The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-03-08
GERMANS COUCE OUT AMERICANS EYES AT FRONT

New York, March S-Stories of Ger man atrocities upon American soldiers were told by patients in Army Hospi- tai No. 1, Columbus Oval, the Bronx, in tour of the institution, which was made Up by special permission of Col. D. F. Duval, commanding medical of- 1 ficer, yesterday.
 | Elghty-eight -wracked soldiers, back from the muddy inferno of France are finding their way back to health under American skies. They are the first of the Pershing expedi- tionary force to go through the iron ''mill'' of war.
 How the Germans 'did in" twelve Americans last October was told by Albert B. Sykes, attached to a DiVi- sion Sanitary Corps. He iss uffering from paralysis caused by an automo- bile accident in the confusion of an air raid He said: | Twelve infantrymen went out on a night patrol. They failed to return When their bodies were not visible on no mans land next day every one concluded that they had been taken prisoner.
 "They had been taken prisoner all right. And they came back to us following the night after their dis appearance, they were lying out in front of our trenches.
 Every man had his eyes gouged out. Their bodies were terribly mu- l tilated. In several cases the hands and legs were gone.
 About this time I was assigned to a dressing station just behind the lines. One night a chap simply rid dled with bomb fragments came l through our hands. He had been bombed by German officer in an American uniform in his own trench. '"The Germans came over the top at night, perhaps intending to mingle with the men. This soldier saw the. | imposter come over. When he &C., costed him, the German let fly with a 1 bomb. I wish you could have seen the American afterward-you never would have believed that he got well | in spite of it.
 "As for that German, he never got | hack to his own lines. What the rest of our men did to him was a shame. 1 He was shortly one of the deadest | Germans that this war has produced"
 Private Sykes thought he could describe trench life until he tried it. Then he gave it up, declaring that Eff I told you how bad it really is you'd think I was stringing you.' But he admitted that the Americans didn't l seem to mind it ut all
 Many of the ships in which the wounded were brought home were fired on by German submarines. This brought luck to Walter M. Jones of Glen Cove, L. l., o1 the old 69th, how ever, according to his fellow patient, Sergt. William H. Zimmerman, who is learning. to get about without the eyes he lost in motor truck smash l behind the lines. He said:
 "Jones was suffering from real shell-hock. He lost the power of speech and hearing. And he stayed deaf and dumb until our transport left the other side. He was on the same ship as myself.
 "A German submarine started strafing us. Jones was a few feet away from one of tile ships guns. When it suddenly went off he found himself with tongue and ears as fine as ever. That's the luck of war"
 Jones was shocked by a German 65-centimetre shell which fell Is feet away. When he revived, he was in | field hospital with five shrapnel bull. lets in his right leg. He thinks that the two heutenants, Allen and Riley, who were with him, were killed out right.
 Army Hospital No. 1, most modern of military hospitals, has now about GAO patients, according to Col. Duval, 1 Of the 25S men who arrived from France, approximately ITO have been sent to other hospitals. Sixty more, after brief stay at the, institution, | were granted a permanent discharge for physical disability
 "A moderate number of men are suffering from mental disorders" Col. Duval said. Only one case of actual shell shock has been encoun- tered. At present the number of &C., tpal bullet wound casSe in the hospital is reduced to the following: Two blinded, one with loss of arm, one with loss of leg above the knee, and one shrapnel case.
 ''The men are extraordinarily cheer full There is never word of com pIaint. That is probably what helps them get well so fast"
 The laxity of medical boards in tringtng the National Guard and oth. Ter con&Agents to war strength has