The Robesonian., 1918-09-02
"0ver the Top
By An American Soldier
Who Went
ARTHUR GUY EmPFY
Machine Gunner SssoinS in Fsanes
(Oopydgh. l0ay. sy Azthus Guy 1upsy>

H~Fr.rz refused to swallow our bait,
It you'd be impossible to locate his
special gun, and that's the one we we're
after, because they all sound alike, q
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 sore spot.
Next day, Fritz opened up as usual.
I let him fire away for a while and
then butted in with my "pup-pup-pup-
pup-pup-pup." 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 a
horrible mess Of that tune. Again I
butted in with few bars and stopped.
Then he tried to copy what I had
played. He was good sport all right,
because his bullets were going away
over our heads, must have been firing
into the air. I commenced to feel
friendly towardehim.
This duet went on for five days.
Fritz was good pupil and learned
rapidly, In fact, got better than his
teacher. 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 fired he
played that tune and we danced.
The boys in 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 thu
range. The next afternoon was set fo,
the grand finale.
Our three guns with different eleva
tions, had their fire so arranged, that
opening up together, their bullet.
would suddenly drop on Fritz like f.
haifstorm.
About three the next day, Fritz start
ed "pup-pupping" that tune. I blew ,
sharp blast on whistle, it was the sig
nal agreed upon; we turned loose an
Frftz's gun suddenly stopped in tn
middle Of a bar. We had cooked hi
goose. and our ruse had worked. Afte
IL {nu fxxyo h01k o1 -
our job, we hurriedly dismounted ou
guns and took cover in the dugout. w
knew what to expect soon. We didn
have to wait long, three salvos q
d "whizzbangs" came over from Fritz
artillery, further confirmation ths
: we had sent that musical machine-gul
$ ner on his Westward-bound journe
That gun never bothered us agah
We were the heroes of the battalio
our captain congratulated US, said
=. was neat piece Of work, and, cons
e quently, we were all puffed up over tt
stunt.
There are several ways Tommy us
e to disguise the location Of his machi,
gun and get his range. Some of Il
most commonly used stunts are as fl
nj lows:
le At night, when he mounts his z,
Z over the top Of his trench and wan
~. to get the range Of Fritz's trench
Il adopts the method of what. he ter,
getting the sparks" This consists
firing bursts from his gun until t
bullets hit the German barbed Wi
He can tell when they are cutting t
wire, because bullet when it hits
s. wire throws out blue electric spa
s. Machine-gun fire is very damaging
st wire and causes many q wiring pal
ad to go cut at night when it Is quiet
repair the damage.
a To disguise the flare Of his gun
night when firing, Tommy uses what
called 9, flare protector. This, Is. q sto