The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-09-22

heavier than the standard 10-pound
 rifle Both types of these guns fire steady streams of lead as the belts
 of bYlets are fed into the reservoirs,
 the only limit being the amount of am- intuition which can be carried. With
 each automatic rifle are three men, one
 to fire and two to keep up the steady feeding of ammunition.
 LOOKS GOOD
 The new type of American machine
 gun makes a favorable appearance in
 this array of makes from all the na- tions. It is coming over in large quan-
 ties now, and most of the American di-
 visions now arriving come with their
 machine gun sections equipped with the
 new American model. At the training
 camps the tests have given the best
 results, but the real test of battle ac- tion is still to come as most of the di- visions on the fighting line obtained their machine gun equipment before the new model was ready.
 In this same arsenal one could com-
 pare the rifles and bayonets of all the
 combatant troops. The American bay onet looked like g. long, sharp edged wlife. But the French bayonet was
 more like slender rapier, two feet long and without cutting edge, meant for stabbing. The Russian bayonet has
 no sharp point, but is like screw
 driver with flat edge, cutting and
 stabbing at the same time.
 And besides the guns of all kinds is
 the ammunition stored in vast quanti-
 ties in arsenals and warehouses and in | huge parks and ammunition dumps all | the way rom the coast up to the
 fighting front. The great stacks of
 shells are very orderly in arrangement,
 each stack representing a carload, and ] each graded by caliber and lot number
 1nf pf -h IIc T; [ power, and the only way to insure uni- 1 form accuracy in the fire of a battery
 is to keep it supplied with the same 1 lot of shells.
 IS KINDS GRENADES l Separate from the shells are the fuses and grenades kept in small de- tached lots owing to their highly ex- plosive character. In one of these grenade dumps there were IS different kinds of gas, hand and rifle grenades. There are now some S400 men, for merly mechanics in large American tactorles, who are enlisted soldiers carrying on this huge work of keep ing up the supply of guns and amnl- nition. Realizing the need of highly skilled men for this work in France, a special recruiting campaign was car rled on in many of the American in dustrial centers last winter. The re- suit IS shown in the equipment of the ordnance branch with a staff of skill ed WoIkmen comparing with the best factory sections.
 It is largely patriotic service in Which skilled mechanics have given up large wages to accept the soldiers pay or $50 month. The foreman of one or the extensive Detroit automobile factories, who received $2O0 atweek. is now volunteer among these enlist cd men receiving $3O week. There are scores of this kind.
 on the way from the seacoast to this great center of American ordnance supply, one sees along the way not only a vast stock of material and guns but that other very vital factor Of artillery, the human element. tn. man behind the gun. It is a stirring i sight as these huge camps of field ar tillery are spread out for miles. In one of the zones back of the war zone brigades of artillery, with 740O men. 1 to the brigade, were completing tn training and equipment and about to. move forward-men with their field guns-and this was but one branch of that tremendous weight of men and
 metal which is turning the tide and wearing down the enemy