"A Human Pin-Cushion."

Levin Daily Chronicle, 20 October 1917, Page 4

"A Human Pin-Cushion."

EXPERIENCES OP A WOUNDED SOLDIER.

MARVELS OF MODERN SURGERY. An Australian soldier who was ■wounded in the battle of Bullecourt, writing to a relative at Heriot, Otago, gives some particulars regarding the work of the artillery, but the most interesting portion is that in which he relates his experiences as a patient in the hands of the medical men. Ho states: Our battery was the first to go through Bapaume, where we caught the German cavalry out in the open as they galloped at us with their swords drawn. We laid the guns on to them at pointblank range, and got the order "Gunfire." I was sorry for the horses, but there were horses and Uhlans in the air at the same time, and we saw only Iwo get away out of two troops that came at us. Anyhow, wo drove them | back on the Hindenburg line/ where there were 400 yards of barbed wire in front of it, so we set about tearing it down with shell fire. We had to work night and day on the guns. Then the boys went over the top, and after a week's hard fighting they consolidated in the enemy's line. We took lip 36 gunners, arid our casualties were 32 out of that number, 24 being killed outright, so you see I was a little lucky, as I was buried four times. { We were firing all night on the fourth 1 night .arid Fritz must have observed ' our flashes, as he started to shell us out at daylight with 5.0 We lay down along a bank; and I heard one coming that I knew by the sound was just about going to get us. It landed about ten yards" opposite my feet. The concussion paralysed me, and I'c'ould not move for about ten' miriutes, but I made a struggle, as the chap next to me was groaning. 'I pulled him over, and found his arm just about blown off and a bad wound in his side. He died without speaking. My mate got it right through the heart, and he did' not move. There were five of us altogether, and the ! other two were killed by concussion, so I was left on my own. The blood was blinding me, but I managed to get out, and reached the dressing station first, and then the field hospital. They examined me under the X-rays there ; and I heard the doctor whisper to the orderly that I would die on the way to Rouen, as my temple was blown in at the back of my eye, and I had a big piece in my skull behind the right ear. I thought that I'd go mad with the pain on the way down in the train. When I got to Rouen at 3 a.m. they Xrayed me again, and four doctors had a consultation, but none of them would operate on me as they reckoned I had no chance of getting over it. They went for a head specialist, and took me into the operating theatre, where they sent me to see the pictures. When I woke up I felt something pinned on my shirt in some gauze. I opened it, and found it was five pieces of shell and three pieces of bone from my temple. My head did some aching for a week or two, as they had two tubes in it, and syringed it out every half-hour, night and day. I could just get my fttle finger through my teeth, and was bin * in my right eye. Then they sent me to England, and we got across safely on a lovely hospital ship. As I was marked '' extra special,'' they gave me the best of everything, and I had a berth on deck. When I got here they innoculated me ten times in eighteen days, and I was innoculated nine times before that, so you are a sort of human pin-cushion if you have the bad luck to get hit. I was Xrayed here for the third time and sent to a- jaw specialist, and when he was done with me, I was passed on to an eye specialist, but he said he would not touch the eye for a month, as it was full of blood/ with a big clot on the iris. They think it will absorb in time and I may be able to see out of it. The other wounds appear to be healing up nicely, but if I do not get the sight back they may send mo out to Australia.