Foreign News: How to Kill a Sentry

Backstabbing, garroting, throat-cutting and decapitation are among the subjects taught at a progressive school of guerrilla warfare organized “somewhere in England” by Spanish Civil War Fighter Tom Wintringham and visited last week by Chicago Tribune’s Guy Murchie Jr.

After learning sentry-stalking in the Indian fashion, home-defense volunteers attending the school were taught to use a knife as the principal weapon of silent combat. Although throat-cutting was demonstrated and practiced on dummies, back-stabbing was recommended because it usually involves less noise, and a proficient stabber should be able to account for several sentries in short order. Garroting with fine piano wire was supervised by an instructor with experience in Northern India.

Methods for using home materials, such as pipe, tin cans, bolts and gravel, in manufacturing bombs were demonstrated and instruction was given in sabotage nuisance tactics, such as putting sand and cinders in locomotive grease chambers to create hotboxes, vinegar or sugar in gasoline tanks to stall cars. One particular trick stressed in the school was stretching a thin wire across highways at a height of 4 ft. 3 in. to decapitate enemy motorcyclists. Lest a rider detect the wire, volunteers were told to place a dummy at the side of the road to distract his attention at the crucial instant.

The only touch of civilization in the school was a plea for tidiness. “Don’t leave dead Germans lying in a mess in the middle of a road,” advised an instructor. “Give them a decent burial in a ditch and cover up the blood so the next man will not get suspicious.”