Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1915-05-21
FORMER PULLMAN BOY
WRITES OF BIG WAR
Bliss w. Ryan, Now i'm Hospital at
Chatham, Writes Interestingly
of His Part In European
Struggle

Bliss W. Ryan, formerly connected
with the Pacific States Telephone
company In Pullman, now lance-cor-
poral with the First Field Company,
Divisional Engineers, Canadian
company, in the European war, was
severely wounded recently at Ypres,
and was taken TO a hospital at Chat
ham. where he must remain for six
weeks. The former Pullman boy
wrote Interestingly of his part in
the struggle to his father, the Rev.
b. w. Ryan. of Calgary, Alberta,
Canada, who forwarded a copy of
the letter to The Herald.
After expressing satisfaction that
his case is no worse he says: There
are some very pitiful and serious
cases, the worst / think being those
due to the use by the Germans of
what are known as explosive bullets.
Just what they are precisely no one
seems to know, but they are either
explosive or dum-dums, judging
from the terrible results on that
part of the body which they strike.
They are not the only kind used by
the Germans, but seem to be used
at times along the whole British
front. l have had them scattering
around me at night work in the
trenches very often.
Now, to tell you about my share
in the big scrap.
On Thursday April %, the Ger
mans bombarded the French trenches
north of Ypres very heavily, at the
same time letting loose lots of as
phyxiating gas which the wind car
ried over the French line, Smelling
vigorously all the billets within
reach of operations, ours being
among them. 1t was about $50 in
the evening when our billets were
shelled and we had to move out IN
a hurry with shells falling all around
us.
Fortunately, almost miraculously,
only one casualty was reported.
We made our way as fast as we
could to spot quarter of mile
back of the town, where we were
formed up, and marched towards
the next town, still further in the
rear. We reached it at dark and
there we halted and prepared to BIZ
vouac for the night. in a field on
the edge of town.
A few hours later the major gave
orders that twelve men and two Of
ficers cycle back to the User canal to
see II the road was clear. They were
also to prepare for demolishing all
the bridges from Ypres north for
about mile. We were to place the
charges, mount guard until relieved,
which would be probably about "a
hours later. We were instructed to
hold off exploding charges until our
men and the French were across,
and If possible until Germans were
actually on the bridges. This was
to prevent any bridges being blown
up unnecessarily. We set off with
the explosives attached to our cycles,
not SO dangerous a proceeding as it
sounds. We arrived at the canal
about midnight only to find that the
second company headquarters staff
of the engineers we're there before
us, had already laid the charges, and
were proceeding to mount guard on
the various bridges. We were allot-
ted the task of mounting guard
three men to each of four bridges.
For four days the German artillery
had been keeping up a continuous
bombardm ent of Ypres with high ex-
plosives and shrapnel from the 1S
Id. to the 1900 Id. Jack Johnsons,
IL inches in diameter. fired from a
gun eight miles away, playing ter
rible hayor wherever they landed.
About 800 yards from where we
were standing guard, there was an
important bridge on the main wagon
road over which the British brought
up most of their supplies. 1t was
a particular target The Germans
had an annoying trick of dropping
shrapnel at one end of the bridge
about every 20 minutes, and here I
can vouch for their good marksman-
ship. Three shrapnel burst on the
heels of each other 80 yards from
the end of the bridge in almost iden-
tically the same place, just where
they would have done the most dam
age, il any convoy or troops had
been passing. Fortunately at the
time the shells burst there was nc
one about.
No one was hit until one o'clock
In the morning. At that time was
standing with Sergt. Melville near