The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1917-10-12
DR.. Robert Vinyard of Jack
son in Active War.
Service.
WITNESSED VIOLENT
DRIVE OF BRITISH
Says Many are Blinded by Elk.
plosion of Shells-Many
Crippled for Life.


France, the damage caused by burst-
ing shells, the suffering of the wound
ed and the system employed in tax
ing care of the wounded is told %
Councilman Ben Vineyard in lettc.
ne received yesterday from his broth
er, RI. Robert Vineyard, who has been
in active service in France for sevreaI
medical corps of the British Expect
tionary force and has spent consider
able time directly behind the firing
lines and in the hospitals.
The morale of the German troops.
the physician tells his brother, has IL
most been completely wiped out, iudg-
ing from the experience he had with
the German prisoners. These men. ne
writes in his letter, are completely
discouraged. Many, he says, informed
him that thcy had been told by til ~
officers they would be assassinated ny
the enemy if they were captured.
He said he saw 4 number of Gcr-
man prisoners who were brought III
by the French and British troops
throw up their hands and beg for
mercy. Many, he tells his brother.
stripped their uniforms of the buttons
md turned everything they had IN
their possession over to their capto"s
rs ransom for their lives.
The damage caused by the bursting
of the heavy shells, the physician
writes, can not be conceived by those
who have not actually experienced it.
The force of the explosion he says,
is so vehement that the eyes of many
soldieds near +ie pale whore tho
shells burst, are robbed of their eye
sight by the vacuum created by the
explosion
Hundreds Of soldiers he writes are
brought to the hospital daily, some
slightly wounded and others crippeled
for life. Some shot and others lite
ally torn to pieces by the bursting
of the shells. He says he had treated
several hundred with both arms and
legs broken by the force of the ex-
plosiOn of the shells.
The physician tells his brother how
he spent five nights in the trenches
along the eastern front, sleeping IN
the dugouts, and in the shell crates
hurryinT to the assistance of the
wounded brought in from the battle
fields and the trenches.
DR.. Vineyard is son of DR.. G. W.
Vineyard of Jackson. He was the first
physician of Cape Girardeau County.
and perhaps of Southeast Missouri 20
be sent across the ocean to the bat
tlefields. He spends five days every
month behind the firing lines, and the
during the remainder of the month
is caring for the wounded in the hos
pitfalls.
The first five days he was in ser
vice behind the battle lines was du,-
ing the beginning of the big drive
opened by the British and the Fcnch
against the German lines resulting IN
a repulse of the German troops. Thou
sands of German prisoners wera
brought in during those five days he
says, but all were treated well. they
we're given TIE same food the British
andFrench received and ii necessary
were furnished with clothing.
The roaring of the cannons during
the heavy fighting Dr. Vineyard tells
his brother, at times was so heavy
that he thought the earth underneath
the trenches and the battle fields
would cave under the force of the de-
donation. The French and British sol
diers, he writes, have apparently
learned to defy the danger Of death
and the sound of the heavy artillery.
During the days he was in service on
the firing lines, he slept very little be-
cause of the sound of the big guns.
TIE letter received yesterday by
Councilman Vineyard was written Sep
TENDER 5.