Cheraw chronicle. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1896-2005, 1917-09-20
TELLS Of ATTACK
ON BASE HOSPITAL
OBSERVERS GIVE INTERESTING
DESCRIPTION OF RAID.
Wouded American Hospital Workers,
Worked Bravely.-Five Bombs
Rapidly Exploded.

"oohih6SShb SSPSs AS AAS
complete detailed account of the Ger
man air attack on American base hos
pital No. 5 in France on the night oi
Tuesday, September 8, has reached
this country in a report from Major
Grayson P. Murphy, head of the Red
Cross commission in France. 1t was
in this attack that Lieut.. William T
Fitzsimmons of Kansas City, the first
American officer to give his life in
the war, was killed, and three other
officers, six privates, woman nurse
and % patients from the British lines
were wounded. An American Red
Cross inspector returning to Paris
from the scene, told the story as fol-
lows:
"The airplane attack occurred at
IL o'clock at night. Just at that
time, fortunately, no convoy Of woun-
ded was being reeived or the list of
casualties would have been far great
er as one of the bombs fell into the
center of the large reception tent to
which the wounded are first borne for
examination.
"Ten seconds sufficed for the drop
ping of the bombs from the fast fly
ing plane and within less than min
ute afterward the surgeons OF the
hospital were at the, task Of collect
ing and attending those who had
been struck down. And for "a hours,
they were at work in the operating
room, one surgeon relieving another
when the latter from simple exhaus-
ton could no longer work. And the
very next day, just as If nothing had
happened, these same surgeons were
called upon to receive and care ta{
200 wounded sent ir from the trnches
of the British expeditionary forces.
"The hospital, which is on theI
French coast, has 1900 beds under
canvas, in a quadrangle 800 feet
square, is in a district, in which there
are many similar institutions and is
unmistakable as a hospital. At the
time the German aviator few over 1t,
most of the surgical staff was engag-
ed in making rounds of the wards.
Lieut.. Fitzsimmons, however, was
standing at the door of his tent.
There had been a brief warning OF
the presence of a bombing airplane IN
the neighborhood, because quarter
OF a minute before the sound OF ex-
ploding bombs was heard from a
point perhaps 200 yards from the
hospital. This warning sufficed to-
cause all lights in the tents to be eX-
tinguished, and those who had been
under fire before threw themselves
face down upon the ground. Then
came fire explosions in rapid success
sion in the hospital itself. The first
two we're directly in front of Lieut..
Fitzsimmons' tent-he probably nev-
er knew what happened as his head
was torn to shreads. The next two
fell a hundred feet beyond in five
maroue ward, in which there were
many patients, and the last struck the
reception tent. Overhead there was
no sound. The German aviator flew
too high to be heard, but he left his
identity behind him not only in the
bombs he dropped, but in the derislve
handful of pfennigs he scattered upon
the hospital as he whirled away. A
number of these were found when
light came.
Lieut.. Mcclure, who was in tent
adjoining that of Lieut.. Fitzsimmons,
was struck by three bomb fragments,
but was not seriously wounded. His
escape was narrow, as there were
more than hundred holes cut in his
tent. Lieut.. Smith was struck in the
knee and Lieut.. Whidden in the chest
while their tents in the officers sec
ton of the quadrangle. The private
soldiers injured were on duty as or
derlies in the reception tent, and ahe
bomb fell almost upon them. SO
severely was private Aubrey S. Nc,
Leod injured that 1t was necessary
to amputate both his legs that night
Although the exploding bombs
created horror in the hospital, there
was not the smallest sign of panic
and the work of discovering the
wounded and collecting them wa:
Immediately begun. This was made
cruelty difficult by the darkness, bu
everyone sprang to it with will
Many of the injured had been bloW1
from their cots, some even OUTSIDE
their tents, where they were fount
tangled up in the tent ropes.
The American nurse, although