Wounded Because of a Numb Leg

Wounded Because of a Numb Leg
That night I was on duty. We had a, an advance trench above the position on, on the dike. We had a hole there for two, for two of us. And if the Germans tried to move in, we saw anything, then we were the lookout trench as we called it. Anyway, I told my friend I said “Look,” I said “my legs, I got to get up and walk around.” Well I did. I took about three steps and then wham! All I saw was a big flame and I woke up in the basement of a bombed out house. They carried me down to the position and they applied first aid, put something, I was wounded right here. And covered me up. I couldn’t open my mouth, I couldn’t say anything. I had a broken bone in there someplace. I, I was passing out all the time because of that dope that they had given me. It’s the dope, we had the, everyone of us, had an Atropine thing. It was about that long, and with a needle on it. See they had taken that and injected me with this and that’s what was putting me out. I came to when the platoon sergeant came in to visit and he says, he says “What can I do for you Bob? ” I said “Could you get me a ration of rum? ” I says, “I feel like I have to have something.” My head was spinning and everything. Oh, he says “When I get back I’ll do that.” So, after we had a little talk, he wanted to know how I was, was I going to recover from this or whatever. He went back to the position. And then later on the officer came in to see me and he wanted to know how I felt and all that. I said “Well,” I said “it would be nice to have, to have another shot of rum.” “Well,” he says, “when I get back,” he says “I’ll send Sergeant Cole.” And that’s what he did. Now the next morning, when I, I was awake by then, there was a landing craft there, and they had already put some prisoners in there. And one, one of the best stretcher, it was a dead soldier that they had put there. The other one, so they loaded the three of us on the thing and we ended up, back into, across the river to, to the first aid post that was set up there. They, they patched me up, they checked me out and again I was passing out. They put me in an ambulance and took me to, to Brussels in Belgium. A big British, big British hospital.