The Sylvester Family of Plainview, Minnesota*

Byrl Sylvester brings his speech to Winona, Minnesota

November 23, 1917

PAGE 112

14. Trip Home
.....a. First glimpse of N. Y.
.....b. Home

(NOTE: The following are newspaper clippings from area newspapers with no dates. They have been placed here for lack of a better placing.)
Winona Republican Herald
Byrl Sylvester Carries War Message to Winonans at Great Armory Meeting
Plainview Aviation Recruit and Ambulance Service Veteran Says Air Forces of
U. S. Will Turn Battle Tide
Byrl Sylvester, Plainview’s Soldier of fortune, late member of an American ambulance corps on duty "Somewhere in France" and wearer of the French war cross for valor, gave Winonas a vivid description of the war at the Armory last night.
The young soldier, who, although wounded by a German shell while in the ambulance service, is son to return to the front as an American … (missing piece) … the war. He said he believed that in the coming Spring campaign, when the massed armies of the Allies are to be thrown against the Germans, that the American aviator would turn the tide of the war.
He believed that with the great aerial attacks that are sure to come behind the Hun line and upon interior German territory, the followers of the Kaiser will realize their cause is a hopeless one.
The speaker told of his departure from this country and he related the many preparations that were made aboard ships for under sea attacks, telling how everyone was instructed to act when the signal was given them to seek safety in the life boats. He then told of the arrival of his company in France and the hardening process which all American soldiers undergo before being sent to the trenches. He said he never would forget the first time he was sent under fire, when he could hear the purr of the death bringer many seconds before it passed him and then bursting of the shell about two blocks distant. In a modes manner, he related the story about the bursting of the shell that took his companions life and wounded him.

Bomb Hospital
Instances of the terrible atrocities committed by the Germans were cited by Mr. Sylvester. He said, during the time he was in a French hospital, German aviators stormed it eight out of fourteen nights, tearing down and blowing up building within a hundred yards from where he was lying helpless. Then he spoke of the way in which prisoners taken by the Germans were treated. He said the wounds of the injured are not taken care of for days and many thousands of the allied prisoners die from blood poison and exposure. The wounded men that come out whole when taken prisoner by the Germans, according to the speaker, do so because they have a great deal of endurance and because they won’t give up. But, on the other hand, he said the prisoners taken by the allies are treated as well as the wounded allied soldiers.
Most of the casualties in the Verdun fighting that Mr. Sylvester came in contact with, he said, were the result of poisonous gases. After the French had driven the Huns out of trenches they had occupied from the beginning of the war, many pianos were found in them. Many of the prisoners that were taken at this time he said, appeared to be about fourteen to fifteen years old, although they firmly asserted that they were eighteen years of age. Upon acquainting them with the fact that the American nation was now in the war, said the young soldier, they grew furious and said it was untrue and they also said it was impossible for the Americans to travel across the ocean on account of the German submarines.
Dr. Devitt Talks…
Rochester Daily Bulletin

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* SOURCE: Manzow, Ron (compiler), "The Sylvester Family of Plainview, Minnesota - a collection of information taken from the Plainview News, other newspapers, letters, and diaries beginning in 1884": Plainview Area History Center, 40 4th St. S.W., Plainview, MN 55964. Compiled in 2001.

NOTE: from Ron Manzow, December 2001: "Feel free to reproduce the pages for anyone who wants a copy. It was compiled to be shared... All I ask is that they consider sending a check to the [Plainview Area] History Center to help us out. That should be enough."