The Iron Division, National Guard of Pennsylvania, in the World War: The authentic and comprehensive narrative of the gallant; deeds and glorious achievements of the 28th division in; the world's greatest warProctor, H. G. (Harry George)
History
The Iron Division, National Guard of Pennsylvania, in the World War: The authentic and comprehensive narrative of the gallant; deeds and glorious achievements of the 28th division in; the world's greatest war
Proctor, H. G. (Harry George)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- United States -- 28th (Iron) division
He went over the top with the battalion that attacked by night on the
heights of the Vesle. It was not his duty to go; in fact had the
regimental commander known his intention, he probably would have been
forbidden to go. But go he did. He had an idea that his job was to look
after the men's bodies as well as their souls, and when there was stern
fighting to do, he liked to be in a position where he could attend to
both phases of his work.
The attacking party wiped out the Hun machine gun nest after a sharp
fight and then retired to their own lines, as ordered. It was so dark
that some of the wounded were overlooked. After the battalion returned,
voices of American wounded could be heard out in that new No Man's Land,
calling for help. Dr. Barker took his life and some first aid equipment
and water in his two hands and slipped out into the dark, with only
starshine and the voices of the wounded to guide him and, between the
two armies, attended to the wounds of the men as best he could by the
light of a small pocket torch, which he had to keep concealed from the
enemy lookouts.
One after another the clergyman hunted. Those who could walk he started
back to the lines. Several he had to assist. One lad who was beyond help
he sat beside and ministered to with the tenderness of a mother until
the young soul struggled gropingly out into the Great Beyond. Then, with
the tears rolling down his cheeks, the beloved "Sky Pilot" started back.
But again the sound of a voice in agony halted him. This time, however,
it was not English words that he heard, but a moaning petition in
guttural German: "Ach Gott! Ach, mein lieber Gott!"
The men of the 110th loved their "parson" even more for what he did
then. He turned right about and went back, groping in the dark for the
sobbing man. He found a curly-haired young German, wounded so he could
not walk and in mortal terror, not of death or of the dark, but of those
"terrible Americans who torture and kill their prisoners." Such was the
tale with which he and his comrades had been taught to loathe their
American enemies. Dr. Barker treated his wounds and carried him back to
the American lines. The youngster whimpered with fear when he found
where he was going, and begged the clergyman not to leave him. When he
finally was convinced that he would not be harmed, he kissed the
chaplain's hands, crying over them, and insisted on turning over to Dr.
Barker everything he owned that could be loosened--helmet, pistol,
bayonet, cartridges, buttons, and other odds and ends.
"All hung over with loot, the parson was, when he came back," said a
sergeant in telling of the scene afterward.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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