From the News

Dated: October 6, 1917

HUN SURGERY MOST BRUTAL

TORONTO AIRMAN'S TALE

Lieut. Jack Firstbrook Suffered Major Operation Without Any Attempt Beng Made to Ease Pain.

(Special Correspondence to The Evening Telegram from Douglas S. Robertson).

London, Sept. 22. -- Although Lieut. Jack Firstbrook, R.F.C., of Toronto, has nothing to say about it, and one might imagine from his demeanor that he had never had any experience worth-while, the writer hears that this young Canadian airman had a pretty hard time of it in Germany, though months of rest in a good Swiss internment camp have brought back an apperance at least of robustness.

Shot down in the Somme offensive in July, 1916, Lieut. Firstbrook crashed into the ground behind the German lines.  The fall knocked him senseless and the first thing he knew was consciousness in a hospital.  His wound was very painful, and to his amazement and  apprehension he discovered that he was to have an operation without general anaesthetic.  No ether cup was to waft him into insensibility, no chloroform on a handkerchief to dull his brain to the surgeon's knife.  In due course he was dumped upon an operating table and a hypodermic needle jabbed repeatedly into the region of his wound.  Local numbness resulted and the German surgeons started in to mend four broken ribs in the gaping hole in his side.

EXPERIENCED GREAT PAIN.

Here was a major operation, and the Hun doctors were treating him as a Canadian surgeon would do in the case of a man with a splinter in his finger.  Firstbrook felt everything, every cut of the knives, every stroke of the saws, and though no actual pain was inflicted, the nervous shock was tremendous, and all through it the two German doctors smoked cigars.

MAY HAVE SAVED LIFE.

Conceive of any Canadian army surgeon treating a wounded German so!  But perhaps, after all under the circumstances it was the safest thing for Lieut. Firstbrook, for 'tis said by others conversant with German military hospital methods and their treatment of British wounded, that when an anaesthetized man fails to come out of the chloroform promptly, no attempt as resuscitation is made and the senseless patient is laid aside as a dead man, which he generally becomes.

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BACK FROM SWITZERLAND

AND GERMAN PRISON

Lt. J. H. Firstbrook's Airplane Crashed to Earth Behind German Lines - Six Months With the Swiss.

Lieut. J. H. Firstbrook, R.F.C., who was shot down in the Somme offensive in July, 1916, and crashed down to earth behind the German lines, arrived at his home in north Toronto on Saturday.  When his machine crashed to earth he was knocked senseless, and when he regained consciousness he found himself in a German hospital.  His wound was very painful, but he was operated upon without an anaesthetic.  Lieut. Firstbrook felt every cut of the knife and every stroke of the saws.  He was in Germany until December last, when he was moved to Switzerland. 

"Switzerland is one of the most cosmopolitan war-time neutral countries in the world, and eveybody there has an interesting story to tell," declares Lieut. Firstbrook.

PARENTS WITH HIM.

Mr. and Mrs. John Firstbrook of 1 St. Edmund's drive, North Toronto, with their son, Lieut. J. H. Firstbrook, arrived in Toronto on Saturday after six months sojourn in Switzerland.

When journeying to Murren Prison Camp he was so ill that he had to be taken off the train at Berne, where his parents went to see him. 

WORSE OFF THAN BRITISH.

Speaking to The Telegram this morning, Mrs. Firstbrook said that Switzerland abounds in Turkish and Bulgarian slackers, German spies, British secret service men, and stranded American and British subjects.  "Food is scarcer there than it is in either England or France, and it is almost impossible to buy sugar," Mrs. Firstbrook said.  "Government cards for sugar, rice and macaroni are issued to the people, which permits them to obtain only a limited quantity.  Coal is another luxury and is exceedingly scarce at any price."

This Toronto family visited Murren Camp, situated at a great height in the Alps, and now accommodating about 750 allied officers and men.  Mrs. Firstbrook served in the canteen there and taught the men to embroider and employ their long days.

KNOWS THE BRITISH TOMMY.

"I became thoroughly acquainted with typical English Tommies while in that canteen," said Mrs. Firstbrook with a smile, "and when there isn't any fighting to be done, they do plenty of 'kicking' to keep up the 'bulldog' spirit."

"Our secret service men are wonderful.  They know everything that is going on," Lt. Firstbrook told the reporter.  "They keep in touch with the soldiers, so that they are always on guard.  The German Embassy at Berne has a staff of 500 in all and that district was very pro-German, but now everyone in Switzerland tries to be neutral, although they have a hard task."

Mr. and Mrs. Firstbrook warmly praised the Red Cross and Y.M.C.A. work in this country.  The day following Lt. Firstbrook's arrival in Berne the Red Cross sent pyjamas, a kimono and other necessities of which he had none.  This department, owing to the shortage of food, has had to considerably  curtail the amount of boxes sent to prisoners in Germany, as supplies are difficult to obtain.

THROUGH SIX AIR RAIDS.

"We were in London and there were six air raids," Mrs. Firstbrook declared.  "They usually happen between 7 and 11 o'clock at night, when the moon is bright, but I think our defences have them well under control.  The English people are very brave and very busy," she said, "and are so much engaged in war work that raids cause them very little worry."