Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-02-27
and Arkansas.

The attack came suddenly this morn
ing after an all.day rain. The clouds
had parted and the moon was shining
brightly in the trenches. Stiffness pre-
vailed.
Suddenly there was huge flare from
the German trenches as the mineWerfers
were discharged. Then came the deton-
ations of high explosives with the quick
spread of deadly gases.
Three officers ran into a dugout and
closed the curtain so tight they mar
rowly escaped death through asphyxia-
tion frcm the charcoal fire. They were
taken TO a hospital but their condition
is not serious.
Three men were killed and nine were
overcome in the first attack.
When the attack came over the men
endeavored to adjust their gus masks.
These who weren' It quick enough were
soon gasping for breath. These were
carried to hospital. A child could
not look more helpless than these Am
orleans. Their huge chests raised and
lowered the covers as they fought for
breath. As their breathing grew loud
er and more difficult and CHOKING start
ed, the doctors hurried an oxygen tank
to the side of one of the victims cot.
He drank in the oxygen from the rub
Der cup and with a sigh of satisfaction
at the temporary relief.
The American army has gas equip
ment and will use it as the occasion de-
mands, but it is matter of self de
fense. The boche introduced the gas ter
ror to the world. Its first use against
the Americans has aroused the entire
army to the stage of "seeing red.''
It would stir the fighting blood of
every American to view the hospital
where lay the victims of the first Ger
man gas attack.
AT the hour of cabling five were dead.
and twenty were in hospitals struggling
like drowning men for breath. Word
came that thirty additional were en-
route to the hospitals.
At the field hospital where the first
twentv victims of German gas fright,
fulne.s were taken, the doctors were
stirred to the deepest hatred toward the
boches after having seen the suffering
The struggles of tine victims rvr nlxs
could be heard hundred feet away
With closed eyes and blue faces, these
American boys gasped and struggled
for every breath, while the attendants
in charge of captain, worked tireles5
ly. Among the doctots was one from
Waco, iexas, and one from Milford, Pa.
Every effort to relieve the suffering
vas re sorted e. ijlood-letting and the
giving of oxygen were tried. Every
breath was a grOan. The Americans
cager-drawing lii of the God-given air
sounded like bellows so nearly We're til,
lungs closed.
AS the sufferings became worse, the
men IS hands were outstretched as
though they were drowning. Their fin
gers extended, they stiffened, there was
a sudden foaming at the mouth, then
the end
The doctors cursed the boches for
every minute the men suffered They
treat wounded men with no special feel
ing of hatred for the enemy. But watch
ing gas victims is ike watching twenty
men slowly drowning or dangling from
rope, gradually euffoeating.
The gas victims were in a hospital
which was recently repeatedly bombed.
Doctors declared that the final act they
might expect from the Huns would be
an air raid on the hospital while the
gassed men were slowly passing out.
Between l and , clock Tuesday
morning, gas projeetiles were hurled
from minewerfers. There were two at
taeks, in which about Is chlorine and
phOsgene gas shells, accompanied by
high explosives, were thrown.
Small balls of fire were first visible,
then the entire battery OF minewerfers