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Show 2 IEIIS 1 KILLEDAT MESTRE Red Cross Attaches Victims of Bombs Dropped by Teuton Airmen. ITALIAN AKJIT HEADQUARTERS IN NORTHERN ITALY, Tuesday, Jan. 29. (By the Associated Press.) Two Americans Amer-icans attached to the Red Cross were killed at Mestre Sunday night by bombs dropped by German raiders. They were William Piatt and Richard Cutts Fairfield, Fair-field, and were the first Americans to be killed on the Italian front. Piatt Is believed to be from Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania and Fairfield is from New York. They had not enrolled in the American organization, having enlisted previously in the Wynne-Bevan branch of the British Red Cross. Piatt and Fairfield had just arrived at a Red Cross hospital on a motorcycle when the raid began. Five bombs fell in the 'courtyard of .the hospital, killing four persons and wounding a number of patients. pa-tients. The Americans were killed outright. out-right. One received a fragment of a bomb in the heart, while the other was struck by three fragments, in the head, stoma'ch and legs. The funeral of the victims of the raid was held at Mestre today. The long line of carriages bore thirty-five coffins. American flags and floral offerings covered cov-ered the caskets of the two Americans. In the attending delegation of officers and men from the American Red Cross were Major Lowell, head of the military branch of the American Red Cross in Italy and fifteen men from the three American Red Cross units attached fo the third and ' fourth Italian armies. Long lines of soldiers, sailors and civilians civ-ilians filled the streets. Funeral orations were delivered from the steps of a church by the mayor and a representative of the government, who referred to the death of the young Americans, one of whom, he said, -was only 18 years old. Companions of Fairfield and Piatt say they were killed while performing an act of bravery. They were at a Red Cross camp far out of range of the raid and could have remained there safely But with two others they decided to ' ko to Mestre, where the raid had already begun, be-gun, to give aid and help the probable victims. Fairfield and Piatt went ahead on a motorcycle while the ambulance followed. fol-lowed. iv It was just as they reached the Mestre hospital to begin their humane labors that the bombs dropped and killed both of them. |