| OCR Text |
Show Germaa Shell Kills Men In "Tank" EORGE L. DELANY of U. S. A. a sergeant attached to Base Hospital No. 21, on duty "somewhere in France," in a letter to Jack Ward, tells of an English "tank" that was blown up by German gunnre and destroyed. de-stroyed. Of the twenty-six men in the tank only ono escaped instant death, and that man has lost the use of one of his arms for life. Sergt Delany's letter, which was written July 31, and which was passed with minor portions of the sentences deleted, says he understood United States troops then wore on tho lino and would go into the trenches scon. Telling of the work of the hospital unit. Dolany writes: . "The fellows are mostly from good families and are going after the work with a will. It's really the hardest kind you can imagine. Did you ever carry a man weighing 20"0 pounds on a stretcher? Well, that's some of tho easiest of it The worst is the long hours. The other day we liad ono run of wounded from 'up top' that lasted thirty-six hours. "Tho wounded come to us in automobile auto-mobile ambulances, and are usually covered with mud from the trenches and arc bloody and dirty. When they arrive wo give them hot soup and then assign them to wards. Each ward is an East Indian markeo tent, the finest in the world, double roofed and double walled, with wooden floors and electric elec-tric lights. "Tho patients are carried to these ; dlHerent lenta and .turned .oyer io .the. nurses and wax-dmaslers. Tho ward- IH masters are our fellows. The patients I are bathed and given clean linen and IH put to bed. The medical officers then I IH make their rounds and decido on op- eratlons that arc urgent The patient is then moved to the operating room. "Of course, the patients do not come directly from the trenches, but have had treatment, and in many cases havo been operated on at the casualty clear-ing clear-ing stations. "Tljey are often horribly shot up and quite often die after reaching here. ' "Some of the -wounds can only be de-scribed de-scribed as spectacular. A boy of 19 came down the other day who had been in a "tank" with twenty-five oth- ers when a German shell came through and hit their ammunition and blew tho tank to pieces. Before the shell .reach- . cd the ammunition in the tank it plow-cd plow-cd a groove in the back of the young chap brought here from shoulder to vM shoulder, about 4 inches deep and 5 VM inches wide at one side and tapering off to nothing on the other side. "Wo wnc thr nnlv nun nf flir tu'onlv. I I IH six in the tank who was not killed out- right We finally sent him back to H England with the wound practically healed. He can never use tho one' arm , again, but otherwise is as good as ever. "There is not a single place on the anatomy of some soldier that has not IH been struck. Some of the wounds really are funny. For instance, I saw 1 one the other day with just the tip of I his nose taken off and another with a lf nice clean little hole bored through 1 his left car. "A couple of our fellows have been sent 'up top' already, and the rest of J us .are hoping and expecting to go at any time. Our troops are on the line, JH I Understand, and will go in tho I trenches shortly. "We are located near , a city of I IH much historical interest The prison ) IH of John of Arc, In which she was Im- j IH prisoned in the year 1131, still is standing. The churches are wonder- , I IH ful. We have a church near us with , IH a good old Irish priest named O'Neill, who spends most of his time visiting I the wounded at our hospital. jH "When we have an afternoon off wo 1 either go to one of the theaters, whero ' they have really good shows, but speak i jH only this blank French lingo, or else ' we take a trip up or down the Seine in jH tho small excursion boats, stopping i along the way at tho river cafes, ' j where we sip some cooling beverage f 'i jH while the boat waits." ' jH |
