The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1918-02-11

over end through the air like a, dron-
! Kicked football, and explode from 200
10 800 yards away, according to the
desire of the gunners.
Six of these deadly, but innocent
appearing weapons, are allotted to
each regiment. According to King
georges sergeant, who was playing
papa to the one shown the CORE
spondent, % shots a. minute can be
fired from one of these mortars. and
they do a bloody lot of damage, too"
The sergeant was doubtful about
there being any danger of a man not
getting his hand away from the muz-
zfe of the notwithstanding drain pipe''
IN time to avoid the outward bound
shell. He said there was no danger
and that he had never heard of any
one getting his head or hand blown
off in firing one.
Well, he'd ought to know, but the
newspapermen handled the 10 pounds
and IL ounces of steel and explosive
evry gingerly, and despite the assur-
ance that the one they were handling
was a dummy, they none of them al
lowed their hands to linger very close
| W IiAS AAlOuIil vi LIIO HUI IcLl alter Ll6y
dropped the dummy in 'tjust to see
how long it took to reach the bottom
600 Shots a Minute.
From the trench mortar school the
party drove to the school of auto
matte rifles. On the way Col. Ro-
meyn explained that this school in.
cluded that of pistol instruction.
| NToinr MT
amiable Southerner, is instructor al
this school, and he is assisted by sew
eral other American officers and
Lieut.. Bognon of the French army
the later being instructor in the work
ings of the French Chauchat gun
called by one officer the flivver Of
machine guns"
At this school are taught the work
ings of the Lewis, Browning anG
Chauchat guns, besides the workings
of the pistol and ordinary infantry
mans rifle.
A class was working a. Lewis sur
when the sightseers arrived. They
stopped their technical work for oul
benefit and explained their gun in de
tail
Their first instruction is in thew ari
Gus parts of the gun itself. They
learn to take it apart and put it to-
gether again, and they must become
so familiar with the weapon tina
they can assemble it blindfolded name
every part simply by touching it, ant
tell it's exact functions and where i
belongs.
They can dismantle and reassemblt
a Lewis gun in two minutes and 2
seconds. When they leave this schoo
they can handle every kind of a ligh
gun used in the army.
On the walls of the building in whicl
this school meets are charts shown:
every part of every gun used, and be
side the cases in which these part
rest are charts showing the process
of manufacture of every conceivable
kind of cartridge.
All the automatic rifles work on tn
!, same principle, it was explained. The,
, can he adjusted to fire a single sho
: with each pull of the trigger, or the
can be fired automatically, in the lat
= ter case the gas from the explosion O
the first bullet causing the redoil Q
, the cooking apparatus" the ejectio
OF Lne empty SotI IL AuSCs IAlC 1liJSSIio
, of the next cartridge and the firin
: of it.
, The Lewis gun can fire as many a
, 500 shots minute. 1t weighs abou
f 4S pounds loaded and it's entire GRE
/ consists of eight men.
1 The chauchat gun is much smalle
= and more simple. 1t weighs but :
/ pounds loaded, but it can fire on
$50 shots a minute. There is muc
that might be written about thes
guns. but-well, there are reasons fl
not doing so.
= Before Boche Has Time.
An officer was busy with a pist
r class in an adjoining room. About
g dozen young officers were standing
u a circle, the center of which W;
q their instructor Each had a hoist
=. strapped to his right leg and in h
n hand a black and deadly looking A
The officer was giving them a bri
# talk on the use of the pistol. 'Tl
: pistol is a weapon for quick use
e short range" he said. You W
n rarely need it at ranges of more ths
e 25 yards and you will need it mo
it when you are mixing it up with Il
Boche in the same piece of trenC
d with him. That is when you are g
II ing to be thankful you received Il
It training.
d when you need one OF these thin