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With The American Ambulance Field Service In France Personal Letters Of A Driver At The Front - Leslie Buswell · Sergeant York and His People

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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 bats 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 Part
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  Speaker 1: one of with the American Ambulance Field Service in France.
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  Speaker 1: Personal Letters of a driver at the front by Leslie Buswell.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain with the
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  Speaker 1: American Ambulance Field Service in France. American Ambulance, June seventeenth.
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  Speaker 1: I came here Pontin Moussain last night after a seven
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  Speaker 1: hours journey to Nancie from Paris. On the way I
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  Speaker 1: found much to interest me, as if you will look
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  Speaker 1: on your map, you will see that the railway runs
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  Speaker 1: beside the River Marne, then the Meuse, and lastly the
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  Speaker 1: moselle An officer pointed out to me all the interesting
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  Speaker 1: places where the Germans advanced and then retreated in a
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  Speaker 1: hurry or practically route, leaving everything behind, even to their flags,
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  Speaker 1: which I believe are now in London. After passing these
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  Speaker 1: and nearing Nanci, I saw what looked like a fleet
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  Speaker 1: of aeroplanes, and the officer explained to me that it
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  Speaker 1: was a flying taub being shot at by the French.
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  Speaker 1: It looked like this diagram follows. I am told that
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  Speaker 1: they rarely hit one. On Arriving at Nanci, I was
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  Speaker 1: met by Salisbury, our section leader, and after a very
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  Speaker 1: good meal in the most beautiful little town you could
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  Speaker 1: hope to see, and where the Kaiser and ten thousand
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  Speaker 1: troops in dress parade were waiting on a hill close
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  Speaker 1: by to enter in state. Last October, we started to
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  Speaker 1: buy motor for pont A Mousson. Some fifteen kilometers further on.
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  Speaker 1: Our lights were put out and we then entered the
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  Speaker 1: region under shell fire. It was a funny feeling listening
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  Speaker 1: to my conductor talking about how this shell and that
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  Speaker 1: shell hit here and there, and all along the route
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  Speaker 1: we passed torn up trees, houses and roads. At last
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  Speaker 1: we came to Pontar Masson, a dear little village with
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  Speaker 1: about eight thousand inhabitants, and felt our way, so to speak,
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  Speaker 1: in the darkness and silence, to the barracks which are
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  Speaker 1: now the headquarters of the ambulance. I found that there
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  Speaker 1: were about twenty cars and twenty two men here, the
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  Speaker 1: latter all enthusiastic about their work and the help the
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  Speaker 1: section were giving the French. The day before I arrived,
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  Speaker 1: a shell hit the house next door, and on first
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: sight one would think it was the barracks itself which
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  Speaker 1: had been hit. These huge, high explosive shells are sent
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  Speaker 1: into the town every two or three days, and everywhere
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: one sees masses of brick and stone all that remains
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  Speaker 1: of houses struck. The Germans have bombarded the town over
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and ten times. After being introduced to the boys,
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  Speaker 1: I went to my room, which is some hundred and
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  Speaker 1: sixty meters up the road, nearer the trenches, but safer
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  Speaker 1: for all that here I found I was to share
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  Speaker 1: the house with another man, Schroder by name a Hollander,
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  Speaker 1: and a very nice fellow, who has already lost one
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  Speaker 1: brother and has had another wounded in the French army.
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  Speaker 1: My bedroom is a quite typical French peasant room, very comfortable,
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  Speaker 1: and I felt grateful to know that I was to
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  Speaker 1: have a bed and not straw to sleep on. I
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  Speaker 1: went to sleep there my first night in comparative quietness,
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  Speaker 1: only hearing now and then a crack of a musket,
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  Speaker 1: which in peace time one would think was merely a
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  Speaker 1: backfire of some motor. In the morning, I woke at
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  Speaker 1: six and went to breakfast in our barracks, which is
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  Speaker 1: always served at seven o'clock. Walking out of my front door,
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  Speaker 1: I came into the main street. To the left is
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  Speaker 1: the way to the town and the barracks. To the right,
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  Speaker 1: the road goes straight on an avenue of trees or
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  Speaker 1: housemate pointed out, about five hundred meters away what looked
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  Speaker 1: like a fallen tree across the road. Imagine my feelings
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  Speaker 1: when he told me that they were the French trenches
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  Speaker 1: to the right and left of this avenue or hills,
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  Speaker 1: and on the left runs the river Moselle. On the
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  Speaker 1: ridge of hills, on the right one sees a brown line.
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  Speaker 1: These are the German trenches. And walking down the road
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  Speaker 1: to breakfast, one gets the knowledge that a first class
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: rifle shot could pick one off. After breakfast, I was
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  Speaker 1: asked by one of the men, Rhoda, if I would
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  Speaker 1: like to look about the place, and I jumped at
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  Speaker 1: the invitation. We got into a Ford ambulance. No one
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  Speaker 1: can realize the excellence of the Ford for this purpose
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  Speaker 1: until he has seen what they can do. And we
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  Speaker 1: started on a tour or petty promenade. As an officer
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  Speaker 1: told us, we were doing pont A Mousson was in
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  Speaker 1: the hands of the Germans for five days, and our
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: headquarters were the German an officer's headquarters. The French partially
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: blew up the bridge which crosses the Mozelle at this
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: most picturesque point, and for the last five days the
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Germans have been bombarding it, attempting in their turn to
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: destroy it. Many of the houses round it seem to
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: have been hit, and the two places where shells have
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: taken most effect, or on the bridge, the French, have
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: repaired with wood. The boys tell me it is a
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: wonderful sight to see the water rising like a geyser
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: when the shells hit the river, to show how careless
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: the few remaining peasants are. Directly the Germans have apparently
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: ceased firing. They get into boats to pick up the
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: fish killed in hundreds by the concussion. We left the
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: river where we could be clearly seen by the Germans,
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  Speaker 1: entrenched some thousand meters away, and I confess I sighed
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: in relief, for it is difficult to accustom one's self
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: immediately to the possibility of receiving a bullet in one's
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: head or a shell in one's stomach. We then went
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: through the town everywhere, being told stories of how, on
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: such and such a day last week, five men were
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: killed there, and three wounded here, and so on. All
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: the houses are left open, and one can walk into
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: any doorway that looks interesting and do a tour of inspection.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: We left pont A Mousson and started up the hill
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: to our first place to occur x. You will see
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: it on your map, some three kilometers from pont Amassan ruder,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: as we spat on, carefully explained that I was never
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: to drive along this particular road, but was to take
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: a back way, as the commandant had forbidden anyone to
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: use this route, which was in full view of the
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: German artillery in trenches. If he could have realized how
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: I felt, he would have taken me by the back
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: way that time too. On the other side of the
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: hill on our right extended the famous Willapetre, But it
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: is no longer a wood. It is just a wilderness
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: with a few brown stumps sticking up. Would you like
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: to go into the bois, I was asked. I felt
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: I had been in as much danger as I was
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: likely to get into, so I said yes, and we
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: turned to the left and mounted a steep hill and
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: entered it. Here the birds were singing, and all was
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: green and beautiful. It was a part where the artillery
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: had not been, but one could see trench after trench deserted.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Here was an officer's cemetery a terribly sad sight. Six
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: hundred officer's graves. Close by were also the graves of
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: eighteen hundred soldiers. The little cemetery was quite impressive on
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: the side of this lovely green hill, with the great
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: trees all around and the little plain wood crosses at
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: eat grave. As we waited, a broken down horse appeared
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: with a cartload of what looked like old clothes. Lay more.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: I had never seen a dead body until that moment.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: It was a horrible awakening. Eight if semi detached, armless, trunkless,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: headless bodies, all men like ourselves, with people loving them somewhere,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: all gone this way because of what I don't know,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: do you? A grave had been dug two meters deep,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: large enough to hold sixteen, and then we were asked
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: to group ourselves around the car to be taken poor souvenir.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: I managed to do it. I stood there by those
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: dead men and tried to look as if it were
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: a natural thing to do. I felt like being sick.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Then one by one they were lowered into the grave,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: and when they were all laid out, the identification started
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: to take place. The good boots were taken off, and
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: if a coat was not too bloody or torn. It
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: was kept. Surely we must be going. I said, no, no,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: not before we have shown you the dead and the
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: face there. Good God, I cried, I can't do that now,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: and I did not. We returned to pont A Mousson
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: for lunch at twelve o'clock, and I felt a very
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: different person and wondered how I could have felt faint
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: the week before on merely seeing the photographs of wounded
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: in our Nulle hospital. One becomes abitchuet, they tell me.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: I was then officially handed over the car I am
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: to drive, and I began looking over all the parts,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: as we have to do everything for ourselves here Saturday.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: It hardly seems possible that we are so close to
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: the German trenches. Fair food, even hot water, wonderful moonlight nights,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: and a comfortable bed. Every other night. We have to
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: sleep in barracks to be on duty any moment, and
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: so we sleep on straw and don't undress. Every fourth
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: night we are on duty all night and go to
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: X and stay there in the car, taking wounded to
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the first, second and third Base hospitals. Thursday was my
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: baptism of fire, for we had a great artillery duel,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: and it was very interesting, though not at all quieting
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: to hear the big guns fired and shells exploded over
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: our heads. About six o'clock it stopped and we went
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: in to dinner. Afterward, another boy, Berkeley, went for a
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: walk with me, and we stopped to talk to two
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: peasant girls who still remained in the town. Come in
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: and have some strawberries, they invited. And the way these
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: girls offered us all the little luxuries their house could
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: afford showed us how respected the American ambulance is by
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the peasants as well as the officers. Do you fence?
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: One of them asked, yes a little, I answered, and
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: foils were brought out, and we started in. The girl
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: fenced well, but I managed to remember a little of
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: what I once knew when suddenly I heard a man's
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: voice say in French, well done, well done. Give me
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: the foils, my daughter quick, and I was introduced to
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: a fine old soldier who had fought in the campaign
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: of eighteen seventy. We saluted and started again, But here
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: I soon realized the touch of a master, and although
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I got in a few hits, I was easily beaten
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: and felt a little downcast. But my husband is a
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: professor of fencing for forty years, observed Madame. I retired
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: to bed, feeling that though beaten, I might have many
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: happy games. In the evening at fencing with the Vieu meetre. Yesterday,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: I took out my ambulance alone and carried eight wounded
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: for the first time. I am now gradually slipping into
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: my place, and the sense of strangeness is passing off
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: June nineteenth, to continue from where I left off, I
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: am now on duty at the Bureau, our headquarters here.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Last night, as I was finishing my supper, I was
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: told to go to f to fetch a contagious case
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: and take it to the train. Sunday, I was suddenly
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: interrupted by being called to fetch the wounded from x
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: and I just back. My roommate offered to come with
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: me and get the contagious case, which proved fortunately to
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: be only measles, and we started off on what I
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: thought then one of the most amazing trips of my life.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Turning suddenly to the left from the main road, I
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: drove our little ford three kilometers along the road, which
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: was in full view of the Germans, and which had
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: been the death place of many passers. By Then turning
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: left again, we drove slowly to a village so full
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: of soldiers that it seemed impossible so many could even
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: find shelter. A quick turn to the right, Up, up, up,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: first speed along a very narrow road with just room
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: for the car. On both sides were stuck up cut
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: tree branches to make the Germans think there was no road.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Up we went through another tiny hill village full of artillery,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: and on every side underground dugouts where they all live
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: trees blown down, branches stuck here and there to look
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: like trees. And at last we reached the top. The
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: water in the radiator was boiling, so we stopped, walked
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: a bit in the most beautiful woods and picked flowers
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: and wild strawberries to the tune of birds and distant cannon.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: In this wood are heavy naval guns. But from where
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: and how they were ever taken there is a puzzle.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: On we went through more woods until we were stopped
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: by a sentry who directed us still further, And then
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: I saw what was the most dreamlike spectacle I ever beheld.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: The thick woods teemed with soldiers, and dotted through the
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: forests were little huts very low where they lived, thousands
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: of them. Pathways starting every twenty yards to some new
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: wood village. We heard music, and on reaching our destination,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: were invited to inspect these quaint habitations. We walked down
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: a path past hut after hut, and then suddenly the
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: wood opened out and we came to a kind of amphitheater,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: and my friend and I were conducted to fautweez, so
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: to speak, and we listened after much handshaking, and vive
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: la marique, vive l'angleterre, and camarade et cetera to a
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: band of three banjo, violin and dulcimer. As I write,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: a shell has just exploded nearby, I jumped to see
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: where about two hundred yards away, and the smoke is
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: slowly clearing. We soon left our friends and took our
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: contagious case to the station. After passing through wonderful valleys, hills,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: woods and plains, we returned home pretty tired, wondering how
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: such atrocities could be taking place in such a perfect country.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: We go regularly to x to get our blessee, and
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: for two out of the six kilometers we are exposed
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: to German view, and the whole of the way, of course,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: to shell fire. On my first arrival at this little
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: mountain village, I was hard, verrified to see two people
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: lying dead in the road in huge pools of blood.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Six German one fifties had been suddenly launched into the village,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: which is full of soldiers, and killed six soldiers and
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: wounded some thirty three of the six shots had landed
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: actually in the road itself. Two of our ambulances were
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: in the street at the time, and only chance spared them.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: I asked where the shells had struck, and my stretcher
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: bearer looked round for a moment and then pointed under
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: my own car, and there was a hole some nine
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: inches deep and two feet wide. It made me feel
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: rather rotten, I must say, only five minutes before, and
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: it might happen again at any moment. I took down
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: three couche as the lying down ones are called, and
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: had to pass in front of a battery of seventy five,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: which fired as I passed and gave me a shaky
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: knee feeling, I can tell you. Then backward and forward
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: for two hours, carrying more wounded and to add to
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: the excitement, it rained so hard that I was thankful
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: I had bought myself to uniforms and could change to
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: day is Sunday, and after a rather uncomfortable night in
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: my clothes and a snatchy sleep, I have a day
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: off Salisbury. Our section leader asked me to go with
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: him to Toul, and I went for what proved to
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: be a wonderful drive through sleeping villages and semi tilled
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: land and woods and valleys. Toul is one of the
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: most fortified towns in France, and as we approached we
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: saw trench after trench and wire entanglements and so forth.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: The Germans, however, will never advance so far. I think.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: We stopped at the aeroplane sheds, where we picked up
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: a captain Australian, and with him entered Toul, a quiet,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: sleeping town with a lovely church. Returning we were taken
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: over the sheds and saw a large quantity of biplanes
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: and monoplanes. I am now waiting to be taken up
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: into the trenches, but the bombardment I spoke of earlier
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: has continued so heavily that I doubt if we shall
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: get up to them. After all, the whole section here
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: does real work night and day amidst great hardships and
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: no small danger, and the French appreciation is very apparent.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: German prisoners say that the Germans intend utterly demolishing Pontal
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Masson if they have to retire any more. But it
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: would take about two hundred and fifty thousand shells to
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: do it, and I doubt if it is worth their while.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: If anyone can imagine the feeling of a peaceful man
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: who suddenly hears a gun fired and a shell whistling overhead,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: followed by the explosion, and then vice versa by the enemy,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: he will perhaps sympathize with a disagreeable sensation I experienced
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: when I first heard it happen. However, for five days
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: it has gone on constantly, and soon I shall become
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: accustomed day. This very long letter will probably end in
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: being so dull that it will not be worth reading.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: But when everything is fresh to me it is easy
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: to describe. After three or six weeks, I shall probably
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: write that I have no news for one day is
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: doubtless a repetition of the other. Therefore, while my impressions
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: are new, I must scribble them down. I did not
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: get to the trenches last night, as the bombardment became
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: so bad. It would have been foolish to take so
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: great a risk sight seeing. If we had had to
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: go to get wounded, it would have been different. I
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: stood in the road opposite the little house I live
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: in and watched the Germans bombard X. It was rather
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: like a stage scene or a colored picture show. X
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: is a little valley town with the conventional church steeple
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and about two and one half kilometers as the crow
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: flies from pont A Mousson. Shrapnel, curiously enough, is not
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: considered very dangerous, and the soldiers here with contempt. The
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Germans use it to keep people from going on to
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the streets to put out fires which may have been
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: started by their two tens or one fifty high explosives.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Late yesterday afternoon, they set fire to a haystack and
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: the smoke made them think that the village was on fire,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: so they sent about one hundred shrapnel one after the
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: other over it. And it was most interesting to see
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: the flash in the sky, then a white cotton wool effect,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: and finally the sound of explosion. The French behind Awe
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: immediately opened fire and the music began. It lasted about
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: an hour, but as none of our men were wounded,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: we did not have to go up there. After dinner,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: three of us went for a little walk along the motel.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: One can see the Germans about a thousand meters away
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: on the hills, and as you walk along the banks
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: of the river, they can see you distinctly, but they
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: don't bother to fire, which is kind of them. We
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: sat down and watched two soldiers fishing, and I took
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: a photo of them, as I thought it so amusing
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: for people to fish under the direct and easy rifle
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: shot of the bush. We then went and talked to
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: a lot of soldiers about to return to the trenches.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: They are all nice to us, and it would make
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: an American proud if he could see how the American
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: boys here are respected and loved. One officer was very
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: indignant because those dirty bushes had actually thrown five shells
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: into his trench yesterday. As he wandered off, muttering, I
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: will show them le coachon, le coach chon, coach chon.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Rather sleepily, I thought I couldn't help remembering the dormouse
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: and Alice in Wonderland it appeared that at the particular
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: line of trenches where he was, they had agreed only
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: to fire at each other with rifles. In several places.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Here the trenches are only fifteen or twenty meters apart,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: and the French and Germans are on quite good terms.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: They exchanged to back for wine and paper for cigarettes,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: and then return and shoot at each other quite merrily.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: About Christmas or February, I am told by soldiers who
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: were then there. They used to walk into each other's
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: trenches and exchange stories and so forth, but now they
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: have become maichamp. I am feeling pretty sick to day,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: and rather dread to night, as I have all night
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: duty at ex I am not at all well. It
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: is the hard food we are having, I suppose. Anyhow,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: I find myself nice and thin again, So your shocking
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: example of gaining weight last spring is now of no influence.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Doc comes tomorrow and I will give him this letter
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: to post, as it would never get through unless posted
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: in Paris. I have just returned from Belleville, where I
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: took three cochets and two at seas. One of the
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: couchets was raving, and he yelled and shrieked the whole
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: seventeen kilometers. It was horrible. When I arrived at Belville,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: where they are put on a train and sent to
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: a base hospital, I found that in his agony he
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: had torn off his clothes and broken the hangars of
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: the stretcher, so it was a wonder he did not
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: completely fall on the two men below. Our cars are
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: packed like this diagram follows. I do not know what
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: could be worse than having a poor, peaceful peasant who
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: forced to fight, and, after perhaps months of agonizing trench life,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: badly wounded, shrieks with pain and misery as you try
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: to avoid the many bad bumps in the road. We
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: expect a big attack today, and we have evacuated all
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: the ex hospitals. It looked too, as if they were
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: preparing for many wounded. Any kind of news will be
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: greatly appreciated. If you do not hear very regularly from me,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: remember it will be because work is too heavy. Thursday
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Doc has not yet arrived. He was expected Tuesday, so
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: I am afraid you won't have heard from me this week,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: as he will miss the mail. I am sitting at
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: the window of my bedroom with the sun streaming through
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: on the table, and can imagine myself at Beauport or
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: the bungalow. But every three or four minutes boom and
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: then bang boom, the Germans firing on Monteville, and the
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: French replying. As I sit here, I can see the
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: smoke rising from the village, and I wonder if either
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: of our ambulances which are on duty there have been
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: heart Doc may come to night, and if he does so,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: I will make him come to X tomorrow, as it
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: is my day's duty there, and he will have some excitement.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: On my right, I can see about a thousand meters
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: away the German trenches. It is strange to sit at
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: a window and be in such a position and yet
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: be writing a letter as though we were all together
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: again in Gloucester. I have been very sick, but today
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: I am better again and am very grateful for my recovery.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: Yesterday I discovered that the main backspring of my car
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: was broken and I had to replace it. Imagine me
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: on my back all day, working like a madman to
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: get the job done in time for duty. Last night.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: I managed it all right, however, and so feel myself
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: quite a mechanic. My old bus has a horrid habit
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: of running forward when I crank it. I think I
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: have more dread of cranking my car than of a
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: German OBUs. Last night I went into the square to
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: see the civilians leave. There are not a great many left,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: but the women are a nuisance morally, and so the
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: governor is turning them out as quickly as he can
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: alas that they could not have done their part better.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: It was a sad sight, many many tears, and some hysterics.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: The governor, a splendid old colonel, came up and talked
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: with us, there were four of us, and was eager
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: to hear when America was to join the Allies. He
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: quite spoils us all and anything we want, he sees
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: we have if it is possible. Last night, it was
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: amusing to see his indignation when he learned that we
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: were paid as ordinary pollieu, a familiar term of endearment
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: referring to the unshaven men in the trenches as sous
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: a day we don't draw the pay. He gallantly declared
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: that we should all rank as sub lieutenants and should
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: be compensated as such. For he added, you brave boys,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: do as much as any soldier at the front and
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: take as much risk. I like the French gallantry and sincerity.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: One meets it everywhere. The officers all salute us, and
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: the pollieu all cheer, smile and vive la mariique et cetera.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: And I feel that the work of the section is real.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: I have rarely met a happier lot of fellows, and
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: all so good natured and generous. You never hear a
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: hard word. All work for the good cause, and as
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: efficiency is unity, we try to be efficient. I wish
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: you could see this dear old garrison town, with its
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: poplars and bridge and church, and the lazy moselle slowly
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: creeping along to quieter and happier places. Here and there
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: are fallen houses and often gaps in the walls and
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: torn up trees. The house next to us has been
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: hit and looks like this picture follows, with piles of
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: stone and brick all over the road. I always try
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: to talk with the soldiers. My French is improving, but
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: still rotten, and I find they have become fatalists. Some
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: of the regiments here have been filled up several times,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: and I hear that thirty five thousand French have been
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: killed in the Boislapetra. Every day great shells or hand
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: grenades fall into the trenches, and many a poor peasant
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: or higher caste of Frenchmen is called away. I took
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: three wounded to the hospital this morning from x after
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: they had only been in the trenches twenty minute, having
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: come straight from the home base. They talked so hopelessly
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: about their chance of life, and old Chap asked me
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: yesterday if I would like a German rifle. Well, rather,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: said I. He promised he would bring it to me
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: at seven o'clock unless an obis hit him. He did
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: not come, poor fellow, but perhaps he forgot his promise.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: I hope so, pont A Mousson, June twenty fifth, you
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: will not have received any mail from me this week,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: and I am very sorry if I have caused you
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: any anxiety. Doc said he would be here last Tuesday,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: and to our surprise, he has not even arrived yet.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: I am a little anxious about him, and so tried
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: to send him a wire to ask if he is well.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: As yet I have received no answer. The three letters
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: I have written could never possibly reach you from here,
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: as we are only allowed to write little open letters
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: or posts, so I shall wait until he comes before
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: I send them. The last few days have been quiet,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: but for me full of interest and hard work. I
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: am better, but my illness of the three days has
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: pulled me down a lot, and the food is not
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: good enough to allow me to pick up strength quickly.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: I have had many long talks with soldiers, and they
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: tell me most interesting stories. One told me that he
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: got on such friendly terms with the Germans in a
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: trench ten meters away that he asked them all to
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: put their heads above the trench so as to take
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: their photos. And I have been promised a copy. Also
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: that they promised to tell each other when they meant
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: to attack or blow up a trench. The mining of
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: the trenches is the most horrible method of warfare existing.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: I think there seems so little chance, in fact none.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: The worst implement of destruction for the trench livers is
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: the new kind of projectile called a torpee, a sort
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: of torpedo. It is fired from about four hundred meters
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: and is noiseless, very large, and terribly destructive. Nearly all
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: of the poor fellows we take to the hospital have
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: been zaute by a mien or hit by a torpeiya.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: The French have developed a projectile of the same sort,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: and neither side has had them more than six weeks.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: It has a kind of tail to its head sea sketch,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: and is shot from a sort of small gun. Of course,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: they shoot big shells of say two ten or two
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: eighty into the trenches, and so marvelous is the accuracy
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: of firing that they explode, often on the floor of
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: the trench. A shell, however, one can hear coming. The
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: whistle is very plain, and you have perhaps one second
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: or two to hide. The torpeia gives no warning, is
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: just as large and therefore very deadly. Yesterday I visited
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: the trenches. I left here at four o'clock in the
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: morning and started up the hill through a little village
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: rather like what the French call me Boustville, which has
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: been much bombarded, and then climbed up past disused trenches
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: until we came to a sentry who directed us up
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: to the company where a friend had promised to meet me.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: At last I found him and we started for the
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: Premiere ligne. I felt a little nervous and anxious, as
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: I did not care to get killed. Sight seeing, my
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: friend pointed out some bushes to me, and I had
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: not noticed what he said, when, on passing within a
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: foot of another bush, I found myself looking into the
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: muzzle of a seventy five gun. For some distance, every
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: inch seemed full of great guns and little guns, all
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: so cleverly hidden that it would seem impossible to know
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: they were there. At last, we came to a hill
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: and were told by a sentry that we could not
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: pass that way for some reason or other, perhaps the
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: position of a battery had just been changed, and we
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: had either to go straight back or right across a
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: field three hundred yards wide, in full view of the Germans,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty meters away. Said my friend, Oh,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: I think they are eating. Now, Let's risk it. They
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: never fire while food is about, so somewhat against human nature.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: I assented, and we slowly trudged across the open I
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: confess I was relieved when we reached the shady wood.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: Still mounting up, we passed hundreds and hundreds of blue
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: coated soldiers returning from their night vigil in the trenches,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: and then the noise and chatter of men and birds
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: seemed to die away. And I could hear little else
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: but the crack of some twig one of us walked on,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: or the occasional bang of a rifle. This deadly silence,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: it was really quite all inspiring, continued as we passed
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: silent groups of soldiers sipping coffee, tea or soup. Then
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: we took three or four steps down, and henceforth walked
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: in trenches, winding curves, zigzag we went, no trench being
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: more than five meters straight. The soldiers silently smiled. One
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: heard whispered America Ann. I saluted an officer, who smiled
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: in return, and showed me his room. Really it was
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: quite comfortable. At last we came to a trench where
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: every meter soldiers stood looking and waiting. It was the
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: thin blue line that guards France's frontier for four hundred kilometers.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: The Germans are not pressing or attacking this particular place
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: at present, and so the whole trench is so wonderfully neat,
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: and so clean, and so uniform and almost comfortable. One
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: began to wonder whether it was only a side show
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: in some exhibition. We walked very quietly along this trench
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: for some two kilometers, and I suddenly discovered that in
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: my interest, I had allowed but forty five minutes to
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: get home if I was to be in time for
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: duty at seven. So I made a hasty retreat and
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: arrived back at barracks just in time. End of Part one,
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: Part two of with the American Ambulance Field Service in France.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: Personal Letters of a Driver at the Front by Leslie Busswell.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Monday, the
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: twenty eighth, yesterday we heard from Doc who wired to
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: say that he would arrive at ten o'clock Sunday night.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: I have just seen him, and he looked splendidly. I
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: soon retired to my room to read the mail which
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: he brought, letters from U and H, being the only
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: American ones. Last night I was on duty all night
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: at X and it was a great strain writing backward
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: and forward in pitch darkness, up and down the very
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: steep and narrow road to go to Obage Sampierre at
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: about two o'clock this morning. This road is in full
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: view of the Germans, and much bombarded and shrapnel burst
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: close by, which reminded me that a lovely moonlight night
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: with trees and hills and valleys dimly shaping themselves. A
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: can be other than romantic. It was a sad trip
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: for me. A boy about nineteen had been hit in
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: the chest and half his side had gone tray pressee,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: they told me, And as we lifted him into the
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: car by a little brick house which was a mass
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: of shell holes, he raised his sad, tired eyes to
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: mine and tried a brave smile. I went down the
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: hill as carefully as I could, and very slowly. But
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: when I arrived at the hospital, I found I had
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: been driving a hearse and not an ambulance. It made
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: me feel very badly the memory of that faint smile,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: which was to prove the last effort of some dearly
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: loved youth. All the poor fellow look at us with
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: the same expression of appreciation and thanks. And when they
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: are unloaded, it is a common thing to see a soldier,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: probably suffering the pain of the damned, make an effort
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: to take the hand of the American helper. I tell you,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: tears are pretty near. Sometimes I send you some photos
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: taken by a little camera I bought, as my large
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: one is too big. Oh my love to you and
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: to those who make the memory of America. So dear
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: to me, pont A Mousson, July second, I have just
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: written you a short letter, but as a DOC was
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: not here to take it and mail it from Paris,
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: I could write nothing of interest in it. Therefore follows
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: this long, detailed one for him to post for me
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: when he comes. Since my last to you. He returned
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: to Paris after being here two days. He looks very well, indeed,
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: and amuses us by pretending he does not see any
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: excitement here. As a matter of fact, whenever he comes,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: we do seem to have a lull in the fighting.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Why I don't know, but one of these days he
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: will arrive when something exciting is going on. Up to
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: the day before yesterday, one day seemed very much like
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: another continual explosions of shells, des par a aribe a,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: collecting wounded, et cetera. But last Thursday Doc left. On
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: Wednesday we had forty eight hours of truly hard time.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: I was on day service at x, a little village,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: as I told you, about one and a half gilos
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: away of one street about two hundred meters long and
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: one church. I got up there at seven thirty and
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: after taking two or three trips with wounded to Dear
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: Louire was returning to lunch at eleven o'clock when an
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: urgent call took me to Aubert Saint Pierre, a little
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: post de secur on the top of the hill past Montaville.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: I also wrote you about Oubers Saint Pierre in my
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: last letter. To get there you have to go on
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: an uphill road within uncomfortable range of both German and
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: French fire. On this trip, as my little car climbed
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: along up the hill, I saw shells bursting on both
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: sides of the road, and I do not hesitate to
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: say that my feelings were strained as I entered the wood.
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: When I arrived at my destination, I felt a bit shaken,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: but the sight of some eight wounded made me realize
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: that the sooner I got them down to safety, the
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: better for us all. So back I went down the
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: little winding road to the sound of shells exploding uncomfortably near.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: That was the day's start. Later, the Germans fired fifteen
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: thousand shells into the Bois of Petre. The noise was terrific.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: Almost the whole of our first line of trenches was
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: plowed up and our cars had to run all night.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: About six o'clock I went back to dinner, but no
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: sooner had I arrived than a call took three of
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: us back to x and I had another trip with wounded.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: I chatted with the matetseain Chef, a fine looking man,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: and he told me he would give me some photos.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: My car was standing outside his little posta de secour,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: and he asked me a few questions about Fords in general.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: While the wounded were being put into my car. On
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: the way down, several shells fell all around the road,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: and I was glad to get back to the bureau.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: Next morning, Friday, we learned at breakfast that the Germans
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: had sent over a hundred shells into the little village
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: of X one Street, only about three hundred meters long, remember,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: and that there was urgent need for our men there.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: I went up on foot with Schroeder. In the afternoon,
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: I was off duty and learned that my friend, the
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: matetsein Chef, had been blown to pieces by a shell
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: which landed exactly where my car had stood good the
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: night before. The poor little village looked very sad, for
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: although a hundred two tens would not utterly destroy a village.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: One of them makes a house look stupid after it
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: has been hit. We had been asked to go and
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: see the French one fifty five's firing, and on inquiring
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: whether it would be safe to go, a smile and
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: an answer to the effect that shells were dropping eight
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: at a time all around the battery sent the three
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: of us back to pont A Mausant Saturday. The bombardment
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: going on now is terrific. I have been standing about
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: a hundred yards from my little house and looked across
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: the valley at Monteville Bois a Patre and watched the
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: shells exploding by the dozens. Monday, July fifth, I was
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: called away suddenly an emergency. And this is the first
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: moment I have had to myself since. I doubt if
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: I shall ever forget the last thirty six hours. They
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: have been so full of work, apprehension and horror. Tuesday,
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: five p m. I must write down the events of
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: the last three days, for I suppose they have been
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: the most tremendous ones I have experienced. I tried to
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: write yesterday but only got as far as those three lines.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: And any moment I may be called for an attack,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: which we expect hourly. Let me see, I must go
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: back to Sunday, the fourth of July. We had arranged
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: a grand fete, and the Governor, the colonel, and the
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: major were our guests, with three other captains from various regiments.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: An elaborate meal was prepared and all was decorated. A piano,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: a stage, and many flowers and so forth. The feast
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: was to start at seven o'clock, and nearly every soldier
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: in all the regiments round here knew it was the
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: American Fete day. Suddenly, at about two o'clock commenced a
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: tremendous artillery duel. The whole earth seemed to tremble, and
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: the noise of rifle fire almost drowned the explosions of shells.
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: The Germans had attacked for some days. Most of the
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: French batteries had been leaving here for up north, where
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: a large army is concentrating, and the Germans, who know everything,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: attacked us at the most unfortunate moment, and by so
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: doing one back. In that short attack much of the
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: land they had lost since December, the winning of which
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: has caused France the loss of over forty thousand men.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: We all rushed to our cars to be ready for
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: the call, and about six o'clock every car was ordered
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: to X. Poor little village, already badly enough damaged by
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: the bombardment of a few hours before. We worked late,
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: and I got to bed at three thirty, having carried
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: some fifty wounded a distance of about ten kilometers ten
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: trips two hundred kilometers in all, we carried away over
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty crippled wrecks, who three hours before
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: were the pride of their nation and families. Monday, of course,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: was a hard day's work, for I was on X
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: service all night. I e two cars stay always at
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: X all night for service. I took four long trips
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: in the afternoon, and about five o'clock managed to get
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: an hour's sleep, and it was lucky I did. X
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: was quiet when I got up there about seven o'clock,
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: and till nine o'clock. I chatted to soldiers and then
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: turned into the telephone office to sleep on my stretcher,
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: fully dressed until I should be called. At one o'clock.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: I woke up to the sound of what might have
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: been an earthquake. The Germans had attacked again and were
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: bombarding X. We went down into a little dugout, where
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: we stood listening with strained faces for thirty five minutes
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: to the shouting of soldiers, the cracking of rifles, and
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: the terrific reports of French des pars and German ariveis.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: Literally the whole place trembled. And when a shell, probably
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: at two ten, arrived in the village, it always seemed
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: to us, poor rats, that it had exploded in the
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: room above us. No sooner had the attack stopped than
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: a phone message came through. Can an ambulance come immediately
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: to Aubert Sampierre? And of course I climbed out of
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: the cellar, wound up my car and drove up the hill.
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: The old car, which was in the Battle of the Marn,
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: seemed to know it was on a pretty dangerous trip,
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: and it went like a bird. Any unpleasant shocks of
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: bursting shells, et cetera. I may have received on my
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: way up were quickly compensated for by the greeting of
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: the major. I wished to thank you and to congratulate
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: you on the quickness and efficiency with which you and
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: your comrades execute their orders. I took four more trips,
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: and at twelve o'clock returned to X and thought I
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: would get a little rest. I was just talking with
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: the phone operation when we saw a flash and an
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: explosion in the courtyard. After picking ourselves up from the
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: floor where we had thrown ourselves, we hastily returned to
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: the dugout. For three quarters of an hour, the second
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: attack went on, and in this dugout, some three hundred
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: yards from the German trenches, the noise was terrific, and
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: I wondered whether I was to be a corpse, a
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: German prisoner, or still a conducteur ambouance American. When the
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: attack and bombardment ceased, work began and a general call
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: was sent to our bureau. And before long, as I
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: descended the hill to pont A Mousson with the first
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: carload of mutilated, I passed our fellows, tootling up the
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: hill full speed. We worked until six o'clock, carrying down
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: a hundred and eighty or more wounded, and then the
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: cars returned to headquarters as I could manage the few
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: remaining blessees. About seven o'clock. Tired out, I made a
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: last strip to Obe Lampierre, and finding no wounded. There
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: descended to the next post, de sac cour Claubois and
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: asked if they had any wounded. No, none, but surely
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: there was a couchet on the stretcher. There come and
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: see he is, we fear not suitable for your ambulance.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: I went up and lifted the covering from his head,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: and all I saw was a headless trunk. Our dearly beloved, lieutenant,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: said one of the soldiers, and his voice was not
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: a steady one. Nor were my thoughts peaceful. As I
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: went home to cafe o lay andsome sleep. At four
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: o'clock on Tuesday, I woke up with orders to evacuate
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: the Ponto Moussin hospital to Beville. I turned in about
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: two o'clock next afternoon to sleep again, pretty tired. Wednesday
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: came the counter attack. I must now tell you what
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: we have authentically learned. On Sunday, July fourth, the Germans
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: made such a successful attack at cars en reserve a
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: Lacrois des Carme positions of the Boisle of Petre with
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: petrol and gas, hand grenades, mines, torpedoes, three twenties, two
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: tens and one fifty fives, one o fives and seventy
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: sevens that the French lost much that they had gained
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: in the last six months, that they had been taken unawares,
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: and that we must have everything ready to leave pont
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: Am Mousson at a moment's notice. Next came the news
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday attacks had been so successful
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: for the French that they had regained all they had
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: lost on Sunday. Wednesday was a very exciting day for me,
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: and I had my nearest escape. We were evacuating pont
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: A Mousson hospital for Belleville. We had not finished this
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: on Tuesday, and I had three couchets and three assis
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: in my car. A captain was seated next to me,
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: wounded in the knee. As I neared de Lois, I
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: heard sounds of shells exploding, and as I reached the
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: outskirts of the town, I saw a two ten land
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: in the railway station, some hundred yards to the right
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: of the main road. I asked the captain if he
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: thought it better to wait till the bombardment was over,
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: and he replied, I must leave this to your judgment,
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: as we are in your car. So I decided that
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: as the shells generally fall at regular intervals of three,
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: five or seven minutes. The Germans are so methodical that
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: when you know the time they are firing, you can
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: know to the second when the next shell will arrive.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: I would go on this time. However, more than one
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: battery was shelling Dieu Laois, and as I was passing
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: a house on the road, it was hit by a shell.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: All was black dust and smoke, and I had perforce
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: to pull up a minute. Two people in the house
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: were killed, and although my car was covered with brick,
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: dust and debris, no one was even bruised. I don't
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: want to come any nearer. However, I carried over forty
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: wounded yesterday a distance of one hundred and sixty kilos,
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: and at nine o'clock turned in to sleep, to be
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: waked up at two o'clock to go to Aubert Saint Pierre.
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: Schroeder and I both went, as they had some fourteen
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: wounded and it was necessary to have two cars. It
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: was a glorious morning, and when I got to the
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: top of the hill, all was quiet, and God's peace
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: seemed to be everywhere. The Major was there to receive us,
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: and so interested and appreciative is he that any one
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: of us would do anything for him. Just as I
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: was starting down with a full load, I found I
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: had picked up a nail, and a puncture was the
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: order of the day. Two fellows ran forward and, explaining
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: that they were chauffeurs in peacetime, refused to let me
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: work on it, and the Major made me sit on
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: a fallen tree by the roadside and smoke a cigarette
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: and talk to him. We are, of course mere soldiers,
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: but to be treated so kind kindly and so thoughtfully
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: makes us feel that we must go on forever. The
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: Major said, you have no idea what comfort and reassurance
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: your cars and your work give to these French soldiers.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: I made one more trip to Claubois, where they gave
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: me some coffee, and I paid my respects to the
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: bodies of three officers just killed in the trenches. I
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: had a German wounded cochet given me, and I probed
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: out the fact that there were some six or eight
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: French waiting to be taken. Oh, but he is seriously wounded,
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: take him first. When I arrived at the hospital, I
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: watched the German prepared for operation. He had seven bullet
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: wounds in the shoulder, five still remaining, three in the
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: leg and both arms broken. I picked up his overcoat
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: and I noticed that the top button was pierced by
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: a bullet. So I cut it off and kept it
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: as a remembrance, A gruesome one, but I will always
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: remember that in France the German went before the less
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: wounded frenchmen. Thursday, four p m. An attack is now
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: going on, and I suppose about seven o'clock there will
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: be a general call to X Sunday. My prophecy about
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: an attack was correct. Now there is a lull again,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: and I have some moments to myself to write about
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: the last three days. Ever since Sunday, July fourth, there
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: has been an attack and counter attack, and life has
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: been real hell for those poor fellows in the first
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: line of trenches. Every imaginable kind of instrument of destruction
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: has been hurled on them. Mines the narrow part fits
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: into the gun, which is a sort of mortar radius
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: about four hundred meters, torpedoes radius about four hundred meters
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: three twenties, two fifties, two twenties down to seventy seven's
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: burning petrol chlorine. All this not in dozens, but in
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: thousands and tons. No one can believe what it is
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: like there. It is indescribable. And the Germans are getting
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: the same thing too. I suppose the French have lost
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: over twenty five hundred this week in wounded and killed,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: and many prisoners, and this over a line of seven kilometers,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: and the Germans many more day and night. Our section
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: has gone backward and forward, full of wounded and dying,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: and we are all feeling pretty done up. Yesterday they
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: bombarded pont Ar Massan and hit a church which burnt
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: all day and killed some people. But there are not
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: many left here now, and hardly any soldiers last night.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: As after every attack, we eagerly asked how the fight
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: had gone. Here we had gained a trench there, we
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: had gained two trenches. Here, we had not won or lost,
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: but always the same remark, but the dead and wounded.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: At any rate, the Germans are held, and our many
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: reinforcements have made the position fairly so. On Friday I
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: again took down a German wounded, this time a German
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: of the Kaiser's or Crown Prince's bodyguard. The German Crown
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: Prince is against us here. He was dying picture to yourself,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: a fine, truly magnificent man over six feet four, wonderful strength,
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: with a whole through both lungs. He could not speak,
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: and when I got to the hospital I asked in
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: German if he wanted anything. He just looked at me
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: and then chokingly murmured Katholic. I asked a soldier to
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: fetch the priest, and then two broncardiers gretcherbearers, and the
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: doctor and the priest, and I knelt down as he
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: was given extreme unction. This is a little picture I
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: shall never forget. All race. Hatred was forgotten, Romanist and Anglican.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: We were in that hour, just all Catholics, and a
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: French priest was officiating for a dying German, a Bosch,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: the race that has made Europe a living hell. I
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: came back about seven o'clock at night to the hospital
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: with more wounded and asked if he still lived, yes,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: would I care to see him? I went in, and
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: although he breathed his last within an hour after, his
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: look showed recognition, and that man died. I am sure,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: with no hatred for France. I could tell you a
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: multitude of stories, stories so horrible I cannot forget so
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: pathetic that tears are not rarely in my eyes. On
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: Friday night I was on Monteville a duty, and a
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: new regiment arrived bon camarade to me at once, how
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: many wounded, et cetera. They asked. I could not tell
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: them that they were going to a place where between
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: their trench and the German trench were hundreds of mangled forms.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: Once their fellow citizens, arms, legs, heads scattered, gist jointedly
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: everywhere and where. All night and all day, every fiendish
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: implement of murder falls by the hundred into their trenches
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: or onto those ghastly forms, some half rotted, some newly dead,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: some still warm, some semi alive, stranded between foe and friend,
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: and hurls them yards into the air, to fall again
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: with a splash of dust, as a rock falls into
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: a lake. All this is not exaggerated. It is the
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: hideous truth which thousands of men here have to witness
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: day and night. Saturday night they came back, some of
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: those poor fellows I spoke a cheery word to on Friday.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: No arms, no hands, no feet, one leg, no face,
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: no eye. One glorious fellow I took had his hand off,
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: and although it was a long trying drive to dear Lorois,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: he never uttered a word. I touched his forehead when
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: I arrived and whispered, bon garroge monbrov. He looked at
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: me a moment and answered, would to God he had
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: taken my life, my friend. To day I went to
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: take three wounded officers to tool, some thirty the kilometers away,
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: and before starting I went into the hospital to see
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: if I could do anything for any of those butchered
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: by civilization. I saw a friend, the man who had
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: offered me a German bayonet. He beckoned me with his eyes,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: and then have they forgotten me? I have been here
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: for five hours and both my legs are shattered. It
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: was true that every bed was full of wounded waiting
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: to be dressed. But I went straight up to the
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: metetzin Chef and told him that a friend was over
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: there with both legs broken, and could he be attended to. Ah,
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: we have been looking after the others first, as he
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: must die, but I will do what I can. I
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: stood there and watched his two legs put into a
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: position that looked human, and then I bade adieu to
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: a new found friend. I think, I am glad he
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: will die. I would prefer to die then to be
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: crippled for life. And if my turned come, I only
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: hope I may not recover to be helpless. It is
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: no good trying to make you understand what horror really is.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: You must see a bit of it as we see
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: it here to be able to semi realize what that place,
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: the Boisla Puatre is like it was known by the
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: Germans when held by them as ex and Kessel, which
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: as cauldron, and as Wittenwalde widows would I wish you
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: would cut out and keep for me anything mentioned in
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: the official reports about the Bois of pletre pont A
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: Mousson cat En Reserve, probably the most mutilated, unthinkable place
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: in the world. Lacrois des Calme et cetera. Monday, I
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: have just received the mail with lots of nice letters.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: It was so jolly hearing from you all. I am
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: glad to tell you that this section is to be
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: mentioned by order of the army, and it will probably
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: receive the couadaguerre which our section commander will wear. Of course,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: we may all get some sort of metal sometime as well.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: Perhaps if my letter seems too horrible. Just don't send
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: it on to the friends who might otherwise care to hear.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: My only object in writing so fully is that I
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: do want you all to realize the futility, the utter,
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: damnable wickedness and butchery of this war. P s. The
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: Governor of the Department of Lorraine, sent from Nanzi the
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: following tribute on this day when you celebrate your national independence,
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: at the same hour that France, in violent combat, defends
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: her independence against an enemy whose madness for domination threatens
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: the liberty of all nations, and whose barbarous methods. Men
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: of civilization, I address to you the expression of the
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: profound friendship of the French for your great and generous nation,
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: and take this occasion to offer new assurance of the
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: intense gratitude of the population of Lorraine. For the admirable
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: devotion of all the members of the American ambulance of
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: pont Amousson pont A Mousson. July sixteenth, It so happened
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: that a wounded officer was going to Paris, and he
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: posted the letters of July second to you for me,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: and therefore you got them two weeks earlier. Now Doc
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: has suddenly returned on his way to Pennie, and I
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: am writing about the last few days. They have been
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: full of misery and yet full of pleasure. The fourteenth
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: of July, the day of the fall of the Bastille,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: was to be a fete day for France, as usual,
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: but I little thought I should spend such a wonderful
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: day myself. Schroeder and I were invited to pay a
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: visit to the batteries above one of our postas accou
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: and as we were both off duty. About three o'clock,
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: we went up to be in one of our service cars,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: and thence walked to see our friends. If anyone doubts
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: what grateful friends and how appreciative the soldiers are for
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: our little help here, they should have seen them. Welcome
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: we were given. We were shown the soissantia cansas, the
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: two twenties, the one fifty five, and you must realize
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: by that how completely we foreigners are trusted. For could
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: the Germans but know where these guns are? Few of
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: our friends would live to see France when the war next.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: We were shown all over the Abri little dugouts about
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: ten to fourteen feet underground and covered with three or
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: four layers of good sized trunks like this diagram. These
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: they retire to when the Bosches bombard the wood. All
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: along the paths leading from one big gun to another
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: were shells two or three hundred great things about three
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: feet eight inches high. We then went and had some
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: beer with our friends, all non commissioned officers, and about
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: four o'clock a corporal came to say that the one
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: fifty fives were going to fire four rounds and would
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: we care to go and watch? As the officer invited us,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: of course, we followed our guide to the gun and
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: they all posed while I took a photo. Then the
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: officer asked me if I would care to photo the
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: gun being fired, and I said yes. I stood some
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: ten meters away and had just pressed the button of
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: the camera when I jumped half out of my skin
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: at the noise of the explosion. I shall anxiously look
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: for the negatives, and I hope they will be good.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: It was now five o'clock and we had to return
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: to pont A Mousson. Would we stay to dinner? The
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: fourteenth July? What spend France's Fete day with France's artillery
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: in a wood some two kilos from the Germans, surrounded
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: by the guns that were fighting for her liberty. It
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: sounded too good. Of course, we accepted, so five of us,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: three French artillerymen and Schroeder and I walked down to
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: get to be on the road. Our ambulances travel all
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: day long. We were all in one line across the
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: road when, without warning, bang, thirty meters away, earth was
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: thrown yards into the air. The noise was terrific, and
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: then the black, dense smoke began, almost lazily to fade away.
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: We all five stood still, semi crouching, although inwardly knowing
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: that all precautions were then futile, that if we were
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: to be killed by the eclaw of that explosion, we
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: would not escape. It was too late. After five or
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: ten seconds, we breathed again, and I looked at my companions.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: Three of them had been firing heavy shells for eleven months,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: but their sun burnt faces had assumed the most haggard,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: pale expression I have ever seen. I had no looking glass,
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: but I expect if Schroeder writes his experience to his people,
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: he will include my face as being like the rest.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: Had we been twenty yards further on, or thirty yards
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: farther back, FIENI the e claw of a German shell
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: always go like this diagram, but the French like this diagram.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: The strain made me give a little laugh, which froze
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: pretty quickly on my lips. For I was silenced with
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: a look atont listen for the next depart Ten anxious
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: ears listened, but it was just a chance German shell,
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: and no more arrived. When we returned to go to
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: dinner about an hour and a half later, I asked
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: them to help me to find the fuse, and there
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: it was still hot. I shall keep it in memory
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: of July fourteenth, nineteen fifteen. We sat down in that
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: little wooden shelter, about sixteen of us, and I cannot
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: tell you what a happy party we were, laughter and
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: song fetting the two honored guests. The American the captain
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: heard we were dining with his non commissioned officers, and
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: sent up three bottles of white wine to drink the
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: health of the allies. We had brought some moselle as
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: a present to our hosts, and when the others were finished,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: our bottles were a great surprise. They were quickly emptied,
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: a candle was stuck in each and we started singing
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: and telling stories. Then, as an act of courtesy, I
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: was asked to sing our national anthem. I got up,
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: a bottle of wine was fetched to fill our glasses,
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: and did so as loud and as heartily as I
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: knew how it must have been a strange sight for
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: the casually passing French soldiers to see their sixteen compatriots
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: standing silently listening to a man sing a song that
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: they scarcely knew, though, one which means so much to
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: so many thousands of our countrymen. I had but finished
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: when bang bang, bang bang, four seventy fives were fired
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: over our heads, going to kill those who should sing
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: another national anthem. The marsieres followed, and I have never
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: heard it sung in surroundings more fitting or more impressive.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: Then an artillery duel started, and backward and forward above
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: us went and whistled. The shells of our friends suddenly
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: left us, and in three minutes we heard the Big
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: two twenty firing its death gift into the German trenches.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: All the time the songs continued, and those woods must
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: have echoed and re echoed with the strains of the Marseilles, etc.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: Troder and I, however, began to get anxious, for the
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: noise of the artillery increased and increased, and we knew
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: that in about two hours all the ambulances would be
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: needed at x So we bat our friends goodbye and
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: arrived home to find that only half of our cars
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: would be required. We then turned into bed with the
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: conviction that we had really experienced the true feeling of
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: France on the anniversary of the great step toward which
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: she believed would be for the freedom of the people.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: Doc had arrived unexpectedly from Paris, and your letters were
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: very welcome. Also one from mother and missus A. It
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: was the very night fourteenth of July that you were
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: giving your lecture. I am shure it was a success.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: End of Part two, Part three with the American Ambulance
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: Field Service in France. Personal Letters of a Driver at
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: the Front by Leslie Buswell. This libribox recording is in
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Part three, July fifteenth. Doc and I
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: spent the day together. It was my duty day at Montaville,
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: and although it poured, I enjoyed it very much. All
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: we did and saw I shall leave to him to
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: tell you about. So good night, God bless you all.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: Pont Aine Mousson, July twenty fourth, nineteen fifteen. When I
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: last wrote you, I little thought my next letter would
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: follow such a tragedy as occurred on Thursday the twenty second.
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: It is now two days ago, so in the comparative
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: calm perspective, I must try to tell you the whole story,
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: from beginning to end. Thursday morning, Schroeder and I went
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: to visit the hospital on the other side of the Moselle,
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: and there we were received by the sister superior, who
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: personally showed us all over the building. The corridors are
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: now used as wards as every room but one in
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: a large old convent has been hit by a shell.
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: We got back to lunch about twelve o'clock and Mignot,
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: our indefatigable friend in the position of general servant, upbraided
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: us for our unpunctuality, et cetera. We had hardly finished
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: lunch when a shell burst some twenty meters away, and
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: we hurriedly took to the cellar while eleven more shells
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: exploded all around our head quarters or cascerne, as we
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: called it. We then went for a round of inspection
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: and found that the twelve shells had all fallen on
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: our side of the road and were all within forty
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: or fifty meters of us. This made us feel pretty
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: sure that the shells were meant for us or for
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: our motors. Schroeder and I discussed the matter and came
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: to the conclusion that we did not like the situation
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: very much, and that if the Germans sent perhaps six
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: shells all at once, we should many of us get caught.
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: I was very tired, and about one thirty went to
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: sleep and slept until five thirty, when I went to
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: dinner at the caserne. The evening meal over an argument
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: started about the merits of a periodical called Lemeaux Do
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: you know it? A kind of a futurist paper. After
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: a rapid fire commentary from one and then another of us,
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: which continued until about eight thirty, Schroeder and I decided
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: to go to our rooms to bed. We were walking
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: home when I reminded him that he had been asked
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: to tell four of our fellows who slept in a
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: house near by, to be sure that no light could
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: be seen through the shutters. So turning back We rapped
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: on the window and heard merry laughter, and were greeted
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: with a cheery invitation to join the nine who had
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: gathered inside. It seems one of them, who had been
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: on duty at Monteville, had managed to get some fresh
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: bread and butter and jam, and they were celebrating the event.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: We had to decline their friendly hospitality, however, as we
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: wanted to get some sleep. I had just got my
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: boots off when whish, bang, bang, bang, four huge shells
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: burst a little way down the road toward our caserne.
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: Thirty seconds after came two more, five minutes later, six more,
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: and then we heard a screaming woman ejaculating hysterically say,
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: lets say Merican. Schroeder and I looked at each other
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: without speaking. We hurriedly dressed and started to run to
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: the caserne. Women and soldiers shouting to us to say
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: where we were, But rushing on through the fog, smoke
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: and dust, we reached headquarters. There we found the rest
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: of the section in the cellar, and hurriedly, going over
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: those present, realized that two were absent. Min and the
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: mechanic of the French officer attached to us Out We
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: ran shouting begno, Migno from the dust and smoke. There
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: staggered some one we did not know, blood flowing from head,
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: legs and arms. Oh secure, Oh secure, It was the mechanic,
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: leaving him with the section to be dressed. We rushed
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: madly through the fog bound street, crying Beigno Mignot. Then
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: suddenly across the road a shadow, a dark spot on
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: the ground, two women quite dead, a boy dying, a
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: man badly wounded, and farther on a still blue form. Quick,
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: old man, listen his heart. It was he, Migno, and dead,
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: our loyal and devoted servant, who was almost the living
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: incarnation of Kipling's gunga Den. We rushed back to get
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: stretchers and a car. Ogilvy got his car and we
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: got our stretchers out to take away the Blessee. There
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: were a few of us grouped about, some set an
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: ar eight and a car with the wounded, just put
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: on stretchers when look out, bang bang bang, three more shells.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: We had already thrown ourselves on the ground, and then,
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: finding we were still alive, feverishly loaded the car. Good God,
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: I've stalled it, said the driver. Then the cranking. Would
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: it never start? Try again? Oh? Thank heaven, it was
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: off hardly thirty seconds after whish, bang bang, Two more came.
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: We retired to a cellar for a few minutes, as
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: the three dead could stay there while it was so
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: terribly dangerous. At last we emerged and were about to
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: lift Mignot's body when both arms moved. Was he alive
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: after all? No, it was only the electric wires he
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: was lying on that had stimulated his muscles. The car
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: turned the corner with the three dead and we ran
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: back to the caserne. There we found the rest of
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: our section very shaken. Indeed, a shell had burst just
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: outside of the house where the nine were making merry,
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: and the violence of the impact had hurled all of
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: them to the ground two feet nearer, and the whole
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: lot would have been killed. Schroeder and I decided we
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: had better go back to bed, and we insisted that Ogilvie,
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: who lived in the house so nearly destroyed, should come
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: with us. We made him a sort of bed on
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: the floor and turned in. As the light went out,
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: a strange silence crept over us three. And I am
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: sure that I was not the only one who was
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: offering a silent prayer for the wife and children of
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: our devoted friend Mignot, and of gratitude for our miraculous
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: escape from death. I must have dozed off when I
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: was awakened by the whole house shaking, and six more
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: terrific explosions followed, and then still six more. Should we
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: go out again? No, all the rest were certainly in
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: cellars and out of danger. About two o'clock a tremendous
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: attack woke us up, and for an hour the whole
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: place shook and re echoed with the sound of artillery,
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: hand grenade, and rifle fire. We stayed awake, expecting a call,
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: but none came till five o'clock, when we were told
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: that the Medet Sin de Vesignere had ordered us to
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: leave Pontomo soon. Immediately, we dressed and packed and got
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: around to the caserne to find that nearly everyone had
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: already left, and that all thought Ogilvy dead, why we asked,
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: his house had been completely destroyed. Even a two eighty
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: shell had burst in the cellar itself. Two shells had
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: to burst in our casern, and all around was wreckage
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: and mess. We got some coffee at a little cafe,
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: and being on Monte Vive duty, went up there a
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: sad and depressed. Being that afternoon, about one o'clock a
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: shell burst right in the middle of the street at
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: dex killing one soldier and badly wounding four more. I
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: was not far away. I took them to the hospital
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: at dear Lois, where I found the rest of the
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: section getting themselves installed in their new quarters. In the evening,
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: we went at eight o'clock to poor Mignot's funeral. Sad
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: and horribly gruesome. It was. Imagine a little chapel with
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: four coffins in front of a small altar, one of
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: them with many flowers and of oak Mignot's, the other
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: three just pine wood the ordinary war coffin. The governor came,
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: and I shall not forget the dim scene, the priest
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: who intoned the Latin burial service out of tune, and
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: the choir consisting of one man who sang badly and
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: as loud as he could, and a congregation of silent mourners.
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: Every note, every word, as it re echoed through the chapel,
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: seemed like the cry of despair of France, A small
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: but pitiful note of the anguish of this country over.
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: At last the coffins were shuffled out of the little
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: chapel and we were allowed to follow them to the
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: bridge to Saint Martin, where they were buried in a
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: cemetery constantly upheaved by German shells. Horrible, horrible, horrible, that
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: is all I can write. There had not yet been
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: time to find rooms at dear lard, and I was
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: asked if I minded sleeping in pont Aemusson. No, not
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: a bit. So I spent last night there alone, and
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: perhaps for the last time, in our little room Schroders
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: and mine, of which I once sent you a photo.
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: He was at X on night duty. This morning, I
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: am sitting in that room at the window writing this.
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: All's quiet, the sky cloudless, and blue birds are singing,
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: the red roses in the garden blossom in the sun,
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: and the peace of Heaven is really on earth around me.
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: Then comes the memory of Thursday night, a vision of
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: another world. Doc will probably arrive here to day, as
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: we had to wire him at once, and so you
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: may get this letter next mail. Pont A Mousson, July
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: twenty sixth, nineteen fifteen. Since Friday, think have been topsy Turvy.
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: Our section leader was away Andre Pots, and Glover, who
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: is in charge in his absence, naturally, feeling responsible for
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: the safe keeping of our many ambulances in this division
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: of the army, thought best to evacuate pont A Mousson.
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: Of course, the point of virtue in the idea was
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: to avoid the possible loss of some of our men
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: as well as cars, which would be a tragedy for
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: the French wounded. But our section is here to give
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: its best service, and I can't help feeling that it
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: is better not to lower the standard of work and
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: efficiency by retiring to Blanc. Perhaps I have rather forcibly
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: expressed this idea, but a number of the men here
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: are of the same opinion. I sleep at pont Am
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: Moissan as usual, and of course Schroeder does too, and
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: now three others also. I want to point out that
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: the moral effect of seeing us about this place is
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: very great on the soldiers encamped here. And if you
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: could have heard their condolences and seen the look of
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: pleasure on their faces when Schroeder and I walked down
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: the street last night, you would realize that what little
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: extra risk it involves is negligible compared to its beneficial effect. However,
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: when Salisbury returns, we may have to leave for good.
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: Dear old pont Amasson, I suppose you saw in the
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: official French report of the twenty ninth that we had
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: been shelled. It meant something to you then, I am sure,
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: but you little realized that it was our little group
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: of ambulances they were hammering at. Our whole section has
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: been cited by order of the division, and last night
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: the official wording and so forth was sent to us.
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: It is really a very great compliment, and I am
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: so pleased. I expect Salisbury will get decorated as head
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: of the section. Here is a translation of it. American
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: Ambulance Automobile Section AY, composed of volunteers friends of our country,
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: has been continually conspicuous for the enthusiasm, courage and zeal
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: of all its members, who, regardless of danger, have worked
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: without rest to save are wounded, whose affection and gratitude
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: they have gained. Poor Mignot, life at Pontemusson will be
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: very different without him. Our mechanic who was wounded. Is
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: I now here to have his left arm amputated? What
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: a real tragedy the twenty second was for us. The
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: more we think about the evening, and as further details
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: come to light, the more we marvel that we were
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: not all killed. It is strange too how those who
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: one felt would behave well did, And I am proud
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: of my friends. In the section p S we hear
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: that a German captain, a prisoner in Paris, said that
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: if any American ambulance man was captured prisoner, he would
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: be shot. Nice lot of people, aren't they. July twenty ninth,
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen. I had a very interesting day yesterday. As
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: you will have seen by officials reports. The German presented
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: us again with some twenty to thirty big shells on
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: Monday night, and although I was at pont Amoussan, I
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: was in a good cellar. About three people were killed,
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: but one woman was wounded just down the road, and
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: the doctor and I had to run out and bring
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: her in. We were sufficiently excited not to think of
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: more shells, and as she could run too, and did
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: so with a vengeance. It was not a long promenade.
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: Yesterday I went with Schroeder to lunch with the battery
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: who had entertained us at dinner on the fourteenth July.
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: They had moved their position nearer the Germans. I have
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: rarely enjoyed a day more. The sun was glorious, the
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: views perfect, and the woods enchanting, though shells bursting in
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: the air took the place of birds. We had a
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: splendid lunch, and afterwards went out and visited the numerous
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: guns and trenches. I took many wonderful photos set Adira
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: they ought to be. I saw about five different sized guns,
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: and then we advanced to the trenches. Finally we reached
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: the first line, where silence reigned supreme, except for the
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: occasional bang of a rifle or the intermittent explosion of shells.
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: We went to an advanced post several meters in front
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: of first line, and there, carefully looking through a hole,
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: I saw the German trenches. I then expressed a wish
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: to be able to photo them, and I was shown
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: a place where I could stand up and quickly get
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: a snap shot. I regretted having made the wish, but
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: I saw they were looking at me, and I didn't
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: intend showing a white liver, so up I jumped and
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: took two. The bullets did not whistle all around me,
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: as I suppose I ought to write, And although I
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: was successful in taking the pictures, I do not intend
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: to try the game again. In fact, I have now
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: seen all the trench life I want to and do
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: not mean to visit them further. The point is that
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: if I should be killed or wounded on a sight
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: seeing expedition, it would not be very creditable, and we
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: run quite enough risk when on duty. Strange to say,
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: I felt far less nervous in the first line trenches
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: than when on service at pont A Mousson or Montalville.
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: In fact, I felt quite a sense of security in
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: those splendidly built trenches, while in a town the shelling
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: is so much more dangerous, and when you have to
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: go out into it, sitting on that little ford jostling
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: its way over the bumpy road, the sensation is not
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: a very comfortable one. However, as I told you before,
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: I am a fatalist. Now absolutely We made our way
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: slowly home to pont Am Massan, and there saw shells
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: bursting over a little town in the valley, and I
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: got a photo of it. I am tired, so good night.
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: July thirtieth. All your letters from July fourth to July
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: fifteenth have just arrived, and also a very nice one
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: from Marconi. It was a great joy to me to
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: know of your success and of your glorious effort. Things
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: are gradually quieting down here, but we have had a
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: dreadful time. However, I am glad the work we are
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: doing is so well worth the cost. One has little
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: time and less inclination in the presence of such great
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: tragedy to consider the virtue of one's personal service. But
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: somehow it is good to remember that although one has
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: done work at the Front, it was without pay, titles,
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: et cetera. I acknowledge that I look forward to October,
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: when I plan to go back for a bit. I
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: shall have had four months service at the front without
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: a rest, and although I can, I hope keep going
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: another eight or ten weeks, I feel that without some respite,
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: the winter would finish me if the Germans omitted to
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: do so. I find myself feeling an intense, though futile
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: and unphilosophic resentment at my physical condition, the not being
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: able to eat enough to keep always at top speed.
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: And of course one can never allow even a shadow,
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: much less a mention of one's own problems to appear.
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: The personal equationed practically doesn't exist here. August second, Salisbury,
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: who has returned to us, has supported our little group
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: who objected to the evacuation of pont Amasson. He found
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: us a very fine, suitable house and esthet would go
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: mad in it, German and bad German at that and
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: we were told that no shell had fallen near it
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: for nine months. So we entered with confidence. The telephone
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: was established, and after changing the furniture, about altering a
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: few details, and I confess it bringing in a few
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: flowers from the garden, we found ourselves almost magnificently installed. Yesterday,
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: the first of August, the French violently bombarded a town
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: where a German regiment was Enripault. And when I arrived
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: at Monteville for day duty at seven thirty yesterday morning,
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: I was told that all the towns around here were
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: expecting a bombardment in revenge. Needless to say, it was correct.
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: About ten o'clock I had a call to go to
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: Obera Saint Pierre for too seriously wounded, and when I
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: arrived there, the Metis Saint Chef told me that if
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: I got them to the hospital quickly they would have
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: a chance of living. So number ten tooted off down
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: the hill at what the plain warrior would term a
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: hell of a pace. As I entered Monteville, I saw
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: no one about, but as I passed Upholsta de re Secouer,
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: a doctor rushed out and told me to take two
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: more if I had room. I noticed they filled my
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: car with extraordinary speed, and it was not necessary to
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: tell me that Monteville was being bombarded. My stretchers filled.
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: I set off again for my destination. With the four
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: seriously wounded, I decided to take a different road, which
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: was quicker, though supposed to be more dangerous, and too
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: big shells fell on the road I did not take.
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: While I passed, I began to think myself lucky. As
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: I entered pont Amasson, I saw no one about a
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: bad sign, and on turning to go to deu Lois,
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: where we took the wounded, I saw a huge shell
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: explode two hundred meters down the road I was to
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: drive along. Had the ambulance been empty or with only
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: slightly wounded, I should have waited, of course, but under
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: the circumstances, my duty was to go on as fast
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: as I could. I noticed ahead of me three large
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: motor trucks, and the thought struck me, what if those
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: are hit and contain ammunition. I was ten yards away
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: when bang, I was half blown out of my seat
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: a shell had landed on the motor truck. Hardly believing
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: I was not hit, I increased my pace and emerged
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: from the smoke and blackness, going at a good clip,
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: safe and sound, but shaken. I deposited my wounded and
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: started to return, but was stopped and told that the
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: the road was not passable as thirty large two tins
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: had fallen on it and trees were all over the place.
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: I forgot to mention the truly gruesome part of the tail.
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: When I arrived at Dear Lois, I noticed that everybody
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: was pointing at my car. I supposed it was because
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: we looked so smoke grimed, But on arrival at the hospital,
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: several people ran out to me with curious expressions, and
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: I then got down to discover what was troubling them.
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: One of the poor fellows had thrown himself off the
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: stretcher and all of his bandages had slipped, and a
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: trail of red was flowing from the car and leaving
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: a pool on the ground. I got back to our
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: bureau about twelve o'clock by a roundabout way, and had lunch,
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: and went up about twelve thirty to Monteville again. While
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: at lunch, the shells continued to fall at fairly regular
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: intervals on the road. Suddenly, those nearest the window threw
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: themselves on the floor, an action familiar to us constantly
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: under shell fire. And before you could sneeze, the lot
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: of us did likewise, and we heard an ekla fly
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: over the house. Laughing. We got up. We were about
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: eight hundred meters from where the shells were bursting, and
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: I went out into the street to see where the
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: eclaw had fallen. There it was on the road, weighing
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: about three and a half pounds. It was hot to
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: the touch three and a half pounds thrown eight hundred meters.
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: I have kept it as a paperweight, as a little
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: luncheon incident. It is entertaining. Nothing of great interest happened
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: during the afternoon, except that I broke my foot brake,
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: and tomorrow must put in a new one. After dinner,
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: being off duty, I went to bed about eight o'clock.
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: Schroeder left yesterday to go and see his brother, who
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: is wounded. He returns in about a week. Meanwhile, I
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: am alone and don't like it. At one thirty o'clock
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: this morning, I woke up something was wrong. Bang bang
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: bang bang pont a mussom being bombarded at and badly.
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: Fifteen shells falling in three minutes, I counted, and the
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: firing continued for an hour and a half with intervals.
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: I got dressed, prepared to descend into the cellar if
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: the shells came to near my house, and then about
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: six fifteen the bombardment stopped. I left the house to
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: find several fires started around the town. They had shelled
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: with incendiary shells as well as high explosives. As I
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: got back to our new headquarters, imagine my surprise to
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: find a huge shell hole two yards from the house
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: in the drive itself. The house never bombarded for nine months.
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: All the fellows, however, were safe, and our breakfast was
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: a jocular one, for we could not help seeing the
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: funny side of it all. August third, Just a few
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: more lines, as one of our section is returning to
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: America and will take these letters over and you should
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: get them about August eighteenth. With luck, I hope the
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: lecture was a financial success besides a per no one
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: if all those people in America only knew what this
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: section and our work mean to the soldiers here, money
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: would not be long in coming. No one can realize
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: what our little group does for the mutilated wounded. But
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: if any one doubts it, I wish he or she
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: could see the grateful thanks in the eyes of the
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: wounded soldier as he has taken from our ambulance and
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: put into a fairly comfortable bed with doctors ready to
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: attend him. Let him see the poor soldier, hardly able
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: to move, insist on taking your hand, and let him
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: hear that whispered messie mont comrade. And let him talk
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: to the soldiers newly returned from the trenches or just
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: about to enter there. Let him hear that smiling greeting
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: and see those hands waving mont jour camrade. Let him
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: hear what the officers say. Then if he has had
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: any doubts, he could have them no longer. I don't
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: claim that I personally am doing anything, but I do
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: say that this section of twenty five men has done
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: more to cement the love for America with the troops
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: around here than any possible action the USA could take
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: in this war. And I believe that the same fact
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: is true of our service in the North and South fronts.
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: Everyone should realize this, and I hope that any of
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: my friends to whom you read this letter will bear
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: our field service in mind if they hear of anyone
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: wishing to be truly philanthropic. The hospital itself cannot go
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: on indefinitely supporting us, as they are very short of
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: funds and have a great undertaking on hand to feed
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: and keep up the Nui, Eye and Shuide hospitals. Doc
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: tells me they must get two million francs to keep
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: things going till next spring. Only a small portion of
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: that money, of course, could come to our field service.
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: So your effort is for a great purpose. I must
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: tell you what happened to the wounded before our little
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: cars came here. We carried over eighteen hundred last week
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: and more than seven tventy five hundred during July. They
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: were picked up in the trenches bois pretta, et cetera
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: when they could be god at, sometimes if lucky, an
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: hour after and sometimes five or six hours or never.
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: The broncodiers, chiefly artists before the war, do this work.
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: A terrible job and very very dangerous, as the wounded
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: are often between the German and French trenches and they
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: have to creep out at night and drag them in well.
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: These wounded are carried on broncous stretchers down the hill
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: from the trenches, probably a journey of some thirty minutes
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: to the refuge de Blessee still in the wood, and
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: there a primitive dressing to stop bleeding is put on.
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: Then they are jostled on on on till they arrive
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: at one of the poste de secieux where our light
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: little cars can go. These are the Aubert, Saintpierre, plau
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: Bois and Monteville. Here. In former days they were redressed
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: and if there were room, stayed in the little shelter,
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: or if not, they had to lie outside till a
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: horse wagon came to fetch them. Sometimes they would have
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: to wait many hours before their turn came, and even
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: the most urgent cases would not get away and arrive
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: at the hospital for a long time. Hundreds of soldiers died. Thus,
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: now with our little cars, an urgent cases at the
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: hospital ready for operation in twenty minutes at the most,
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: and generally about ten to fifteen, no matter what time
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: of the day or night. That is why these soldiers
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: around here are so grateful. I have seen cars go
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: up to Aubert Saint Pierre to fetch an urgent case
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: when the driver knew the road was being shelled, and
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: the soldiers who see our cars tooting up the hill
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: wonder and say, baulonire, I have got a call and
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: so must stop, for before I could get back, the
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: friend who is to take this letter would doubtless have
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: had to one and one half hours later. I still
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: have a few minutes, so I will continue. As you know,
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: I almost never reread what I write, but I have
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: run over this letter, and although every word I say
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: is accurate and unexaggerated, I don't want you to imagine
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: that the French Red Cross is not efficient. But they
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: cannot afford cars everywhere, with drivers and so forth. That
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: is why our section here is so useful. The horror
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: of the whole war is growing on me day by day,
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: and sometimes when I have got into my bed or
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: am trying to get a few hours sleep on a stretcher.
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: Every other night I am on duty, and so cannot undress.
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: The horrors of blood, broken arms, mutilated trunks, and ripped
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: open faces, et cetera haunt me and I feel I
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: can hardly go through another day of it. But all
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: that is soon forgotten when a call comes and you
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: see those bandaged soldiers waiting to be taken to a hospital.
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: I most love my old car. It was in the
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: Battle of the Marne, and I often find myself talking
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: to it as I pick my way in pitch darkness
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: past carriage, guns or reinforcements. If one does not quickly
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: become an expert driver, one would have no car to drive,
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: for it is almost impossible to see five yards ahead,
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: and it is at night that the roads are full
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: of horse carts and soldiers. And of Part three, Part
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: four of with the American Ambulance Field Service in France,
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: Personal Letters of a Driver at the Front by Leslie Buswell.
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Pont A Mousson,
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: August fifteenth, nineteen fifteen. Yesterday was a red letter day
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: for me. I was made so happy that I feared
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: something bad must happen to counteract it. The American mail
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: arrived twelve letters from H. S, J, H, C, B, C, S, S, S, E, T,
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: et cetera, and my uncle and mother. I wonder whether
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: you people out there in the sunshine of peace can
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: realize what a ray of joy and encouragement the letters
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: you are writing to us here bring. I got this
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: packet about four o'clock, and, being on ext duty, took
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: them up there to read. I sat in my car
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: with the sun streaming down over us, in that little
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: village semi blue with soldiers, and started first to contemplate
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: the writing and the dates on the envelopes. A battery
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: of seventy fives were firing on my left, and we
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: heard the shells whistling overhead, and after a few seconds
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: the boom of the explosion on my right. Even the
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: shell seemed to be singing with pleasure and excitement. Then
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: I was brought back to actualities by the voice of
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: a young French soldier of about twenty one, who stood
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: beside me. You just have letters, yes, not even opened yet,
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: all those you are to be married. Perhaps no, my friend,
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: Surely it is your mother, then, who has written so often.
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: Only this one is from her. I answered, and then
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: a strange silence fell. I did not feel like speaking,
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: for glancing up, I realized that he was still looking
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: at that one letter in my hand. After a few moments,
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: fumbling in his uniform, he pulled out a packet of
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: earth stained letters. These were from my mother, but I
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: can no longer look for them. She died last month.
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: Perhaps it was that little incident that made me appreciate
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: so tremendously these messages from home. But when I got
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: into bed last night and lit a candle by my
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: side to reread them all, and when my mother's turn came,
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: I found the link with that boy and realized how
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: much he has lost, and how he must measure and
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: find comfort in that little batch of memories in his pocket.
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: They too were probably full of anxiety for his welfare,
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: full of encouragement and confidence in his doing his duty
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: as a true frenchwoman's son. And then my imagination wandered
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: to another side, the letters from the front, the letters
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: of assurance of council not to worry, and next perhaps
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: the citation for gallantry, the pride and happiness of those
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: at home. Finally, that most dreaded letter, or the brief
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: announcement in the list of those morteau champ d'enneur. Are
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: we really living in the twentieth century after nineteen hundred
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: years of teaching of supposed civilization and Christianity. The day
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: before yesterday, after having made several trips with wounded, I
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: had a pressing call to Aubert Saint Pierre. There the
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: Germans were bombarding as usual, and it was unpleasant. A
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: shell had landed near a kitchen, killing several and seriously
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: wounding one soldier. He had a hole as big as
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: your fist right through his back. There is a chance
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: if you can get him to the operating room quickly.
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: I was told it was eighteen kilometers to the best surgeon.
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: So off dear old number ten and I started on
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: our rush for life to do toot and even the soldiers,
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: realizing that I had a man's life in my care,
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: made a clear way in the road ahead and through
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: village after village without moving the throttle. We sped on
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: and on, bump bump bump. What did it matter if
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: I had to shake him about a little. He was unconscious,
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: and every second counted. I hope I won't have a puncture.
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: I found myself, muttering from time to time. Finally I
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: turned to the left, then another corner, and blowing my horn,
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: I drew up at the tent. In a second, two
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: broncadiers had the car unloaded. The surgeon in white was
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: washing his hands, and thirty minutes from the time my
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: charge was given into my care, he was lying on
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: the operating table. He may live, said the surgeon. That
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: was my reward. That is why I am happy even here.
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: Only for this reason. One sometimes saves lives and never
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: intentionally kills. The other day I went up to the
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: top of Mousson i e. The hill the other side
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: of the bridge. It is under another army division, and
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: so we have to get special permission from the colonel.
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: But as our section is treated so wonderfully, there is
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: no difficulty in procuring it. We first stopped at the
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: graveyard and tried to find poor Mignol's grave, but in
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: that mess of debris, overturned sepulchers, upheaved tombstones, burst open coffins,
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: sun bleached bones, and the hundred new made graves, we
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: could not find it. We would have continued our search,
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: but an officer told us not to stay any longer,
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: as we were in easy view of the Germans and
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: they might bombard at any moment, we started to go
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: to the summit. Up the hill we climbed, and the
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: little mountain side was all pitted with shell holes, some
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: of them most discomfortingly new. At last we reached the
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: top and began to look about. A few minutes after
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: having asked a soldier some questions, we found ourselves surrounded
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: and rather roughly asked for our pass. We showed it
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: with the colonel's signature, and then followed a hearty laugh
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: when they had to confess they thought our foreign accent
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: was Bosch. We asked in what direction Metz was, And there,
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: just over the hill, to the right of a little tree,
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: we stood facing it lay and like some glorious, dominating giant,
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: stood out the cathedral, built by the French for the
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: worship of God and teaching of Christianity, and now so
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: kept by the Germans, the race which has sei loose
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: the scourge. If I could only be in the procession
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: that marches in triumph to Metz, I must tell you
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: just one more incident. The other evening, I was walking
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: down the street when an excited shout made me stop,
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: and I saw running toward me an old friend, one
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 1: I knew when I was in London, now dressed in
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: the blue of France. What on earth are you doing here?
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: I asked. Tell me, how in the name of all
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: that's possible did you get out to the front he replied,
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: and then we set to and talked. He is a
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: French artist who lived in London and entered the French
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: army as the English would not have him. He, knowing
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 1: I had not passed the military medical could not get
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: over the fact that I had arrived here. Notwithstanding, he
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: dragged me to a group of his friends and we
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: all had a happy half hour, then the usual handshake
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: and au revoir. As I turned away, he followed me.
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: I go to Carton Reserve to night for some days.
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: Probably I shall not return. Who if I am a
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: bit knocked out, you will know, and if I am killed,
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: my people will know. It would be hard for my
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: wife wondering whether I was seriously hurt or not. She
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: is about to have a child. Supposing I am wounded,
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: will you post this letter? It only says that I
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: am getting on well am, but slightly wounded, and that
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: she is not to worry. I add no comment to
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: the story, but I do wish you could realize what
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: trench life means to the infantry when they know they
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: have to go to a hell like the ca En Reserve.
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: I know what I feel like when I have to
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: drive along a road being bombarded by the Germans. But
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: that is only for five or six minutes. But think
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 1: of five or six days with scarcely an hour's rest
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: out of the twenty four No wonder we have to
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: carry madmen to the hospital sometimes. August nineteenth, Poor old
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: number ten has been ill, so I have had her
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: engine down and cleaned it. Now she is running finely.
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: There is an American station here who enlisted in the
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: French Army. Poor boy, he is only twenty. We asked
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: him to dinner. Why did you enlist? Well, I guess
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: I wanted to see some action. Are you satisfied? Satisfied? Well,
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: I came here to see life and movement. All I
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 1: see in my ditch are worms, spiders, marmites and torpeals.
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: So you have changed your mind. No, I guess my
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: mind is the same as when I enlisted. I wanted
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: to see war. I still do. I haven't seen war.
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: I have seen murder and cultivated systematic butchery. There has
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: been a lot of permission for the soldiers here, and
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: they are now returning after their eight days, the first
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: eight days in twelve months, the first time they have
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 1: seen their wives and mothers for a year, and in
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: many cases they have their first look at their own
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: children born in their absence. One soldier I asked whether
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: his wife was pleased to see Ah. He said, you
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: should have seen her cry when I left. But when
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: you arrived, I asked, she was pleased? Ah, mon dieu,
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: you should have seen her cry when I arrived. August
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: twentieth today has been a villainous one. The French bombarded
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: the German stores and set fire to some large storage space.
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: We think petrol and stores. Perhaps the petrel they sprayed
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: lighted into our trenches, and from twelve o'clock till now
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: the whole sky has been black with smoke. Of course,
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 1: the Germans made reprisals, and every little town around was bombarded.
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 1: One shell which burst where nine persons were sitting dining,
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: killed them all. The telephone bell rings two cars wanted
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: at once for l August twenty third, about ten forty
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 1: five This morning, a German aeroplane came over the town,
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: not two hundred and fifty meters high. We could see
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: the pilot, an observer, and the four Maltese crosses on
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 1: the plains. It was one of the bravest acts I
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: have seen. She was too low for the artillery to
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: open up fire, so the soldiers fired at her with
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: their rifles, and although it seemed as if she must
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: have been hit, the pilot turned around and flew safely
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: back to the German lines. This little incident leaves us
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 1: with a very uneasy feeling, as we think no German
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: would have taken such risk unless the mission had been
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: very important. He must have seen everything he wanted to.
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: Our cars are fairly conspicuous with their crosses on the
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: top of the canvas. He dropped signals as he flew
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: over our house, and we are wondering just what is
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: to follow. And when August thirtieth the Germans not satisfied
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: with the reprisals they took on the twenty second for
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: the burning by the French of stores and factory at
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: Bannie again opened up on certain buildings of a neighboring town.
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: On August twenty two, they sent over one hundred and
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 1: fifty shells between two o'clock and seven, all large marmites
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: two tens, two eighties, and I believe some larger. The
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: damage done is considerable, but after such a bombardment it
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: was marvelous that anything remained over thirty three shells fell
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 1: in the road. It happened to be my day of repose,
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: and I was asked if I would care to go
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: to Nanci for the day. So at seven o'clock in
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: the morning I appeared in full parade uniform, so to speak.
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 1: And except that I hadn't the heart to shave off
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: my temporary mustache, I am sure I must have cut
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: quite a figure off. We went to Nanci and spent
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: an interesting day looking all over that wonderful town. Salisbury,
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: as you know, has got the quadiguere, and we all
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: felt very proud parading the street with him and his
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: significant ribbon. While the two men with me went to
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: have a hair cut, which I happened to feel no
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: impulse to do, I stayed outside in the car. I
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: noticed four Moroccans walking down the street and casually thought
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: how picturesque their red fezzes looked against their blue uniform, when,
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: to my horror, they stopped by my car and started
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: saluting and bowing and talking so ostentatiously that it took
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 1: exactly thirty seconds for a large crowd of Nanzi inhabitants
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: to collect. The mere fact of being in town for
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: the first time in twelve weeks was quite strange. But
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: to find myself surrounded by a quantity of civilians and
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: the center of attraction was, to say the least, most embarrassing.
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 1: It was a hot day, and I felt the perspiration
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: pouring down my back as I looked to right and
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: left for a way of escape. But my trial was
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: not over, horrors, My hand was taken and all four
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: soldiers solemnly bowed over it and kissed it. I did
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: not know what to do, being anxious not to offend
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 1: them nor to add to the amusement of the onlooking civilians,
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: I thanked them in the name of America for the
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: honor they were paying her, and brought down on my
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: unsuspecting hand a renewal of the embrace. Suddenly, joy, what
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: was that? An Irish voice? Sure a young man at
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 1: an uncomfortable soil yard this minute, and an old fellow
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: emerged from the multitude to Bristling with the hope of
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: a brawl. However, he calmly joined forces with me and
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: we presently left the crowd with as much dignity as
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: was possible under the circumstances. From him, I heard all
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: about the war and as much, if not more, about
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: Ireland as we sat in a public house across the street.
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: So ended an awkward encounter. Well. We left Nancie about
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 1: five thirty. I had bought cakes and various luxuries for
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: the boys, and when we arrived just outside r about
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: six thirty, we saw to our surprise the effects of
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: the bombardments on buildings and the road. Uncertain whether to
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: take a chance or not, we drove nearer and were
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: still hesitating when a shell burst a hundred yards down
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: the road and decided us not being on duty, we
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 1: had no reason to go to pont A Mousson, so
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 1: turning around, we went to dinner at toul. After a
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 1: good meal, we started home, and arriving at my room
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: at eleven thirty, I was relieved to hear that no
• 1:58:23
  Speaker 1: one had been injured. Several big e claus, however, had
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 1: fallen in our garden, and two of our cars had
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 1: very narrow escapes. A strange thing to me was the
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: sense of dissatisfaction, of subconscious restlessness I felt while in Nancy.
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 1: It was the first time for twelve weeks I had
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: been in a civilized town where everything was going on
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 1: as usual. It all seemed so artificial, so futile and aimless.
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: As our car tooted home, I turned around and exclaimed,
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: Oh Lord, how glad I am to get back again
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: to our dear old, peaceful bit of country. Rather irish,
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: but quite sincere. The other day I had two hours
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: off duty and mc connell and I went for a
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 1: walk along the Moselle. We saw several soldiers bathing and
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: decided it would be a good idea to do Likewise,
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: it was a gloriously hot day, so the fact that
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 1: we had no towels was unimportant. I confess I became
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 1: anglais to the extent of insisting on walking along the
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: bank until we got away from everyone and could bathe alone.
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: At last, we found a quiet corner and started to undress,
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: but we had been noticed, say lazy Maerican, and before
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: we could realize it, some soldiers were hurriedly preparing to
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: swim in the Moselle with us, so our bath became
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: a real party. I only tell this little incident to
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: show again how ready the soldiers always are to join
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: and talk to members of our little section. September fourth,
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: A sad thing happened the other day to a friend
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: of mine, a Poillieu, who had been helping me to
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: get specimens of perfect empty German shells, those which have
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 1: arrived but not exploded. The fellow was an expert at
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: dismounting them, a very dangerous task, and when he had
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 1: entirely emptied them, used to bring them to me. I
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 1: had many a long talk with him, and he got
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 1: quite fond of American tobacco. Poillieuse don't usually care for
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: Ingliche tobacco. He used to like to tell me about
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 1: his girl and how happy they were together before the war,
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: and how the day peace was declared he was going
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: to marry her. Lately I had noticed he looked depressed,
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 1: and one day I found out the reason. I was
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: in his little cellar, sitting on a block of wood,
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 1: talking of America and he of France. When the postman
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: came to the door, he looked at my friend, who
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: had become alert and, shaking his head, said pass encore
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 1: and murmuring salut to me, continued his walk with his
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 1: precious letters from home. My friend became very white and
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: presently confessed to me that he had had no letters
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: for six weeks forty two days. That seems a terribly
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: long time out here, you know. A few days after
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 1: I saw him again and asked if he had heard
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 1: from his girl. He said no, very sullenly, but later,
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: over a glass of beer, he mentioned that his father
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 1: had written to say his girl had been misbehaving herself.
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 1: The poor fellow seemed stunned with the news. After vainly
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: trying to cheer him up, I went back to dinner.
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 1: The next morning I did not see him being on
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: Monteville duty. But the following morning I was at headquarters
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: when an urgent call came for an ambulance. My car
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: happened to be just going, so I took the trip.
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: Where was the house, I asked, Just over there where
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: the man is waving. It was the house of my friend.
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: Need I end the story? A broken man who had
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: worked valiantly for twelve months under hellish conditions to defend
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: his country had shot himself. We lifted him on to
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: a stretcher. Then, feeling pretty badly, and with the doctor's
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: urgent warning against loss of time ringing in my ears,
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 1: we number ten and I sped away to b They
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 1: took him out of my car. Read the little pink fish,
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: which is attached to every wounded soldier and filled in
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 1: by the doctor who has dressed him in the first
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: post des secure, and then exchanged glances. I knew those
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: glances not only meant that life was nearly extinct, but
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: that it did not much matter whether he recovered or not,
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 1: as he would get six years imprisonment if he got
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: well for attempted suicide, and that sentence in wartime means
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 1: constant first line trench work. I followed him into the
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: operating room, where he opened his eyes, and I think
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: he recognized me. His lips moved, but I don't know.
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 1: The other night came a hurry call to clais Bois
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 1: for a poor fellow who had kept his grenade too
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 1: long and was very badly shattered. Just a chance if
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: you get him to the hospital, quickly said the doctor.
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: How many times I have felt quite elated at this injunction,
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 1: and literally flown to the Belleville hospital. But in this
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 1: instance I had that horrible sense of hopelessness. It was
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: dark and quite impossible to make Belville under an hour
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 1: and a quarter. The poor fellow died before I could
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: get there. To day, I took all the carbon out
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: of the car and put in a new commutator. A
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 1: quiet and lonely day, I feel homesick. The German offensive,
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: which I thought might take place yesterday, did not. The
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: French got news of the fact and of the hour
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 1: that they proposed to attack, and five minutes beforehand the
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 1: seventy fives opened up, and catching many of the Germans
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 1: already in their first line of trenches, so demurtized them
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 1: as to wholly disrupt their intention. We had only about
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 1: ten wounded, but goodness knows how many they lost. September
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 1: sixth I forgot to mention a very important event in
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: the history of the section. After the Blenoux attack, Walter
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 1: and I went to see the damage done. We found
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: the havoc was pretty bad. We were talking to some
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 1: men who had actually been in a room where a
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: shell exploded and had not even been wounded. When a
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 1: soldier joined us and speaking in good English asked if
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 1: we would like to have some English papers. Although we
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 1: felt pretty sure they wouldn't contain very recent news, we
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 1: had to show an eager appreciation and asked him if
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: he would go and fetch them. We followed him to
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 1: his lodging. He presently emerged with a large parcel of
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: quite old papers and began chatting with us. London was mentioned,
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: and we soon discovered that he had been chef for
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: some friends of mine, and had, after leaving them, become
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 1: chef to Lord Phisher. I think I told you that
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: our chef was an undertaker before the war, and his
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: cooking was such that we wonder he did not achieve
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of patrons in our section. When we got
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: back to the bureau, we decided to ask the governor
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 1: of pont A Mousson to allow us to have Coussin,
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: for that was his name as our chef, And of
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: course our request was immediately exceeded to so now we
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 1: are having food de luxe, and the Singe, as they
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 1: called the American ten to meet we have to eat
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: every other meal was quite delicious as a curry last night,
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: September eighth, I hope I have not missed to day's mail,
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 1: I may have done so, as I hear our letters
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: are kept for some time before being forwarded. In case
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 1: I have, it will be September twenty seventh or so
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: before you get this, and I shall perhaps have started
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: home on leave. And though as the time approaches for
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: me to go, I doubt more and more whether I
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: can actually break away. The only possibility of real contentment
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 1: now for any one who cares for France or England
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 1: is to stay until their just cause is victorious, or
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 1: as in many a case, alas until the call to
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: eternal peace. Every soldier is dreading the winter here and
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 1: secretly fosters the almost hopeless wish and belief that there
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 1: will be no winter campaign. However, as day passes day,
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 1: and all preparations for one go forward to completion, the French,
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: with their wonderful pluck and determination, will resign themselves to
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 1: the inevitable. The other day, a Poillieu, who was standing
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 1: as usual with eight or nine others around my car
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 1: at X, suddenly expressed this compensating thought, Well, it may
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: be hard for us French this side of Europe, but
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 1: what a time the Bosches will have in Russia and
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 1: the idea quite cheered up the little party. Yesterday, I
• 2:06:57
  Speaker 1: had a sudden call to fetch three badly wins wounded.
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 1: One of them was in great pain from a wound
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 1: in the back, and the slightest jostle or bump I
• 2:07:06
  Speaker 1: knew would cause him great agony. The doctor, pointing to
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: one of the other two, said you must get him
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 1: to the operating room as quickly as you can. But
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 1: I answered, I dare not go fast. This poor chap
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: is in such condition. The doctor shrugged his shoulders, but
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 1: the man who was suffering had heard, go as fast
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: as you can, my friend, it won't kill me. I
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: did so, and the bumps were bad. The poor fellow
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 1: could not help uttering cries from time to time. Before
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: I arrived at Belville, the cries had ceased as the
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: great pain had made him unconscious. The badly wounded man
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 1: was dead. Se La Guere, said the doctor to whom
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 1: I told the story, and I left him washing his
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 1: hands for the operation. I have just heard an amusing fragment.
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 1: A German prisoner lately taken was seated in the telephone
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 1: office at Monteville, waiting to be transported. He had stamped
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 1: on his uniform buttons and iron cross, and the French
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: were asking him why he wore it. He explained that
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 1: it was the right of a section who had earned
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: the iron cross to do so. The Frenchman started chaffing
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: him he could understand and speak French, and a jocular
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: remark not particularly complimentary to the Kaiser was cut short
• 2:08:23
  Speaker 1: by the prisoner, who, nervously looking around the room, said,
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: in an awed whisper, oh, if the Kaiser should hear
• 2:08:30
  Speaker 1: of your talking this way? Mind God. The other day
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: I paid a visit to the hospital at l and
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 1: found all the wounded, only very serious cases, stay here,
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 1: quite happy and buoyant. And the men who had been
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 1: evacuated in my car never failed to remind me and
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 1: thank me. One young fellow about my own age had
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: had his left leg amputated. I sat by his bed
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: and chatted with him, and he told me of his wife,
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: a year and a half married, and of his child,
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 1: whom he had not yet seen. He was so very
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 1: eager that somehow the pity of it made me turn
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 1: aside for a second and look out of the window.
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 1: Quick of perception, out went his hand to mine. Oh,
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 1: she will understand, comrade, he said, smiling, she will love
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 1: me just the same. She is a frenchwoman. How can
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 1: one help caring for France and French people. They have
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: such keen appreciation of the value of sympathy and gratitude.
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 1: Here in the midst of torturing death, they at least
• 2:09:32
  Speaker 1: are cheerful, and, having put aside the barrier of selfishness,
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 1: are wholly simple and direct in their human relations. The
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: fact that on every side there is daily evidence of
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: this attitude, in spite of so bitter and costly a struggle,
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: is high proof of the fineness of their civilization. And
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: of Part four Part five of with the American Ambulance
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 1: Field Service in France, Personal Letters of a Driver at
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: the Front by Leslie Buswell. This LibriVox recording is in
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: the public domain. September fourteenth to day, the section and
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 1: our section leader were decorated. The ceremony took place in
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: the garden, and the CoA de guerre was pinned on
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 1: Salisbury's breast. The double kiss, given with dignity and a
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 1: few words of congratulation to our section by the Metisin
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: de Visionaire ended the notable event. So we now have
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 1: hanging over our mantel piece, this coveted insignia. The section
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 1: is not going to move from here, the general says.
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 1: It is one of the most active parts on the line,
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: and lately, although the wounded have not been so very numerous,
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: the trench bombardments have been so heavy that I anticipate
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 1: more action. Did I tell you of the marvelous escape
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: George Ridder and Walter Lovell had yesterday? A show dropped
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 1: eight or ten yards away from them in the road
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 1: and did not explode. I wonder they didn't die of surprise.
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know what our section would have done without
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 1: those two. But everything happens to George, and he still
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: has a whole skin. Thank god. No letter from America
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: has come to me for over two weeks, which is
• 2:11:20
  Speaker 1: not very stimulating. Out here, mole hills are mountains, and
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 1: mountains impassable. And although it is of no real importance
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 1: whether one gets a letter or not, or whether the
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: letter one may get is cold or warm, yet these
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 1: small and seemingly insignificant things are sometimes enough to send
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 1: away sleep. I suppose the truth is I really need
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 1: a rest and change. It has seemed to me lately
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 1: that modern warfare means even more of a nervous expenditure
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: than a physical one. The nights are getting cold, dark
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 1: and damp. The leaves are falling underbrush, turning. The icy
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 1: hand of winter stretches out nearer and mirror, and the
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: trials of the poitieu are doubling every day. Yesterday I
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 1: talked with a priest. He and most of his calling
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 1: voluntarily accepted at the beginning of the war, the fearful
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: task of burying the dead. It sounds very simple, doesn't it.
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 1: Do you realize what it means. It means handling terrible objects,
• 2:12:20
  Speaker 1: covered with blood soaked clothing that once had the shape
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: of human beings. It means taking from these forms all
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 1: articles of apparel that might prove serviceable, and searching through
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 1: these red stained clothes for any letters or identification. Some
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 1: of these shapes are hardly of human outline, very stiff
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 1: and cold. Some are mere fragments, no longer of any
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: recognizable form. That is a little of what burying the
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: dead means. I spare you more detail. And this is
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 1: the work the priests of peace are doing in France. Wonderful,
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 1: you think, No, It is French temperament, wrench courage. The
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 1: musician is now broncadier, the artist, the poet, the potter,
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 1: familias of age, past military obligation, all digging trenches or
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 1: any work they can lay their hands upon. That is
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: why France lives and has lived through all her agony.
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: How often have we heard said, poor France, she will
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 1: never stand this great calamity. She will stand a hundred
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 1: such calamities and always come to the top again. Sunday,
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 1: and for a Sunday quite quiet. Of course, we had
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: our usual bombardment, but only shrapnel. About four thirty they
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 1: started to arrive and a call for two cars followed.
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 1: I had to go to m and on the way
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 1: up there at the ex I saw a horrible sight.
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 1: Two dead, three wounded and a horse. A shrapnel shell
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 1: badly timed had fallen exactly in the middle of the
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 1: road and made a great mess. And Willis were there,
• 2:14:01
  Speaker 1: so I continued up to M where I got seven wounded.
• 2:14:06
  Speaker 1: The American mail has arrived, letters from you, Joe and
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 1: s a feast. Monday, serious bombardment of three villages. Schroeder
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 1: and I were at dear Lois, so for the first
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 1: time missed it. It was a pleasant miss for us.
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 1: Those who pretend they like to be in bombardments are
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 1: either humbugs or have never been in a real one.
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 1: Having experienced them more or less for four months, I
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 1: dislike the sensation now as much as on my first day.
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 1: It is an interesting fact that while the villages about
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 1: here are under constant bombardment, many of the oldest civilians
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 1: cannot be induced to leave their homes, preferring to risk
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: death in their cellars. The other day, a very old
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 1: woman at Monteville had an amazing escape. A one fifty
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 1: high explosive shell fell into the bedroom of a cottage
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 1: where she was sleeping. The small room was entirely shattered,
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 1: but its occupant was not even injured. When I saw
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 1: her soon after, she was in an intense state of
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: resentment over the destruction of her personal belongings, but her
• 2:15:14
  Speaker 1: own escape did not seem to appeal to her. I
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 1: heard a story yesterday which I have every reason to
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 1: believe is true. I give it to you as I
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 1: got it. Early one morning, a soldier appeared in a
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: Boilleux communication trench near here, in the uniform of a
• 2:15:31
  Speaker 1: Genie French engineer, and started chatting with some passing Poileius,
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 1: he told them he was inspecting the lines, and they
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 1: showed him round their trenches. On his tour, so to speak,
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: he met some artillerymen who asked him to lunch with
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: their battery. He accepted, and after lunch wandered about the
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 1: wood with his new found friends, who showed him the
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 1: position of many guns. As night came on, explaining he
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 1: had to return to duty, he left his friends and
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 1: went to the trenches. It was now dark, and on
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: getting to the first line, he told the sentry that
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: he had orders to go out and inspect the barbed
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 1: wire between the lines. As that was in accordance with
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 1: the duties of his genie, the sentry let him go.
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 1: The man never returned, and as on inquiry the company
• 2:16:18
  Speaker 1: to which he said he belonged did not know him,
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 1: there is little doubt he was a German spy. Another
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 1: story I heard from a friend of mine in the
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 1: trenches near Soisson, and it is typical of the hopeless
• 2:16:31
  Speaker 1: brutality we have to expect. When the trenches are very
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 1: close to each other, a little advance post is dug
• 2:16:38
  Speaker 1: so that one can hear what is being said by
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 1: the enemy in their trenches. Generally, however, the distance between
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 1: the lines is too great for this, and at night
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 1: a soldier is sent out to crawl to within hearing
• 2:16:50
  Speaker 1: distance of the enemy. One night at Poitiers so engaged,
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 1: got wounded, and when daylight came he was seen to
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 1: be struggling to crawl back to his friends. To the
• 2:17:00
  Speaker 1: soldiers promptly started out to help him, but on reaching him,
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: the Germans shot and wounded them, so that the three
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 1: men were now crying to their comrades to come and
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 1: save them. Realizing that it was death to anyone who
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 1: left the trench in daylight, the captain forbad more of
• 2:17:17
  Speaker 1: his men to venture out before dark. As soon as
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 1: darkness fell, two other soldiers crept forth, but no sooner
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: had they reached the three wounded than an illuminating rocket
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 1: disclosed their positions to the enemy and left five men
• 2:17:31
  Speaker 1: lying wounded between the lines. As the captain could not
• 2:17:35
  Speaker 1: afford to lose his men in this futile way, he
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 1: detailed two centuries to shoot anyone attempting to leave. The
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: five men lay there shouting to their friends, calling them
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 1: by their names, reminding them of their friendship, and asking
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 1: if they were going to allow their comrades to die
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 1: thus without help, so that when two broncadiers came into
• 2:17:57
  Speaker 1: the trench, they found the occupants in a terrible state
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 1: of anguish and nerve tension. Not being under the command
• 2:18:03
  Speaker 1: of the captain, and being red cross, they promptly left
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 1: the trench to save the five wounded frenchmen. Seven men
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 1: are still there between friend and foe, but at peace now,
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 1: God willing. September twenty third, on Tuesday, Ben and Willis
• 2:18:20
  Speaker 1: and I went to Nominee, a town some fifteen kilometers
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: away the other side of the Moselle. It was a
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 1: long walk. After stopping to put a wreath on Mignot's grave,
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 1: we started about one o'clock on our journey. It was
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: a very hot day. We arrived at a little village
• 2:18:36
  Speaker 1: which at first sight looked deserted. We soon saw the reason.
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 1: In the middle of the road was a large hole.
• 2:18:42
  Speaker 1: A little farther on a pool of blood, presently two
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 1: dead horses a successful shell. Passing through Aton, the road
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 1: goes on straight, ever straight, kilometer on kilometer we passed
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 1: the village and famous battlefield of Saint Genevieve. On our
• 2:19:00
  Speaker 1: here on September eighth, nineteen fourteen, two seventy five guns,
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 1: a few miitreises and a handful of five hundred determined
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 1: French soldiers hurled down an attacking force of twelve thousand Germans.
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 1: Again and again, the upright masted lines advanced up the
• 2:19:19
  Speaker 1: hill to be leveled like bowling pins. After some hours
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 1: of fighting, the brave little band of frenchmen on the
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 1: top of the hill found that they had no more ammunition,
• 2:19:30
  Speaker 1: so with fixed bayonets they threw the last advancing Germans
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 1: down the hill. The latter retired to pont A Mousson,
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 1: with some four thousand of their dead left on the hillside.
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 1: These they disposed of by throwing into the Moselle. The
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 1: French lost only fourteen men. At propos of this, I
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: am reminded of a possible cause for the illness of
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 1: many of our boys last June. Half the section are teetotalers,
• 2:19:56
  Speaker 1: and the other half drink pignor. The van dupeyis which
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 1: comes from the Midi, and which is supplied to every
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: French soldier. The water we were suspicious of, so ned
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 1: asked Mignot to ascertain where the chef got it. Mignot
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 1: promised to watch and see whether it really was taken
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: from the spring a little distance from the house, as
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 1: we had been assured was the case. Imagine our feelings
• 2:20:20
  Speaker 1: when he announced at breakfast the next morning that the
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 1: water we had been drinking and which had been used
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 1: for cooking, was drawn from the mozelle. To continue a
• 2:20:30
  Speaker 1: little beyond, we came to the battlefield of Nominee of
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 1: August twenty, nineteen fourteen. Along the roadside, dotted all over
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 1: the field our little white wooden crosses bearing the same
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 1: inscriptions E c emour un sol da francailles no mur
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 1: tombay au chan honeur ba ou des nerf catours. And
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 1: here a more elaborate cross a dead commandant. And there
• 2:20:59
  Speaker 1: across ise more unsel dar a lemande. We walked on
• 2:21:04
  Speaker 1: a silent trio. I was thinking of a year ago,
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 1: of the wives and families of these heroes, already almost forgotten.
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 1: Now we came to a little village surrounded with trees.
• 2:21:16
  Speaker 1: On our left. Some kilometers away we saw the seventy
• 2:21:19
  Speaker 1: fives bursting above. The Germans. Sitting down with some soldiers
• 2:21:23
  Speaker 1: who were taking shelter. We watched for an hour these
• 2:21:26
  Speaker 1: seventy fives, bursting foot by foot along the enemy's trenches. Again,
• 2:21:31
  Speaker 1: we started on our way and passed a hole cut
• 2:21:34
  Speaker 1: in the road where a German shell had burst not
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 1: long since. At last we saw Nominee, a town of
• 2:21:41
  Speaker 1: some thirteen hundred inhabitants, placed on the side of a
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 1: hill and running down to the river Saya, where it
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 1: ends as abruptly as it starts, just a charming little town,
• 2:21:52
  Speaker 1: harmonizing with the surrounding country as only French villages can.
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 1: We made out the tower of the ninth century church
• 2:21:59
  Speaker 1: and the walls of an old, ruined castle. The sun
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 1: blazed on the scene, and we stood there, looking with
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 1: true pleasure on this delightful evidence of French genius in
• 2:22:10
  Speaker 1: combining architecture and scenery. The road curved to the right
• 2:22:14
  Speaker 1: for some two kilometers. Here Nominee is hidden from sight.
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 1: A turn to the left, and there again it stands
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 1: with its old castle. But what an illusion distance had
• 2:22:25
  Speaker 1: played upon our site ruined castle? Why the castle walls
• 2:22:29
  Speaker 1: are the only things that are not ruined. There stands
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 1: no many skeleton, not a roof, not a particle of wood, remains,
• 2:22:37
  Speaker 1: just the bare walls of the houses. We arrived at
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 1: the outskirts of the town and presented ourselves at the
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 1: commandant's bureau. A lieutenant offered to show us over the town.
• 2:22:49
  Speaker 1: I cannot describe it. No words could adequately convey the
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 1: sickening sense of desolation and desecration. Here are the facts.
• 2:22:57
  Speaker 1: The fourth and eighth Bavarian regiments on August twentieth decided
• 2:23:01
  Speaker 1: to loot the town. Comillons coming from Metz, took away
• 2:23:05
  Speaker 1: everything of value. Every house was burned, house by house men,
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 1: women and children being shot as they tried to escape.
• 2:23:14
  Speaker 1: Those who were in the basements of the houses were
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 1: shot there or burning petrol poured into the cellars. When
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 1: the French arrived, our guide was one of the first arrivals.
• 2:23:24
  Speaker 1: They had to bury sixty murdered civilians. Our long tramp
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 1: home was uneventful, though very tiring, except when we came
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 1: to the little village where we had rested and lunched
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 1: with the seventy fives bursting some kilometers away. Here we
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 1: found two trees across the road, and on making inquiries,
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 1: learned that the Germans had seen the general's staff car
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 1: going along the road. Did I explain that the whole
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 1: length of this road is in full view of the enemy,
• 2:23:54
  Speaker 1: and seeing the car into the wood and not emerging
• 2:23:57
  Speaker 1: on the other side, bombarded the wood and were successful
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 1: in wounding the general's chauffeur. Yesterday we went to fai
• 2:24:05
  Speaker 1: a Hey and I saw quite another thing. This little village,
• 2:24:09
  Speaker 1: a bit larger than Monteville, is as completely destroyed as Nominee.
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 1: It is true that the church was dynamited by the Germans,
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 1: but here we have a legitimate excuse. The village was
• 2:24:21
  Speaker 1: of strategical importance, and the absolute destruction was done after
• 2:24:25
  Speaker 1: the evacuation of the civilians. The ruins look as different
• 2:24:29
  Speaker 1: from those of Nominee as could be imagined. No skeleton remains.
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 1: It simply has been destroyed by shell fire, hundreds and
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: hundreds of shells, both French and German. The whole place
• 2:24:41
  Speaker 1: looks as if some great eruption had occurred and leveled
• 2:24:44
  Speaker 1: it to the ground. Whether it was necessary or not,
• 2:24:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know. But here one gets the feeling of
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 1: war and shell while at Nominee it is different. September
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 1: twenty ninth, last Monday, we heard the news of the
• 2:24:59
  Speaker 1: English and French victory in the Champagne. The shelling of
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 1: the French trenches in the Bois lea Petre had been
• 2:25:05
  Speaker 1: awful all day, but when the good news spread, it
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 1: sent courage to all the depressed, so that within a
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 1: short time the woods rang with cheers and shouts of
• 2:25:15
  Speaker 1: a la bayonette. Today lots of nice letters came from America.
• 2:25:20
  Speaker 1: The last two days have been full of excitement, and
• 2:25:23
  Speaker 1: we have been given an additional secteur to evacuate. Consequently,
• 2:25:27
  Speaker 1: our section has been temporarily divided in two mac and
• 2:25:31
  Speaker 1: I remain in pont Am Moissan. An attack is expected daily,
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 1: and with it will come the usual heavy bombardment of
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 1: pont A Mousson and the main roads. At present, the
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 1: rain has stopped everything, and the French and English successes will,
• 2:25:46
  Speaker 1: I suppose, be checked, as the heavy rain will make
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 1: advances almost impossible. September thirtieth news came this morning that
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 1: forty thousand prisoners had been taken by the Allies and
• 2:25:58
  Speaker 1: that three army corps had passed through the lines at Champagne.
• 2:26:02
  Speaker 1: It all seems too good to be true. The first
• 2:26:05
  Speaker 1: great good news the brave French have had for twelve months. Rain, rain, rain,
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 1: all day long. Therefore, I do not expect we shall
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 1: have immediate trouble here. The winter has come, the cold
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 1: weather is very bad, and a night call is an
• 2:26:20
  Speaker 1: unpleasant business. The other evening, when returning with an empty car,
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 1: I asked a sentry whom I knew at Di Luis,
• 2:26:28
  Speaker 1: from which point onward we are allowed no light? If
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: there was much traffic ahead? Oh no, he answered, not much.
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 1: It is mostly pasted now. So with a good night,
• 2:26:38
  Speaker 1: I started ahead, and six feet farther on I ran
• 2:26:42
  Speaker 1: straight into a horse. October tenth, today I saw one
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 1: of the most exciting episodes I have seen since I
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 1: came out here. Several German aviatticts and French planes have
• 2:26:54
  Speaker 1: been flying over the trenches, and so many shots were
• 2:26:57
  Speaker 1: fired by both German and French guns that there were
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: at least a hundred white puffs of smoke against the sky.
• 2:27:04
  Speaker 1: About a half an hour after, three or four shells
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 1: were thrown into the town, and I went up to
• 2:27:09
  Speaker 1: the top floor of our house to watch them explode.
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 1: A German aeroplane could be seen on our lines reconnoitering,
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 1: when suddenly another plane, a Niueport, came tearing down upon it.
• 2:27:20
  Speaker 1: We gave a shout a Frenchman a fight Vive la France.
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 1: The Frenchman was now above the German. The German in
• 2:27:28
  Speaker 1: full retreat. Lower and lower dropped, the Frenchman, always overtaking
• 2:27:32
  Speaker 1: the German. Bang bang bang. When themitreez the Germans swerved
• 2:27:37
  Speaker 1: and the Frenchman was level. Now he was underneath Bang
• 2:27:41
  Speaker 1: bang bang. A yell went up from us all the
• 2:27:44
  Speaker 1: German was hit. His plane swerved right side, left side, dipped, curved, dipped,
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 1: nose to the ground. A puff of smoke. Something had
• 2:27:52
  Speaker 1: exploded in the machine. It was now dropping straight to
• 2:27:55
  Speaker 1: the earth and finally was lost to sight in the
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 1: woods of Pouvenet. We yelled, we shrieked, we cheered. The
• 2:28:02
  Speaker 1: Frenchman had won. A dull roar came from the woods
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 1: of Warleapetra, thousands of French voices cheering the success of
• 2:28:10
  Speaker 1: their comrade. You may imagine the excitement at dinner when
• 2:28:14
  Speaker 1: George Rader and Willis, who had not been with us,
• 2:28:17
  Speaker 1: marched into the room triumphant with bits of the German aeroplane.
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 1: October thirteenth yesterday was a serious day for us, and
• 2:28:25
  Speaker 1: I had a bit of an escape you will have seen.
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 1: I expect that we were badly bombarded, and that incendiary
• 2:28:32
  Speaker 1: shells were thrown into the town. It was a Sunday.
• 2:28:36
  Speaker 1: It is always a Sunday. Gat mettuns, I suppose well,
• 2:28:40
  Speaker 1: about ten o'clock I started off to pay a visit
• 2:28:43
  Speaker 1: to a wireless friend with whom I had been learning
• 2:28:45
  Speaker 1: to read. An aeroplane flew overhead, and I pronounced it
• 2:28:49
  Speaker 1: to be a Frenchman. I was in the middle of
• 2:28:51
  Speaker 1: the road when I heard the whistle of a shell
• 2:28:54
  Speaker 1: a long way off, but strange to say, over my head.
• 2:28:58
  Speaker 1: It came nearer and nearer, louder and louder. Have you
• 2:29:02
  Speaker 1: ever actually experienced that inability to move which sometimes comes
• 2:29:06
  Speaker 1: in a dream? I did then, for the first and
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 1: I hope for only time in my life. Louder and
• 2:29:13
  Speaker 1: louder shrieked the shell, and I just stood in the
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 1: middle of the street, paralyzed. I could not move. At last, bang,
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 1: and then I ran ran like a bolted rabbit. Of course,
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 1: it was ludicrously late, but luckily for me the aeroplane
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: bomb for such, it was dropped twenty meters from me,
• 2:29:32
  Speaker 1: on the other side of a stone wall. I need
• 2:29:35
  Speaker 1: scarcely say I was ragged for my inability to distinguish
• 2:29:39
  Speaker 1: a Frenchman from a German. But it is not so
• 2:29:41
  Speaker 1: easy as one would imagine. After lunch, Ben and I
• 2:29:45
  Speaker 1: went to pay a visit to some of our friends
• 2:29:47
  Speaker 1: in the trenches, and afterwards walked through the first line
• 2:29:51
  Speaker 1: for some time. About three o'clock we heard a heavy bombardment,
• 2:29:55
  Speaker 1: the shells passing over our heads in the direction of
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 1: the town. We walked to the edge of the hill and,
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 1: sitting down, watched the poor little place being shelled for
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 1: two hours. The explosions of the German shells and the
• 2:30:08
  Speaker 1: shrieking of the French ones as they flew overhead to
• 2:30:11
  Speaker 1: silence the German batteries was most impressive. At last, one
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 1: shell came very near the house where Ben and I lived,
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 1: and was followed shortly after by a second even nearer.
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 1: Ben jumped up, exclaiming, come on, I can't watch that anymore.
• 2:30:27
  Speaker 1: It is too close to our house, and I have
• 2:30:29
  Speaker 1: a new winter uniform there. We returned to our friends
• 2:30:33
  Speaker 1: Dugouts about six and had an excellent supper in the open,
• 2:30:37
  Speaker 1: with stars and trees as a background and a gramophone
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 1: to provide music, six hundred meters from the Germans. The
• 2:30:44
  Speaker 1: other day we took another walk through the woods, further
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 1: back from those I have been talking about where the
• 2:30:50
  Speaker 1: Germans were last September. Shell holes everywhere, and old trenches
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 1: marked the battle lines. Violets had already appeared, and I
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 1: picked up few and put them in my fatigue cap.
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 1: Passing along a little wood path, we came upon the
• 2:31:05
  Speaker 1: inevitable harvest. Two wooden crosses, side by side, but different.
• 2:31:10
  Speaker 1: One cross was more carefully hewn, and nailed to it
• 2:31:13
  Speaker 1: by a bullet, was a little piece of red cloth,
• 2:31:16
  Speaker 1: the color of the trousers the French infantry wore at
• 2:31:19
  Speaker 1: the beginning of the war, and which is said to
• 2:31:22
  Speaker 1: have cost France several hundred thousand men. The other cross
• 2:31:26
  Speaker 1: was just two sticks, and hanging on it was a
• 2:31:28
  Speaker 1: piece of gray blue a German. So Here, side by side,
• 2:31:33
  Speaker 1: a long way from town or village, in the silence
• 2:31:36
  Speaker 1: of the wood, lie two nameless soldiers foes. I wonder.
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 1: So the days pass now with the evening comes as
• 2:31:46
  Speaker 1: often a grateful time of stillness. I like to watch
• 2:31:50
  Speaker 1: from my window the shadows lengthen as the sun leaves
• 2:31:53
  Speaker 1: to them their part a little later, when they have
• 2:31:56
  Speaker 1: wholly obscured all detail, man will perhaps aps furtively begins
• 2:32:01
  Speaker 1: some move to make the night unlovely. But for the
• 2:32:04
  Speaker 1: moment there is rest. An owl has just hooted, a
• 2:32:08
  Speaker 1: musty old clock has just struck six. A convoy wagon
• 2:32:12
  Speaker 1: rumbling along the road raises a cloud of gold and dust,
• 2:32:15
  Speaker 1: then silence again. Lately I have discovered a beautiful garden
• 2:32:20
  Speaker 1: full of fruit and flowers, where an old man still
• 2:32:23
  Speaker 1: stays as caretaker Schroeder. And I go there often and
• 2:32:27
  Speaker 1: eat the fruit which is spoiling on the trees. Sometimes,
• 2:32:31
  Speaker 1: when the day's work is done and there is a
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 1: quiet hour here, it is good to think of other
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 1: gardens far away, where the salt air comes in from
• 2:32:39
  Speaker 1: the sea, or often the fog. On these still summer evenings,
• 2:32:44
  Speaker 1: I can understand now the lure of peace, and so
• 2:32:47
  Speaker 1: I am doubly grateful that those of you for whom
• 2:32:50
  Speaker 1: I care most have chosen to work, rather than to
• 2:32:53
  Speaker 1: forget the struggle here. When I come back to you
• 2:32:57
  Speaker 1: some day, we shall feel a greater piece and so
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 1: sympathy for knowing that with the same eagerness, if in
• 2:33:03
  Speaker 1: different ways we have tried to serve and to save
• 2:33:07
  Speaker 1: those men whose heroism makes our best effort seem a
• 2:33:11
  Speaker 1: very small thing. End of Part five. End of with
• 2:33:17
  Speaker 1: the American Ambulance Field Service in France. Personal Letters of
• 2:33:21
  Speaker 1: a driver at the Front by Leslie Buswell,