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001 - Preface and Introduction · Letters from the American Ambulance in France

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  Speaker 1: Preface and introduction of with the American Ambulance Field Service
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  Speaker 1: and France Personal Letters of a Driver at the Front.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by David Wales with the
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  Speaker 1: American Ambulance Field Service in France, Personal Letters of a
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  Speaker 1: Driver at the Front by Leslie Buswell. Preface. These letters,
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  Speaker 1: according to ordinary ethics, in such matters, should not perhaps
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  Speaker 1: be published. They were merely intended as tributes of friendship
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  Speaker 1: and remembrance, casually written in pencil, often at moments between duties,
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  Speaker 1: with no thought of their being destined to any further
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  Speaker 1: purpose than that distance and absence might count a little
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  Speaker 1: less through the pictures they would give of a day's
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  Speaker 1: work far away, excepting that here and there in each
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  Speaker 1: letter a few details quite personal have been omitted, and
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  Speaker 1: of course the names of places sometimes changed. They are untouched.
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  Speaker 1: Their author has had no chance to revise them, nor,
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  Speaker 1: it must be confessed, has his consent to their printing
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  Speaker 1: been asked, Knowing him there seemed little likelihood of his
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  Speaker 1: believing them worthy of special attention, not at least without
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  Speaker 1: a correspondence of persuasion and much loss of time. Only
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  Speaker 1: the exigency of the hour and a conviction of their
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  Speaker 1: worth have led me to take this step. If they
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  Speaker 1: give to those who may now read as clear a
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  Speaker 1: vision as they have given me of the chivalrous work
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  Speaker 1: our young American volunteers are doing in France, they will
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  Speaker 1: have achieved something. If occasionally some reader, grateful for this
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  Speaker 1: proof that our country is contributing so worthy a part
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  Speaker 1: to the heroism of to day, should feel inspired to
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  Speaker 1: do what he is able toward the encouragement and continuation
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  Speaker 1: of this world, these letters will have served a high purpose.
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  Speaker 1: The knowledge that a possibility so worthwhile would ultimately outweigh
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  Speaker 1: with my friend any personal consideration is justification of the
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  Speaker 1: liberty taken and of this book. Perhaps for the time
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  Speaker 1: and effort the writer of these records so generously spent
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  Speaker 1: for friendship's sake in the midst of hard and hazardous days,
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  Speaker 1: he may find recompense in the realization that, aside from
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  Speaker 1: the pleasure which their coming meant to one who looked
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  Speaker 1: for them, they may bring much benefit to the service
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  Speaker 1: he so valiantly describes and through that service to thousands
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  Speaker 1: of men and women whose happiness death might otherwise have
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  Speaker 1: destroyed h d S introduction. For many years before the war,
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  Speaker 1: there existed at Nuissi Senne, a suburb of Paris, a
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  Speaker 1: semi philanthropic institute t tuition supported by Americans and known
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  Speaker 1: as the American Hospital. At the outbreak of the war,
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  Speaker 1: this institution instantly and naturally became the rallying point for
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  Speaker 1: Americans who loved France and wanted to help care for
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  Speaker 1: her wounded soldiers. Within a few weeks, it was evident, however,
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  Speaker 1: that larger quarters must be found. A splendid new school building,
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  Speaker 1: which was rapidly nearing completion in the neighborhood, was rented.
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  Speaker 1: Its large, well lighted and well ventilated rooms were transformed
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  Speaker 1: into hospital wards, operating rooms, dormitories and offices. A multitude
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  Speaker 1: of doctors, surgeons, and nurses were brought over from the
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  Speaker 1: United States, and thus the American Ambulance Hospital in the
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  Speaker 1: Lysee Pasteur, with accommodations for more than six hundred wounded soldiers,
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  Speaker 1: came into being. Soon the generosity of another American friend
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  Speaker 1: of France made possible a second American ambulance hospital, and
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  Speaker 1: the venerable College of Juillis, located about thirty miles east
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  Speaker 1: of Paris, was steam fitted, electric lighted, and plumbed, and
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  Speaker 1: made over into a hospital for about two hundred additional wounded,
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  Speaker 1: with distinguished American surgeons in charge. From the outset, it
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  Speaker 1: was clear that the saving of soldiers lives depended quite
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  Speaker 1: as much upon the quick transportation of the wounded as
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  Speaker 1: upon their surgical treatment. And in September nineteen fourteen, when
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  Speaker 1: the battle front surged close to Paris, a dozen automobiles
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  Speaker 1: given by Americans, hastily extemporized into ambulances and driven by
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  Speaker 1: American volunteers, ran back and forth night and day between
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  Speaker 1: the western end of the Marne Valley and Paris. This
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  Speaker 1: was the beginning of the American Ambulance field service, with
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  Speaker 1: which the following letters have to do. During the autumn
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  Speaker 1: and winter that followed, many more cars were given and
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  Speaker 1: many more young Americans volunteered, And when the battlefront retired
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  Speaker 1: from the vicinity of Paris, sections of motor ambulances were
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  Speaker 1: detached from the hospitals at Nuilli and Juili and became
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  Speaker 1: more or less independent units attached to the several French
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  Speaker 1: armies serving the dressing stations and army hospitals within the
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  Speaker 1: army zone. Today, more than one hundred such ambulances, given
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  Speaker 1: and driven by American friends of France, are carrying wounded
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  Speaker 1: French soldiers along the very fighting front in Belgium and France.
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  Speaker 1: In Belgium and northern France, where the American Ambulance Field
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  Speaker 1: Service has had an important section since the early months
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  Speaker 1: of the war, the valiant service rendered during the Second
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  Speaker 1: Battle of the Yser and during the many bombardments from
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  Speaker 1: long range guns in and about Dunkirk has attracted official
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  Speaker 1: recognition from the highest officers in the Army. At the
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  Speaker 1: time of the prolonged battle in the vicinity of Ip
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  Speaker 1: in May, General Putz wrote that the American Section had,
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  Speaker 1: by working five nights and days without interruption, assured the
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  Speaker 1: evacuation of the hospitals in Everden, though under continual shell
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  Speaker 1: fire which covered all of the roads in the neighborhood
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  Speaker 1: and even the hospitals themselves. I cannot praise too highly,
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  Speaker 1: he added, the courage and devotion of which the men
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  Speaker 1: in your section have given evidence, and I ask you
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  Speaker 1: to transmit to them my congratulations and my thanks for
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  Speaker 1: the great physical effort which they have so generously made
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  Speaker 1: and the signal services which they have rendered. In the
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  Speaker 1: section of Alsace, which France has definitely recovered from Germany.
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  Speaker 1: The American Ambulance Field Service has now the only automobile ambulances,
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  Speaker 1: and they are performing a service which no other automobile
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  Speaker 1: ambulances could perform. Because of the lightness and power of
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  Speaker 1: our little cars, and because we are willing to use
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  Speaker 1: them up in this service and replace them without restrictions,
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  Speaker 1: our ambulances are running over steep mountain passes and alsas
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  Speaker 1: where the French automobile ambulances are unable to cross, and
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  Speaker 1: over which wounded soldiers were formerly carried on mule back.
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  Speaker 1: They have been able to reduce the duration of the
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  Speaker 1: journey of the wounded between the dressing stations and the
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  Speaker 1: hospitals from four or five hours to less than one,
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  Speaker 1: at the same time substituting transport in a comfortable springed
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  Speaker 1: vehicle for the agony of transport in the mule litters.
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  Speaker 1: Two of the men in this section have already received
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  Speaker 1: the Coua dei guerre for special acts of valor. We
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  Speaker 1: have another section of ambulances attached to an American Army
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  Speaker 1: field hospital of thirty tents, which is also a branch
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  Speaker 1: of the American Ambulance Hospital. Made available to the French
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  Speaker 1: Army by generous American friends, this movable hospital is equipped
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  Speaker 1: to care for one hundred and forty wounded and the
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  Speaker 1: whole installation of word tents, officers and nurses, tents, operating tents,
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  Speaker 1: mess tents, et cetera, can be mounted by our men
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  Speaker 1: or demounted and packed on motor trucks, ready for transportation
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  Speaker 1: in less than three hours. It is destined to be
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  Speaker 1: of great service in the devastated regions when the French
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  Speaker 1: Army begins its advance. Finally, we have a section of
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  Speaker 1: ambulances in Lorraine to which has been entrusted exclusively the
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  Speaker 1: service of carrying the wounded in the much fought over
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  Speaker 1: region around boilea Petre. This section alone has carried on
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  Speaker 1: the average about seventy five hundred wounded per month. The
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  Speaker 1: men work continually within range of the German shells and
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  Speaker 1: are almost daily under German fire. The section as a
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  Speaker 1: whole and their leader have received honorable mention in official
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  Speaker 1: dispatches and have been given the Quadiguhere the daily life
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  Speaker 1: and activities of the men of this section are sketched
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  Speaker 1: by one of its members in the following personal letters, which,
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  Speaker 1: while written without any thought of publication, are now privately
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  Speaker 1: printed in order that those generous Americans on the other
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  Speaker 1: side of the Atlantic who are making this chivalrous work
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  Speaker 1: possible may more truly appreciate its value and efficiency. From
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  Speaker 1: this unconscious story, one gets an impression of the devoted
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  Speaker 1: service which young Americans are rendering in France, and of
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  Speaker 1: the way in which they are reducing the agony and
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  Speaker 1: saving the lives of wounded French soldiers. One sees too
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  Speaker 1: how deeply this service is appreciated, and how through it
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  Speaker 1: the old friendship which has existed between France and the
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  Speaker 1: United States since the very beginning of our national history,
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  Speaker 1: is being quickened and rejuvenated. Happy are all free peoples,
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  Speaker 1: too strong to be dispossessed. But blessed are those among
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  Speaker 1: nations who dare to be strong for the rest A. P. A.
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  Speaker 1: September sixth, nineteen fifteen. End of preface and introduction