Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-08-03
JOSEPH MON|HAN
GASSED IN TRENCH
Wilmington Soldier Lives. How
ever, to Relate His
Experience.

The father, sister and brother Of Joseph
Monihan. Wilmington soldier Mt the
front. have received letter from Joseph
telling of his experience during gns
attack He is now IN the base hospital
recovering from the effects and expects To
get nack To active duty very soon. His
home is at I706 Woodlawn avenue He
is member of Go. Il, 307th Infantry,
l.. :. A.
James L. Monihan. also Of Wilmington,
Joseph's brother will enter the service on
Monday, when he will go To Syracuse,
\. Y, for limited duty.
Following is the text of Joseph's letter
written under date Of June 2S.
Quite few exciting days have passed
since my last letter, but thank the Lord
| have pulled through in safety ! am now
resting in an evacuation hospital, have
been here since o clock Tuesday morning.
and expect to go to rest hospital tomor-
row. for short period. Do not get exert
cd nothing to worry about.
will tell how IT happened. We were
sleeping peacefully Monday morning
about a m. when Jerry started tn shell
our hillcts. Il miles back OF the line. He
started at five minutes after three and
never let up until p minutes after five.
1t was n continuous pop, pop" all the
time. both shrapnel and gas We had tn
keep our gas masks down m the dugouts
all the tune When he stopped shelling,
we came out and took off our gas masks.
That was all right. But We went INTO our
billcts without them. and consequently
hrcathcsl in a little gas, but II did not
bother me until that night about 9 n m,
and nv eyes began 10 shed tears. n regular
stream | was corporal Of the guard III the
village that night and could hardly keep
my ewes omen so Tuesday morning
after breakfast | reported AT the field
hospital They washed out my eyes, put
A bandagr on them. put me in an ambu-
lance and brought me here. As soon as we
arrived. they took of all our clothes, gave
us hot water bath, nurse washed our
ewes again and put us IN cot, and |
have been here since You can tell that
am not bad. when shaved this morning
and sitting up writing this afternoon.
Tomorrow morning they are gong TO put
us in Red Cruss hospital tram, and take
us 10 the base hospital for rest The
doctor gave me thorough exam" this
morning and everything IL o. h. Tho
nurse takes our temperature and pulse
four times a day also washes out our eyes,
Mine are all right now, except they are
still little red, and We are Just little
weak, as they gave us only milk for III
hours. Now they give US bread, tea,
bread pudding and other nourishments,
also bath every morning The whole
thing is 10 rest, so that nothing new can
develop. BY the time this reaches you |
will be back with the company again
BY the way. you should have seen me
with a Few days beard, and my eyes
bloodshot II did not look like hobo;
it was certainly a beautiful VanDyke-
The night after the bombardment we
slept out in the woods, as our billets were
full of gns, also our blankets had to be
thoroughly aired. So we crawied into the
bushes, used a magazine carrier for pill
low, and slept very comfortably; inl fact
more 50 than did my first night, between
the sheets, some companions u what
soldier gets
After the bornbardnent Was over and
before we hsd breakfast, all wires were
down and the major received word that
the Boches had broken through, so the
captain lined our company up back OF
some barbed wire, close TO the wood out
side Of the village | was gwen the extreme
night flank TO guard, which was Ia IL
road which was used TO bring back the
wounded Also one corner of the wood
and also had 10 throw some barbed wire
across the track, in case Jerry broke
through had three men besides myself
TO do this. one man TO hand me arnmuni-
ton and the other two were TO watch and
shoot their rifles Talk about being armed.
] had an automatic rife with 800 rounds,
nv regular rife with 100 rounds and
revolver with 20 rounds, and last of all, a
bayonet Can you imagine what damage
I could do all alone, if the Boches did get
me?