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From: jac@paul.rutgers.edu (Jonathan A. Chandross)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: 3 on a match
Message-ID: <1990Jul17.031943.22836@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 17 Jul 90 03:19:43 GMT
References: <1990Jul16.031031.5847@cbnews.att.com>
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From: jac@paul.rutgers.edu (Jonathan A. Chandross)

wdstarr@athena.mit.edu (William December Starr)
> 1) "Never light three cigarettes from the same match."  Explanation:
> during WWI, German sniper SOP was (or was believed to be by the Yanks,
> anyway) to pick up the rifle when they saw the match lit to light the
> first guy's cigarette, sight in on the flame while the second guy lit
> up, and then fire on the third guy.  I guess the real moral is "Don't
> light up at night when you're within possible sniper range of the
> enemy, you idiot!" but it came out as the "three on a match"
> superstition.

	``[ H. H. Munro (Saki)]'s last words reported by a comrade,
	  W. F.  Spikesman, on a dark and damp November morning in
	  Northern France [1916] were a warning that he should `Put
	  that bloody cigarette out!'  The warning came too late: a
	  waiting sniper had enough time to pinpoint a more valuable
	  target than anything military in view.''
		John Letts, introduction to _Saki: Short Stories_,
		Folio Society, 1976, page 16.
	

Jonathan A. Chandross
Internet: jac@paul.rutgers.edu
UUCP: rutgers!paul.rutgers.edu!jac