Williams news., 1918-11-15

cQ Dy two k. A. M. U. men. linen ne Is put into a motor ambulance. manned by a crew of two or three. At the field hospital. where he generally goes un. der an anesthetic. either to have his wounds cleaned or to be operated on, he requires the services of about three 1 to five persons. From this point an
 other ambulance ride impresses more men in his service, and then at the ann bulance train, another corps of doc tors. R. A. M. c. men. Red Cross nurses
 and the trains crew. From the train he eatera the base hospital or casualty clearing station. where a good-siged corps of doctors. nurses, etc, are kept
 busy. Another ambulance journey is i next in order-this time to the hospital ship. He crosses the chanael. arrives in Feighty-more ambulances and per. haps a ride for five hours on an Eng fish Red Cross train with its crew of 1 Red Cross workers. and at last he reaches the hospital. Generally he
 stays from two to six months, or long CT, in this hospital. From here he is sent to a convalescent home for six weeks.
 If by wounds he is unfitted for fur ther service, he Is discharged. given a
 
 home for the rest of his life-and still the expense piles up. When you real ize that all the ambulances, trains and :, ships, not to mention the man power, used in transporting a wounded man. could be used for supplies, ammunition and re-enforcements for the troops at
 the front. 1t will not appear strange
 that from a strictly military stand fu onkf hnk k%or than a live one Cf wounded).
 Not long after the first digging party.
 our general decided. after a careful tour of inspection of tho communica tion trenches. upon "an ideal spot" as
 he termed 1t, for a machine-gun em
 placement; took his map, made a dot
 on 1t, and as he was wont, wrote "diH
 here," and the next night we dug. There were twenty in the party, my
 self included. Armed with picks, shovels and empty sandbags we ar
 rived at the ideal spot" and started
 digging. The moon was very bright,
 but we did not care as we were well out of sight of the German lines. We had gotten about three feet,
 down. when the fellow next to me, aft
 CT mighty stroke with his pick. let go
 of the handle. and pinched his nose
 with his thumb and forefnger at the
 same time letting out the explosion,
 ''Gott strafe me pink, I'm bloody we'll
 gassed, not 'alf I ain't." I quickly
 turned in his direction with an inquir-
 ing look, at the same instant reaching
 for my gas bag. I soon found out what was ailing him. One whiff was enough
 and I lost no time in also pinching my
 nose. The stench was awful. The rest
 of the digging party dropped their picks and ShovelS and beat it for the
 weather side of that solitary pick. The
 officer came over and inquired why the
 work had suddenly ceased. holding our
 noses, we simply pointed in the direc-
 ton of the smell. He went over to the pick, immediately clapped his hand
 over his nose, made an about turn" and came back. Just then our cap- tain came along and investigated, but 1 after about a minute said we had bet
 ter carry on with the digging, that he
 did not see why we should have stopped as the odor was very faint,
 but if necessary he would allow us our gas helmets while digging. He would stay and see the thing through, but he had to report back to brigade head quarters immediately. We wished that
 we were captains and also had a date at brigade headquarters. With our gas helmets on we again attacked that hole and uncovered the decOmposed body of German the pick was sticking in his chest. Ore of the men tainted. was I that one. Upon this our lieutenant halted proceedings and sent word back to headquarters and word came back that after we filled in the hole we could
 knock off for the night. This was wei. 1 come tidings to us. because
 Next day the general changed the dot on his map and another emplace- l ment was completed the following | night.
 The odor from the dug-up, decom.
 posed human body has an effect which
 is hard to describe. It first produces
 a nauseating feeling, which, especially
 after eating, causes vomiting. This re- 1 Heves you temporarily, but soon weakening sensation follows, which
 leaves you limp as a dishrag. Your
 spirits are at their lowest ebb and you 1 feel sort of hOpelessness and a mad l desire to escape it all, to get to the
 open fields and the perfume of the flow.
 CTS in Elighty. There is a sharp 1 prickling sensation in the nostrils 1 which reminds one of breathing coal
 gas through a radiator in the floor. and you want to sneeZe. but cannot. This
 was the effect on me, surmounted by a
 vague horror of the awfulness of the
 thing and an overcoming reflection
 that, perhaps l. sooner or later, would
 be in such a state and be brought to
 light by the blow of pick in the hands