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002 - Part 1 · Letters from the American Ambulance in France

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Part 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.
• 0:08
  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 pont Ain Moussain last night after a
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: seven hours journey to Nancie from Paris. On the way
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I found much to interest me, as if you will
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: look on your map, you will see that the railway
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: runs beside the river Marne, then the Meuse, and lastly
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the moselle An officer pointed out to me all the
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  Speaker 1: interesting places where the Germans advanced and retreated in a
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  Speaker 1: hurry or practically a route, leaving everything behind, even to
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  Speaker 1: their flags, which I believe are now in London. After
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: passing these and nearing Nanci, I saw what looked like
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: a fleet of aeroplanes, and the officer explained to me
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: that it was a flat buying taub being shot at
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: by the French. It looked like this diagram follows. I
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: am told that they rarely hit one. On arriving at Nancia,
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  Speaker 1: I was met by Salisbury our section leader, and after
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  Speaker 1: a very good meal in the most beautiful little town
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  Speaker 1: you could hope to see, and where the Kaiser and
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  Speaker 1: ten thousand troops in dress parade were waiting on a
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  Speaker 1: hill close by to enter in state. Last October we
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: started to buy motor for pont A Mousson. Some fifteen
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  Speaker 1: kilometers further on. Our lights were put out and we
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: then entered the region under shell fire. It was a
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  Speaker 1: funny feeling listening to my conductor talking about how this
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  Speaker 1: shell and that shell hit here and there, and all
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: along the route we passed torn up trees, houses and roads.
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  Speaker 1: At last we came to pont A Masson, a dear
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  Speaker 1: little village with about eight thousand inhabitants, and felt our way,
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  Speaker 1: so to speak, in the darkness and silence, to the
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  Speaker 1: barracks which are now the headquarters of the ambulance. I
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: found that there were about twenty cars and twenty two
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  Speaker 1: men here, the latter all enthusiastic about their work and
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  Speaker 1: the help the Section were giving the French. The day
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: before I arrived, a shell hit the house next door,
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  Speaker 1: and on first sight one would think it was the
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  Speaker 1: barracks itself which had been hit. These huge high explosive
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: shells are sent into the town every two or three days,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: and everywhere one sees masses of brick and stone all
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: that remains of houses struck. The Germans have bombarded the
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  Speaker 1: town over one hundred and ten times. After being introduced
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  Speaker 1: to the boys, I went to my room, which is
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  Speaker 1: some hundred and sixty meters up the road, nearer the trenches,
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  Speaker 1: but safer for all that here I found I was
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  Speaker 1: to share the house with another man, Schroder by name
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  Speaker 1: a Hollander, and a very nice fellow who has already
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: lost one brother and has had another wounded in the
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  Speaker 1: French army. My bedroom is a quite typical French peasant room,
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  Speaker 1: very comfortable, and I felt grateful to know that I
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  Speaker 1: was to have a bed and not straw to sleep on.
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  Speaker 1: I 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,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: which in peace time one would think was merely a
• 3:24
  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
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: always served at seven o'clock. Walking out of my front door,
• 3:35
  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,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the road goes straight on an avenue of trees. My
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  Speaker 1: friend or housemaid pointed out, about five hundred meters away
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  Speaker 1: what looked like a fallen tree across the road. Imagine
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  Speaker 1: my feelings when he told me that they were the
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  Speaker 1: French trenches to the right and left of this avenue
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  Speaker 1: or hills, and on the left runs the river Mozelle.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: On the ridge of hills, on the right one sees
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  Speaker 1: a brown line. These are the German trenches. And walking
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  Speaker 1: down the road to breakfast, one gets the knowledge that
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  Speaker 1: a first class rifle shot could pick one off. After breakfast,
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  Speaker 1: I was asked by one of the men, Rhoda, if
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  Speaker 1: I would like to look about the place, and I
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  Speaker 1: jumped at the invitation. We got into a Ford ambulance.
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  Speaker 1: No one can realize the excellence of the Ford for
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  Speaker 1: this purpose until he has seen what they can do,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: and we started on a tour or peti poumenaude, as
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  Speaker 1: an officer told us we were doing. Pont A Mousson
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  Speaker 1: was in the hands of the Germans for five days,
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  Speaker 1: and our headquarters were the German officer's headquarters. The French
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  Speaker 1: partially blew up the bridge which crosses the Mozelle at
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  Speaker 1: this most picturesque point, and for the last five days
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  Speaker 1: the Germans have been bombarding it, attempting in their turn
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  Speaker 1: to destroy it. Many of the houses round it seem
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  Speaker 1: to have been hit, and the two places where shells
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  Speaker 1: have taken most effect, or on the bridge, the French
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  Speaker 1: have repaired with wood. The boys tell me it is
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: a wonderful sight to see the water rising like a
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  Speaker 1: geyser when the shells hit the river, to show how
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  Speaker 1: careless the few remaining peasants are. Directly the Germans have
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: apparently ceased firing. They get into boats to pick up
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  Speaker 1: the fish killed in hundreds by the concussion. We left
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  Speaker 1: the 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
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: in relief, for it is difficult to accustom one's self
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  Speaker 1: immediately to the possibility of receiving a bullet in one's
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  Speaker 1: head or a shell in one's stomach. We then went
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: through the town, everywhere being told stories of how on
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  Speaker 1: such and such a day last week, five men were
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  Speaker 1: killed there and three wounded here and so on. All
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  Speaker 1: the houses are left open, and one can walk into
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  Speaker 1: any doorway that looks interesting and do a tour of inspection.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: We left pont A Mousson and started up the hill
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  Speaker 1: to our first place to occur x. You will see
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  Speaker 1: it on your map, some three kilometers from pont Amassan ruder,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: as we spat on, carefully explained that I was never
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: to drive along this particular road, but was to take
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  Speaker 1: a back way, as the commandant had forbidden anyone to
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: use this route, which was in full view of the
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: German artillery in trenches. If he could have realized how
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I felt, he would have taken me by the back
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: way that time too. On the other side of the
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: hill on our right extended the famous Billa Petre, But
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: it is no longer a wood. It is just a
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  Speaker 1: wilderness with a few brown stumps sticking up. Would you
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: like to go into the bois, I was asked. I
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  Speaker 1: felt I had been in as much danger as I
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  Speaker 1: was likely to get into, so I said yes, and
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  Speaker 1: we turned to the left and mounted a steep hill
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  Speaker 1: and entered it. Here the birds were singing and all
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  Speaker 1: was green and beautiful. It was a part where the
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  Speaker 1: artillery had not been but one could see trench after
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  Speaker 1: trench deserted. Here was an officer's cemetery, a terribly sad sight.
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  Speaker 1: Six hundred officer's graves. Close by were also the graves
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen hundred soldiers. The little cemetery was quite impressive
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  Speaker 1: on the side of this lovely green hill, with the
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  Speaker 1: great trees all around and the little plain wood crosses
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  Speaker 1: at each grave. As we waited, a broken down horse
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  Speaker 1: appeared with a cartload of what looked like old clothes.
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  Speaker 1: Lay more. I had never seen a dead body until
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: that moment. It was a horrible awakening. Eight stiff, semi detached, armless, trunkless,
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  Speaker 1: headless bodies, all men like ourselves, with people loving them somewhere,
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  Speaker 1: all gone this way because of what I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: do you? A grave had been dug two meters deep,
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  Speaker 1: large enough to hold sixteen, and then we were asked
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  Speaker 1: to group ourselves around the car to be taken poor souvenir.
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  Speaker 1: I managed to do it. I stood there by those
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  Speaker 1: dead men and tried to look as if it were
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  Speaker 1: a natural thing to do. I felt like being sick.
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  Speaker 1: Then one by one they were lowered into the grave.
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  Speaker 1: And when they were all laid out, the identification started
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  Speaker 1: to take place. The good boots were taken off, and
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  Speaker 1: if a coat was not too bloody or torn, it
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  Speaker 1: was kept. Surely we must be going, I said, no, no,
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  Speaker 1: not before we have shown you the dead and the
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  Speaker 1: fosse there. Good God, I cried, I can't do that now,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: and I did not. We returned to pont A Mousson
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  Speaker 1: for lunch at twelve o'clock, and I felt a very
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  Speaker 1: different person and wondered how I could have felt faint
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: the week before on merely seeing the photographs of wounded
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  Speaker 1: in our Nuilli hospital. One becomes abituet tell me. I
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: was then officially handed over the car I am to drive,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: and I began looking over all the parts, as we
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  Speaker 1: have to do everything for ourselves here Saturday. It hardly
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  Speaker 1: seems possible that we are so close to the German trenches.
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  Speaker 1: Fair food, even hot water, wonderful moonlight nights, and a
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  Speaker 1: comfortable bed. Every other night. We have to sleep in
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  Speaker 1: barracks to be on duty any moment, and so we
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  Speaker 1: sleep on straw and don't undress. Every fourth night we
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  Speaker 1: are on duty all night and go to X and
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  Speaker 1: stay there in the car taking wounded to the first, Second,
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  Speaker 1: and Third Base hospitals. Thursday was my baptism of fire,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: for we had a great artillery duel, and it was
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: very interesting, though not at all quieting, to hear the
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  Speaker 1: big guns fired and shells exploded over our heads. About
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  Speaker 1: six o'clock it stopped and we went in to dinner. Afterward,
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  Speaker 1: another boy, Barkley, went for a walk with me, and
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  Speaker 1: we stopped to talk to two peasant girls who still
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  Speaker 1: remained in the town. Come in and have some strawberries,
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  Speaker 1: they invited. And the way these girls offered us all
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the little luxuries their house could afford, showed us how
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  Speaker 1: respected the American Ambulance is by the peasants as well
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  Speaker 1: as the officers. Do you fence? One of them asked, yes,
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  Speaker 1: a little, I answered, and foils were brought out, and
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  Speaker 1: we started in. The girl fenced well, but I managed
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  Speaker 1: to remember a little of what I once knew, when
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: suddenly I heard a man's voice say in French, well done,
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  Speaker 1: well done, Give me the foils my daughter quick and
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: I was introduced to a fine old soldier who had
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  Speaker 1: fought in the Campaign of eighteen seventy. We saluted and
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  Speaker 1: started again, but here I soon realized the touch of
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  Speaker 1: a master, and although I got in a few hits,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I was easily beaten and felt a little downcast. But
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  Speaker 1: my husband is a professor of fencing for forty years,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: observed Madame. I retired to bed, feeling that though beaten,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: I might have many happy games. In the evening at
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: fencing with the Vieu meetre. Yesterday, I took out my
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  Speaker 1: ambulance alone and carried eight wounded for the first time.
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  Speaker 1: I am now gradually slipping into my place, and the
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  Speaker 1: sense of strangeness is passing off. June nineteenth, to continue
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  Speaker 1: from where I left off, I am now on duty
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  Speaker 1: at the Bureau, our headquarters here. Last night, as I
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: was finishing my supper, I was told to go to
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: f to fetch a contagious case and take it to
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: the train. Sunday, I was suddenly interrupted by being called
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: to fetch the wounded from x and I am just back.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: My roommate offered to come with me and get the
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: contagious case, which proved fortunately to be only measles, and
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: we started off on what I thought then one of
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  Speaker 1: the most amazing trips of my life, turning suddenly to
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  Speaker 1: the left from the main road. I drove our little
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: ford three kilometers along the road, which was in full
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: view of the Germans and which had been the death
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: place of many passers. By then turning left again, we
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: drove slowly to a village so full of soldiers that
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: it seemed impossible so many could even find shelter. A
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: quick turn to the right. Up, up, up, first speed
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  Speaker 1: along a very narrow road with just room for the car.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: On both sides were stuck up cut tree branches to
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: make the Germans think there was no road. Up we
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: went through another tiny hill village full of artillery, and
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: on every side underground dugouts where they all live trees,
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  Speaker 1: blown down, branches stuck here and there to look like trees.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: And at last we reached the top. The water in
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  Speaker 1: the radiator was boiling, so we stopped, walked a bit
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  Speaker 1: in the most beautiful woods and picked flowers and wild
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: strawberries to the tune of birds and distant cannon. In
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: this wood are heavy naval guns. But from where and
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: how they were ever taken there is a puzzle. On
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  Speaker 1: We went through more woods until we were stopped by
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: a sentry who directed us still further, and then I
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: saw what was the most dreamlike spectacle I ever beheld.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: The thick woods teemed with soldiers, and dotted through the
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: forests were little huts very low where they lived, thousands
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: of them, pathways starting every twenty yards to some new
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: wood village. We heard music, and on reaching our destination,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: were invited to inspect these quaint habitations. We walked down
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: a path past hut after hut, and then suddenly the
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: wood opened out and we came to a kind of amphitheater,
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  Speaker 1: and my friend and I were conducted to fautwez so
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  Speaker 1: to speak, and we listened after much handshaking, and vive
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: la mariique, vive l'anglataire, and camarade et cetera to a
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: band of three banjo, violin and dulcimer. As I write,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: a shell has just exploded nearby, I jumped to see
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: where about two hundred yards away, and the smoke is
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: slowly clearing. We soon left our friends and took our
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: contagious case to the station. After passing through wonderful valleys, hills, woods,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: and plains, we returned home, pretty tired, wondering how such
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: atrocities could be taking place in such a perfect country.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: We go regularly to x to get our blessee, and
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: for two out of the six kilometers we are exposed
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: to German view, and the whole of the way, of course,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: to shell fire. On my first arrival at this little
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: mountain village, I was horrified to see two people lying
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: dead in the road in huge pools of blood. Six
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: German one fifties had been suddenly launched into the village,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: which is full of soldiers, and killed six soldiers and
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: wounded some thirty three of the six shots had landed
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: actually in the road itself. Two of our ambulances were
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: in the street at the time, and only chance spared them.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I asked where the shells had struck, and my stretcher
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: bearer looked round for a moment and then pointed under
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: my own car, and there was a hole some nine
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: inches deep and two feet wide. It made me feel
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: rather rotten, I must say, only five minutes before, and
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: it might happen again at any moment. I took down
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: three cuche as the lying down ones are called, and
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: had to pass in front of a battery of seventy
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: five which fired as I passed, and gave me a
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: shaky knee feeling, I can tell you. Then backward and
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: forward for two hours, carrying more wounded, and to add
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: to the excitement, it rained so hard that I was
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: thankful I had bought myself to uniforms and could change
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: to day is Sunday, and after a rather uncomfortable night
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: in my clothes and a snap sleep, I have a
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: day off Salisbury. Our section leader asked me to go
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: with him to Toul, and I went for what proved
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: to be a wonderful drive through sleeping villages and semi
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: tilled land and woods and valleys. Toul is one of
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: the most fortified towns in France, and as we approached
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: we saw trench after trench and wire entanglements and so forth.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: The Germans, however, will never advance so far. I think.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: We stopped at the aeroplane sheds, where we picked up
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: a captain Australian, and with him entered Toul, a quiet,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: sleeping town with a lovely church. Returning, we were taken
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: over the sheds and saw a large quantity of biplanes
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and monoplanes. I am now waiting to be taken up
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: into the trenches, but the bombardment I spoke of earlier
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: has continued so heavily that I doubt if we shall
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: get up to them. After all, the whole section here
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: does real work night and day amidst great hardships, and
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: no small day, and the French appreciation is very apparent.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: German prisoners say that the Germans intend utterly demolishing Pontal
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Masson if they have to retire any more. But it
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: would take about two hundred and fifty thousand shells to
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: do it, and I doubt if it is worth their while.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: If any one can imagine the feeling of a peaceful
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: man who suddenly hears a gun fired and a shell
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: whistling overhead, followed by the explosion, and then vice versa
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: by the enemy, he will perhaps sympathize with a disagreeable
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: sensation I experienced when I first heard it happen. However,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: for five days it has gone on constantly, and soon
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: I shall become accustomed Monday. This very long letter will
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: probably end in being so dull that it will not
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: be worth reading. But when everything is fresh to me
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: it is easy to describe. After three or six weeks
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: I shall probably write that I have no news for
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: one day is doubtless a repetition of the other. Therefore,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: while my impressions are new, I must scribble them down.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: I did not get to the trenches last night as
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: the bombardment became so bad. It would have been foolish
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: to take so great a risk sight seeing. If we
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: had had to go to get wounded, it would have
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: been different. I stood in the road opposite the little
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: house I live in and watched the Germans bombard X.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: It was rather like a stage scene or a colored
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: picture show. X is a little valley town with the
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: conventional church steeple and about two and one half kilometers
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: as the crow flies from pont A Mousson. Shrapnel, curiously enough,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: is not considered very dangerous, and the soldiers here treated
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: with contempt. The Germans use it to keep people from
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: going on to the streets to put out fires which
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: may have been started by their two tens or one
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: fifty high explosives. Late yesterday afternoon, they set fire to
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: a haystack, and the smoke made them think that the
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: village was on fire, so they sent about one hundred
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: shrapnel one after the other over it. And it was
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: most interesting to see the flash in the sky, then
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: a white cotton wool effect, and finally the sound of
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: explosion the French behind Ahe immediately opened fire and the
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: music began. It lasted about an hour, but as none
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: of our men were wounded, we did not have to
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: go up there. After dinner, three of us went for
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: a little walk along the motel. One can see the
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Germans about a thousand meters away on the hills, and
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: as you walk along the banks of the river, they
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: can see you distinctly, but they don't bother to fire,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: which is kind of them. We sat down and watched
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: two soldiers fishing, and I took a photo of them,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: as I thought it so amusing for people to fish
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: under the direct and easy rifle shot of the bush.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: We then went and talked to a lot of soldiers
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: about to return to the trenches. They are all nice
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: to us, and it would make an American proud if
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: he could see how the American boys here are respected
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: and loved. One officer was very indignant because those dirty
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: bushes had actually thrown five shells into his trench yesterday.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: As he wandered off, muttering, I will show them le
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: coauchon l CoA chan coach chant rather sleepily. I thought
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: I couldn't help remembering the dormouse and Alice in Wonderland.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: It appeared that at the particular line of trenches where
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: he was, they had agreed only to fire at each
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: other with rifles. In several places. Here the trenches are
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: only fifteen or twenty meters apart, and the French and
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Germans are on quite good terms. They exchanged tobacco for
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: wine and paper for cigarettes, and then return and shoot
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: at each other quite merrily. About Christmas or February, I
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: am told by soldiers who were then there. They used
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: to walk into each other's trenches and exchange stories and so,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: but now they have become maichamp. I am feeling pretty
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: sick today and rather dread tonight, as I have all
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: night duty at x. I am not at all well.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: It is the hard food we are having, I suppose. Anyhow,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: I find myself nice and thin again, So your shocking
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: example of gaining weight last spring is now of no influence.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Doc comes tomorrow and I will give him this letter
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: to post, as it would never get through unless posted
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: in Paris. I have just returned from Belleville, where I
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: took three cochets and two at seas. One of the
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: couchets was raving, and he yelled and shrieked the whole
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: seventeen kilometers. It was horrible. When I arrived at Bellville,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: where they are put on a train and sent to
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: a base hospital, I found that in his agony he
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: had torn off his clothes and broken the hangars of
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the stretcher, so it was a wonder he did not
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: completely fall on the two men below. Our cars are
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: packed like this diagram follows. I do not know what
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: could be worse than having a poor, peaceful peasant who
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: forced to fight, and, after perhaps months of agonizing trench life,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: badly wounded, shrieks with pain and misery as you try
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: to avoid the many bad bumps in the road. We
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: expect a big attack to day, and we have evacuated
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: all the ex hospitals. It looks too as if they
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: were preparing for many wounded. Any kind of news will
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: be greatly appreciated. If you do not hear very regularly
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: from me, remember it will be because work is too heavy.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Thursday Doc has not yet arrived. He was expected Tuesday,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: so I am afraid you won't have heard from me
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: this week, as he will miss the mail. I am
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: sitting at the window of my bedroom with the sun
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: streaming through on the table, and can imagine myself at
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Beauport or the bungalow. But every three or four minutes
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: boom and then bang boom, the Germans firing on Monteville
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: and the French replying. As I sit here, I can
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: see the smoke rising from the village, and I wonder
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: if either of our ambulances, which are on duty there
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: have been hurt. Doc may come to night, and if
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: he does so, I will make him come to x tomorrow,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: as it is my day's duty there, and he will
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: have some excitement. On my right, I can see about
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: a thousand meters away the German trenches. It is strange
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: to sit at a window and be in such a position,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: and yet be writing a letter as though we were
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: all together again in Gloucester. I have been very sick,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: but to day I am better again and am very
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: grateful for my recovery. Yesterday I discovered that the main
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: backspring of my car was broken and I had to
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: replace it. Imagine me on my back all day, working
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: like a madman to get the job done in time
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: for duty. Last night. I managed it all right, however,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: and so feel myself quite a mechanic. My old bus
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: has a horrid habit of running forward when I crank it.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: I think I have more dread of cranking my car
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: than of a German OBUs. Last night I went into
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: the square to see the civilians leave. There are not
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: a great many left, but the women are a nuisance morally,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: and so the governor is turning them out as quickly
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: as he can alas that they could not have done
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: their part better. It was a sad sight, many many tears,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: and some hysterics. The governor, a splendid old colonel, came
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: up and talked with us, there were four of us,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: and was eager to hear when America was to join
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the Allies. He quite spoils us all and anything we want,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: he sees we have, if it is possible. Last night
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: it was amusing to see his indignation when he learned
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: that we were paid as ordinary pollieu, a fe familiar
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: term of endearment referring to the unshaven men in the trenches.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: As sou a day we don't draw the pay. He
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: gallantly declared that we should all rank as sub lieutenants
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: and should be compensated as such. For he added, you
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: brave boys do as much as any soldier at the front,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: and take as much risk. I like the French gallantry
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: and sincerity. One meets it everywhere. The officers all salute us,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: and the pollieu all cheer, smile and vive la mariique,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: et cetera. And I feel that the work of the
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: section is real. I have rarely met a happier lot
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: of fellows, and also good natured and generous. You never
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: hear a hard word. All work for the good cause,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: and as efficiency is unity, we try to be efficient.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: I wish you could see this dear old garrison town,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: with its poplars and bridge and church, and the lazy
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: moselle slowly creeping along to quieter and happy places. Here
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and there are fallen houses, and often gaps in the
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: walls and torn up trees. The house next to us
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: has been hit and looks like this picture follows, with
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: piles of stone and brick all over the road. I
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: always try to talk with the soldiers. My French is
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: improving but still rotten, and I find they have become fatalists.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Some of the regiments here have been filled up several times,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: and I hear that thirty five thousand French have been
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: killed in the Bois la Petra. Every day great shells
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: or hand grenades fall into the trenches, and many a
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: poor peasant or higher cast of Frenchmen is called away.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: I took three wounded to the hospital this morning from
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: x after they had only been in the trenches twenty minute,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: having come straight from the home base. They talked so
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: hopelessly about their chance of life. An old chap asked
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: me yesterday if I would like a German rifle well
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: rap there, said I. He promised he would bring it
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: to me at seven o'clock unless ant Oubis hit him.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: He did not come, poor fellow, but perhaps he forgot
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: his promise. I hope so, pont A Mousson, June twenty fifth,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: you will not have received any mail from me this week,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: and I am very sorry if I have caused you
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: any anxiety. Doc said he would be here last Tuesday,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: and to our surprise, he has not even arrived yet.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: I am a little anxious about him, and so tried
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: to send him a wire to ask if he is well,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: as yet I have received no answer. The three letters
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: I have written could never possibly reach you from here,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: as we are only allowed to write little open letters
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: or postals. So I shall wait until he comes before
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: I send them. The last few days have been quiet,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: but for me, full of interest and hard work. I
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: am better, but my illness of the three days has
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: pulled me down a lot, and the food is not
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: good enough to allow me to pick up strength quickly.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: I have had many long talks with soldiers, and they
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: tell me most interesting stories. One told me that he
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: got on such friendly terms with the Germans in a
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: trench ten meters away that he asked them all to
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: put their heads above the trench so as to take
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: their photos. And I have been promised a copy also
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: that they promised to tell each other when they meant
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: to attack or blow up a trench. The mining of
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: the trenches is the most horrible method of warfare existing.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: I think there seems so little chance, in fact none.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: The worst implement of destruction for the trench livers is
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: the new kind of projectile called a torpella, a sort
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: of torpedo. It is fired from about four hundred meters
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and is noiseless, very large, and terribly destructive. Nearly all
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: of the poor fellows we take to the hospital have
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: been zaute by a mean or hit by a torpeya.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: The French have developed a projectile of the same sort,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: and neither side has had them more than six weeks.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: It has a kind of tail to its head sea sketch,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: and is shot from a sort of small gun. Of course,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: they shoot big shells of say two ten or two
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: eighty into the trenches, and so marvelous is the accuracy
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: of firing that they explode, often on the floor of
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: the trench. A shell, however, one can hear coming. The
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: whistle is very plain, and you have perhaps one second
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: or two to hide. The torpeia gives no warning, is
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: just as large and therefore very deadly. Yesterday I visited
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: the trenches. I left here at four o'clock in the
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: morning and started up the hill through a little village
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: rather like what the French call me Boustville, which has
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: been much bombarded, and then climbed up past disused trenches
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: until we came to a sentry who directed us up
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: to to the company, where a friend had promised to
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: meet me. At last. I found him and we started
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: for the Premiere ligne. I felt a little nervous and anxious,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: as I did not care to get killed sight seeing,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: my friend pointed out some bushes to me, and I
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: had not noticed what he said, when, on passing within
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: a foot of another bush, I found myself looking into
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: the muzzle of a seventy five gun. For some distance,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: every inch seemed full of great guns and little guns,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: all so cleverly hidden that it would seem impossible to
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: know they were there. At last, we came to a
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: hill and were told by a sentry that we could
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: not pass that way for some reason or other. Perhaps
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: the position of a battery had just been changed, and
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: we had either to go straight back or right across
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: a field three hundred yards wide, in full view of
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: the Germans three hundred and fifty meters away. Said my friend, Oh,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: I think they are eating. Now, let's risk it. They
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: never fire while food is about, so somewhat against human nature.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: I assented, and we slowly trudged across the open I
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: confess I was relieved when we reached the shady wood.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Still mounting up, we passed hundreds and hundreds of blue
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: coated soldiers returning from their night vigil in the trenches.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: And then the noise and chatter of men and birds
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: seemed to die away, and I could hear little else
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: but the crack of some twig one of us walked on,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: or the occasional bang of a rifle. This deadly silence,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: it was really quite all inspiring, continued as we passed
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: silent groups of soldiers sipping coffee, tea or soup. Then
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: we took three or four steps down, and henceforth walked
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: in trenches, winding, curving zigzag. We went, no trench being
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: more than five meters straight. The soldiers silently smiled. One
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: heard whispered America Ann. I saluted an officer, who smiled
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: in return, and showed me his room. Really it was
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: quite comfortable. At last we came to a trench where
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: every meter soldiers stood looking and waiting. It was the
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: thin blue line that guards France's frontier for four hundred kilometers.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: The Germans are not pressing or attacking this particular place
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: at present, and so the whole trench is so wonderfully neat,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: and so clean, and so uniform and almost comfortable. One
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: began to wonder whether it was only a side show
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: in some exhibition. We walked very quietly along this trench
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: for some two kilometers, and I suddenly discovered that, in
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: my interest, I had allowed but forty five minutes to
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: get home if I was to be in time for
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: duty at seven. So I made a hasty retreat and
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: arrived back at barracks just in time. End of Part one.