The Washington herald., 1918-03-01
CHAPTER Xxx.
"Chats with Fritz"

We were swimming in money, from
the receipts of our theatrical venture,
and had forgotten 81 about the 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.
Omer. volunteered and was ac-
cepted.
Sixteen men from our brigade left
for the course in machine gunnery.
This course lasted two weeks and we
our unit and were assigned
to the Brigade Machine Gun Com
pany. 1t almost broke my heart to
leave my company mates.
The gun we used was the NickeTs,
Light 1903, water cooled.
l was still a member of the Suicide
Club, having jumped from the frying
pan into the fire. 1 was assigned to
Section !, Gun No. 2, and the first
time ''in'' 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 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 raiding party consisted of
sixty company men, sixteen bombers,
and four Lewis machine guns with
their crews.
The raid took the Boches by sur
prise. and was complete success, the
party bringing back twenty-one pris-
oners.
The Germans must have been aw-
fully sore, because they turned loose
barrage of shrapnel, with a few
''Minnies'' and "whizz-bangs" inter-
mixed. The shells were dropping into
our front lines like haf1stones.
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 strafing, 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, a
great big fellow. He looked very
much at ease. I liked him from the
start.
got out the rum jar and gave each
a nip and passed around some fags,
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 I
appreciate 1t, also your kindness"
He told me his name was Carl
Schmidt, of the Goth Bavarian Light
Infantry; that he had lived six years
in New York Qknew the city better
than did, had been to Coney Island
and many of our ball games. He was
a regular fan. I couldn't make him
believe that Hans Wagner wasn't the
best ballplayer in the world. :
From New York he had, gone to
London, 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
He told me he was very sorry to
hear that London. was in ruins from
the Zeppelin raids. I could not con-
vince him otherwise. for hadn't he
seen moving pictures in one of the
German newspapers of St PauPs Ca
thedral in ruins.
1 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
causing US trouble in the last few
days. = 5ss
I broached the subject and he shut
up like a clam. Aftef few minutes
he very if1nocently said:
German snipers get paid rewards
for killing the English" ~
1 eagerly asked, what are ti1ey79
He answered:
FOR killing or woundine an Eng