Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-03-22

ing Il safeguard, striking q superior,
etc.
Then comes the punishment OF Ga
days in the front-line trench with
| out relief During this time you have
To- engage in I'LL raids. working parties
| in No Mans Land, and every hazard
Gus undertaking that comes along. If
you live through the siXty-four days
/ you are indeed lucky.
This punishment is awarded where
| there is Il doubt as to the willful guilt
Of Il man who has committed an Of
fence punishable by death.
Then comes the famous field pun
| ishment No. /. Tommy has nicknamed
,t "crucifixiun." 1t means that Il man
| is spread-eapled on u timber wheel.
two hours Il day for twenty-one days.
During this time he only gets water,
bully beef and biscuits for his chow.
You get "cruciicd" for repeated min
or offcnSeS.
Next In order is field punishment
No. >.
This is confinement in the "clink,
without blankets, getting water, bully
beef and biscuits for ratiOns and doing
I'LL the dirty work that can be found.
This may be for twcnty-four hours or
twenty days. according TO the gravity
of the olfensc.
Then comes pack drill' or default
ers' parade. This CONSISTS Of drilling,
mostly ut the double, for two hours
with full equipment. Tommy hates
this, because it is hard work. Some
times he fills his pack with straw TO
tighten IT. and sometimes he gets
caught If he gets caught, he SrOuses
ut everything in general for twenty
Il timber wheel
The sergeant major keeps what is
known as the crime sheet. When Il
man commits I'm olicnSc. he Is
"crimcd," that is. his name, number
and olfenSc is entered ON the crime
sheet. Next day 1T . Il. III. he goes TO
the "ordcrly room" before the captain
who either punishcs hinr with &c. IL.
or sends linn before the .. &. tofiiccr
commanding battalion.J The captain
of the company can only award &c.
b."
Tommy many a time has thanked
the king for making that provision in
his regulations.
To gain the title of Il smart SOL
der" Tommy has to keep clear OF the
crime sheet, and you have to be darn
ed smart to do it,
have been on IT Il few times, most
ly for Yankee impudcnce.'
During our stay of two weeks in
rest billets our captain put us through
Il course of machine-sun drills, trying
out new stunts and theories.
After parldes were over, our guns
crews got together and also tried out
sdtne -thumirs-bf r1air OWL ri REFER
ence to handling guns. These courses
had nothing to do with the advance
ment of the war, consisted mostly OF
causing tricky jams in the gun. and
then the rest of the crew would en-
deavor to locate as quickly as possible
the cause of the stopIaSc. This ANUS
cd them for 4 few days and then
things came to Il StandStill.
une Of the boys on my gun claimed
that he could play u tune while the
gun was actually firing, and demon
stratcd this fact one day on the target
range. We were very enthusiastic and
decided to become musicians.
After constant practice, l became
quite expert in the tune entitled All
Conductors Have Big Feet"
When | had mastered this tune, our
two weeks rest came to an end, and
once again we went up the line and
took over the sector in front of d
| wood.
At this point the German trenches
run around the base Of Il hill, on the
| top of which was a dense wood. This
wood was infested with machine guns,
| which used to traverse our lines at
will, and sweep the streets of little
village, where we were billeted while
in reserve.
There was one gun In particular
which used to get our goats, il had the
exact range of our elephant" dugout
| entrance. and every morning. about
| the time r;ttions were being brought
up. its bullets would knock the dust
Oh the road: more than one Tommy
went West or to Blighty by running
| into them.
This gun got our nerves on edge
and Fritz seemed to know 1t, because
| he never gave us an hours rest. Our
| reputation as machine gunners was ut
stake: we tried various ruscs to locate
and put this gun out of action, but
each one proved to be Il failure. and
Fritz became Il worse nuisance than
ever. He was getting frcsher and more
careless every day, took all kinds OF
liberties with us-thought he WAS in
vinciblc.
Then one of our crew got brilliant
idea and we were all enthusiastic To
put il 10 the test.
Here was his scheme:
When firing my gun, | was to play
my tune, and Fritz, no doubt. would
fall for 1t. try to initiate me rs an
| added insult. This gunner and two
| 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 little
clump OF woods to the left of our ceme-
terry, and while Fritz was in the middle
of his lesson, would open up and trust
to luck. BY our calculations it would
take Mt least Il week TO pull off the
stunt
II Fritz refused to swallow our bait,
it would be impossible to locate his
special gun. and that's the one we were
| , flor hecnuse they all sound alike, Il