The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-09-16
Hun HOSPITAL ATTACK
DESCRIBED N DETAIL
Full Report of Air Raid in
France Is Received in
Washington.
AN AMERICAN KILLED
Chose Dead Of Night to
Bring Terror to Help
less Patients.
AN AMERICAN KILLED

Washington. Sept. 15.-The first
complete detailed account Of the Ger
man air attack on American base hos
pital No. 5 In France on the night Of
Tuesday. September 4, has reached
this country in a report from Major
Grayson NJ. p. Murphy, head of the
Red Cross commission in France,
1t was in this attack that Lieuten-
ant William T. Fitzsimmons of Kan
sas City, the first American officer
to give his life in the war, was killed;
three other officers, six privates, a
woman nurse and % patients from the
British lines were wounded. An Amer
lean Red Cross inspector returning to
Paris from the scene told the story
as follows:
In Dead Of Night.
The airplane attack occurred at II
o'clock at night. Ten seconds sufficed
for the dropping of the bombs from
the fast flying plane, and within less
than a minute afterward the surgeons
of the hospital were at the task of
collecting and attending those who
had been struck down. And for "a
hours they We're at work in the Oper-
ating room. one surgeon relieving an
other when the latter from simple ex-
haustion could work no longer. And
the very next day. just as if nothing
had happened, these same surgeons
were called upon to receive and care
for 200 wounded sent in from the
trenches of the British expeditionary
force.
No Chance for Mistake.
THE hospital. which is on the
French coast and has $500 beds under
canvas, Is in 4 district in which there
are many similar institutions and is
unmistakable as a hospital. At the
time the German aviator flew over it,
most of the surgical staff was en-
gagged in making rounds of the ward.
Lieutenant FitZsimmons, however was
standing AT the door flap of his tent.
There had been brief warning of
the presence of a bombing airplane in
the neighborhood, because a quarter of
minute before the sound of explOd-
ing bombs was heard from a point pep
haps 200 yards from the hospital. This
warning sufficed to cause all lights in
the tents to be eXtinguished immedi-
ately and those who had heen under
fire before. threw themselves face
downward 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 Ftzsmmons tent--he probably
never knew what happened to him as
his body was torn to shreds. The
next two fell 100 feet beyond in n
ward in which there We're many pa
tients, and the last struck the recep-
ton tent.
Made Presence Known.
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 pfen-
nigs he scattered upon the hospital
as he whirled away. A number Of
these were found when light came.
Lieutenant Smith was struck in the
knee and Lieutenant Whidden in the
chest. The private soldiers injured
We're on duty as orderlies in the re-
ception tent and the bomb fell almost
upon them. SO severely was Private
Aubrey S. Mcleod injured that it was
necessary to amnutate both his legs
that night
Although the exploding bombs Gre
ated horror in the hospital there was
not the smallest sign of panic and the
work of collecting the wounded was
Immediately begun. This was made
cruelty difficult by the darkness, but
every one sprang to it with a will.
I'm the operating room, Captain
Horace Binney and Elliott with their
assistants worked all night. Several
delicate operations were performed
and their task was made all the
harder by the fact that in inumerable
cases the patients were in serious
danger of infection from the pieces of
wood and nails and dirt which had
been blown into their bodies"