Oxford eagle., 1918-06-27
CHAPTER XXX
sChate With Fritz"

We were swimming In money. from
and had forgotten all about the war.
when an order came through that our
brigade would again take over their
sector of the line.
The day that these orders were is
sued. our captain assembled the COM
pany and asked for volunteers TO go TO
the Machine Gun school at ST. Omar.
] volunteered and was accepted.
Sixteen men from our brigade left
for the course IN machine gunnery.
This course LASTED two weeks and We
rejoined our unit and were assigned to
the brigade machine gun company. II
almost broke my heart to leave my
company mates.
The gun we used was the Vickers.
Lsht .303. water cooled
was still q member Of the Suicide
club. having jumped from the frying
pan into the fire. ] was assigned TO
section /, gun No. 2. and the first time
.Tn" took position in the front-line
trench.
During the day our gun would be
dismounted on the fire step ready for
instant use. We shared dugout with
the Lewis gunners. At "stand TO" We
would mount our gun on the parapet
and go on watch beside Il until ''stand
down" in the morning. Then the gun
would be dismpunted and ngain placed
In readiness on the fire step.
We did eight days In the front-line
trench without anything unusual hap
pening outside OF the ordinary trench
routine On the night that we were TO
'carry ont" bombing raid against the
German lines Was pulled of. This raid
Ing party consisted Of sixty company
men. sixteen bornbers. and four Lewis
machine guns with their crews.
The raid took the Boches by surprise
and was a complete success. the party
bringing back twenty-oue prisoners.
The Germans must have been awful
ly sore, because they turned loose
barrage Of shrapnel. with a few Min
nieS" and ''whizz bangs" intermixsd.
The shells were dropping into our front
line Ike hailstones.
To get even. we could have left the
prisoners In the fire trench. In charge
OF the men on guard and Let them click
Frlt's strafeing but Tommy does not
treat prisoners that way.
Five Of thsm were brought into my
dugout and turned over TO me- 20 that
they would be safe from the German
ire
In the candlelIght, they looked very
Huch shaken, nerves gone and chAlky
faces. with the exception Of one, q
great big fellow. be looked very much
at ease liked him from the start
] got ont the rum jar and gave each
q nip and passed around some fags
the old reliable Woodblnes. The othe,
prisoners looked their gratitude. bu,
the big fellow said In English. Thanh
you. sir, the rum is excellent and ! ap
precisfe II, also your Kindness"
He told me his name was Gar
Schmidt, OF the Sixty-stxth Bavaria,
Lght infantry: that he had lived E,
years in New York (lznew the city bet
ter than / did. had been TO Cone,
island and many Of our ball games. Il
vas regular fan couldn't make hir
believe that Hans weSner wasn't II
best ball player In the world
Prom New York be had gone to Lor
don. where he worked as a waiter 1
ne Hotel Russell Just before the wa
he went home 10 Germany to zee hi
parents. the war came and he was cor
scripted-
he told me he was very sorry I
hear that L0ndon was IN ruins fro,
the Zeppelin raids / could not CO,
vince him otherwise. for hadn't be 80
moving pictures in one Of the Germs
ci1es OF St PEui's cathedral in ruin
changea the rubjsct because l
was 50 stubborn In bis belief. II VI
my intention 10 Try and pump him q
Information as 10 the methods Of I,
German snipers. who had been eau
ing rs trouble IN the last few days
brOached the rubjsct and he 81
ND like clam After Z few minut
lie very innoeeutly said:
German snipers get paid rewEr
for killing the English"
eagerly asked. what are thsyY
BE answered:
Tor killing or woundins an Englil
private. the sniper gets one mark. r
killing or wounding an English ofic
he gets five marks, but II he kills r,
Cap or English general. the sniper ge
twenty-one days lied 10 the wheel OF
Timber an punishment for his careles
ness"
Then he paused. waiting for me
bite. ! suppose.
bit al right and asked him WHY 4
sniper was punished for killing
English general With a smile he
piled:
well. you see. II all the English 4,
erals were killed, there would be
one left TO make costly mistakeA"
] shut him UP. ha WIS getting