Evening star., 1940-12-28

remark WIN 3 gOOQ Euzapetnan
earthiness to 1t and 1t cheered US all
up-until we saw the wound.
When we saw the wound we
looked. and looked AWAY great,
raw cash, 6 inches wide and IL to
IA inches long.
Explosive bullet" muttered the
squadron leader between set teeth.
Sammy's cries prevented further
speech. The surgeon had both his
hands far In the slit in his leg prob
Ing for fractures. There was one,
out not there; higher up in the hip.
He found that later. But looking
at the great, ugly hole in Sammy,s
leg, we wondered how he had ever
survived those hours and hours Of
torturing descent while the Greeks
carried him down, without a
stretcher, from the mountains.
They were awful1y good to me"
he said weakly when we first put
him in the lorry. "They carried me
for miles and miles"
Now the doctors hands were out
side again. I'm sorry-awfully
sorry. really couldn't help It,"
Sammy was saying.
When they rebandaged the leg
cleanly and were giving an anti
tetanus injection. the &C. O." talked
with the surgeon. Couldn't they
give him morphine to kill the pain?
Or a blood TRANSMISSION? In this
emergency place, unfortunately.
they didn't have proper equipment
for TRANSMISSION or for testing blood.
AS for morphine, the doctor said
Sammy's heart was too weak from
loss of blood. They would have to
send him back another four hours
over the same rough roads.
1t seemed as II everything con-
spired to refuse Sammy ease from
pain While they were working on
his wounds he could have no NOR
phine and sometimes it seemed
more than any man could bear.
Sometimes he called, Steve! water.
Water, please. Oh, God, give me
water!" And sometimes he cried to
me for cigarettes, but the doctor
said smoking would be bad for him
and water would make hin vomit
more. He could only hold a glass,
qu~rter-full, to his lips and he sank
ba-.,. begging for more.
He was like that for almost three
hours until they got the machine
fixed under his legs to ease the jolts.
Sammy was quieter now, but very
weak. He'd had 10 hours of this
without a minutes peace. I didn't
like the idea of carrying him into
the night and into the ambulance
again and sending him of for four
or five hours more of these damn
able roads. But the hospital was
jammed and they couldn't give a
TRANSMISSION there 1t seemed the
only thing that could be done-if
only they were able to put him to
sleep first. II only that
But they couldn't, and no NOR
phine, either. On the cobbled roads
while Greek soldiers carried him as
gently as baby, I lit another Gig
arctic and put it between Sammy's
teeth. He pulled a smoke. He
couldn't use his hands and I had
to watch for fear he would pull the
fire all the way down into his lips.
Inside the ambulance the squad
ron leader, Steve and I tucked heavy
blankets around him. We gave him
tangerine. a piece at a time, and
that helped
II really feel much better now"
Sammy said. We put another blan-
ket around his neck and head so
he wouldn't get a draft there.
"Oh. you'll be all right and back
with the squadron any day. Just
take it easy, old chap" said the
&C. O." Don't steal all the good
looking nurses down in the hospital
now we kidded him, trying to
sound like it was nothing at all.
So We watched the ambulance
back up the hill and pull around
the corner with only Sammy and
Greek doctor who spoke only a
few words of French, but no Eng
lish. The &C. O." stayed up until
2 in the morning trying to get a
phone call through to have his
r. A. F. doctor waiting for Sammy
on the other end. Five hours later
he woke us up to say good-by. He
was going to fly his machine back
and take command of his squadron
again and go out on patrol that
same morning. In the room, with
its window panes blown out, doubt
If he got any sleep at all.
We went over to Santi Quaranta