Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1917-09-17
Fact That Was Place for Car
ing for Wounded and Sick
Unmistakab|y Known to
Perpetrator of Outrage,
AMERICAN OFFICER
BLOWN TO FRAGMENTS
Physicians Immediately After
Explosions Cease Resume
Operations on Injured Men
Brought in From Front,

tsy hoesise JoussAL SPECIAL LEASED wissl
Washington, Sept. 16.-The first de-
tailed account of the German attack
on American base hospital No. in
France, on the night of Tuesday, Sep
tember 4, has reached this country
in report from Maj. Grayson NJ. P.
Murphy, head of the Red Cross in
France.
1twas in this attack that Lieut.. Will
liam T. Fit2simmons of Kansas City,
the first American officer to give his
life In the war, was killed; three 9TH
er officers, six privates, woman
nurse and twenty-five patients from
the British lines were wounded. An
American Red Cross inspector re-
turning 70 Paris from the scene. told
Z ti4c story as loiiows: ga
Story or Outrage.
The airplane attcak occurred at
THE airplane attack occurred at
fortunately no convoy of wounded was
being received or the list of casual
ties would have been far greater, as
one of the bombs fell into the center
of the large reception tent to which
the wounded are first borne for ex-
animation. Ten seconds sufficed for
the dropping of the bombs from the
fast-flying plane and within less than
minute the surgeons of the hospital
were at the task of collecting and at
tending those who had been struck
down. And for twenty-four hours
they were at work in the operating
room, one surgeon relieving another
when the latter. from simple exhaus-
tion, could work no longer.
Hospital of Vast Size.
And the very next day, just as IL
nothing had happened, these same
surgeons were called upon to receive
and care for 200 wounded sent in from
the trenches of the British expedi-
tionary force.
'The hospital, which is on the
French coast, has 1900 beds under
canvas in quadrangle 500 feet
square and is in a district in which
there are many similar institutions
and is unmistakablc as hospital.
"At the time the German aviator
flew over it most of the surgical staff
was engaged in making rounds of the
wards. Lieutenant Fitzsimmons, how
ever, was standing at the door-flap
of his tent. There had been a brief
warning of the presence of bombing
airplane in the neighborhood, because
a quarter of minute before the sound
of exploding bombs was heard from
a point perhaps 200 yards from the
hospital
American Torn to Fragments.
'This warning sufficed to cause all
lights in the tents to be extinguished |
Immediately, and those who had been
under fire before threw themselves
face down upon the ground. Then |
came five explosions in rapid success |
sion in the hospital itself. The first
two were directly in front of Lieuten-
ant Fitzsimmons' tent-he probably |
never knew what happened to him, as
his body was torn to shreds. The next |
two fell a hundred feet beyond in |
five marquee 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 derisive handful Of |
pfennigs he scattered upon the hospi-
tai as he whirled away. A number
of these were found when light came.
No Panic in Hospital.
Although the exploding bombs cre-
ated horror in the hospital there was
not the smallest sign of panic, and
the work of discovering the wounded |
and counting them was Immediately |
begun. This was made cruelty diff
cult by the darkness. but everyone
sprang to it with a will. Many Of the
injured had been blown from their
cots, some even outside their tents,
where they were found tangled UP in
the tent ropes. The American nurse
and hospital orderly, although in
jured refused to be relieved and re-
mained at their tasks.
'In the operating room Captains
Horace Binney and Elliott, with their
assistants. worked all night long. Sew