AIR BRUTALITY

Otago Witness, Issue 3353, 19 June 1918, Page 43

AIR BRUTALITY

ENEMY BOMBS WOUNDED NEW ZEALANDERS. HEROISM OF NURSES. LONDON, May 28. Australians and New Zealanders have a fresh reason for steeling their hearts against the barbarous enemy, owing to the bombing of tho base hospital in France on May 19. A considerable number of Australian and New Zealand wounded soldiers were among the hundreds under treatment in. the hospital when it was bombed. Some were killed, and others again wounded. Several already in a low state through their wounds received in tho front lino died from shock. Twenty Australians who were sufficiently well to be moved have just arrived at a south coast hospital in England. To most of them the bombing remains as a vivid and terrible nightmare, whose terrors were only relieved by the wonderful coolness and bravery of the night nurses. The hospital is situated miles behind the lines, in one of the largest hospital- bases in France, consisting of a group of six distinct camps, including a convalescent camp, also the principal hospital in Franco for severe limb injuries, which is nearer railway station, within a short distance 'of the north coast. But no big Australian general hospitals aro situated there. These are near coast towns, and are more likely targets, but not one in recent days has suffered bombing. They have never been actually hit, although bombs havo frequently fallen in the vicinity.

The Australian wounded soldiers are convinced that the bombers intended to reach the limit of inhumanity and wipe out one of the best-equippod healing establishments. It was a beautiful moonlight evening, with the roads shining white, and the railways gleaming like silver. No bombs fell on the railway, but practically all—ls0 — within the hospital fences. It is significant that a German prisoner camp a few hundred yards distant was unscathed. The sound of the raiders was first heard at 10.30. The patients were mostly asleep, and the place was almost in complete darkness. The first shower of bombs included an incendiary, which ignited the huts, sending up a blaze which must have revealed the nature of the target beyond all possible doubt. Yet larger aeroplanes deliberately dropped cargoes of explosives en the same spot. The Australians fail, to describe in words the calm courage of the English sisters, among whom the death-roll was heavy. The nurses remained in the wards assisting die lightly-wounded to dress. Tltoao derived a sense of safety in being able to walk about. Some were able to reach the dttches around the camps Tho nurses did their utmost for those whose wounds compelled them to lie helpless in the flimsy, unprotected huts, and administered morphia to some whose condition threatened to bocome dangerous. They walked from cot to cot, cheering up the patients, between deafening bursts. There wero terrible scenes in one group of huts, which went up in flames and splinters. Bombs were raining on the neighbouring roofs, and all the windows were shattered. Tho raid proved especially harmful to shell-shock cases, but a dumb Australian recovered his speech at the bursting of a second bomb a hundred yards from his bed. Those undergoing treatment for leg injuries suffered the greatest agony of all. Here several foremost London specialists were following tho latest methods. They had installed appliances to treat severe wounds euch as formerly entailed the loss of tho limb. The essence of the treatment was the rigidity of the affected parts. Scores of men, representing almost every regiment in the British armies, were lying with their legs held up by pulleys at strange angles, so as to enable continuous antiseptic sluicing for several weeks. When the bombs began to fall these helpless sol? diers could not restrain nervous twitohings, every one of which was like a knife-cut. Some of the Australians in this state bocame critical, and recovery will be long delayed. One of the early aeroplanes dropped a torpedo in the corner of the grounds occupied by the convalescents' camps ; It exploded with a terrific report, killing and wounding a number of patients. The survivors, among whom were Australians, carried '"■n the rescue work, despite the_ fact that later batches of raiders continued heavy bombing. . Cot cases were unloaded from the ambulance train outside the hospital, while concussions broke the windows of every cottage. After two hours' bombing many of the day nurses, having assured that all possible had been done for the patients, took up their beds and slept in the open. The night nurses remained at the bedsides. The climax of the raid was when a Hun machine, not content with bombing, swooped down, and, disregarding the antiaircraft gunfire, emptied its machino gun on to a neighbouring area, where there were some casualties. A Sydncyite, belonging to the tunnellers, who was suffering from trench feet and nervous breakdown, said that the doctor next morning felt his pulse and shifted him immediately to England, together with a number of others from various battalions. There are a considerable proportion of trench fever cases, whose treatment - demands absence from shocks. These men are .now happily accommodated in one of the prettiest south coast resorts under excellent hospital conditions. They are being visited by members of the Australian Red Cross Society, and are rapidly recovering. A young Queenslander showed a minor wound received during the bombing. He remarked, "My luck was out to get another smack in hospital. It is a good job that the beggars cannot follow mo here." A Victorian suffering from shell-shock was amazed in the morning on discovering that he had narrowly escaped from death. He carried a small comb in the breast-pocket of his hospital coat. A piece of shrapnel smashed the comb and lodged within a morocco case.

A South Australian offior, suffering from gas-poisoning, who had managed to scramble out and lie flat in a shallow hole, said: "I Sincerely hope that England will refuse 'anv understanding with Germany regarding the limitation of bombing. While the Germans had. the greater number of aeroplanes they did not hesitate to send them out on indiscriminate bombing raids. Now that we are getting superior we must teach the brutes a lesson. They must not have it all theit* own way." The officer added: "I am certain that

every Australian city would submit to being bombed nightly if they knew positively that the German towns were getting a greater weight of bombs. The Germans have not yet strafed the Australian hospitals tirelessly tending wounded from every part of the front regardless of regiment; but it may be their turn at any moment. The Germans are already beginning to whine under our bombings. Our power in the air is steadily increasing. I hojie we will use it unrestrictedly. It cannot then fail to bo a decisive factor."

Newspapers publish official photographs showing a huge red cross protecting Thionvillo aerodrome. Air raid scares continue in Western Germany, notably iat Aix-hvChapello and Cologne.