The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-12-16
TANK STRANDED
BY MANS DEATH
Sergeant Tells How Bullet, En-
tering Peep Hole, Killed
His Buddy"
SHOTS RATIFIED OFF SIDES
Machine Gunner First Kept Count OF
Germans Slain, but Soon Forgot
the Number-Siain at
the Wheel.

With the American forces In France.
American fighters in the French two
man tanks ran into hot work In front
of Romagne in the American army's
advance along the west bank of the
Meuse early in October, and Sergeant
James Avertt of Birmingham, Ala,
with his buddy" did their share in
giving the Hun his due. Avertt's
buddy" was killed In the thick of the
fight by a bullet that entered a peep
hole in the side of the tank and struck
him in the face.
1t was In the American push in
the Argonne sector. Avertt's tank
went along with a lot Of "brother"
tanks In line with the American in
fantrymen crowding them in the rear.
AVERT was the machine gunner of his
tank, while his ~"buddy" ran the engine
and steered the tank.
II was so near a number of Ger
mans encountered in a shallow trench
that I could see the terror on their
faces when my gun began to let fly
bullets almost in their very faces"
Sergeant AVERT said. "These were
the first Boches / ran into on this
drive and I certainly let them have it
as fast as my old machine could fire,
and that was some fast, and / just
kept going ahead and pounding away
until every last one Of them was
stretched on the ground.
Keep Tab on Each other.
Passing beyond this hastily dug
trench, In the meantime watching my
brothers on my right and left and at
the same time keeping tab on the
doughboys coming up, l got sight of a
little batch of Germans behind a hump
in the hill along the roadway, on what
had been a roadway before our heavy
artillery opened up that morning.
These were machine gunners, l o
learned. and bullets began to splash
off the tanks sides, particularly those
which struck a glancing blow.
81 ordered my tank buddy at the
wheel to keep after those gunners if it
cost us all four wheels. He did, and
we went up after them sort of side
ways, and I got around on the side of
the hump, and my brother on the
other side was doing the same, and we
wiped that bunch out in a jiffy Il be-
lieve it was by enfilading fire, as the
officers call It,"
Sergeant AVERT explained that the
tank men, all of whom were Ameri-
cans, using two-men tanks invented
by the French, always watched n
another closely, or e~ndeavored to, the
idea being to keep a hundred yards or
so apart for their mutual protection,
and 1t being important also that they
not get too far ahead of the infan-
try.
"Just beyond the hump was a clump
of woods, and we began to pour bullets
into that" Sergeant AVERT continued.
land for a time there was some smoke
arising above the tree tops, SO we
knew there were Boches in there.
About four Of us opened up in full
force and showered that woods with
lead.
"The machine gun answers were
pretty still for a while, as we went
forward but I just kept peppering
away and talking to my buddy all
the time and telling him what we were
going to do-clean out that woods.
My brothers on either side had the
same bunch. The doughboys back Of
me, too were firing along with us, and
the Boche in that thicket must have
thought all hell had broken loose, be-
cause first thing I knew the firing vir-
tually stopped and / figured all the
Boches had been killed or had decided
to beat it before we all got there in
force.
Slain at the Wheel.
"Along about this time l noticed
that the tank boys on the right were
swinging around the side of the clump
of trees, and from the position of
their guns and the speed of their
tanks 1 Judged that they were giving
fits to some Fritzies running away. l
then switched so as to run alongside
the thicket. at q distance, and Joined
the tank boys going around the end.
"Just about that time there was a
volley of machine gun bullets, and
some antitank gun stuff, too, from a
hill a bit to my left. Suddenly my
tank just began to tremble or some
thing and then stopped, and s~huddered
all over. I looked down and my
buddy was limp In his seat. One OF
those damned bullets had come in
through my sbuddy's' peep hole, and
hit him square in the face.
my buddy was dead. His final
clutch on the throttle shut off the gas
and the old tank stopped: and there
I was and the boys went on. That's
about all / know about that fight, or
whatever 1t was."
Avertt said that when he went into
action he determined to keep count
of the number of Germans his machine
gun .touched or" but when he began
to use his gun he could think of moth
Ing but a purpose to spread death and
destruction. and that he quickly lost
count Of the number he saw fall.
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