The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-08-20

them with everything they had, big guns
included.
/ Now, the Hun doesn't use his big guns
unless he knows what he's shooting at.
How he learned, however, was pretty evil
dent Someone back of our lines was tip
ping him off. 80
An evidence of this came one night
when the German big guns opened on
the Y. III. c. A. just back of the front
line trenches. Every night, just at a
certain hour, the Red Triangle hut-or
rather the tent the Y NJ. c. A.. was
using as a hut-was filled with soldiers
on their way to the trenches, and ap
parently the boche knew this. At any
rate, exactly at the hour the German guns
opened terrific fire, the guhners laying
down a. box barrage of shrapnel and high
explosives.
Fortunately the troops had moved a
| little earlier that night, for during the
fire the Red Triangle tent was destroyed,
Zone of the, secretaries was wounded. and
the other had narrow escape from death.
The point is, however, that when this
| took place the c. @. knew it could not be
due to chance Along with the other
things that were happening, it was pretty
1
was sending information to the enemy.
| The signal service sergeant was the first
to detect how it was done. His SQUAD
was repairing signal wires back of the
trenches. The sergeant halted in his work
and gazed slyward. a pigeon was going
overhead The sergeant watched it idly,
calculating as he stood there how far he'd
| lead it with a twelve gauge, three and a
half drains of No s, chilled Then, with
a sigh, he went to laying wire again.
/ A few minutes later the sergeant
stopped again Another pigeon had arisen
/ from the wood behind, and, after circling
| the tree tops, winged it's way overhead
i Again the sergeant led it" reminiscently
j with his bygone twelve gauge. But "a few
minutes later, when a third pigeon rose
from the wood, the former trap shooter
1 tarried no longer. A half hour later he
i bolted into the quartermaster's depart
ment, clicked a salute, and spoke hurried
'lly.
i Gimme shotgun he demanded
i Shotguns are regular part of certain
i quartermaster's supplies Soon the ser
geant might have been seen standing be
hind hedgerow gazing toward the near
i by wood Presently he was seen to stiff
1 fen, at the same time murmuring Pull!
i The twelve gauge swung briefly in al
arc; it cracked and a crumpled ball o
4 feathers came tumbling toward the earth
i To make sure, the sergeant gave it a sec
u ond barrel Just before it hit the earth
), 1t was pretty clever shooting The bir,
/ was high, going over fast, and quarter
ing kill" murmured the sergeant me
thodically, as he retrieved the faTlel
game
t That afternoon the sergeant got fou
other birds With these in his hand h
stopped at the 'Y'' hut on his way to- tn
= C. O.'s dugout
"See that" he inquired, displaying hi
afternoons bag of game.
r Attached to a leg of each pigeon wa
= a code message in German handwriting
! 4 short time later a detachment of mi
itary police got the owner of the pigeon;
In his blouse and sabots he looked Xix
!. any of the peasants tiling the fields bc
hind the lines< On being stripped how
ever, he proved to be a German unde
officer. Since his CAPTURE the nightly bon
bardment Of the eY' huts and ,othe
places where soldiers congrcgate has bee
more or less bal,hazsrd. The Fritzies sti
I chuck heavy stuff at them, but thanks {
! the ex-pigeon shot, the sergeant, they an
not scoring so frequently as formerly.
Its bum cards they're bringing in.
says the sergeant.