roller?

while reading guynemer's repot on his first 'kill', i came across the phrase, "tire un rouleau' which, when translated, means 'drawn a roller'. can someone tell me what a 'roller' is, and what it means to have 'drawn' one? you can read it in it's entirety at: http://www.wingsofhonor.com/ww1/biographie...r/guyletter.htm leon

[Vigilant]

Well "tire" probably means "fire" in this context. As in firing a machine gun.
Could a "rouleau" be a burst of automatic fire?

Vigilant

[mike_baram]

rouleau
Nom masculin

roll of sellotape, tobacco etc; print roller, larger drum;
~ compresseur steamroller, roadroller;
(Sport) ~ dorsal Fosbury flop;
~ imprimeur ink roller;
~ à pâtisserie rolling pin

Which doesn't help us at all, but I tried.

'fire' would explain the "jammed gun, then unjammed".


thanks

leon

Mike: your dictionary definniton of rouleau has the word 'larger drum' which if tirer is used to mean firing or shooting could mean to fire a drum, but then again what kind of MG did Nungesser have? A Lewis gun?

My $.02 is that it means "fired a drum" and that he must have been using a Lewis.