IN THE GERMAN WAR HOSPITALS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 45, 18 November 1918, Page 3

IN THE GERMAN WAR HOSPITALS

HOW THE ENEMY TALKED WHEN HE WAS SICK A SWEDISH NURSE'S STORY Tho following remarkable story of German • admissions unci Gtrman uoastlulness" is told in "Pearson's" by Clmrlotto Fcstmen, a Swedish nurse, who wiw engaged tor some time in tho Bmdon Military Hospital, Berlin:— It was at the end of tho summer of 1917 that I went from my home in Sweden to see my brother, who wM.lhen ill in Berlin, where he had been ungnged for several years pust in business. 1 had been engaged in .' the nursing profession in my own country, and I wont to nurse my brother. He was ■suffering from an internal complaint, and was btyoni). recovery. He died a week after 1 readied Berlin. At my sister-in-iawV request, 'I remained on in Berlin with her, and shoitly after my brother's death I took up work in the Enulen Hospital, the largest military hospital in Berlin. 1 was put to work in a wing where officers recovering from wounds or v/ho had only been; slightly wounded were recoived. I may mention that I had been educated in Gerniiiny, had subsequently lived in Berjin for some years with my brother, and could speak German fluently. There were twenty beds in this wing. Each bed was in a small private ward. There were ten nurses in the winj, ami as none of these cases was serious I did not find my work particularly hard. A Prussian Boor, Our most ,troublesome patient was a Count Verstler, a major in toie Death's Hussars, who was admitted to the hospital the day of my arrival. I and another nurse looked after him. He was a typical Prussian, and I can only describe him as a beast of a man. Ho was suffering from a slight wound in the abdomen which necessitated his being kepb quiet, and he 'had to have an extremely restricted diet. Having to stay quiet and to live on diet that lie disiited made him extremely irritable, and he would frequentI ly K>ve \[ent to his temper by abusing J the nurses in the most unmeasured J language. ; Two or three times the hospital or- ; derlies had to be summoned to hold him down in bed when he wanted to get up, which we had received strict orders noli to allow him to do. On ono occasion when a nurse put his bowl of i miilt and rice,- which he nad to have at j 7 o'clock, on , the table beside his bed, he took the bowl' up and hurled it across tne room.

But it was not his temper or his bad language that ma<le me take a dislike to him. It was the way he talked in his quiet moments that made me regard hin! with, feelings of roptignuuce. I may mention that lie could never be left alone, a nui-se had to be always with him in his waird night and day. At times he was morose and silent, but at other times he won.ld talk a great deai. AVhen in a. talkative mood he would pour out abuse on the British and French, but more especially on the British. When speaking of the British he would frequently' stop talking for a niomont, spit out, clench his huge lists, and sliiiko them in the air as if in a parozysni of rage. He told me he had kept an' exact account of the British he had killed. s "I have killed fourteen of thorn myself," he said. The Invasion that Failed. He gave me rather a remarkable account of a landing of ten thousand troops in England that had been planned by the General Staff in l'JUi. He saul that tho troops for this.expedition were to consist of men who lind been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment or to death. Jf any of them ever got back to Germany again they were to receive free pajdon. They were to he landed in England simply for the purpose of looting and killing and creating terror.

"I volunteered with ten other men to go with this expedition," said Count Vcrstler, "but it never came oft', worso luck, and it doesn't look as if it ever will. But if it does, God help England when we get there."

lie only stayed about three weeks in hospital, and I wns very glad when lie left. 1 heard later on that he was killed in thu British attack on Cambrni.

A number of officers in my charge knew England .very well. One of them who was in a ffestphalian regiment made a rather interesting confession to ino. . .

He was an extremely silent-man; lie looked nphuppy and troubled; it was evident he hud some worry on his mind, and I came to the conclusion that the trouble was in some way connected with a girl, for I used to hev him in his sleep frequently mutter the name "Gerty." Sometimes he would sit up in his bed and shout out: "Hello! Gerty, hear, is that you?" and then he would fall back into a troubled slumber. Often T heard him say in his sleep, "Oh, Gerty,. dear, Gerty, shall I never see you again?"

Well, I thought, there isn't much doubt that Gerty, whoever she may be, is troubling you.. One afternoon he told hie ,811 about her. Ho had mot her at a boardinghouse at Mkesbno a few months before the war. The girl's peuple, however, for various reasons, strongly objected to her marrying this German officer. To cut a long story dhort, they got married secretly. After they were married the officer re-turned to Germany, meaning to put his affairs there in order, sell a small property which he owned somewhere in Westphalia, and then to reairn and settle down with his wife in England, for she did not wisli to live in Germany. He was just about to return ro England when the war broke out, and he was compelled to join his regiment. "1 tried to get brigaded with the armies that were being sent to the Eastorn front/' ho said, "but Ludondorff decided to send all the AVestphalinns to tho West, nnd I was not allowed to exchange into another regiment. I have- hated fighting against the British,.but I could no': help it. Often T wished that I could set killed, but I simnly couldn't. I haveonly been twice slisriitl.v wounded."

Captain Klein, of tho Gorman Air P'.-I'vico, was a patient at the Emdeii for a week or so. It was Captain Klein who led tho second daylight raid on Lon'l'ni in July last yenr. He also know England woll, and had several friends (li"vp, but he had no nbnut I "kinrr part in air raids on England, ffo Hd n nurse tlm , : when h» wns |pidim: the daylight raid on Lnndnn he flew ■v-t a Vonpp in the Eastern Comifvis where he had once stayed as n guest. Some Badly-run Hospitals. "1 could have, given those people," lie said, with a laugh, "a veminilur thiit I was iii tlio ncigliDouinood again, but I had no bombs to wuste for sii"h a niirniwi' , ." Captain Klein was decorated with the Ivon Cross by the Kaiser aftev tho July raid. He was killed lately hi France. Sometimes the Gunnaa Empress and I he Cniwn I'riiicess would I'jgji, the Emden. Usually we received about 24 hours' notice, of their coming, but the Crown Princess on one or two occasions paid u> a surprise visit. • The Princess did this purposely to see if the hospital was being properly conducted. There were several military hospitals in Berlin which were not, especially some of those which were privately managed. The Princess was the means of gotting several of these hospitals closed. On one occasion she paid a surprise visit to a hospital for officers run by j some well-known ladies in Berlin society. The first room she entered was j a largo one on the first floor. W'hen she opened the door she saw three or four officers seated at a table playing cards and drinking champagne. On the knee of one of the officers n nurse was seated smoking a cigarette. By the firoj place two other, nurses were standing. One was clad in an officer's uniform— the officers themselves v-c-re nil wearing dressing gowns. The party were all laughing and talking very loudly and enjoying themselves immensely when the Princess entered , tho room. Her sudden and unexpected appearance gave the occupants of tho room a

considerable start. The Princess stood looking about tho room for a few moments, and then, without saying a word, took her departure The Princess subsequently had inquiries ninde into the conduct of a number of hospitals, several of which wera closed later on and others brought under very strict supervision. The Man who Offended' the Empress. Tho Emden; however, was a very wellconducted hospital. As a rule, when the Empires:! talked to any officer, ho would say nothing more than "Yes, lour Majesty," or "No, Your Majesty." It was etiquette for the Empress to do all or most of the talking. But on one occafk ? 1 heard an officer make a remark to the Empress that rather took Her Majesty aback. The officer was a Captain Bergstorf. He was a huge Bavarian. ]lo wns a good-natured lc/nd of person, end not altogether devoid of a sense of humour, and, like many Bavarians, ontertaiiwd by no means a great opinion of tho dignity or majesty of the Ilohenzollerns. He entered tho Emden a few weeks before the German offensive in March began, lie had boon slightly wounded in a small night attack. When the German Empress began talking to him about the coming attack she (said that she hoped he would be able to take part.in it; "Every officer we have, , ' she said, "will 'bo wanted." "Yes, Your Majesty," replied the officer. "AVe.are going to win this time, I am sure," continued the Empress, smilingly, x "We are, I hope," replied Captain Bergstorf; "indeed. Your Majesty, we might be sure of victory only for two things." "And what are they?" asfed the Empress. "The French iyid British armies," answered Caplain Bergstorf. The Empress wns greatly taken aback by this reply, It was very unexpected, and it much annoyed her. She mad' 1 no further remark, but left the ward at once. I said to Cnptain Bc.rgstorf afterwards: "You "have offended Her Majesty, I think, by what you said." He broke into'a hearty laugh. "I expect so," he answered. "ji.ikl it won't, break my heart if I did. T'm a Bavarian, you know, not a Prussian, and I don't care 'a little bit of dii°t,' as we say, about the Hohenzollerns."