BLOODY AND PITILESS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 152, 3 December 1914, Page 6

BLOODY AND PITILESS.

1 A TERRIBLE AND GHASTLY THING LETTER FROM DR. A. A. MARTIN. A vivid and graphic picture of the great war as seen from an army surgeon's viewpoint is given by Dr A. A. Martin, of Palmerston, in a letter to a local resident (says the Manawatu Standard), Dr Martin is a surgeon with No. 15 Ambulance, attached to the Fifth Division of the British Expeditionary Force, now in France. The Fifth Division is in charge of General Smith-Dor-rieu, which has done notable service in the present campaign and suffered -heavy losses in the retirement from Mons. Dr. Martin's letter brings the .reader into close touch with the horror that is ravaging the fair fields of France, and will be read with very general interest. He 'writes: BATTLE —MURDER—SUDDEN DEATH. We have had .incredible hardships, .some unparalleled discouragements, fierce and deadly fighting, and again through it all and permeating all, "Battle, murder, and sudden death." I am out here as a surgeon, and came out to do my little bit of service and give the best of my skill and experience to our ! wounded, sick and dying. Before coming here, I was peacefully pursuing some surgical observations in England and Scotland. The clarion call of war was too much for mc, and le voici—here I am. SCENES OF CARNAGE. You would not believe, you would not credit the scenes of carnage one meets with here, for, indeed, the scones are almost unbelievable and incredible. The South African War was a serious business enough. During my time on the flehl there I realised how terrible and ghastly a thing war is. The South African war was a mere boxing match compared to this bloody anil pitiless war. AT THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE. My first contact with the enemy's work was the battle of the Marne.Here 1 the Germans were, for the first time, held in check by our troops, and at the end of a few days' stern fighting, and heavy slaughter 011 both sides, the enemy were hurled back in great disor ; i der.. We captured many prisoners, took many guns, and kept the enemy rapidly on the retreat. We hung on to their rear, and like a British bull-dog, would 1 not let go. Our field ambulance follow- ! Ed behind the 15th brigade of the sth division, and we collected the wound- , ed from that brigade. ! AN ORDERLY'S EXPLOIT. 1 j Oi<e morning one of our orderlies , walked into a wood and found eleven 'Gernijim riflemen hiding there. They at once delightedly laid down their arms and surrendered to lilm. We were all sitting by a haystack, having morning coffee at 4 a.m., when we were greeted 1 by the sight of our orderly inarching , proudly at the head of nls eleven pris- , oners of war to report to our command--1 ing ollicor. I ON THE AISNE, Our rapid pursuit of the enemy soon stopped. The Germans turned at bay 011 the banks of the Aisne river, and after fifteen days of hard, gruelling , fighting, they are still holding us up. We are hemming them in, and have on our right and on our left heavy French army corps. . f THE DEVIL'S ORCHESTRA. We wake in the morning to the sound • of heavy artillery firing; we go to sleep i with cannonades as a lullaby; we listen during the long day to the devil's I orchestra, of' lyddite, melinit, shrapnl, j manner, and our work consists of re■nol bursting everywhere on our front, j -and see the earth ploughed up by the I hellish lyddite shells. \ WAR IN THE SUPERLATIVE. Jn describing events in the war one unconsciously has to turn to superlatives and sounding words and phrases: "Devilish, hellish, bloody, awful and terrible," are. the words tliat come most trippingly to the tongue. The war is superlative in all its moods and tenses.. Superlative is the number of men engaged, in the extent of the battle front, in the duration of the battles, in the misery that it has caused, and is causing, in the awful loss of life, in the mutilating wounds caused by the shrapnel, in the number of the missing, in the atrocities, inhumanities and blasting cruelties of the enemy, ill their wanton destruction of all that is sacred and revered. "Few, few -''all part where many meet." ; AWFU:. \ ZOUNDS. As a surgeon, of course, what appeals to me is the state of our wound- ■ ed and dying. The • wounds caused by bursting shrapnel are most severe. The shrapnel rips, tears, lacerates and penetrates the human tissues in a horrible manner, and our work consists of repairpairing and making good as best as we can. Our best, also, too often of little avail in the face, of the anatomical devastation produced. One man, for in-, stance, has his lower jaw" Shattered to a pulp and his tongue cloven in two. Another man has his skull smashed and his brain welling out over his face. Another is made completely blind, another lias the front of his abdomen ripped open, and his bowels protrude. Another has a knee joint blown open, a hand smashed, and an ankle shattered, and so 011, and so on. One could multiply and enumerate without end. Of bullet wounds, so far, we have had not many. We do not- get a few, but the bullet wound wifl kill outright or make a wound from which the soldier will ie--. cover. The bullet's wound is a clear drilled hole and our surgery generally sayes these. POOR GERMAN MARKSMAN SHIP. The German infantry us a mass are j bad rifle siiots. But they have sharpshooters with (hem, and these ares good rifle shots. Sonic of these sharpshooters are foresters taken from the Imperial' Forest Guards of Germany—men trained to shoot doer, goats and pigs. DUEL BETWEEN SHARPSHOOTERS' One of these riflemen in our front recently got up a tree and ■ picked off several of our men of the Norfolk Regiment. A Norfolk sergeant got him ' 'later on, and the aboreal Prussian, winged by an English bullet, fell out of the tree, like a ripe acorn. THE STRAIN OF THE TRENCHES. 1 The wounded are as quickly as possible from tTie front to the base, and many are sent to England. In-addition to the wounded, we gftimy sick with dysentery, rjieu-

if one considers the life many of the ■ men lead. Cooped up all day in wet, muddy trenches, very little sleep, 110 iliot drinks of any sort, owing to the maxim and rifle fire over them all day, their comrades wounded, dying or dead, 'no wonder they get sick. Sick physically and sick mentally, many of ths. men are played out.. They have in many eases lost their elan, their dash, their morale. The cure for this is a rest in a rest camp, good warm food, and freedom from injury. But this cannot be done. They are wanted at the front and there tliey must be. RAIN THAT PENETRATES EVERYTHING. For the past few days we have had good weather, bright sunshine, but cold. For the fortnight previous, the whole country was under heavy, persistent, soaking and damping rains—a rain that penetrated everything and made our spirits as heavy and sombre as the landscape. The sick are sent to a base hospital until they recuperate, and they are then sent back to the fighting line. "THE GOLIATH GUNS." A word must be said about the German artillery. It has been said that this is a war of Krupps against the world. It is due to the great ICrupp works at Essen that the Germans have been able to beat down the fortresses of Liege, Namur and Maubeuge. The big siege guns have been a revelation and a wonder. They arc the most powerful engines of destruction in the world today. They can batter down a fort at a distance of seven miles. They arc well served, too. It is reported thai they are controlled by trained men from Krupp's works. We have nothing is our artillery to compare with this Goliath gun of 17in. calibre, that can bur a shell seven miles and smash a fori at that range. A SURPRISE TO ENGLAND, This gun is one of the surprises of tlu ' .7:1.' to the Allies. It was said by a Ger •>ian ollicor —a p'isoner—that German) liad two surprises for the Allies, Franue got hers when she heard of the existence of this big gun. The other surprise is yet for Eng land. What is it? WHAT THE GREAT GUNS DO I saw a shell from this gun strike a a tower in a small town. When the smoke and flying masonry had cleared away, there was no church to be seen I saw another shell strike a house The roof was blown to fragments, and the house was now a crumbling mass of ruins.. This shell makes enormous holes in the ground when It strikes and send an appalling cloud of earth and rock skywards. WAR'S GHASTLY HOR'IORS. I was called at the double to attend some wounded in a narrow road under - shell fire some weeks ago. Tin scene defied description. I was absolutely silent with ghastly horror of the scene. In the road lay mangled an] bleeding men, mangled and bleedina horses, dead men laying in all sorts oi convulsive attitudes, upturned waggons and smashed and splintered wood; a.U to this the agonised groans of oili wounded men, the scream of dying horses, and that impalpable, but nevertheless real, feeling of standing for, a ' a moment in the face of the Creator—olll ? can, perhaps, then feebly ;>i;ture tliiscene of carnage, of the solemnity oi death, and the pitiless woe of this devastation. Where could one find here a trace of the glory, pomp and magnificence of war? A TYPICAL INCII ENT. The story -if this scone is one not-at all uncommon out here. A party of men of the West Kent regiment were having some tinned b v.: and biscuits, i and were 'sitting at the side of the road eatii-g. As they were at th-'ji nie-u, a eavalry ambulance waggon, accompanied by two medical officers came by. When the cavalry ambulance was abreast of the men, the Germans landed a lyddite shell directly under the horses' feet. Eight men were killed outright on the road. One doctor was killed outright. The other doctor had his ankle and foot smashed. Eight horses were killed and three horribly mangled. I happenoel to be the first doctor on hand, and dressed the wounded, and had them conveyed to the shelter of a gravel pit near by. They were all in very great pain, and one of them was given morphia hypodermically. MANGLED MANHOOD. After I had attended the wounded, I examined the dead men to sec the nature of their wounds. What struck me was the multiplicity of grounds on each man. -One man, a burly sergeantmajor of the West Rents, had a big hole in his head, another a huge hole in his neck, a lacerated wound of the chest, and one foot blown completely away. All had widely open staring eyes. The expression seemed to be one of overwhelming surprise and horror. Poor fellows! Their moment of surprise and horror must have indeed been brief, for death is dealt out at these times with a lightning flash. Had the German gunner who sent this shot known what wa9 its result, he .. would -have glefully called it a "'good shot." So would a British gunner had he done the same. It is of such incidents that the pomp and magnificence of war consists. . SOMETHING GOOD. On the battlefield and in the trenches man is brought very close to his Creator. The most flippant becomes grave, and the blasphemer ceases to blaspheme. A simple faith in the Great Architect 1 of the Universe is something good out here. LORDS OF THE UPPER BLUE. We have one tiling at the front that is of entrancing interest and pride, and that is the work' of our airmen. Our j flying men in their aeroplanes are our | pride, and the enemy's fretful annoyance. Daily five or six of these planes | rise buzzing and whizzing above our lines, soar up into the blue, and scout j over the enemy's position. They are met with shrapnel fire from the German | aeroplane guns. These shots can be seen bursting above, below and around i them. Generally the planes escape; sometimes they are hit. The daring of the airmen is magnificent, their coolness, intrepidity, and dexterity admirable. COMPLEX LIFE: SIMPLE DIET. Although we have hard and rough | times out here, we all try and make the best of it. It is bad form to "grouse." If one would like bacon and eggs for breakfast, one only gets indifferent tea and hard ration -biscuit—it is "Kismet." And one tries to feel that a simple life and a simple diet is good for one. We all agree that the diet is simple, but.none of us can agree that our life is simple just now. It is decieledly complex. .. - - J - 1

tlie Germans 011 the run, and this time we hope to follow them into Germany, and to bivouac our tired battalions in the Unter den Linden. But all this -is 011 the knees of the gods. You can believe me that 1 shall enjoy the quiet repose of Palmerston North" after this period of "battle, murder, and sudden death" is over.