Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-07-08
No Wonder Germany Quit
ByBRICCs
NUMBER

One of the great problems we had
to contend with in France was the
Boche Spies" said Major Frank C.
Mahin of the Army Recruiting sta
ton, 325 Market street, Harrisburg.
Spies were gotten into France in
four ways; those who were Sent in
before the war, those who got in by
way of Switzerland, those who were
brought over the lines in %aeroplanes
and landed at night, and the most
dangerous for us were the spies the
Germans got into our army in this
country and sent over as soldiers.
Most of this latter class were SOL
diers, out there were several officers.
n even one chaplain; also there
were Y. M. c. A. and other civilian
workers who turned out to be spies.
The great difficulty we had with the
men who were in our service was
that we got orders from Washing
ton tina no man in the army should
be executed for any offense what
soeVer without special authority
from the President. We would get
all the evidence possible against the
spy and then instead of court-mar-
failing him ourselves, we would turn
MN over with the evidence to the
french They had special courts in
session all the time to try spies and
justice was administered with the
utmost dispatch. Within TWENTY
fOnr. hnnrc ffn- tho,, III
a been tried, convicted and shot
Since we were under French high
command we could turn over such
spies as we caught to their gentle
mercles with the certainty that once
such transfer had been made we
would never hear any more about
the spy.
We caught one spy right in
w regiment. He was a
sergeant in the Stokes mortar
platoon n a very good soldier.
The Stokes were ent up to me
shortly after we got in the trenches,
and they promptly started having
trouble. The Boche apparently
knew exactly where they were and
shelled them numerically. We NOV
ed them and within "A couple of
hours they were accurately shelled
again. Then we started doing some
counter espionage work. Each day
we moved the Stokes and Zach day
they got Shelled until more than
twenty of the men in the platoon
had been killed or wounded. Fin
ally we became suspicious of this
sergeant SO we prepared a trap for
him. lie had a bad habit of wan
dering around alone in the sector
and in particular of going down into
unoccupied parts of the front line
trench which was only about fifteen
yards from the German front line.
| had the word spread all through
the sector that / had moved the
thirty-seven milimeter gun platoon
in the area. Actually j brought up
one of the three guns and it's crew.
Shortly after the guns arrived this
sergeant questioned the gun captain
as to where his gun was hidden, III
the gun captain and all his crew
had been told to tell anyone who
questioned them that their gun was
in an entirely different place from
where it was. The gun captain re-
ported his conversation with the
sergeant, so we worked out n CO.
(exact spot on the map)
~ a nosition that was a good place
for a thirty-seven but was really six
wards from where the gun
was. The gun captain then hunted
I'M the sergeant, the former being
watched all the time without his
knowledge to make sure ne TAXED 10
no one but the sergeant, and gave
the sergeant the false co-ordinates
of the u position. The sergeant
AT once went down into the unoccu-
nied front trench and within an
hour the Boche blew the supposed
gun position off the face of the land
scape. That was all the evidence
needed and we proceeded to pinch
Mr.. Sergeant.