THE GENTLE HUN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14703, 7 September 1918, Page 7

THE GENTLE HUN.

Writing from Franc;? m (lie early part .of July, a Gisbornite "who is with the Machine-gun 'Company, says: — "You may liave seen m tho papers -about the Germans bombing some of our hospitals.I saw ono not long after. It was a most cold-blooded, thing to do, and cou'.d not have been a. mistake, -its all th* roofs havo a huge red cross on them, and this chap dropped, a flare to see v hat ho was over before he dropped) his bomb. The p'.aoa that was being ,used jus a liospital was a largo threestoried place, and the bomb after hitting the roof went_ through the thre? floors ami about three feet into the ground before it exploded. The room on the ground floor was used as an operating theatre, and I believe that there was an operation going on at the time. It broke tho building clean m two and set fire to tho rest. It- was an awful sight, bits of beds all twisted and broken and hospital gear lying about all over tlie place. In one corner I saw a piece of the operating table broken as if; it (were matchwood. I don't' know how many were killed, but I expect a good many; there were two nurses m the operating theatrO at. the time, and I don't think that they were ever seen' again. I was talking to one of the medicail orderlies, and be told me that when the fire brokjc out the Hum came back three times and i machine-gunned, them. The hospital was: right out on its own. and tlie re was nothing anywhere near that it could have done him any good to hit."