Evening star., 1944-07-29
General Unmoved as She'll
Amputotes Leg of an Officer

~ VII
something about which battalions
had moved where and what kind of
fire they Tfe up against.
After that the screaming began
fellow saying. "Oh, ohr' bringing
the sound up from way down deep
in his stomach, and another saying
"Oh. my holy God. Oh. my holy
Cod" over and over, and a third
was just screaming unintelligibly.
Il am sorry, Dick the general
said. Il will have to hang up now
and call you back later
Nobody knew which way to turn.
We were sure more shells would be
coming and you could see men
standing all over. moving their arms
aimlessly and turning aimlessly. but
held quiet by the iron quiet of the
general, who moved with deliberate
slOWness into the next room. There
were two officers lying on the floor
there and third sitting on the
floor holding the stump of one leg
up. The shell had taken his leg
of clean about half way down from
the knee and he was looking at it
and groaning from the pit of his
stomach.
The shell was from one Of those
three German tanks whose end we
had been listening to shape up over
the radio. 1t had come right in the
window of the room and had gone
right through the sill 1t had been
an armor-piercing shell, and the
sparks it had struck going through
some fancy ironwork on the WIN
dow and through the sill made me
think it was high-explosive shell.
Then the shell careening down.
ward, had sheered through the leg
of the staff table, had hit the floor
and had skipped. and as it rose it
took of the captains leg as he sat
at the table. Then it went through
the back wall and into little closet
like room there.
1t. William Cool Of West Pittston.
Pa. had been resting on mattress
in that room and his back had been
to the wall when the shell came in
just above him and dropped just
beyond him on the mattress, cover
ing him with a large chunk Of wall
but leaving him unhurt.
Mind Still Clear.
The two other officers lying on
the floor of the room in which the
captains leg was shattered-a ma
jor and a captain-had been hit
by rocks or splinters Of wood. The
only one badly off, however, was
the captain who had lost his leg,
and he kept looking at the stump
Of it, His mind was still clear. and
the shock of the amputation had
been so sudden that it had not yet
reached his mind.
If you just stop looking at it,"
1 told him, land lie down"
He didn't seem to hear me. and
I touched him on the shoulder and
said it again. But he didn't pay
any attention. He just groaned,
"Oh, OH" bringing each "oh!" up
from the bottom Of his stomach
and he just looked at the stump.
His face was wild and the white
flesh Of it strained wildly as it were
trying to run away from what it's
eyes were seeing. 1t was plain now
that the captain understood exactly
what had happened to- him, and he
was groaning, "oh!" over a new,
terrible future that opened so un-
expectedly before him.
The general sent for doctors and
told everybody to get away from
the windows and then he picked up
the telephone and went back to
the war.
Yes, Dick" I heard him say,
three were hit, but only one badly.
Poor fellow"
Talks Above Groans.
He talked above the groans from
the next room, but his voice re-
manned quiet and courtly as he told
Col. Marr how things were going.
When I went back again to the
radios out in the back, after the
wounded had been taken away, the
tank fight was ended. The three
German tanks had been destroyed
and our tanks were moving on to
something else.
A handful OF men were grouped
about the radios. listening solemnly
and one radio was saying: This
is six. This is six. All negats: all
negats and all doughs, see a white
flag. Do not fire! They are coming
out to surrender. Do not fire on
them! They are waving a white
some damn thing flag or drawers
or something. I see it. Do not
fire over"
We'll, WE'LL" said the general,
bustling in Among us, this is like
listening to a football game over
the radio, isn't it?"
! He looked right at me, and !
thought the hell it Is. Then the
general looked away from me and
at the men around the radio. He
was smiling brightly, and suddenly
all the solemn faces began to loosen
and shorten and then began to
smile. You could see the echo of
the captains groans going out OF
their minds and you could see their