The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1918-06-17

DR.. C. M Magee, who is with the
British hospital department in France
where he has been for two years, has
written-5fnather not only very inter
esting -.zsighly instructive letter tc
DR.. H. r. Smith, Of Moscow. The let
ter is full Of interesting information
such as has not reached US from any
other source. DR.. Smith has kindly
given the letter to The Star Mirror
for publication. It follows:
ssDear Doctor: '
There is surely no time like summer
for war. just wish you could look
in on our tent-hospital one of these
lovely days and see how happy and
comfortable Tommy looks in spite of
his wounds. The first weeks here
were dreadfuliy cold, wet and dis
agreeable, but the past 10 days could
not be excelled. The nights are
superb, and the Bosch is over every
4 night. The Arches are blazing away
as l write, and he is humming over
head. His engine has distinctive
hum. One can pick it out of dozen.
Our boys are doing wonders. On
Wednesday and Thursday, last, they
brought down 1O1 Bosch (61 and 40);
% of ours are missing. How is that?
At the same time the French are hoe
ing in, 18th and 10th, night, they
spilled 10 tons of bombs on the
Bosch billets, dumps, etc. Now that
is bound to do some damage. The
Bosch got petrol dump near here
last night and the Heavens were
aglow for miles. / am sure one could
see it all over France.
/ see where one American brought
down his eighth Bosch since February
49, l fully expect dozens of such fel-
lows, but to my astonishment it was
announced in Paris two or three
weeks back that there were only SO
American planes in action. Now,
mind you, we need them. l maintain
1000 planes can annihilate the strong
est push the Bosch can produce.
1000 planes, with bombs and machine
guns, can disorganize and demoralize
million men. (There goes the
bombs! 1, 2, 8, 4, 5, 8. Each ma
chine carries about 8 bombs, as I
have lain in bed and repeatedly count
ed 8 explosions in rapid succession.)
Now surely this is an inexpensive
way of smashing an advance and saw
ing our boys from the awful artillery
destruction, consequent upon such an
advance as that of March 21-31. The
Bosch papers tell in glowing terms
of 100000 of the allies being knocked
out by their offensive, and I am sure
the Germcns knowing their own |
casualties are ready to believe it.
The Times published yesterday the
AmerfkA casualty list so far in the
war. is under 5000, all told (715
killed, 275 died of wounds, 1880 died
of sickness, $500 sick and 294 prison
ers). Now do you know that the same
paper has been publishing daily
casualty list for the British army ex-
ceeding this. For the past three
weeks at least $50 or 500 officers and
1000 or 1900 Tommies daily. Add
to this French Italians and it is as
tonishing how the game goes on.
We have been unusually slack dur
ing the past 10 days. We have 6
teams, and my share for full days
has been cases. We are not nearly
SO conveniently placed as previously.
We now have to evacuate by ambu-
lances miles, so when we are busy
there is a dreadful hub-bub evacuat-
ing. Our new medical man arrived
two weeks ago. He was the year
after me in McGell, so know him
we'll. He is from near Winona, Mimi,
and has been for the four years pre-
vious to enlistment (April, '16) with
the Mayos. He has big contract
here when we are busy.
We hear great rumors of gigantic
attack, and all I am praying for is
more planes. I wish had the power .
to produce them for this next attack
and demonstrate my theory as to their {
efficiency in annihilating any attack.
tell you an instance: A train of
motor lorries were proceeding along
a road, q Bosch swooped down with
bombs. and machine guns. Some of s
these lorry drivers had machine guns {
and got into action; another Bosch {
came from behind and shot the two I
drivers who were operating machine! s
guns. Two planes simply shot up the