Mexico Missouri message., 1918-10-24

/ troops, In small grOups-what was left
of squads and platoons and singly.
Our captain had got it fifth time,
meanwhile, but he would not leave us,
as he was the ranking officer. He had
scalp wound, but the others were in
his arms and shoulders. He could not
move his hands at all.
But he led our charge when we ran
for the woods. We carried some ma
chine guns with us as we went, and
the gunners would run piece, set up,
fire while we opened up for them, and
run on again. Some troops came out
of trench still farther to the right
and helped us, and we drove the Ger
mans out of the woods and occupied It
ourselves.
From there, we had the Germans In
our old trench almost directly from
the rear, and we simply cleaned them
out. / think all the vows were kept
that day, or else the men who made
them died first.
was shot through the thigh some
time or other after the captain got
back. 1t felt just like a needle-prick
at first, and then for a while my leg
was numb. A couple of hours after we
took our trench back, started out for
the rear and hospital. The wound had
been hurting for some time. They car
ried the captain out on a stretcher
about the same time, but he died on
| the way from loss of blood. Fresh
troops came up to relieve us, but our
men refused to go, and though official
ly they were not there in the trench,
they stayed until they took the cap
tain away. Then, back to billets-not
bullets, this time. 1 believe that we re-
ceived an army citation for that piece
of work, but do not know, as was
in the hospital for short time after
ward. do not remember much about
going to the hoSpltaI except that the
ambulance made an awful racket going
over the stone-paved streets of Etaples,
and that the bearer who picked up one
end of my stretcher, had eyes like dead
fish floating on water; also, that there
were some civvies standing around the
entrance as we were being carried in.
The first thing they do in the hos
pital is to take Off your old dirty band
ages and slide your stretcher under a
big electric magnet. A doctor comes
In and places his hand over your
wound, and they let down the magnet
over his hand and turn on the juice.
If the shell fragment or bullet in you
is more than seven Centimeters deep,
you cannot feel the pain. The first
doctor reports to the chief how deep
your wound is, and where 1t Is stu.
ated, and then nurse comes up to
you. where you lie, with your clothes
still on, and asks you to take the
pressure"
Then they lift you on four-wheeled
cart, and roll you to the operating the
ater. They take off your clothes there
1 remember l liked to look at the
nurses and surgeons; they looked sc
good in their clean white clothes.
Then they stick hollow needles into
you, which hurt good deal, and yoU
take the pressure. After a while, they
begin cutting away the bruised ant
maybe rotten flesh, removing the ole
cloth, pieces Of dirt, and so forth, anC
scraping away the splinters of bone.
You think for sure you are going tt
bleed to death. The blood rushe!
through YOU like lightning, and if yol
get a sight OF yourself, you can fee
yourself turning pale. Then they hurr!
you to your bed, and cover you owe
with blankets and hot-water bottles
They raise your bed on chairs, so til,
blood will run up toward your head
and after while, your eyes open ant
the doctor says, "OuI, oui, ii vivra,
meaning that you still had some tim
to spend before finally going west.
The treatment we got in the hosplta
was great. We received cigarettes, to
baccO, matches, magazines, and cleal
clothes. The men do not talk abou
their wounds much, and everybod
tries to be happy and show it. Th
food was fine, and there was lots Of Il
= I do not think there were any doc
TORS in the world better than ours, an
4 they were always trying to max
4 things easy for us. They did not ri
the dressings off your wounds lik
/ some of the butchers do in some of ou
dispensaries that know of, but too
4 them of carefully. Everything wa
a very clean and sanitary, and some Z
n the hospitals had sun parlors, whic
8 were well used, you can be sure.
d Some OF the men made toys an
J. fancy articles, such as button hook
8 and paper knives. They made tn
d handles from empty shell cases, q
r shrapnel. or pieces Of Zeppelins. {