I deviated from the truth in three places. I figured the rifleman had spotted me with binoculars, but if he'd had a scope, he would already have shot me. I figured that in that light, he was having trouble seeing me with iron sights. 300 yards would be an easy shot in broad daylight. I was betting that stepping out from under the foliage would induce him to shoot, and he'd miss because even out in the open the light wasn't good.
I can't take credit for recognizing the pop when the first mortar shell was fired. In the tree line behind me, Corporal Dill shouted, "Incoming!" and I knew I'd recognize the pop when I heard it again.
I realized that the machine-gun rounds followed the same path because the gun was on a traverse-and-elevation mechanism. It's a kind of clamp. You adjust the gun to aim at places you will want to shoot at after dark. For each target, you write the numbers on the clamp. After dark, you can adjust the clamp to fire at those spots.
That made the plan clear to me. After dark, enemy soldiers with grenades position themselves in the rice maybe 50 yards out from our tree line. The machine gun uses the T&E to fire a half-second burst at our first position. The tracer tells the enemy where to crawl, but when they hear the pop of the mortar, they cover their eyes and wait for the shell to explode. Like a flashbulb, it leaves us night blind. Another quick burst guides the enemy to the first positon, to toss grenades. The machine gunner sets the T&E for our second position, and the process is repeated.
For me, it was a revelation that our counterparts were anti-war. As I continued to advance straight toward the machine gun, the enemy commander would have ordered me killed with a mortar round so we wouldn't know where it came from. By missing 6 times, the mortarman depleted the "flash bulbs" for the planned attack. It was very unprofessional of the gunner not to release the clamp so he could aim, and holding the trigger for 200 rounds no doubt ruined the barrel and may have depleted their ammunition.
