New-York tribune., 1919-01-20
5000 Soldiers
Reach Port ON
4 Transports
Nearly Every State Rep
resented in Returning
Host on s'Rainhow Day.
Great Throng Is at Docks
Thrilling Stories of Advcn-
lures Cover There" Arc
Fold by Wounded Heroes

feet Of transports brought home
5000 more American heroes from
overseas yesterday. The hospital ship
Comfort. with SIS sick and wounded
was the first to arrive and docked at
the army piers in Hoboken. The trans
port Lapland of the Red Star Line
with 2,055 troops, followed closely by
the Wilhcmina with LOAF soldier and
The Lapland went to the French
Line piers in Manhattan where her
cargo was discharged. while the Viii
hclmina made the most graceful dock
ing port officials at Hoboken have seen
The fourth transport. the Sierra
docked at llobokcn just before dusk
with 1,515 men.
K was a banner welcome day. Thou
sands of men, women and children
jammed River Street, Hoboken, all day
and finally, late in the afternoon, were
able to wave souvenir flags and cheer
when hundreds of the arrivals were put
on special trains and sent to Camp
Merritt.
Many New York Men Landed
There were men from New York,
scores of them, on the three trans
ports; there were men from Chicago
and nearly every other city and town.
In fact, it was really a rainbow day,
for virtually every state in the Union
was represented.
AS the wounded on the hospital ship
Comfort were carried in stcel-1e t
cradles to relief boat which took
them to the base hospital at Fox Hills,
S. l., slight little woman in Red Cross
uniform limped on crutches to the
waiting steamship. She was Miss Mary
Cross workers wounded in the Chateau
Therry fighting. While she was work
ing at her task Of relief with the naval
railroad big gun unit, only hundred
yards from the front lines. a shell
burst and she was struck by bit Of
shrapne.
The Comfort had such a stormy voy-
age that she stopped for several days
al the Azores She left Plymouth
January 5. At the Azores she took on
9 number of wounded sailors and
marines.
Grewsome Story Verified
The first Legitimate vcrification OF
the story told of Germans boiling the
bodies of their dead to make fats was
brought here by Captain Robert w
Hudgens, of Laurence. S. c.. who ar
rived on the Comfort with fourteen
wounds, received when the 9th Di-
VISION tore through the Hindenburg
line.
II was while we were at Bel!ecourt
that | had the most grew some expert
ence in my existence" he> said. ""And
what ] am saying is not merely hear
say. but what | absolutely saw with my
own eyes. We discovered caldrons
filled with human remains and repre-
Sentlng hundreds OF bodies, which at
other places were in stacks ready to be
boiled down for fats.
he rendering plant was located in
tunnel beside the Bellecourt canal
which had been drained by the Ger
cd barges. each piled high with the
bodies of dead German sold ers"
Private Joseph A. ASH, Of Company
r. l0Sth infantry. whose home is in
Virginia, a patient on the hospital shin
void how he lost his right leg and how
ms ie1t was shattered without pain in
the hghtng around Bellecourt.
lWenty minutes, after going over the
top ! dropped" ASH declared. at was
tfe most remarkable sensation one
could experience. There was no pain
and yet my right leg was off and nv
lett one was shattered This was not
the result Of shrapnel, but some acid OF
other LIQUID the Huns were using.
My clothes were filled with tny
hoies everywhere and vet ! felt no
PAIN until five or six hours afterwa rd
ana was not unconscious until then