Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1918-05-09

'oH diounu the DdSe OF NIL, on the
top of which was a dense wood. This
wood was infested with machine guns.
which used TO traverse our lines at
will, and sweep the streets of a little
village, where we were billeted while
In reserve.
There was one gun in particular
which used to get our goats. ii had the
exact range of our elephant" dugout
entrance, and every morning. about the
time rations were being brought up. its
bullets would knock up the dust on the
road; more than one Tommy went
West or 70 Blighty by running into
them.
This gun got our nerves on edge.
and Fritz seemed to know it, because
"a never gave us an hours rest. Our
reputation as machine gunners was at
stake; we tried various ruses to locate
and put this gun out of action, but
each one proved to be failure, and
Fritz became a worse nuisance than
ever He was getting fresher and more
careless every day. took all kinds of
liberties with us-thought he was in
vincible.
Then one of our crew got brilliant
idea and we were all enthusiastic to
put 1t TO the test.
Here was his scheme:
When firing my gun, was to play
my tune, and Fritz. no doubt, would
fall for it. try to initiate me as 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 a 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, it would
take at least week to pull off the
stunt.
If Fritz refused to swallow our bait,
1t 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 a 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." 1 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
horrible mess of that tune. Again 1
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 air. l commenced to feel
tOwardshim.
This duet went on for five days.
Fritz was a good pupil and learned
rapidly, in fact, got better than his
teacher. l commenced to feel jealous.
When he had completely mastered the
tune, he started sweeping the road
again and we clicked 1t 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 "Hal Hal'' They weren't in on
our little frameup.
The originator of the ruse and the
other two gunners had Fritz's location
tapped 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
hailstOrm.
About three the next day, Fritz start
ed "pup-pupping" that tune. 1 blew
sharp blast on whistle, it was the sig
nal agreed upon we turned loose and
Fritz's gun suddenly stopped in the |
middle of a bar. We had cooked his |
goose. and our ruse had worked. After |
firing two belts each, to make sure of |
our Job. we hurriedly dismounted our |
runs and took cover ii the dugout. We |
knew what to expect soon. We didn't |
have to wait long, three salvos Of |
'whizz-bangs" came over from Fritz's
artillery. further confirmation that
we had sent that musical machine-gun-
ner on his Westward-bound journey.
That gun never bothered us again.
We were the heroes of the battalion,
our captain congratulated us, said 1t
was a neat piece of work. and, conse-
Iuently, we were all pulled up over the
stunt
There are several ways Tommy uses
o disguise the location of his machine
run and get his range. Some of the
most commonly used stunts are as fol-
ows:
At night, when he mounts his gun
,ver the top of his trench and wants
% get the range of Fritz's trench he