TRANSCRIBED FROM THE WYNNE PROGRESS JANUARY 17, 1919 P. 4
Can the United States ever realize the entire seriousness of this past war?
There is in France an entirely different attitude concerning war conditions than is shown here in America.
I do not believe that the civilian population of the United States can ever realize what a vast calamity war has been to the European countries where the scenes of battle actually occurred; for if American manhood did realize this and could wait willingly for the draft or could dodge the draft, thus be a slacker, there is then something vastly wrong with their patriotism, in other words there is not one drop of the blood of our freedom-loving forefathers flowing in their veins.
Near Lille, one day in the early part of March, I saw a Belgium girl perhaps 19 years of age, get up on the base of a statue of Joan d’Arc, this statue has been struck by shell fire and the statue proper was shattered, she began in a low weak voice, telling of her experiences and exciting the French and Canadian soldiers almost to a fury. But when she exposed her stub of a wrist on the left arm, her fingers mutilated on the right hand and exposed her breast and showed the soldiers a fearful scar where a knife had cut away part of her left breast, their fury knew no bounds.
There was a drive made the next morning and these same soldiers never took a prisoner. “No quarters,” was the watchword—“No quarters for the Boches!”
American manhood could not resist the appeal in the eyes of this girl and her brother of twelve (12) years, had they been used for recruiting in the United States.
This emaciated and mutilated Belgian girl story is but one of many; her mother was badly maltreated by Germans quartered in their home and when she resisted them was struck through with a bayonet and stuck on a tree a few feet obev the ground.
There was on an altar of a ruined church in southern Belgium one of ______________________ by the Germans.
A woman had been tied and wired to the altar and had been in this condition for several days and of course was weak from hunger and exhaustion.
The Germans had in the meantime evacuated this town and some English troops had come in. During the day a small party of British officers containing a colonel and several officers of inferior rank chanced to find her in this condition, when they had cut away the cords and ropes they asked for some pliers to cut the wire that continued to hold her foot to the altar; the moment they did this a terrific explosion rent the air and the colonel was killed and all the others received wounds of a serious nature.
The Boches had placed high explosives under the floor and altar, and when the wires were cut these were electrically exploded.
Cats and dogs were often found wired up in this manner and in some cases the soldiers finding them were wounded severely, while at times others escaped.
Very few French people ever discussed the war in ____ general ____ which so many Americans __________, but in their hearts this was an ever existing agony, and in their hearts a patriotism unrivaled by any race of people in the world.
There was no slackers in France, in the towns and cities one saw only old men and women doing the light work, while the men under 45 were in uniform and the young men and girls were in government service.
Of course there were many Spaniards and Greeks in France who worked as laborers on the docks and in building up camps, etc., also many German prisoners were employed in this work.
When a soldier went on leave he always had a home to go to and the family as a rule would adopt the soldiers of both America and France as “Godsons of the War,” while he fought at the front or was a prisoner in Germany and when in the hospital wounded, he would receive packages of home cooked food, warm clothing and reading material, and while on leave he was treated as one of the family.
Oftentimes members of a wounded man’s family came to visit him at the hospital, sometimes they are permitted to see them and talk to them, but in many cases they are not permitted to go further than the door nor cannot talk to the soldier.
In one case, which was rather pathetic, a Frenchman had a mouth wound and was unable to use his vocal organs, so when his wife called to see him she walked as far as the door and looked at him, but was not told he was speechless. When the wounded man saw his wife he could only smile. She had been warned not to speak to him, but she could not resist the temptation.
When her husband only smiled she asked the doctor what the trouble was, but the doctor refused to tell her. When she realized what had really occurred, she fainted and had to be taken home.
If these incidents of a terrible war be paraded before the eyes of the men of military age, I do not believe they could resist a recruiting officer.
The American soldier is impressionable and when he sees those things is it any wonder when they get to the front and go up against a sudden foe they are “American devils,” and take all before them?
That is the secret of the American no wonder we conquered with such soldiers’ glorious success and it is men and such a spirit nothing could stand in our way.
This article concludes this series.
L. H. LIPSEY.
NOTES: The Progress stated that this was written for the Gazette of Clinto, Pennsylvania.(Believe that should be Clinton) The Progress also describes it as a letter from him. He was an observer in the U. S. Navy Air Service. He was wounded at Leper and returned home after his wounds. Lem Hall Lipsey was born November 11, 1895 and died on January 10, 1952. He is buried in the Coghill Cemetery in Wynne, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY KAREN PITTMAN
Can the United States ever realize the entire seriousness of this past war?
There is in France an entirely different attitude concerning war conditions than is shown here in America.
I do not believe that the civilian population of the United States can ever realize what a vast calamity war has been to the European countries where the scenes of battle actually occurred; for if American manhood did realize this and could wait willingly for the draft or could dodge the draft, thus be a slacker, there is then something vastly wrong with their patriotism, in other words there is not one drop of the blood of our freedom-loving forefathers flowing in their veins.
Near Lille, one day in the early part of March, I saw a Belgium girl perhaps 19 years of age, get up on the base of a statue of Joan d’Arc, this statue has been struck by shell fire and the statue proper was shattered, she began in a low weak voice, telling of her experiences and exciting the French and Canadian soldiers almost to a fury. But when she exposed her stub of a wrist on the left arm, her fingers mutilated on the right hand and exposed her breast and showed the soldiers a fearful scar where a knife had cut away part of her left breast, their fury knew no bounds.
There was a drive made the next morning and these same soldiers never took a prisoner. “No quarters,” was the watchword—“No quarters for the Boches!”
American manhood could not resist the appeal in the eyes of this girl and her brother of twelve (12) years, had they been used for recruiting in the United States.
This emaciated and mutilated Belgian girl story is but one of many; her mother was badly maltreated by Germans quartered in their home and when she resisted them was struck through with a bayonet and stuck on a tree a few feet obev the ground.
There was on an altar of a ruined church in southern Belgium one of ______________________ by the Germans.
A woman had been tied and wired to the altar and had been in this condition for several days and of course was weak from hunger and exhaustion.
The Germans had in the meantime evacuated this town and some English troops had come in. During the day a small party of British officers containing a colonel and several officers of inferior rank chanced to find her in this condition, when they had cut away the cords and ropes they asked for some pliers to cut the wire that continued to hold her foot to the altar; the moment they did this a terrific explosion rent the air and the colonel was killed and all the others received wounds of a serious nature.
The Boches had placed high explosives under the floor and altar, and when the wires were cut these were electrically exploded.
Cats and dogs were often found wired up in this manner and in some cases the soldiers finding them were wounded severely, while at times others escaped.
Very few French people ever discussed the war in ____ general ____ which so many Americans __________, but in their hearts this was an ever existing agony, and in their hearts a patriotism unrivaled by any race of people in the world.
There was no slackers in France, in the towns and cities one saw only old men and women doing the light work, while the men under 45 were in uniform and the young men and girls were in government service.
Of course there were many Spaniards and Greeks in France who worked as laborers on the docks and in building up camps, etc., also many German prisoners were employed in this work.
When a soldier went on leave he always had a home to go to and the family as a rule would adopt the soldiers of both America and France as “Godsons of the War,” while he fought at the front or was a prisoner in Germany and when in the hospital wounded, he would receive packages of home cooked food, warm clothing and reading material, and while on leave he was treated as one of the family.
Oftentimes members of a wounded man’s family came to visit him at the hospital, sometimes they are permitted to see them and talk to them, but in many cases they are not permitted to go further than the door nor cannot talk to the soldier.
In one case, which was rather pathetic, a Frenchman had a mouth wound and was unable to use his vocal organs, so when his wife called to see him she walked as far as the door and looked at him, but was not told he was speechless. When the wounded man saw his wife he could only smile. She had been warned not to speak to him, but she could not resist the temptation.
When her husband only smiled she asked the doctor what the trouble was, but the doctor refused to tell her. When she realized what had really occurred, she fainted and had to be taken home.
If these incidents of a terrible war be paraded before the eyes of the men of military age, I do not believe they could resist a recruiting officer.
The American soldier is impressionable and when he sees those things is it any wonder when they get to the front and go up against a sudden foe they are “American devils,” and take all before them?
That is the secret of the American no wonder we conquered with such soldiers’ glorious success and it is men and such a spirit nothing could stand in our way.
This article concludes this series.
L. H. LIPSEY.
NOTES: The Progress stated that this was written for the Gazette of Clinto, Pennsylvania.(Believe that should be Clinton) The Progress also describes it as a letter from him. He was an observer in the U. S. Navy Air Service. He was wounded at Leper and returned home after his wounds. Lem Hall Lipsey was born November 11, 1895 and died on January 10, 1952. He is buried in the Coghill Cemetery in Wynne, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY KAREN PITTMAN