The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1918-09-21

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they, too, were officers or privates.
The room in which l found myself
contained eight beds, three of which
were occupied by wounded German of
ficers. The other rooms, l imagined
had about the same number of beds as
mine. There were no Red Cross nurses
in attendance, just Orderlies, for this
was only an emergency hospital and
! too near the firing line for nurses. The
Orderlies were not old men nor very
young boys, as had expected to find,
! but young men in the prime of life,
who evidently had been medical stu
| dents. One or two Of them, / discoy-
cred, were able to talk English, but
| for some reason they would not talk.
Perhaps they were forbidden by the
| officer in charge 70 do so.
In addition to the bullet wound in
my mouth had swelling from my
forehead to the back of my head al
| most as big as my shoe-and that is
| saying considerable. l couldn't move
an inch without suffering intense pain,
and when the doctor told me that l
had no bones broken / wondered how
fellow would feel who had.
German officers visited me that
morning and told me that my machine
| went down In a spinning nose dive
from a height of between 5000 and
5000 feet, and they had the surprise
| of their lives when they discovered
that l had not been dashed to pieces.
They had to cut me out of my machine,
which was riddled with shots and shat
tered to bits.
A German doctor removed the bullet
from my throat, and the first thing he
said to me when l came to was, "You
are an Americana"
There was no denying it, because
the metal Identification disk on my
wrist bore the inscription:
"P. OBJ.
q. S. A.
r. F. c."
Although I was suffering intense
agony, the doctor, who spoke perfect
English, insisted upon conversing with
me.
you may be all right as a sports
man." he declared, ''but you are a
ID murderer just the same for be-
ing here. You Americans who got into
this thing before America came into
the war are no better than common
murderers and you ought to be treated
the same way"
The wound in my mouth made it i'm
possible for me to answer him, and
was suffering too much pain to be
hurt very much by anything he could
say.
He asked me if I would like an
apple! 1 could just as easily have
eaten brick.
When he got no answers out of me,
he~walked away disgustedly.
"You don't have to worry any more"
he declared, as a parting shot. "For
you the war is over"
was given a little broth later in
the day, and as l began to collect my
thoughts l wondered what had hap
pened to my comrades in the battle
which had resulted so disastrously to
me. AS l began to realize my plight
l worried less about my physical con-
dition than the fact that, as the doc
tod had pointed out, for me the war
was practically over. l had been in it
but short time, and now l would be
a prisoner for the duration of the war!
The next day some German flying
officers visited me, and l must say they
treated me with great consideration.
They told me of the man l had brought
down. They said he was a Bavarian
and fairly good pilot. They gave me
his hat as a souvenir and compliment
ed me on the fight l had put up.
My helmet, which was of soft
leather, was split from front to back
by bullet from a machine gun, and
they examined it with great interest.
When they brought me my uniform l
found that the star of my rank which
had been on my right shoulder strap
had been shot off clean. The one on
my left shoulder strap they asked me
for as souvenir, as also my r. F. C.
badges, which gave them. They al
lowed me to keep my "wings," which
1 wore on my left breast, because they
were aware that that is the proudest
possession of British flying officer.
I think am right in saying that the
only chivalry in this war on the Ger
man side of the trenches has been dis
played by the officers of the German
flying corps, which comprises the pick
of Germany. They pointed out to me
that l and my comrades were fighting
purely for the love of it, whereas they
were fighting in defense of their coun-
try, but still, they said, they admired
US for our craftsmanship. / had a no.
ton to ask them if dropping bombs on
London and killing so many innocent
people was in defense of their country,
but [ was in no position or condition
to pick quarrel at that time.
That same day German officer was
II