The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-08-21
A SHELL THAT HIT
Graphic Description Penned by
Frederick Palmer.
One Successful Shell Out Of a Thou
sand; the One Supposed to Make
Waste of Other ee9 Worth
While.
BY FREDERICK PALMER.


British Headquarters, France
There are points along the British
front which see nothing but desultory
shell fire and sniping for weeks and
months on end; points where neither
side has made an attack through the
winter and spring. These are known
as quiet corners. A practical stale
mate exists. Neither Briton nor Ger
man finds any object in trying for a
gain. Troops who have been in the
thick of it elsewhere are sometimes
sent to these regions for a rest and a
change.
Other points-points which stick
out, as it were-are known as hot
corners" where the guns and rifles
seem always busy. Such has been
the La Bassee region.
A visitor may see about as much OF
what is going on in La Bassee as an
ant can see of the surrounding land
scape when p~romenading in the grass.
The guns of both sides seem en-
gagged in a kind of savage, vindictive,
blind mans buff sparring. OF course,
the gunners have a point on the map
at which they are aiming. They have
information in one way or another
that there is something at this point
worth shelling. 1t may be a house;
and of course, every house is down
on a large scale map. Troops may be
in the house; or If they are not, and
you destroy the house, you AVE de-
stroyed shelter for troops and made
the enemy nervous. At least, theo-
retically, you have made him so;
nothing seems to be able to make the
British soldier actually SO, or the
French peasant either.
We had left our car to go forward
on foot. We were coming into the
zone where the inhabitants had been
ordered to vacate their homes. This
is an unfailing sign that whatever the
condition of your health you are be-
coming a poorer risk every minute
for a life insurance company. A
shell may get a group of soldiers in
a house or in a dugout. Houses are
not safe shelter in hot corners where
the visitor, instead of looking for
houses which have been damaged by
shell fire, looks for the anomalous one
that has not.
There was one such on an adjoining
road-an estaminet, which is a pub
lie drinking place or cafe.
A stretcher was being borne into
the door of this estaminet and above
the doorway of the estaminet was
chalked some lettering which indicat
ed that it was a first clearing station
for the wounded. Lying on stretchers
on the floor were some wounded men
They looked a little stunned, which
was only natural when you have been
as close as they had to a burst of a
shell-a shell that made a hit. The
conclusion was bound to have this
effect.
A third man was the best illustra
ton of shell destructiveness. Bullets
make only holes. Shells make gouges
fractures and pulp. He too had a band
aged head, and had been hit in sew
eral places; but the worst wound was
in the leg, where an artery had beer
cut, causing a loss of blood. He was
weak with sort OF a Where am II
look In his eyes,. II hat fragment
which had hit his leg had hit his head
or his neck or his abdomen he would
have been killed instantly. He was
an illustration of how hard 1t is tc
kill a man with several shell frag
ments unless some of them strike in
the right place. For he was going tc
live; the surgeon had whispered thai
fact in his ear, that one important
fact.
And 1t was the n successful shell
out of the thousand; that one which
was supposed to make the waste o.
the other nine hundred and ninety
nine worth while.
Returning by the same road by
which we came, an automobile passed
swiftly by. We had a glimpse OF the
big. painted red cross on an am
bulance side and. at the rear where
the curtains were rolled up for ven