The Mena weekly star., 1918-06-06


 After constant practice I became uute expert in the tune entitled "An Conductors Have Big Feet"
 When I had mastered this tune, our two weeks rest came to an end. and once again we went up the line and look over the sector in front of G. good.
 At this point the German trenches ran around the base of hill, on the ion 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 ,Illage, where we were billeted while b reserve.
 There was one gun In particular which used to get our goats, 1t had the exact range of our elephant" dugout .ntrance, and every morning, about the fine rations were being brought up, its bullets would knock up the dust on the uad; more than one Tommy went Nest or 10 Blighty by running into hem.
 This gun got our nerves on edge, md Fritz seemed to know it, beeause he never gave us an hours rest. Da reputation as machine gunnerS was ai stake; we tried various ruses to locate and put this gun out of action, but each one proved to be a failure, and Fritz became a worse nuisance than ever. He was getting fresher and more careless every day, took all kinds of liberties with us-thought he was in- vincible.
 Then one of our crew got brilliant idea and we were all enthusiastic to put 1t to 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 as 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- tery and while Fritz was in the middle of his lesson, would open up and trust No Atths ASJ Vul it WUuld take at least week to pull off the stunt.
 If Fritz refused to swallow our bait, 1t would be impossible to locate his special gun, and that's the one we were after, because they all sound alike, 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 sIlencing Fritz. Even to the battalion that Ger man gun was sore spot.
 Next day, Fritz opened up as usual. l let him fire away for while and then butted in with my -pup-pup-pup- pup-pup-pup." I 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 1allen for our game, his gun was trying to Initiate mine, but. at first he made 8 horrible mess of that tune. Again I butted in with few bars and stopped Then he tried to copy what I had played. He was good sport all right. because his bullets were going away over our heads, must have been firing Into the mir. I commenced to feel friendly towardshim.
 This duet went on for five days. Fritz was good pupil and learned rapidly In fact, got better than his teacher. 1 commenced to feel jealous. When he had completely mastered the tune, he started sweeping the road again and we clicked it worse than ever. But he signed his death warrant by doing so, because my friendship turned to hate. Every time he fired he played that tune and we danced.
 The boys in the battalion gave us the Hal Hal" They weren't in on our little frameup.
 The originator of the ruse and the other two gunners had Fritz's location taped to the minute; they mounted their two guns, and also gave me the range. The next afternoon was set for tiie srund fiuaie.
 Our three guns. with different eleva- uons' had their fire so arranged, that, opening up together, their bullets would suddenly drop on Fritz like q hallstorm.
 About three the next day, Fritz start en "pup-pupping" that tune. I blew | sharD blast on a whistle, 1t was the sig | nal agreed upon; we turned loose and | fritz's gun suddenly stopped in the middle of bar. We had cooked his | goose, and our ruse had worked. After ! nrlng two belts each. to make sure of | our job, we hurriedly dismounted our guns and took cover in the dugout. We Knew what to expect soon. We didn't nave to wait long, three salvos Of Whi2z-bangs" came over from Fritz's artillery, a further confirmation that we had sent that musical machlne-gun- ner on his Westward-bound Journey.
 That gun never bothered us again. we were the heroes of the battalion, our captain congratulated us, said 1t was neat piece of work, and, conse- quently, we were all puffed up over the stunt.
 There are several ways Tommy uses 10 disguise the location of his machine gun and get his range. Some of the most commonly used stunts are as fol- lows:
 At night, when he mounts his gun over the top of his trench and wants 70 get the range of Fritz,s trench he