The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1918-12-31
WOUNDED SOLDIER
TELLS Of Y. N. c. A.
HERO, OF DAVENPORT, WASH.
MODESTLY RECITES THRILL
ING EXPERIENCE

After undergoing five operations in
hospitals in France and one since get
ting back to the United States, dur
ing which times surgeons had him
under ether and were probing around
in his anatomy after bits of shrapnel
ranging in size from a pea to slug
nearly two inches long taken from
his lungs, Howard Knapp is spending
short furlough at the home of his
mother, Mrs. Ida Knapp, still nursing
wounded foot. but otherwise look
ing fit as a fiddle.
But the scars are there, great ugly
scars that he will carry all through
life, and the left foot is bothering the
army surgeons because they don't
know whether or not they can save it,
bit Of shrapnel finding its way to
the bone, being one of the eight or
more pieces dug out of him, and yet
| he says:
! 81 was pretty lucky, no bones were
broken and with the exception OF my
foot feel all right. The fellow by
my side was killed outright"
Mr.. Knapp was wounded near Sols-
! sons ,Iutv - IN tne plg drive that
turned the Germans back from their
advance on Paris, being with the ma
rines, or one of the commonly called
"devil dogs" He was struck by
high explosive shrapnel, the largest
piece striking him in the breast, cut
ting through a French dictionary he
carried in his shirt pocket, then
/ through his Identification tag, sever
ing it in halves, and was found IN
his lungs. He lay on the battle field
for two hours, was then carried to
the rear by stretcher bearers to the
field hospital. He was wounded about
II o'clock a. m. and at 8 p. m. was
started from the field to Paris where
he was placed in the American Red
Cross military hospital No. 5 and it
was 5 o'clock the morning OF the list
before the surgeons began to probe
for the iron in him. He was in Paris
three weeks, then taken to ST. Nazaire
until September at Base Hospital
No. 8, then to Brest to Base Hospital
No. for few days, then across to
New York and was sent to Bremerton
November IL where he is still under
the care of the army surgeons.
He landed in France June and
five days after was on the fighting
line, starting in at Belleau woods on
the Chateau Thierry front, hence he
was WIFI CIlC IIldI1LcS tlldC Jul AiCu Vic
tide of battle in what is recognized
as, the greatest fighting of the war.
"There is no question but that the
Germans thought they would come
right through and go on into Paris"
he states. "They were dressed up in
their best clothes, the troops all spick
and span and in the best of spirits
when the fighting began. Of course
how it ended is now known by every
one"
For eighteen days, when he was
wounded, the marines had been hold
ing their ground, not attempting to
advance, but checking the continual
onrush Of the Germans who kept COM
ing wave after wave, which were
moved down. When wounded he was
advancing with his company, using
French automatic rifle, which weighs
about twenty pounds, firing 18 shots.
Asked about the Red Cross and Y.
M. C. A., Mr.. Knapp stated that he
had never heard word of anything
but praise for the Red Cross, but that
the Y. M. C. A. had got in bad with
the boys because of its exhorzitant
charges for goods furnished. For in
stance, he cited a case where, to his
knowledge, a soldier had paid 80 cents
for a package of Bull Durham to-
bacco, and 25 cents for Camel cigar
cites, and had talked with number
of wounded soldiers since returning
to this country who criticized the T.
M. C. A. severely.-Davenport Times
Tribune