Sometimes an unusual inanimate object can tell a most interesting story. So, it is with a World War I German machine gun soon to be included as part of an exhibit at the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum honoring Columbus native Capt. Samuel Kaye’s World War I exploits.
Capt. Kaye served in the Army Air Service during World War I as a member of Eddie Rickenbacker’s famed 94th “Hat in the Ring” Aero Squadron. While a book could be written about Kaye’s exploits, this story begins with one incident in 1918. When Kaye returned home, he brought a souvenir with him. A clipping I found from the June 15, 1919, Commercial Dispatch told the story:
“He (Kaye) was in twelve mortal combats, brought down and received credit for four German Fokkers and sent three more to earth, for which he did not receive credit, the rapidly advancing American lines preventing verification of his claims. Capt. Kaye stated that work was combat work on the front lines, and he was frequently in the air six hours a day, patrolling, skirmishing, fighting and keeping the German machines from over our lines. While in twelve combats in which … his adversary went down he was never sent down but once and this was when an air shell shot away one of his propeller blades, forcing a landing.
Capt. Kaye brought back as a souvenir of one fight the machine gun mounted in the Fokker machine of his adversary. It was a new air craft and a new gun of the Spandau model, manufactured in 1918, numbered 1457, firing 650 shots a minute, air cooled, and up-to-date. (It was a deadly aircraft machine gun which was mounted in front of the pilot and synchronized to fire through the blades of the spinning propeller.) He wounded this man and sent him to earth at an altitude of 2,000 feet, near Brieulles, France. His opponents put three bullet holes through the shell of his ship in the fight.
Capt. Kaye recovered the Fokker machine gun the next day, blood-stained and the flyer had been buried or sent to a hospital. The machine gun is now on display at Weaver & Harrington’s.”
However, that was not the machine gun’s last service. On Nov. 29, 1932, a bank robbery occurred in Tupelo. That was the time of the famous bank robbers such as “Baby Face” Nelson, John Dillinger, “Pretty Boy” Floyd and “Machine Gun” Kelly. Though, it was first believed that “Pretty Boy” Floyd had pulled off the Tupelo robbery, it turned out to have been “Machine Gun” Kelly.
Kelly’s real name was George Barnes. Interestingly, Kelly had attended Miss. A&M, now Mississippi State University, from 1917-1918. In his first semester, alone, he had accumulated 31 demerits. He dropped out during his second semester and then took up bank robbery.
Under the headline, “MACHINE GUN BANDITS TERRORIZE CITIZENS AND ROB TUPELO BANK” an AP account of the Tupelo bank robbery spread nationwide.
TUPELO. Miss., Nov. 29. (AP)
Tupelo was recovering today from the shock of machine guns pointed at everyone who entered the Citizens State Bank here yesterday while four unmasked gunners held up the bank and robbed it of about $17,000 in money, and an amount of bonds taken from a safety deposit box.
The bandits cursed and swore as they forced bank employees to lie with customers flat on the floor and then made Homer Edgeworth, a teller in the bank, go into the vault and drop the money into a sack.
One of the robbers, informed that the banks bonds were in Memphis, accepted the statement, but tore into several personal lock boxes and obtained an undetermined amount of bonds from the box of L. T. Wesson.
After the robbery had been completed the bank employees were herded into the main vault and the gang escaped out the Birmingham, Ala., road in an automobile bearing a Tennessee license plate.
S. P. Turman, a customer, happened to enter the bank during ‘the holdup. He kidded a man standing at the door with a machine gun, but soon discovered the man was not in a kidding mood. So Turman meekly entered the bank vault under orders.
Miss Della Fair Reese reported that one of the men stuck a machine gun to her back and threatened to shoot her if she raised any disturbance. She also retreated into the vault.
So, what does all that have to do with Sam Kaye’s machine gun? That news sent shock waves and created panic in banks across North Mississippi. No one knew where the machine gun-toting bandits might pop up next. In Columbus, the Merchants and Farmer’s Bank on Market Street, now Trustmark on Main, decided to take protective action. Samuel Kaye Sr. had been one of the original investors in the bank in 1902 and the bank officers contacted his son Capt. Sam Kaye for help.
Capt. Kaye’s namesake and nephew, the late Columbus architect Sam Kaye, told me the rest of the story as his father had told him. Capt. Kaye was asked to loan his German machine gun to the bank to protect it from machine gun-carrying robbers. It was placed on the bank’s mezzanine pointed down aimed at the front entrance. The bank hired World War I veteran, John Perry, to stand guard and man the gun. Later the gun was returned to Kaye, but Perry remained as a bank guard armed with a shotgun. I’ve seen no record of any attempted robbery.
Thanks to Carolyn Kaye for her assistance with this column. She also remembers her late husband telling this story about his uncle.
That World War I machine gun is at the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum where it is being included in an exhibit honoring Cap. Kaye. The museum is located at Camp Shelby, near Hattiesburg and is free and open to the public 9 am.-4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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