Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1916 — LOSES MEMORY IN BATTLE, WOOS FIANCEE ANEW [ARTICLE]

LOSES MEMORY IN BATTLE, WOOS FIANCEE ANEW

Canadian, Mind Made Blank by ' Shell Concussion, Does Not Know Parents. IS STRANGER THAN FICTION Thomas Truster, Sent Back to Front From Hospital, Falla to Recall HjjL._ Name and Is Reported Missing Forgets Sweetheart and Falls In Love With Her “All Over Again.” New York. —Fate has played many strange pranks with the men fighting in Europe, but none perhaps is more curious than that in which Thomas F. Trusler figures. Mr. Trusler, who is stopping at a hotel, was a gunner in the Third brigade, Canadian field artillery. ■ • . . --- . The concussion from a shell which struck the ground near him last wintercaused him to lose all recollection of the past. Consequently, his fiancee In Montreal mourned him for dead, and even after he learned his identity through a scar on his right foot he did not remember her or his parents. However, as he explained recently, he took his parents' word that they were his father and mother, and, although he does not recall his first proposal, he said he has fallen In love all over again with the woman he was to have married and soon he hopes. to make her his bride. Although Sir Frederick Treves, King George’s surgeon, is said to have attempted to restore his memory by means of hypnotism, Mr. Trusler, who is twenty-one years old, recalls nothing of his past prior to the day his mind became blank from the concussion, and when he returned to Canada in the early autumn because of his wound it was necessary for him to relearn the way about his native city of Montreal and to be Introduced to lifelong boyhood friends and schoolmates. Under Fire at Ypres. The young gunner, went with the first Canadian contingent which reached France a year ago. At that time the German general staff was perfecting Its schemes to break through to Calais by way of Ypres. Mr. Trusler first came under fire near Vlamartlnghe, just west of Ypres. His division was acting as a reserve force. "I have been told by men who served with me on my gun that we all saw a huge German aeroplane fly over us,” Mt. Trusler said. “Soon thereafter there, came a rain of high explosive shell® from a big German gun. Several of our boys were killed, and the fact that I was not was a miracle. One of the shells fell within ten or twenty feet of me, I was told, but did not explode. The concussion, however, was terrific, and it dazed and stupefied me. "I remember awakening in a base hospital with the wounded all about me. I felt myself all over and could find nothing smashed, so I sat up in my cot. Then I got out of it and stood up and asked why I was there. A physician told me what had happened to me and sent me back to my brigade, which he located by the insignia on my upiform. When I got: n back I didn’t seem t 6 recollect anything or anybody. - '' -Some of the men of my gun company saw me and took me back to my quarters. If was necessary for me to metre friends with companions again. They called me ‘Howie’—a nickname -~and soon I became known as ‘Howie Trusler.’ That fact made it difficult tor my parents to locatsmo,bfl«flnM*

when I was asked my name I spelled it ’Tressler,’ because I didn’t want anybody to know that I couldn’t recall where I came from or who I wap. Is Reported Missing. “Consequently ‘T. F. Trusler’ went on the rolls of the missing. Consequently also, I failed to get mail from my fiancee and my parents. It was not until last summer when I was wounded in the leg so badly that I was sent to England that I made any attempt to find out who I was. I confided my story to an Englishwoman of high rank who was interested in the hospital. She made inquiries among the officers of my brigade who remembered ‘Trusler’ who came out with the contingent. “My parents were communicated with and my mother remembered an old scar on my foot. Sure enough the scar was there. Even when I returned to Montreal I didn’t recognize my mother and don't yet. I learned I-was engaged to be- married before I left for the front and on my return home my fiancee was at the station with my mother and father. I didn’t recognize any of them, but they took me home.” Here Mr. Trusler admitted that he had fallen in love “all over again” and with the same girl. Although the gunner cannot remember what happened before January of last year, he has a vivid recollection of what has happened since, and his description of the battle of Ypres in April and of the effect of the poison gases used by the Germans is most vivid. _ —_ ——

"About five o’clock of the evening of April 23,” tfe said, “we were getting quite bored, for we were in the reserve force along the Poperinghe road, three miles west of Ypres. The dull monotony was rudely broken by the sudden appearance of swarms of French colonial troops, Singhalese and Zouaves, rushing in from the front trenches, clutching at throats, holding their sides, rolling on the ground, gasping for breath, eyes bloodshot and staring, many of them bleeding at the mouth, but most of them unable to explain the cause of their peculiar actions. Asphyxiating Gas Cloud. “Along with them came scores of refugees, men, women and children, bearing with them all they could take from. their burning and wrecked homes. At that time we had never heard of asphyxiating gas and were at a loss to make out what it all meant. The order ‘stand to your arms’ was quickly passed along to the reserves. The Montreal Highlanders were the first to get on the move. It takes longer to get artillery wagons on the move, and while we were working at feverish haste the Highlanders went by. each man singing and smiling, although they must have known that many of them would never return.

“At seven o’clock the artillery forces were all ready and waiting for the order to move forward. I shall never forget the scene at the moment. From the city of Ypres there arose high in the heavens huge jets of flames, while overhead shells burst by the hundreds, and in our ears was the din of falling walls and all sorts Of indescribable noises. "When the order came to move forward we urged our horses with a cheer and a song. It was necessary for us to make a detour south of Ypres in order to get to the main road leading to our damaged 1 front. It also was necessary to cross the Yser canal, about half a mile south of the town, on a pontoon bridge. The first gun got over safely, when along came • German shell and destroyed It. “Under a deadly fire, for the Germans had the range, we waited while the engineers worked to construct another bridge. Two long thick poles were placed across the narrow canal and crossways on them timbers and logs were piled. The Second gun went across precariously, but the third was -upset by a. rolling log, the cannon carriage failing on one side of the narrow bridge and the six horses on the other. Whtterthe cannon and horses seemed to be seesawing this way and that across the bridge •shell put an end to all the trouble, “Then a third. -bridge was construct-

ed, and my gun went across. By this time the glare from the burned town was dying down, and I was wondering Just what was ahead of us when an, aeroplane high above dropped a star shell. This was followed by a perfect hurricane of shells, and the last gun to attempt the crossing went into tb® water. Emerging from a wood, we ran Into a murderous gunfire from German Infantry and machine guns. My gun and others of our battery were hurled Into this open fire-swept field, swung around and In less than two minutes opened fire on the Germans. •‘Each of our shells contained 300 bullets, and at a range of 250 yards one can readily Imagine how the Ger* mans fell. Finally we halted them, but the German infantry remained hidden behind a deep fringe of trees with their own dead piled up against them. Our guns could not do effective work because of the trees. Therefore we were ordered to use high explosive shells. “I shall never forget how those shells were brought to us. The horses on the ammunition supply wagon became crazed and ran away. They dashed within a few yards of the German lines, and one brave rider —no one ever knew who he was —shot the first two horses dead. The wagon rolled over thSm and him. Then there was an explosion, for the wagon, hit by a shell, was blown to bits. The explosion wrought havoc among the Germans and our Infantry, qulckly following up the advantage, drove the Teutons out of the woods. “Meantime our line was badly pressed near St. Julien, and after the arrival of fresh British and Canadians our battery was ordered there. We went right into the town. But on and on came the German infantry, and the retreat was sounded. Spying Is Dangerous. "Spying at the -front is the most dangerous of all occupations,” Mr. Trusler continued. “The Germans are very clever at it, and one method of sending news between the lines Is by trained dogs. One night one of our sentries saw a dog dart past him. He called to the animal, thinking the dog would make an excellent mascot for the battery. The dbg came back and wagged hie tall and the sentry took him to his quarters. “The following morning one of the men remarked on the thickness of the plain leather collar worn by the dog. An examination revealed that the collar was hollow, and In It we found a message in cipher. Instantly an officer was summoned, the dog was put on a long wire leash and driven out of camp. He went direct to a barber shop, where the mdn were in the habit 'of lounging add talking when off duty. The barber, whom we thought to be a Belgian, was a German spy and afterward was put to death.”