HOSPITALS BOMBED

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 265, 29 July 1918, Page 2

HOSPITALS BOMBED

J MELBOURNE NUESE'S STOET. A Melbourne Army, sister, serving wit.li a British hospital- unit in France, describes in a recent letter, written during the British •retirement in April, snmo of the terrible heart-searing suffering of the poor wounded men, who were, lying in hospital, having been ruthlessly bombed by German airmen. She Bays: _ '"It is very hard to he optimistic nhnut things just at present. The boys all look at tiio bright side, and keep on smiling, and so it is up to lis to follow suit. The girls at the C.C.S. in this last retreat have had some wonderful .experiences. After the hospital was bombed and fired by ma-gDi'sium flares the wounded were carried to open fields adjoining stations, and in many cases had to be nursed there. Every passing transporteven private cars-were gladly pressed into service. Men with fractured fcmu.B and huge abdominal wounds; wore even taken by horsemen. Just imagine such awful cases riding, and hemorrhage cases beinf supported on the tail-boiml of the ambulances and cars. One of tbp cruellest ■siprhts was "the spectacle of one of these men, who had died, being tended by a boy whose arm had been amputated the day before. This Iml didn't know that his pal was dead. . . . The, nurses moved on as they could, working at the time, wearing coats and skirts wiUi gowns over, as their clothing had been burnt or lost in the retreat, using gauze and wool, Ivsol and iodine, and -trying to make the" best of it-all, for the rake of theso brave wounded boys. A wonderful experience, which I suppose, ere Ion", will be a common one with us all, if thi« ruthless destruction of hospitals eoe» on. Last night everything was quiet, and we watched the moon rise over the mined village- behind, and wondered if they'd be, overtaken in the mad rush following. If America holds, I hope. ere. you get this, a decisive nolo will have been struck-if not, one can only wonder where it will end. Lights have gone out, so evidently liritz is overhead again.'—An Bcvoir."