never followed
the fascinating sport of military rifle
shooting. the connections between the
preparations of the Yanks for battle
In Chateau-Thierr and the great re-
treat which the future may Prov to
have been one of the critical stages
OF the war, may appear vague and {
difficult to understand: but the fact 7
remains that the shock troops of the
Hun, expecting to advance to close
quarters where bayonet. butt. and the {
.invincible progress Of their unswerv- j
ing mass formations would win the t
day for them, were met when more C
than five hundred yards away fmm q
their detectives by a hail of accur-
ately aimed bullets-projectiles that Il
did not depend upon happen-chance 8
or upon the mass Of the target for @
hits. but which were directed against u
individual marks by cool. deliberate i
expert riiemen, who knew how IN I
shoot. and who knew they knew how {
to shoot. ,
All this was in direct contrast TO {
the accepted order OF things along the |
western Front. That a soldier in |
battle should take time to adjust his
sights so that neither the range nor /,
the force OF the wind would interfere
with the straight flight of the bullet
was incomprehensible to the French.
by whom the rife had come to be re-
garded mainly as a staff for a bayonet
or. at best. a frearm from which a
with little previous training
might send p%roiectiles against an at
lacking mass and feel confident that
a certain percentage of the bullets
one in every six hundred fired, stalls
ties tell us-would find a human
mark.
Equally a revelation to the Hun
was the Workmanship of the Yanks,
the German army never having be-
ueved in r~ihe-practice at distances
greater than four hundred meters. re-
lying upon the volume OF fire from
its mass formation rather than upon
the individual precision OF the sol
diers composing those masses In
the first of the fighting around Chat
eau-Thierry. there were In action a
few Chaucat machine rides. weapons
which automatically load and fire a
score OF shots without re~charging.
hut the rank and hle OF the American
forces were armed with nothing more
rapid than our own Springfield rifle.
the magazine OF which holds only Ave
cartridges and which is in no ray
automatic. Yet so fast. furious, and
destructive was the Yankee fire that
German prisoners declared that at
the time they believed every Ameri-
can in the fight was armed with an
automatic weapon.
The greatest factor in the success OF
the American arms was not the efrec-
tive mass fire OF our army as much as
the accurate aim of the individual
American soldier. Indeed. says Mr..
Du Pay:
The exploits OF the American rifle
man in the war of wars are legion.
The full story Of his skill has never,
and probably will never. be told, for
IL is alf-part of a days red work. Yet
official DISPATCHES have shown how.
with accuratA riie-ire at Chateau
Thierrv the marines as a unit a