The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1918-04-23
"0ver the Top
By An American Soldier
Who Went
ARTHUR GUY EMPEY
Maehins Gunner SerUins In France
Copyright, 1911. by Arthur Guy Hmpo,S
CHAPTER Xxx.
"Chats With Fritz"
Gunner Serpins In France

~hen 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. Omar.
i volunteered and was accepted.
Sixteen men from our brigade left
Tor the course in machine gunnery.
This course lasted two weeks and we
rejoined our unit and were assigned to
the brigade machine gun company. II
almost broke my heart to leave my
company mates.
The gun we used was the Vickers
Light 1903, water cooled.
was still n member Of the Suicide
club, having jumped from the frying
pan into the fire. 1 was assigned to
section 1, gun No. 2, and the first time
'fn" 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 so 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 raid
ING marty pnnGiS-tnI Of iytx
men, sixteen bombers, and four Lewis
machine guns with their crews.
The raid took the Boches by surprise
and was a complete success, the party
bringing back twenty-one prisoners.
The Germans must have been awful
1y sore, because they turned loose n
barrage of Shrapnel, with a few min
niles" and "whizz bangs" intermixed.
The shells were dropping into our front
line like hailstones.
To get even, we could have left the
prisoners in the fire trench. in charge
of the men on guard and let them click
Fritz's strafeing but Tommy does not
treat prisoners that way.
Five of them were brought into nv
dugout and turned over to me so that
AhVs NOulu Dc Sule from lIc iIpTInan
fire.
In the candlelight they looked very
much shaken, nerves gone and chalky
faces, with the exception of one,
great big fellow. He looked very much
at ease. l liked him from the start.
l got out the rum jar and gave each
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 ap-
preciate ii, also your Kindness"
He told me his name was Carl
Schmidt, of the Slxty-sixth Bavarlan
Light infantry; that he had lived six
years In New York (knew the city bet
ter than l did), had been to Coney
island and many of our ball games. He
was regular fan. 1 couldn't make him
believe that Hans Wagner wasn't the
best ball player in the world.
From New York he had gone to Lor-
don, where he worked as Il waiter in
the Hotel Russell. Just before the war
he went home to Germany to see his
parents, the war came and he was con-
scripted.
He told me he was very sorry to
hear that London was in ruins from
the Zeppclih raids. could not con-
vince him otherwise, for hadn't he seen
moving pictures in one of the German
cities of st. Paul's cathedral in ruins
/ 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 caus-
Ing us trouble in the last few days.
/ broarhed the subject and he shut
up like ii clam. After a few minutes
Ihe very innocently said:
German snipers get paid rewards
for killing the English"
eagerly asked, what are they?"
He answered:
For killing or wounding an English
private, the sniper gets one mark. For
killing or wounding an English officer
he gets five marks, but If he kills Red
Gap or English general. the sniper gets
fwenty-one days tied to the wheel of
Timber as punishment for his careless
ness"
Then he paused, waiting for me to
bite, suppose.
bit all right and asked him why the
sniper was punished for killing an
English general. With smile he re-
piled:
"Well, you see. If all the English gen.
erals were killed, there would be no
one left to make costly mistakes"
shut him up, ne was getting too