Show OVI OR OP B lj an A mer incan arthur A GUT uy Ein empey nip f ff y w machine gunner serving in france copyright 1017 1917 py y arthur quy guy empey R abey EMPEY AND HIS COMRADES COMRADE MAKE THEIR MACHINE GUNS PERFORM SOME MARVELOUS TRICKS synopsis fired by the sinking of the lusitania with the loss of american lives arthur guy empey an american living in jersey city goes boea to england edgland and enlists as a private in the british army after a short experience as aa a recruiting officer in london lie he Is sent to training quarters in france where lie he first hears bears the alie sound of big guns and makes the acquaintance of cooties booties co oties 11 after a brief period of training impens company Is sent into tho the front liue hue trenches where lie he takes his first turn on the fire step while the bullets whiz overhead empey learns earns as comrade falls that death lurks always in the trenches Clin chaplain plain distinguishes himself by pe rescuing wounded men under hot fire with pick and shovel empey emboy has experience as a trench digger in no mans land exciting experience on listening post detail exciting work on observation pd post st duty back in rest billets empey writes and stages a successful play once more in the front trenches empey goes over the top in a successful but costly attack on the german lines CHAPTER continued 18 this punishment Is awarded where there Is a doubt as to the willful guilt of a man who lids has committed nu an of fence punishable by death then comes the famous field punishment ab nb 1 tommy has nicknamed it crucifixion it means that a man Is spread eagled eagleb on a limber wheel two hours a day for twenty one days during this time he only gets water vater bully beef and biscuits for his chow you get crucified for repeated minor offenses next in order Is field fiela punishment no 0 o 2 this Is confinement aa 14 the clink clinic without blankets getting water bully beet beef and biscuits for rations and doing all the dirty work that can be found this may be for twenty four hours or twenty days according to the gravity of the offense then comes pack drill or default ers parade this consists of drilling mostly at the double for two hours with full equipment tommy hates this because it Is hard work sometimes he be fills his pack with straw to lighten it and sometimes he gets caught if he gets caught he grouses at everything tn in general for twenty one days from the vantage point of a limber wheel next nest comes 0 1 B meaning confined to barracks this consists of staying in billets or barracks for awen ty four hours to seven days you also get tin an occasional defaulters default ers parade and dirty jobs around the quarters the sergeant major keeps what Is known cis as the crime sheet when a man commits an offense Tense of he is chimed cri med that is his name number and offense Is entered on the crime sheet next day at 9 a ro lie he goes to the orderly room before the captain who either punishes him with 0 B or sends li him lm before the 0 0 officer commanding orn manding bai battalion tallon afie the captain cantal n of the company can only award C B 1 I 1 tommy many a time has thanked the king for making that provision in his bis regulations to gain the title of a smart soldier tommy has to keep clear of the crime sheet and you have to be darned smart to do it I 1 have b been een on it a few times mostly for yankee impede impudence nee during our stay of two weeks in rest billets our captain put us through a course lacourse of machine gun drills trying out new stunts and theories after parades were over our guns crews got together and also tried out some theories of their own in ref reference brence to handling guns these courses had nothing to dewith do with the advancement of the tha war consisted mostly of causing tricky jams in the gun and then the rest of the crew would endeavor to locate as quickly as possible the cause of the stoppage this amused them for a few days and then things came to a standstill one of the boys on ny my gun claimed that he could play a t tune ne while the gun was actually firing and demon this fact one day on the target range we were tery ery enthusiastic and decided to beco musicians after consta xii practice I 1 became quite expert jn in me e tune entitled all conductors have big feet when I 1 had mastered tills this tune our two weeks rest came to an end and once again we went up the tine line and tools took over the sector in front of G wood at this point the german trenches ran around the base pj of a hll hilt on the top atop of chien was adease a dense wood this wood was infested with machine ans guns which used to tra traverse ferse our lines at will and sweep the he streets ot of a little village eliere we were billeted while in reser TC Serve vr there was one gun in particular which used ti to get our goats it had the exact range of our elephant dugout entrance aude morning about the time rations were being broughto brough tu tup P its b bullets n would knock up thed on the road more than one tommy went west or to blighty by running into them this pin got our nerves on edge and fritz seemed to know it because I 1 he ie never gave us an hours rest our ot as machine gunners was at take otake we tried various ruses auses to locate i find and put this gun out of action but i each esca ilia proved to be a failure allure and fritz arltz became a worse nuisance thau than ever lie ile was getting fresher and more careless every day took nil all kinds of liberties with us thought ho he was invincible then one of our crew got a brilliant idea and we were all enthusiastic to put it to the test here was his scheme when firing ray gun I 1 was to play piny my tune time and fritz no doubt would fall for it try to imitate me as an added insult this gunner and two others would try by the sound to locate fritz and his gun after having got the location they would mount two machine guns in trees in a little clump of woods to the left of our aeme tery and while fritz was in the middle of his lesson would open up and trust to luck by our calculations it would take at least a week to pull off the stunt if fritz refused to swallow our bait it would be impossible to locate his gun the we were after because they all sound alike a slow pup pup pup our pr estigo was hanging by a thread lu in the battalion we had to endure all kinds of insults and fresh remarks as to our ability in silencing fritz even to the battalion that german gun was a sore spot next nest day fritz opened up as usual I 1 let him fire away for a while and then butted in with ray my pup pup pup pup I 1 kept this up quite a while used two belts of ammunition fritz had stopped firing to listen then he started in sure enough he lind had fallen lor for our game his gun was trying to imitate mine but at first lie made a horrible mess of that tune again I 1 butted in with a few bars and stopped then lie he tried to copy what I 1 had played he was a good sport all right because his bullets were going away over our heads must have been firing into the air I 1 commenced to feel friendly toward him this duet duct went on for five days i fritz was a good pupil and learned learne i 4 ys jk rs K iwic GLIM nic p alin showing how fritz frita Is fooled rapidly in fact got better than his tc teacher acher I 1 commenced to feel jealous when lie he had completely mastered the tune he started sweeping the road again and we clicked it worse than ever but he his death warrant by doing so because my friendship turned to hate every time he fired lie ho played that tune and we vc danced the boys in the battalion gave us the ira iia ila ha P they Nv everent erent in on our little fram eup the originator of the ruse and the other two gunners had fritzs location taped to the minute they mounted their two guns and also gave roe me the range alie next afternoon was set for the grand finale our three guns with different elevations had their fire so arranged that opening up tog together ethAr their bullets bullet would suddenly drop on fritz like ike a hailstorm about three the next day arltz F ritz started pup puli cupping pupping that tune I 1 blew a sharp blast on a whistle it was tha signal agreed upon we we turned loose loosa and fritzs gun suddenly stopped in the middle of a bar we had cooked ilia his goose and our ruse had worked after firing two belts each to make sure s are of 0 f our job we hurriedly dismounted on our guns and took cover in the dugout we 1 0 knew what to expect soon wo we have to wait long three salvos of chizz bangs came over from fritzs artillery a further that we had sent that musical machine gun ner on his bis westward bound journey that gun never bothered us agall we were the heroes eroes of the battalion our captain congratulated vb U s sald said it was a neat piece alie of work and consequently quent ly we were nil all puffed ip up over the stunt there arg anre several ways Tommy uses to disguise the location of its ills machlup gun find get his range some ot of the most commonly used stunts are as follows at night when he mounts his gum groh over the top of his trenell arenci and wants to get the range of fritzs trench he adopts the method of what he terms getting the sparks this consists of oc firing bursts from ills gun until the bullets tilt lilt the german barbed wire ile iio can tell when they are cutting tto wire because a bullet when it litts hits ej wire throws out a blue electric spark machine gun flie Is very damaging to wire and causes many a wang wl ng party to go out at night when han it Is quiet td a repair the damage to disguise the flare of his gun at night filsht when firing tommy uses what Is called a flare protector this Is a stovepipe arrangement which fits over the barrel casing of the gun and screens the sparks from the right and left bet not from the front so tommy resourceful adopts this scheme about three feet or less in front of the gun be drives two stakes into the grouns grondi gro nii aboul abou five feet apart across these stakes he stretches a curtain made out of 0 empty sandbags sandbars sand bags ripped open he soaks this curtain in water and fires fin through it the water prevents it cat catching phing fire and effectively scree screens the flare of the firing gun from the en enemy em y sound Is a valuable asset in fo locating cating a machine gun but tommy oiin this obstacle a cl e by placing two mac machine liline guns about one hundred to one hundred bundred and fifty yards apart the goo gm on the right to cover with will its fire the and sector of the left gun and the gun on ca the le left ft to cover that of the regu gun this makes their fire cross jhc thc meg are arc fl red fired 81 simultaneously mul t I 1 y by this method it sounds like ow om gun firing and gives the germans til me impression that the gun Is firing fromi ro a point midway between the gum which are actually cring and they accordingly shell that particular spot tho file machine gunners chuckle and say gar fritz Is a brainy boy not alf he nent but the men inen in our lines at the spot being shelled q curse ur se fritz for his ignorance and pass a few pert remaria down the line in reference to the rat ram chine gunners being windy aar an afraid to take their medicine f 1 t CHAPTER gas attacks and spies three days after we had si lencel fritz the germans sent over gas ea M did not catch us ns unawares because the wind had been made to order that fr ez it was blowing blotting from the germ german trenches toward ours at the rate 0 of about five miles per hour bour warnings had been passed down tbt trench to keep a sharp lookout t for gaa we had a new man at af the per periscope iscoM on hlll this afternoon la in question I 1 ws sitting on the fire step cleaning my rifle when he called out to rue me theres a sort of greenish cloud rolling along the ground ont oat to in fronts front its coming but I 1 waited for no more grabbing my bayo bayonet nef which was detached inns from the rifle I 1 gave the alarm by banging ad an empty shell case which was imaging hanging near the peri periscope at the sana instant gongs started ringing down the trench the signal for tommy to don doa ills his respirator or smoke helmet as we call it gas travels quickly so you must not lose nuy any time you generally have hara about eighteen or twenty seconds lie which to adjust your gas helmet helmel empey is assigned to tho the intelligence department but finds it is not the soft snap that he anticipated the next installment tells of some of his hio experiences in his new job as 23 a spy catcher TO BE CONTINUED |