Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-27

10Th guns helped see the Germans out Of
Laon. We were ordered to concentrate
the railroads leading out of that CITY, and we
did. should point out that We flred only in
the daytime.
The terrific fash the big guns made at night
would have located them perfectly for the Ger
man aviators. But in the daylight we kept
busy, fiinging At big shells on German railroad
yard in four and one-half hours one day, and
then adding 80 more the next day.
BY this time the German army was awake 20
the menace of these big guns and that night we
got heavy bombardment. One shell struck 16
feet from gun No. l, cutting the train air line,
breaking of q piece of casting and peppering
things generally. When the Smelling stopped
we moved the gun back bit Then We got out
our Shovels and made some dugoutS. Our
sleeping cars were armored, but they never
would have stopped q direct hit.
On October IL the French entered I.aon and
two days later Ensign Roger Allen and went
up TO see what our shells had done. It wasn't
hard to find the shell holes. They were from
40 to 20 feet across. One hit had wrecked Q
three-track railroad line for 100 feet, tearing up
the rails, shattering and blowing an enormous
hole in the roadbed We found q freight train
we had hit. One car had been lifted up and
thrown on top of another while a third had
been blown 30 feet away.
We learned from French inhabitants that We
hit a movie theater full of soldiers. Forty had
been killed outright and 80 more badly wound
ed-by one shell! ..
MOST of our firing "off the map" This
a rather complicated Job We had to
use mathematics and we had to get full weather
reports from all points in our vicinity But
we made an excellent record. We found our
average range error was only Isl yards and
the average detection error was only 81: and
since most Of our targets were big things, like
railroad yards and ammunition dumps, and
since we worked out a method of scattering our
Shots you can see that so low an average of
error wouldn't hurt bit.
We had won our spurs under the French.
Now. late in October, Gen. Pershing sent for
us to help him on the Meuse- Argonne We
realized our highest ambition when all FIVE Of
our land battleshipS assembled in fleet" under
my command to work with the American
Army.
Pershing's objective was the web of railroad
lines connecting the German Rhineand with
the front in France by way of Longuyon Mont
medy and Sedan. When we got to the front
the Americans were still so far from the nearest
of these railway functions. Montmedy, that no
other guns could reach that far. So there was
our job made to order for U.S.
Longuyon and Montmedy were our best tar
gets. Three main railroads from Germany met
at Longuyon and ran out in one main trunk
line to Sedan-a line that the German general,
Won der MarwitZ called 1.-The principal life artery
of the front" All the railroads in this vicinity
were vital to the Germans. and you couldn't
hit one of them without making lot of trouble.
Longuyon was detraining point with a big
railway yard and many storehouses. Montmedy
was on the main line from Metz to Sedan, had
a big railway yard and contained the head
quarters of the German 7th Army
The first guns we were able to get in posi-
ton were guns Nos 8, 4 and s. They dug
their pits. at Therville. near Verdun and ON
,COHtinUed Om Sixteemth Page