Evening star., 1918-06-07
HUNS TRY TO KILL
HELPLESS WOUNDED
Hospitals and AmbuIances
Targets All Night-Scenes
of Horror.

OF Horror.
BY JUNITs II. WOOD.
Cablegram to The Evening Star and
Chicago Drily News. Copyright. 1918.
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY ON
THE FRENCH FRONT. May 80 (de-
layed) efforts to kill help
less American wounded We're made by
the Germans, throughout the entire
night preceding Memorial day. Dress
ing stations were shelled with heavy
explosives; the tents of the field hos
pftals and moving ambulance trains
werc the targets of aeroplane machine
guns and other vultrres of the air
dropped bombs around the hospital
trains and base hospitals in a French
city twenty miles back of the front.
The most serious damage was done
in the city, where an ambulance was
completely wiped out. Diabolic at
tacks on other hospitals continued
throughout the night.
Instead of weakening the morale Of
the wounded in the hospitals and of
the unwounded grimly holding cap
tured Cantigny. their determination to
repay the vindictiveneSS of the enemy
was only increased. I visited sew
eral of the field hospitals today and
the men with bandased heads, arms
and legs lying on the cots seemed all
to utter the same prayer: Il nope To
get well quickly so as to go back to
the line and even mp the score" The
capture of a German officer wearing
an American helmet while leading one
OF the futile counter attacks in
creased the feeling.
Warning Came at Midnight.
It was close to midnight when the
boom Of anti-airSuns awoke the
sleeping city and warned the sur
geons and nurses of the approach of
raiders. A few minutes later bombs
with dull deep echoes were exploding
and shaking the city. 1t was bright
serted streets. The terrified civilians
were behind closed doors and the
only thing to be seen was q French
ambulance which without waiting for
the end of the raid was going to the
rescue of the victims of the so-called
chivalrouS German aviatorS.
One block away from a hospital used
both by the French and Americans was
the debris of wrecked house. The air
was pungent with the fumes of gas
from broken pipe. On either side the
blown-out windows of what few mo-
ments ago were happy homes stared
like blind eyes Soon gendarmes. French
soldiers and American soldiers. though
some Of them were patients in the
nearby hospital, were running to help
the victims whom a few civilians were
already carrying out of the ruined
houses.
Girls Act as Stretcher Bearers.
It was clear moonlight and bright
stars overhead Illuminated the modern
inferno Close after the first ambulance
came half a dozen others, all driven by
French girls, and were backed up in the
intersecting streets. Hastily pulling out
the stretchers from the back of the am
balances the girls, each wearing a he'll
met and acting with soldierlike pre-
cision. ran forward into the main street,
laid down their stretchers and waited
behind the rescue parties clearing up
the debris.
The mangled forms Of three children.
one with leg gone, another with an
arm severed. and all three with their
faces blackened and disfgured by the
warfare Germany is waging, were being
carried out They were placed on the
stretchers and soon were lifted into an
ambulance, which sped away.
Two soldiers met frightful Deaths
whispered one Of the waiting soldiers in
French. Two others were picking a
form out Of pile Of broken boards and
plaster with the head torn OF by the
side Of the building. The remains were
placed on a stretcher amid the hushed
groanS of the onlookers. Another form
not yet cold In death, who had been
killed in the same horrible manner, was
carried out. A minute before he had been
@ healthy, happy young soldier. for he was
in uniform. Both the dead soldiers were
carried by the girls to an ambulance,
which sped away noiselessly on its mis-
sion.
Young Girl One Of Victims.
Deeper down in the dust of the
wrecked building were the remains
OF another human being, for killing
whom the aviators will probably be
rewarded by Germany with iron
crosses.
sit is young girl" said a grizzled
white-mustached captain as he flashed
azlight on the manged body. Long
hair matted with dust and blood fell
In tangled waves around the face of
what had been a beautiful girl The
head, arms and breast were all that
remained Of what had once been pull
sating with life. Gentle hands lifted
the victim Of the destruction which
Germany had loosed from the starry
skies and placed her on stretcher.
The body of another woman followed.
a young American soldier, who had
faced death unfiinchingly in the
tfenches. dropped. sick in heart and
body, on pile Of rubbish. holding his
had seemed clean and fair TO him
scanned to be whirllng about him
slender girl chauffeur, seasoned to
such scenes by years Of war in places
where death stalked in the air-in
Dunquerque and Amiens-and who
had been near many battlefields lift
ed him bodily, carried him around the
corner, and with q reassuring pat on
his shoulder started back with him
to his hospital. That was no place
to show weakness. and besides as the
airplanes were still dropping bombs
1t was not necessary to risk the lives
OF those unable TO help.
rJuliette. lend me your lamp" said
ing another girl chauffeur The old
captain Joined them. ana the three,
guided by the girls fiashlight
clambered over the ruins which
blocked the street They passed
through what had once been a win
dow and disappeared in the totter1ne
ruins. The priest was searching for
ono OF his flock who had not been ac-
counted for. From beneath the debris
OF the demolished building came the
sound of groans.
tear tho tangled wreckage with their
bare hands to reach the sufferer.
French soldiers came up with torches
and crow bars to assist in freeing a
woman who was pinioned beneath
fallen rafters. There were other hu-
man forms there, but they were in
animate Stin the rescue party worked
patiently.
She Wanted to Die.
AYAayA MA Sn AtA <eth.rn