Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1918-04-11

reputation as machine gunners was at,
stake we tried various ruses to locate
and put this gun out Of action, but
each one proved to be 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-l
vincible.
Then one Of our crew got a 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 it, 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
terry, and while Fritz was in the middle
of his lesson, would open up and trust
to luck. By our calculations, 1t would
take at least week to pull Off the
stunt.
If Fritz refused to swallow our bait,
It would be impossible to locate his
special gun. and that's the one we were
after, because they all sound alike, a
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 a sore spot.
Next day. Fritz opened up as usual.
let him fire away for q while and
then butted in with my ''pup-pup-pup-
pup-pup-pup." / kept this up quite
while, used two belts Of ammunition.
Fritz had stopped firing to listen. Then
he started in; sure enough, he had
fallen for our game, his gun was trying
to initiate mine, but, at first he made
horrible mess of that tune. Again I
butted in with few bars and stopped.
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 Il good pupil and learned
rapidly, In fact, got better than his
teacher. l 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 fred he
played that tune and we danced.
The boys in the battalion gave us
the Ella! Hal" They weren't in on
our little frameup.
The originator of the ruse and the
other two gunners had Fritz's location
tapped to the minute; they mounted
their two guns, and also gave me the
range. The next afternoon was set for
the grand finale.
Our three guns. with different eleva-
lions, had their fire so arranged, that,
opening up together, their bullets
would suddenly drop on Fritz like
hailstorm.
About three the next day, Fritz start
ed ''pup-pupplng" that tune. I blew
sharp blast on 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
firing two belts each, to make sure Of
our job, we hurrledly dismoupted our
guns and took cover in the dugout. We
knew what to expect soon. We didn't
have to wait long, three salvos of
''whizz-bangs" came over from Fritzs
artillery, a further confirmation that
we had sent that musical machine-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
to 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
to get the range of Fritz's trench he
adopts the method of what he terms
getting the sparks" This consists of
firing bursts from his gun until the
bullets hit the German barbed wire.
He can tell when they are cutting the
wire, because Il bullet when it hits
wire throws out a blue electric spark.
Machine-gun fire Is very damaging to
wire and causes many a wiring party
to go out at night when it is quiet to
repair the damage.
To disguise the flare of his gun at
night when firing Tommy uses what is
called a flare protector. This is stove.
pipe arrangement which fits over the
barrel casing Of the gun and screens
the sparks from the right and left, but
not from the front. So Tommy, always
resourceful, adopts this scheme: About
three feet or less In front of the gun he
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