The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-03-18
WAR THROBS |
ZACH HIMMEL!"
No More Does British Officer
Wish To Hear Words.
He Told Lieutenant Keilmann
Story of the Trenches.
GERMAN OFFICER SAID IT
Expression Never Will Be For
gotten by Soldier.
Thrilling Story of a Dressing
Station in France.
GERMAN OFFICER SAID IT
BY EARL D. KIELMANN.

Iieutenant American L. A T. IN France
now back in Kansas)
1t was a hard pull up the ladder
that evening. with the wind whipping
ones overcoat nearly off his back and
the salt spray driving into his eyes.
Gasping, 1 pulled myself up the last
few rungs and let down the iron trap
door with a clang 'Ach himmel,"
sighed.
The figure beside me smuggling be-
hind the canvas wind shield. gave a
start and turned around. Don't ever
saw that again" His voice had more
than sternness in it. There was some
thing of horror as we'll 1 made no
reply but tried to see thru a crack in
the canvas screen what was going on
out in that sector of swelter which
/ was to watch for the next two hours.
He and l had been doing watch up
in the crows nest now for a week and
/ knew from past experience That he
did not pump well, so | continued to
fight against the driving spray for a
glimpse of what was out there in that
boiling sea, knowing that IL he
would talk, he'd do it without pump
ing
land you said it with nearly the
same tone of voice the 'OberSt' used,
too" This came rather explosively
and startled me, seeing that it was the
next remark he made and that an
hour had interviewed between his first
remark and the second.
His Story.
TT was soon after L had been as
signed to service with the Tommies
upon one of the active fronts" he con-
tinued THE British do not as rule
use medical captains in their dress
ing stations but have them further be-
hind the lines. There must have been
some sort of a mixup or I would never
fTl 1a6 I
but some of the things l saw will never
be erased from my memory.
"Ordinarily we did not have a lot
to do. that British lieutenant and
myself but right about that time
bunch of raids were being made get
There was scarcely night but we
had a bunch of cases. This one night
in particular. we caught it heavy.
There was first wave of shell wounds
to look after. They are nasty-very
nasty. and l was glad to see what ap-
peared to be the last of them. Then
came bullet wounds. That meant that
the men had gone over the top. After
that came a hodge podge of all sorts
of wounds; grenade. bullet, knife. club
and bayonet wounds. varying from the
Slight temporarily disabling slashes to
the ones that we set aside doing MOTH
ing but giving unfortunate ones
squirt of morphine, the hopeless and
wav to the bad cases When Brighter
came in from which the blood dripped
in a steady stream, We dropped every
thing until we saw that all that could
be done was done.
Then Came the Huns.
when the steady stream of wound
ed commenced to show here and there
a green or dirty gray uniform, we
knew the boche trench was taken.
These were the wounded German
prisoners. We, down there in that
smelly dugout. we did not have to have
a periscope to see the battle, neither
did we have to have a courier tell us
how the scrap was going. The stream
of wounded told us all we wanted to
know, and we did not have to leave
our work.
1T was along about midnight that
some of the worst cases came in, and
about the same time in came POM
pous figure clad in that fled gray. He
was Prussian officer; you could tell
that from his back, which was as flat
and rigid as board. He pushed the
others who stood ahead of him aside
and marched up to me. ba+ins his arm
as he came His wound was a small
scratch compared with some of the
others and I pushed him to one side.
His mustache fairly bristled. Ich
bin Elm Oberst du,' he spit out like
an alley cat that has been chased out
of the backyard. / merely looked at
his arm again and then proceeded
with the others. Finally I finished
with the bad ones and picking up
roll of bandage started to wrap some
OF it about the wounded arm.
Zach Himmel.''
Just then in came a pair of
stretcher bearers and from the sag
ging canvas came a steady drip of
blood 1 dropped the roll of gauze
and stopped to lift the blanket that
a covered the still figure beneath. 1t
was a Tommy and badly wounded in
the abdomen, a surgical case.
ripped open his uniform and started
to work
81 did not hear the Oberst until
his hot breath was on my neck, but
1 never was so surprised in my life
as when / felt his soft flabby hand
grab me by the coat collar and whirl
me backward. His face was black
with passion as he spat at me with
DO verdamte sweinhundt.' He glow
cred at me as he pointed at the roll
of bandage 1 had dropped when 1 left
him for the other.
There was a quick movement be-
hind me and flash of light past my
shoulder. The glover died out of the
heavy domineering face of the Ger
man colonel His body slumped for