Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1918-12-12

the steel deck, but I was able to crawl
on to the turret door. Just as / was
about to enter the gun was fred. That
particular charge happened to be de-
fective. The shell split and caused a
back fire and the cordite. fire and gas
came through the breech, which the
explosion had opened.
1t must have been a piece Of cordite
which did 1t, but whatever 1t was, 1t
hit me in the right eye and blinded 1t.
The ball Of the eye vas saved by the
French surgeons and looks normal. but
it pains me greatly sometimes and
they tell me 1t will always be sight
less.
l was unconscious Immediately from
the blow and from the quantity Of gas
which I must have swallowed. This
gas did me a great deal of damage
and gives me dizzy spells often to this
day. l do not know what happened
during the rest Of the engagement, Us
I did not regain consciousness until
three days later at sea. But l heard
In the hospital that the French super
dreadnaught Jeanne dare and the
light cruiser Normandy were In It as
well as ourselves, though not at the
time ! was wounded, and that we had
oil been pretty well battered. The
Cassard lost 96 men in the engage
ment and had 48 wounded. Some Of
our turrets were twisted into all man
ner Of shapes and part Of our bow
was carried away. One Of our lieu
tenants was killed In the engagement
!. I was told that both the VERT ant
. the kaiserliche Marine were sunk IL
. this engagement. l have seen picture!
Of sailors from the Werft who were
prisoners at interment camps.
When We arrived ut Brest tn
g wounded were taken from the ship IL
stretchers and after we had been rest
. ed for about fifteen minutes ON tn
dock put into ambulances and rushed
a to the hospital. On the way those VIII
q could leaned out Of the ambulance an'
had Il great time with the people alonj
the streets, many Of whom they knew
for the Cassard was a Brest ship. AM
y Of course the women and children
g yelled, "Vive Ia Francc!" and wer
glad to sec the boys again, eve
!, though they were badly done up.
Il Some Of u men were bandage
all over the face and head and it wa
funny when they had to tell thel
I. names to old friends of theirs. VIII
did not recognize them. As soon q
one Of the Brest people recognized
friend Off he would go to get cigarette
a and other things for him and some {
Ii them almost beat us to the hospital.
~ I do not know. Of course, Just WIN
the surgeons did to me, but l hear
Id that they had my eyeball out on m
check for almost two hours. At an
r. rate they saved It. The thigh woun(
re were not dangerous In themselves m
:r II 1t had not been for the rough trea
,g ment they got later on they would /
quite healed by this time, / an sur
IN I really think l got a little extra q
er tcntlon In the hospital in many way
II, for the French were ut all times an,
ut ious to show their friendliness
ct America. Every time my meals wei
OF, served there was q little America
is flag on the platter md always u lar,
m American nag draped over tho bed.
lid had everything l wanted given to n
.es at once ana when I was able to, Z
W. tho cigarettes I could smoke, viii,
were not many.
ed While I was still In bed In tho he
pltal I received the Croix dc Guerl
which I had won at the Dardanell,
M The presentation was made hy La