Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-03-16 | Page 23 | "Gila Monster,'' Manned by Utahns, Smashes Huns Marvelous French Gun has Adventurous Career

"Gila Monster" Manned by Utahns, Smashes Huns 0 " w 3 3 U Marvelous French Gun Has Adventurous Career REUBEN LITTLEFOHD of 862 Sou'di First West street, Salt Lake, Is shown In the picture indicated by arrow, as a member of the gun crew of the celebrated "Tramp Regiment of the Flying Artillery," to whom was issued is-sued the first "Gila Monster," the famous gun which did crucial work in the most important battles of tlis great war. The picture was taken at one of the positions on the line while the men were taking lunch, during a results from fighting. j Kf.nh.a.l - ' ' L - - ' 1. . - . .V . ,..-J Deadly Weapon Turns Tide of Battle During Many Allied Offensives. THE account of the. adv'eutures of the "Gila Monster," the largest mounted rifle used by the American Amer-ican expeditionary forces in their battles against the Hun. and which was first issued to the 14Sth, field artillery, ar-tillery, numbering among its personnel several TJtahns and other western state warriors, has been received here from Second Lieutenant A. Spencer, commanding com-manding A battery of the artillery. ' The Utah men who composed the gun crew which assisted in the operations conducted with the aid of the Gila Monster, Mon-ster, are Ane B. Sharp, 1-ioO West Twenty-fourth South street; Melvin T. Marker, John Vreeken, 3S0 North Ninth West street, and Eeuben Littlet'ord, S62 South First West street, Salt Lake, and John T. Eiley and Howard J. Larkins of Kaysville, and Willard K. Qlsen, American Fork. Ample Qualifications. The deadly Gila Monster was manufactured manu-factured and proven in the shops at Puteaux, France, in 1917, and combines the qualities of the little French 75, the long Schneider gun and the French 520. It was given its place in the line first six miles southeast of Chateau Thierry. In this position she battled away, blowing- up boche munition dumps, tearing up highways and lines of communications communica-tions and raising, general havoc on the enemy side of the line. "On the memorable night of July 14, 1918, " says Lieutenant Spencer, "when the carefully prearranged schedule of the war lord denoted that it was time for the start of the biggest and fiercest barrage of the war, the drive that would smash the whole of the allied line, capture cap-ture Paris and render the entire world slaves to the Hohenzollern kultur, the Gila Monster and her cfew were in a position where the slight shift in the elevation of one of the German eight-, inch gun shells would have meant total destruction. "But the Monster was busy with twelve groups of Huns who were trying to span the river with a nontoon bridge, and . when the light artillery 1200 yards away destroved their guns 'and fell back, she still belched out her two tons of high explosives per hour. On the 510th minute of the driv. the boche were scheduled to occupy the position of the crew and the. town of Montmirail near by. The 510th minute came and he Gila Monster fired on. French and American infantry filed past her by the thousands, but she never even slowed her cadence of fire. The barrage bar-rage of Krurm heavies became a barrage bar-rage of light field nieces. The Germans had crossed the Marne. ' Helps Check Attack. "It1 was then that Marshal Foch, with both flanks shattered and the center cen-ter giving way, decided to attack. For seventy-two hours the Gila Monster covered cov-ered - her section of the river, taking complete care of sixteen targets at a time, sending hundreds of Huns and thousands of dollars of material to the sandy bottoms of the Marne, which was already flowing red with human blood. "At any time after the first three hours the gun was hot enough to fry eggs or steaks 'well done.' and on several sev-eral . occasions it had to be filled with water to cool it sufficiently for use-When use-When the smoke cleared away we had 20,000 prisoners and several hundred captured guns. "The gun and its crew were later moved into Death -valley near Chery-Chartreuve, Chery-Chartreuve, forcing a second gap in the line of. the infantry. The . maneuvering of the eighteeu-inch gun through i-jin and mud in the night without lights, under artillerv and machiue gun fire 'through a valley filled with five kinds 1 of poisoned gas bore no resemblance i to an afternoon tea party. Here the i Gila Monster was continually shelled, ! gassed, bombed and machine-gunned, but she never let up until France had been worked over and the lines stabilized stabil-ized to protect Faris from future danger. dan-ger. Begins Mihiel Drive. Late in August rumors came that there was something doing in the vicinity vicin-ity of Verdun, and the Gila Monster went into position in a wood south of Mandrcs, where she opened fire and began be-gan the St. Mihiel drove. This was the first time that artillerv of this type had lain do'.vn rolling infantry barrages, but such was the ?ucce;-s of the first attempt that the 'Trump regiment.' as we came to be called, was shil'tod to Germanvillo, from vhieh position the Gila Moniter fired 1C0 shots of tie bar- rasre which opened tho Argonne-Meuse .offensive. .... ''Tho hest trip took her through Verdun, Ver-dun, across the Meuse into her last position, from which she never fired, and where, on November 11, her cr(?v' ay down in peace for tho first feal niht of sleep since the opening "of the Chateau Thierry drive on July 4. , "The guii stands ready for action at the present time nt Hoehr, Germany, with the Sixty-sixth artillery brigade, au honored member of the army 'of occupation. oc-cupation. Tiring records shw that she has fired in ihe campaign 3-7 1 hipb explosive shells, with a combined weight of over 1S tons, a record taid to be un-pqunlcd un-pqunlcd by anv other lu of its kind in the A. E. F. Still all parts of the m ii are working 3U1 in almost perfect per-fect condition.4'