The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-08-24

% take this trolley 1t is a move
DIS of American aerial gunners have
learned to man the splitting ma
chine guns that shoot their streams
Of steel and death at the Japanese
premier's soldiers, sailor and
aviators.
TOTO wouldn't like it because the
targets at which the U. S. gunners
shoot as the trolley" chugs along
are replicas Of Japanese planes
And the Rising Sun emblems on
those targets are filed with holes.
The Tokyo Trolley" is only one
phase Of the gunnery practice that
the school staff gives the men sent
here. During their course at the
school, they learn to handle every
weapong with which Americas huge
bombers are equipped.
The school was established last
fall. Orders came through for gun
merry instruction to be included on
the course at the Wendover base,
which previously had been devoted
primarily to bombing practice.
A site was selected on a noun
tainside a few miles north Of the
main base, which is on the western
edgeof the vast Bonneville salt flats,
100 miles west of Salt Lake City.
But there was no appropriation
to construct facilities at the school,
Lieut.. Col. Robert N. Dippy, Wen
dover base commanding officer,
called in members of his staff.
Engineers Build School
Capt. William D. Keys was given
the task of building the school in
the valley. With Army engineers, he
secured the West for abandoned
CCC camps, sawed them up, marked
the sections, hauled them to Wen
dover and put them together again
to serve as quarters. Equipment
from the base on the flats was Dor
rowed" by the gunnery school.
The men moved into the school
as ordered right on schedule. The
establishment costs less than $780,
900, reasonable enough compared
to the cost of other schools of this
type. Water had to be hauled in by
truck until few weeks ago.
Commanding officer of the school
Is LIST Lieut.. Levi Hampton, who was
Keys right-hand man in its con-
struction. Many of the unique in
struction gadgets are brain chill
dren of Hampton, his handful OF
youthful officers and his crew Of
resourceful non-commissioned Off
rprc and eni1ctad mon
Built Bumpy Track
The Tokyo Trolley" was one of
the first products of Hampton and
his men. They reclaimed powered
railroad section workers car, built
small stretch of bumpy track, put
mounts on the car and fixed sta
tionary targets at which the
trainees poured their 80 caliber
machine gun bullets.
Next cvme the larger gunnery
ranges, featuring movable tar
get. The motion was furnished by
a jeep that carried the target,
replica of an Axis airplane. The
jeep moved behind hummocks of
dirt, on a mile of circular road. The
men fired from fixed mounts 600
yards away.
Hhere was trouble keeping the
jeep, which, of course, had to be
without driver, on the road at
first But gadget followed gadget
until now, on the third moving tar
get range to go into use, guide is
mounted that Hampton and his
aides think is fool-proof. 1t permits
the jeep to travel 80 miles an hour,
which seems like high speed when
you try to hit the target.
Not all the gun mounts are fixed.
On one range are mounted the vari-
GUS bomber turrets-top, belly-ball
and tail. These turrets fire their so
caliber guns at a moving target,
too, but can move under their own
power.
Reporters Score Zero
This correspondent climbed into
one of the turrets and tried his
hand at the guns. But he didn't
have much luck coordinating the
movement of the turret, which
whipped around with dizzy speed
as it responded instantly to the in
tricate controls, with that Of the
bounding target. His score was
practically zero-but his ears told
him that the guns weren't shooting
just for fun.
Also at the school are mounts
where guns are placed that are de-
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