Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-21
No Wonder
Germany Quit
BY MAJOR FRANK c. MAHIN
OF the Army Recruiting Station

The American soldier differed
from others, just as our boys differ
from foreign boys.
Whether it is that we are inner
emily more ingenious, have more
practical mechanical sense. or SIM
ply, in our normal boyhood, have
greater opportunity to exercise such
faculties, is hard to say. We know
at least that for a century, our ma
ton has been famed for its inven-
tions. Perhaps we inherited inge-
nuity, or acquired it as a racial char
acteristic because of the exercise Of
1T, by our pioneer forebears, whcu
necessity induced many improviSa-
tions. Why or how we got these at
tributes matters little-the point is
we have them. The manner i'll
which they showed in the actions OF
our troops was interesting-and to
our Allies a constant source of sur
prise. For instance. when our
troops first took over a narrow
gauge railway system, it was veIy
short of cars of different types.
Timber was next to nil. Our men
secured the battlefield, salvaged all
the old, dilapidated, demolished
German equipment, and soon turned
out a number of staunch cars.
proudly bearing in large letters, U.
S. A. The engines used were of
French and English make-and of
course were of wholly different type
than any with which our men were
familiar. However, they soon be-
came acquainted with them-aEd
the British headquarters sent fire.
quent inquiries as to why we were
Lot sending engines i'll whole o. in
&c. naIr % fAa- -1n Co..
usual repairs. Our replies, shat all
repairs were being made by our
men in our improvised field shop,
did not convince, and Il British ma
jcI came down to us-on the theory
that seeing is believing Another
thing that astounded the Tommy
operators-engine drivers and train
c. cws-was the disregard ouf mon
had for the rule of the road that
maximum speed of trains would not
exceed four miles per hour. Our
men hit it up as fast as ths little
dinkies could travel. OF course
there were many derailments. Those
dinkies would stub their toes and
take pretty little headers. A dinky
in the ditch, fiat on her back,
wheels in the air, would make the
Tommys ruefully smile, and shake
their heads over the crazy Yanks.
But here again American methods
astonished. In two shakes we would
Jack up and skid that dinky back
onto the rails and be on our way.
Another stunt that brought us 10
official notice at British headquaI-
ters, was our attempt to increase
our comfort. We had to depend,
for light, upon oil lamp, lanterns,
candles and sputtering, smelly
acetyline burners. On the Thiexval
Ridge we found a German airplane
demolished, but with engine prac-
tically intact. The latter was i'm
mediately brought in, taken down,
cleaned, repaired and soon in run
ming order again. Now, If you
please, we We're going to have o
small electric light plant, and have
n camp de luxe. But that engine
had a voracious appetite for petrol,
and our increased acquisitions
brought an inquiry as to the reason.
The crazy Yanks' soon drew an Of
fetal veto of their scheme. When
the French officers tried to teach
our engineers how to build brush
reyetement materials - fasciwe
gabions and hurdles-they explain
ed with great detail just how those
things were made, and not content,
even had the manufacture Demon
strated, by groups of French ex-
perts. Little did they realize that
al some time in his boyhood, nearly
every American kid builds caves,
huts, robbers dens-and in doing it
uscs brush of all kinds in approved
Lasket weave and in patterns no
| basket weaver ever heard of. So
all that was necessary to teach us
| how to make this material was TO
! tell us the measurements and give
us one look. The Germans accom-
! pIlshed a great engineering feat
| when they built the Leviathan-
| formerly the 'Vaterland.' A wonder
full ship it was, with wonderful en-
gines and capable of great speed for
| It's size. Yet when we seized it
our engineers found much piping in
1t for which they could see no use.
They promptly removed it, did some
more tinkering with the engines
and got more speed out of them
than their original makers could.
| Orders were that only minor re-
| pairs to ordinance might be made
! in the field. For all other repairs
the guns must be sent to the shops.
Our man couldnit see it so innda