TELLS OF WORK
OFYANKSINWAR
AND IN GERMANY
W. B. Harding i.s in receipt of a
letter from liis brother, Charles K
Harding, a member of the American
expeditionary army of occupation at
Neuenahr, Germany, which contains
much news of interest to the public,
and is as follows:
It is indeed a relief to know that
this great world war has come to a
close, and that the American losses
were quite low, considering ail that
they went up against, and all they ac
complished. Those that did die upon
the battlefields of Europe certainly
did not die in vain, and, God knows,
they died the most honorable death,
lighting under the Stars and Stripes.
The Ea Grande hospital unit, or, as
it is officially, 167th field hospital, has
played mighty lucky in this war, hav
ing only one man wounded during the
whole campaign of the 42nd division.
There seem to be a groat number
of different ideas, at home, as to
what a field hospital is, what it does,
and where it is located, at the front.
In the first place a field hospital is
part ot any fully equipped comtai
American division, there being a sail
i'ary train with each division, which
is composed of four field hospital com
panies and four ambulance companies.
This train i.s under command of the
division surgeon, who ranks as a col
onel. Then there is the train director,
director of hospital section, director
of ambulance section, and the com
pany commanding officers, etc.
A year ago, before any of the Ameri
can division had gone into real active
service, there seemed to be some
question as to how the army was go
ing to use the field hospitals. The
British did not use them, nor the
French, and they seemed to be getting
along quite nicely in this man’s war.
The 42nd division went into active
service last February, on the Lorraine
front, first just the other side, north,
of Luneville, where they stayed for
about a month, and then moved south,
along the same front, east of Bacca
rat.
We certainly thought that war was
hell, to hear those cannons roar, could
also see a Hun plane once in a while,
and wonder why the anti-aircraft guns
could never bring one down. W'hile
we were there the boches put over two
or three gas attacks that were quite
successful, and owing to the inexperi
ence of our men and the suddenness
of the attack, it put quite a number
out of commission. It was seen that
some means should he at hand for
prompt treatment of gassed men, so
they hit upon the idea of using two
field hospitals for gas treatment, and
the other two for the treatment of
wounded and sick. Treatment at a
field hospital is, of course, not com
plete. Their duty is simply to give
emergency treatment and evacuate as
soon as possible to the rear.
In tlie treatment of gassed patients
we first had to undress the man, clip
his hair, give him a drink of alkiline
solution, a shower bath, wrap him up
well in blankets and put him in bod,
or rather place him on a litter, some
hay, a cot or on some other prepared
place; it depended a good deal upon
where we were and what we had to
work with. Our shower bath was some
outfit. It was a portable outfit and
easily knocked down, and hard to put
up. Sergeant Currcy, who handled
the bath tent, with his good man Hap
persett, who pumped the water into
the heating tank, certainly had his
troubles.
So, when we left the Lorraine sec
tor last June and headed for parts un
known, we were a gas hospital and it
was planned that when the division
went into the lines again we should
t operate as such. The two gas hospi
tals and the two that handled wound
ed were to relay. Two would go up
and establish themselves at some spe
cified point as close to the line as
was safe, and closer than was many
times desirable for those concerned,
then as the line advanced, the other
two outfits were to jump over past the
first two and relieve them. It was a
fine arrangement, only with us, we
always moved up first and the other
outfit never out-jumped us. We took
the advance position on every front
and some of them were exceedingly
warm; in fact, at times almost suffo
cating; made a fellow want to get out
and run like hell, create a good breeze
and get fresh air.
The move from Lorraine took us
quite a distance, and we finally pulled
up for a halt near Chalons. We had
made the trip with our trucks.
We have seen three-ton Pierce Ar
row trucks, having been on the road
for about seventy-two hours, with
practically no stop for rest and sleep.
After resting for a day we moved up
under cover of a dark night and we
discovered that we were on the Cham
pagne front. We arrived at our as
signed location the night of July 4th.
It was a quiet night for the Fourth
of July. We were just ten days
ahead of time for a real “honest to
goodness" celebration.
The 42nd division was the only
American division on the Champagne
front at that time, and it was ordered
in there, I believe, owing to the fact
that it was close at that time, and
the big German offensive was rapidly
showing signs of coming back to life.
As you know, the last German
offensive took place July 15th and it
found the 42nd division holding part
of the Champagne front, and they
held it, too. General Gouraud, in ex
pressing his appreciation to the 42nd
division, said "You have saved the
day, broken the German offensive,
held the Germans at a standstill and
kept them from advancing to Cha
lons.”
Whether this divison saved the day
or not I do not know, but I do know
that, in holding the line at this point,
the boys in the line fought like fiends
and refused to retreat, even though
tlie Germans sent wave after wave out
against them. The artillery action
which started about 12:30 the morn
ing of the 15th of July was something
terrific, the noise of the guns, the
rockets and the flares was a sound
and sight 1 shall never forget. It
seemed as though some superhuman
hand was at work and that the very
bowels of the earth had broken loose.
Our hospital site was in a rather bad
location, it seemed, for there were
two or three big guns working on us.
It is bad enough during the daytime
to have those big boys whiz over you
or break near-by, but at night, to me,
it seems worse, and one is apt to feel
somewhat upset and his circulation
feels as though it had gone on a va
cation. As daylight began to slowly
dawn, I believe that everyone had a
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much more at-ea.se feeling awl to lo'
cate all the other fellows and find
that they were not injured helped a
great deal. The wounded from the
front were coming in; there were very
few gassed, so about all we had to do
was make ourselves believe we were
dodging one every time we ‘(lucked"
as they whistled through the air. Of
course, arrangements had been made
to handle wounded and gassed, which
the ambulances brought in from the
dressing stations at this point. Things
were looking quite serious—there
were quite a number of wounded on
hand, and more coming.
Now and then two or three gassed,
but the Huns were evidently not using
much gas. The shells were breaking
close around the hospital, seemed to
he gradually getting closer. The am
bulances were all busy working to and
from the front, and there was no
means to evacuate the wouided men
on hand to the rear.
Finally, arrangements were made
for transportation, using trucks and
ambulances. Everybody was working
to get all the patients out before they
were blown to pieces. One shell ex
(Continued on Page Six)
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Mr. Business
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Cordova Daily
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There’s a Reason Why
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New Boat Hulls
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E. D. LACY
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CORDOVA. ALASKA
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