The Jasper news. [volume] (Jasper, Missouri) 1898-1924, 1918-10-31

Is that these two were In line above
the wound got at DiXmude. The line
is almost as straight as you could
draw 1t with q ruler.
OF course 1t Knocked me down and
hit my head a pretty hard crack on
the steel deck, but l was able to crawl
on to the turret door. Just as | was
about to enter the gun was fired. That
particular charge happened to be de-
fective. The, shell split and caused a
back fire and the cordite, fire and gas
came through the breech, which the
explosion had, opened.
1t must have been piece Of cordlte
which did 1t, but whatever 1t was, 1t
hit me in the right eye and blinded It,
The ball of the eye was saved by the
French surgeons and looks normal, but
1t pains me greatly sometimes and
they tell me 1T will always be sight
less.
I was unconscious Immediately from
the blow and from the quantity of gas
which | must have swallowed. This
gus did me a great deal of damage
and gives me dizzy spells often to this
|
during the rest of the engagement, as
did not regain consciousness until
three days later Mt sea. But heard
in the hospital that the French super
dreadnaught Jeanne dare and the
light cruiser Normandy were in 1t as
well as ourselves. though not at the
time l was wounded, and that we had
all been pretty well battered. The
Cassard lost SO men In the engage
ment and had 49 wounded. Some Of
our turrets were twisted into NIL man.
ner Of shapes and part of our bow
was carried away. One of our lieu
tenants was Killed in the engagement.
/ was told that both the VERT and
the Kaiserllche Marine were sunk I'm
this engagement. have seen pictures
of sailors from the VERT who were
prisoners at interment camps.
When we arrived at Brest the
wounded were taken from the ship in
stretchers and differ we had been rest
ed for about fifteen minutes on the
dock put into ambulances and rushed
to the hospital. On the way those who
could leaned out of the ambulance and
had great time with the people along
the streets, many of whom they knew.
for the Cassard was Brest ship. And
Of course the women and children
yelled, "Vive Ia France!" and were
glad to see the boys again, even
though they were badly done up.
Some of our men were bandaged
all over the face and head and 1t was
funny when they had to tell their
names to old friends OF theirs, who
did not recognize them. AS soon as
one of the Brest people recognized a
friend off he would so to get cigarettes
and other things for him and some of
them almost beat us to the hospital.
l do not know, of course, just what
the surgeons did to me, but / heard
that they had my eyeball out on my
cheek for almost two hours. At any
rate they saved 1t. The thigh wounds
were not dangerous in themselves and
If 1t had not been for the rough treat
ment they got later on they would be
quite healed by this time, l am sure
really think ! got little extra at.
tention in the hospital in many ways
for the French were at all times anx.
ious to show their fricndliness to
America. Every time my meals were
served there was little American
flag on the platter and always large
American flag draped over the bed.
had everything wanted given to me
at once and when l was able to, all
the cigarettes I could smoke, which
were not many.
While l was still In bed In the hos
pital / received the Croix de Guerre
. which l had won at the Dardanelles
The presentation was made by Lieu
, tenant Barley. He pinned an Amerl
can flag on my breast, a French fial
beneath 1t and beneath that the wal
cross. He kissed me on both cheeks
of course, which was taking advantage
: of cripple. But 1t is the usual thinl
, with the French, as you know-I NEAR
the kissing, not the meanness Il
cripples.
When he had pinned the medal OF
} he said he thanked me from the bot
! tom of his heart for the French people
and also thanked all the American,
3 who had come over from their owl
land to help country with which
most of them were not connected. H,
! said 1t was Q war In which many ma
r lions were taking part, but In which
: there were just two ideas, freedom
: and despotism, and lot more thing
t that / cannot remember. He finished
: by saying that he wished he could dec
( crate all of us.
: OF course 1t was great stuff for M