Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1918-06-21
PAGE SEVEN

Nntn iniik NY sun u NuN w th''f
my tune. and Fritz, no doubt. would
fall for Il, try to initiate me rs 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 Gene
terry, and while Fritz was in the middle
of his lesson, would open up and trust
to luck BY our calculations, Il would
take mt least week TO pull OFF the
stunt.
II Fritz refused TO swallow our bait.
II 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
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 n sore spot.
Next day Fritz opened up as usual.
let him fire away for n while and
then butted In with my "pup-pup-pup-
puppup-pup." l 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
| fallen for our game, his gun was trying
to initiate mine, but, at first he made II
| horrible mess of that tune. Again
| butted in with few bars and stopped.
| Then he tried to copy what l had
| played. He was good sport all right.
| because his bullets were going away
| over our heads, must have been firing
| into the mir. | commenced TO feel
friendly towardshim.
| This duet went on for five days.
Fritz was good pupil and learned
rapidly. in fact got better than MS
| teacher. commenced to feel Jealous.
When he had completely mastered the
tune he started sweeping the road
again and we clicked IL 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 I'm the battalion gave us
the "Ha! 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
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 IKE n
halstorm.
About three the next day, Fritz start
ed "pup-pupping" that tune. j blew n
sharp blast on whistle Il was the Sig
nal agreed upon; we turned loose ana
Fritz's gun suddenly stopped In the
middle OF bar. We had cooked his
$ goose, and our ruse had worked After
A firing two belts each, to make sure of
$ our job, we hurriedly dismounted our
+ guns and took cover In the dugout. We
G knew what to expect soon. We didn't
o have to walt long, three salvos OF
}, "whlzz-bangs" came over from Fritz'S
artillery, Il further confirmation that
\ we had sent that musical machine-gun
n ncr on his Westward-bound journey
That gun never bothered us again
We were the heroes OF the battalion
u our captain congratulated us, said II
was a neat piece of work, and, conse
quently, we were all pulled up over thu
Z stunt.
I There are several ways Tommy use'
to disguise the location of his machine
L gun and get his range. Some of th'
most commonly used stunts are as fol
u lows:
At night. when he mounts his guI
4 over the top OF his trench and want
to get the range of Frltz's trench IN
s adopts the method of what he term
1t "getting the sparks" This consists %
% firing bursts from his gun until tn
d bullets hit the German barbed wire
IF He can tell when they are cutting tn
- wire, because n bullet when II hits
le wire throws out blue electric spark
D. Machinegun fire Is very damaging &
&c wire and causes many Il wiring part
m to go out Mt night when 1t Is quiet T.
q repair the damage.
To disguise the fare of his gun a
81 night when firing, Tommy uses what /
ie called flare protector. This is "A stove
u pipe arrangement which fits over tn
~ barrel casing.of the gun and screen
W the sparks from the right and left, blu
not from the front. So Tommy, Away
le resourceful, adopts this scheme: Abou
II three feet or less In front of the gun h