Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-01-21
DAUPHIN AVIATOR LEARNS
TO SHOOT FROM AIRPLANE

school, for we we're taken from booth
TO booth, like a bunch of tourists on
a personally conducted tour; for
there were some seven o. eight diff
ferent booths, with different con-
traptionS IN each u nIane shooting
more difficult. Goodness knows. it
was difficult enough, as out of forty
shots from machine gun if we got
two "blancs;" no, that don't mean
blanks" although it may be pro-
nounced somewhat the same; it
means white" We were taken to
the rifle booth first and given an
army carbine to shoot. which was
as heavy as Ruth and had Il kick
like mule.
The first kick made one wait for
the next one and thus forget all
about the sight. However, l got
one bullet in the bullseye and two
"blancs" out of six shots. The next
booth in this personally conducted
Cook tour was the manipulation
one where we were taught how to
fix different types of machine guns
when they jammed, which they had
a habit of doing quite regularly
there. They sure had those guns
fixed so they wouldn't work. From
the way they worked it would seem
had some parts left over, for one
had two important springs missing.
We asked the man in charge and so
he informed us. That was all that
was missing, said he, and that was
quite enough, for every other shell
missed. Then the old boy would
extract a couple shells from the belt
when one wasn't looking and pretty
soon there would be a dull click
and then 1t was hunt for more trou-
BILE.
This was very instructive. though,
as 1t taught us how to fix every con-
ceivable kind Of jam-no, this
"jam'i isn't eatable; it's cussable-
not that / would DO the latter. tor
German was not after me then.
Having learned about the things that
were liable to happen and how to
load and aim the machine gun, we
were taken to another booth and
given chance to test our knowl-
edge. Judging from the results. We
had not acquired much, for out of
twenty shots [ hit the target once
and 1t was not a bullseye. either.
Working Under Difficulties
That may cause Pop to laugh, but
wait minute. This shooting was
done from one of those movable de-
ranged just like a seat in an air.
plane, and also movable. So just
about the time YOU had the sight on
dead center someone moved the
box and you suddenly discovered
there were no targets near your
right and you were aiming at a brick
wall due east. Naturally, YOU had
to aim all over again, and by the
time you got another Leau and were
pressing the trigger and wondering
why 1t wouldn't go off he moved you
again. Just about that time there
would be a succession of violent
eruptions out in front, and before
you realized that you were not
finger was still holding the trigger
firmly, there were ten shots missing.
mostly over the target
The officials showed quite a lot of
forethought in laying out the shoot
ing grounds, for the targets are
placed in the bottom of a valley.
We shoot from the side of the hill
and if we shoot too high the bullets
plow harmlessly into the hillside on
the other side. You should see the
deep bitches dug by bullets behind
those targets and the trees and
little higher up. Every
thing is clipped off as clean as a
whistle. We didn't get whole lot
of shooting the first day. but the
lectures and jam instruction kept us
interested. However, we got a shot
at that moving target and 1 say it
with more surprise than pride that
l sure made the bunch sit up ana
take notice. for out of forty shots
at 1t I made fifteen blancs and four
bullseyes.
Some Are Worse
That don't seem like a big per-
centage, does it; but then the aver
age was somewhere around two
"blancs" and some never hit it at
all. Our marks were all carefully
kept, totaled and averaged so that
the Spad division would know
whether we were any good or not.
The second day we had rifles