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Show TAN if I AY E lOTJIffllli KITH THE AMERICAN FORCES IN FRANCE, Oct. 28. (Correspondence of tho Associated Press.) American fighters in the French two-man tanks ran Into some hot work In front of Romagno during tho American army's advance along the west bank of the Meusc early in October and Sergeant James Avertt, of Birmingham, Alabama, Ala-bama, with his "buddy," did their sharo In giving the Hun his due. Avortt's "buddy" was killed in the thick of tho fight by a bullet that entered en-tered a peep hole in the side of the tank and struck him fair In tho face. It was during the American "push" in the Argonno sector. Avertt's tank went along with a lot of other "brother" "broth-er" tanks in line with the American in fantrymen crowding them In tho rear. Avertt was the machine gunner of his tank while his "buddy" ran the engine and steered the tank. "It was so near a number of Germans Ger-mans encountered in a shallow trench that I could see the terror on their faces when my gun began to let fly bullets almost in their very faces," Sergeant Avertt said. "These were the ' first Bodies I ran into on this drive and I certainly let them have It as fast as my old machine could fire, and that was somo fast, and I just kept going ahead and pounding away until every last one of them was stretched out on the ground. "Passing beyond this hastily dug trench, I in tho meantlmo watching my 'brothers' on my right and left and at the same timo keeping tab on the doughboys coming up, I got sight of a I little batch of Germans behind a hump i in the hill along the roadway, or what had been a roadway before our heavy artillery opened up that morning. These were machine gunners, I soon learned, and bullets began to splash of the tank's sides particularly those which struck a glancing blow. "I ordered my tany 'buddy' at tho wheel to keep after those gunners if it cost us all four wheels. Ho did, and we went up after them sort of sideways, side-ways, and I got around on to the side of that hump and my 'brother' on the other sldo was doing tho same, and wo wiped that bunch out in a jiffy I bellevo it was by enfilading fire, as the officers call it." " Sergeant Avertt explained that the tank men, all of whom wcro Americans using two men tanks invented by the French, always watched each other closely, or endeavored to, the idea being to keep a hundred yards or so apart for their mutual protection, and it being important also that they not got too far ahead of the infantry. "Just beyond tho hump was a clump of woods, and wo began to pour bullets bul-lets Into that," Sergeant Avertt continued, con-tinued, "and for a timo there was some smoke arising above tho treetops so wo knew there were Boches in there. About four ofus opened up in full force and showered tho woods with lead. "The machine-gun answers were pretty stiff for a while, as wo went forward, but I just kept peppering away and talking to my 'buddy' all tho timo and telling him what we were going to do clean out that woods. My 'brothers' on either side someway had tho same hunch. The doughboys back of mo too wero firing right along with us and the Boche In that thicket must have thought all hell had broken loose, because first thing I knew the firing virtually stopped and I figured all the Boches had been killed or had decided to beat it before wo all got there in force. "Along about this timo I noticed that tho tank boys on tho right were swinging around tho sido of the clump of trees, and from tho position of their guns and tho speed of their tanks I Judged that they were giving fits to somo Fritzcs running away. I then switched so as to run along tho thick-, et, at a distance, and joined tho tank boys going around tho end. "Just about that timo there was a volley of machine gun bullets, and somo anti-tank gun stuff too, from a hill a bit to my left, suddenly my tank Just began to tremble or something, and then stopped, and shuddered all oven I looked' down and my 'buddy' was limp In his scat. Ono of those damned bullets had come in through my 'buddy's' peep nolo and hit him square in the face. oo |