Part 16
The Section we relieved told us what to expect. It began strong. The first night the fellows worked through a gas attack. I was off duty and missed out on one disagreeable experience. One has to breathe through a little bag affair packed with layers of cloth and chemicals. The eyes are also protected with tight-fitting isinglass, which moists over and makes driving difficult. The road was not shelled that night, so it might have been worse. The second night was my go. We rolled all night from the _poste de secours_ back to the first sorting-station. The _poste_ was in a little town with the Germans on three sides of the road and all in full view, which made daylight going impossible. The day work was evacuating from sorting-stations to field hospitals. There our work stopped. English and French sections worked from there back to the base hospitals. The road ran out through fields and a little stretch of woods, French batteries situated on both sides the entire way; that is what drew the fire. Four trips between dusk and dawn were the most possible. The noise of French fire was terrifying until we learned to distinguish it from the German _arrivées_. It is important to know the difference, and one soon learns. The _départ_ is a sharp bark and then the whistle diminishing. The _arrivées_ come in with a slower, increasing whistle and ripping crash. In noise alone it is more than disagreeable. The _poste de secours_ was an _abri_ in a cellar of four walls. Of the town there was scarcely a wall standing: _marmites_ had done their work well. The road was an open space between, scalloped and scooped like the moon in miniature. We would drive up, crawling in and out of these holes, turn around, get our load and go. When the place was shelled, we had time to hear them coming and dive under our cars. The drive back was harrowing. One was sure to go a little too fast on a stretch of road that felt smooth and then pitch into a hole, all but breaking every spring on the body. I'll never forget the screams of the wounded as they got rocked about inside. At times a stretcher would break and we would have to go on as it was. Of course we would have to drive in darkness, and passing _convois_ of artillery at a full gallop going in opposite directions on either side. Each night a bit more of tool box or mud guard would be taken off. Often I found myself in a wedge where I had to back and go forward until a little hole was found to skip through, and then make a dash for it and take a chance. One night there was a thunderstorm with vivid lightning and pitch darkness. The flash of guns and of lightning were as one and the noise terrific. That night, too, the road was crowded with ammunition wagons. But worst of all, it was under shell fire in three places. Traffic became demoralized because of the dead horses and wrecked wagons smashed up by shrapnel. All our cars were held up in parts of the road. There is no feeling of more utter helplessness than being jammed in between cannon and _caissons_ in a road under shell fire. No one was hit that night. Two of the men had to run ahead and cut loose dead horses in order to get through....
Barber's car was hit the next night. He had stopped and was crouching by it, which probably saved him. Subsequently the Germans corrected their range on the road by the sight of the car, and on our last run it was level with the ground. The bodies of the wounded he was carrying mingled with the wreckage. That night was the climax of danger. Things eased off a bit after, but the strain was telling and our driving was not so skillful. Next to the last night I collided with a huge _ravitaillement_ wagon coming at full gallop on the wrong side of the road. The entire front of the car went into bow knots, but I landed clear in safety. This occurred under the lee of a cliff, so we went in search with wrecking car the next day. After twenty hours she was running again, shaky on her wheels, but strong in engine. She goes to Paris soon for shop repairs. Poor old Alice! A wrecked car in so short a time. Patched with string and wire and straps, she looks battle-scarred to a degree. Her real battle souvenirs are five shrapnel balls embedded in the roof and sides. I don't believe in collecting souvenirs, but these I could not help!
There were humorous incidents; that is, humorous when we look back on them, safely in camp. One goes as follows: Three cars running out to the _poste_ about thirty yards apart. The whistle of shells and a great increase in speed in the cars. (Somehow speed seems to give the feeling of more security.) Road getting too hot--shells falling between the cars as they run. First car stopped short and driver jumped about thirty feet into a trench by the roadside. Landed in six inches of water and stayed. Car No. 2 stopped, but not short enough to prevent smashing into tail-board of No. 1. Driver made jump and splash No. 2 into trench. Ditto for Car No. 3 (me). Whistle and bang of shell, crash of hitting cars, and splash of falling men in water. Here we remained until the "storm blew over."
I am mighty glad we are through and out of it all. Whatever action we go into again, it cannot be harder or more dangerous than what we have been through. That will be impossible. I don't know yet whether I am glad or not to have had such an experience. It was all so gigantic and terrifying. It was war in its worst butchery. We all of us lost weight, but health and morale are O.K., and we are ready for more work after our repose. When you read this, remember I am out of it and in less dangerous parts....
The French military is giving half of us forty-eight hours _permission_ for the Fourth of July. We are going for a two days' spree in Paris!
My debits to date are one letter from mother of the 7th; one shirt, chocolate, and corduroy suit.
I would rather you didn't pass this letter around much. It is too hurried and slapdash, and I may have quite different opinions after we have calmed down a bit.
EDWARD (_Tinkham_)
P.S. Barber was given the _Médaille Militaire_--most coveted of military honors.
IV
----_France, June 30_
_Dearest "folks at home," abroad--and Grandma!_
Four nights ago I had a pretty narrow escape. I can mention no names here, but this is the gist of the story:--
I was driving my car with three wounded soldiers in it along a road that was being shelled. Well, I got in the midst of a pretty hot shower, so I stopped my car and got under it. A few minutes later I supposed it was blowing over, so I got out. I had no sooner done so than I heard one of those big _obus_ coming, the loudest I had ever heard. I ran to the front of my car, crouching down in front of the radiator. When it burst it struck the car. My three soldiers were killed. I was hurt only a little. I am not disfigured in any way. It just tore my side and legs a bit.
The French treated me wonderfully. I succeeded in getting the next American Ambulance driven by Wheeler (a great boy) who took me to the City of ---- where our _poste_ is. Here I was given first aid, and the _Médecin chef_ personally conducted me in an American Ambulance, in the middle of the night, to a very good hospital. They say I have the best doctor in France--in Paris.
Well, I woke up the next day in a bed, and have been recuperating ever since. Every one is wonderful to me. General Pétain, second to Joffre, has stopped in to shake hands with me, and many are my congratulations, too, for above my bed hangs the _Médaille Militaire_, the greatest honor the French can give any one. Really, I am proud, although I don't deserve it any more than the rest. Please excuse my egotism.
Mr. Hill and my French lieutenant come to see me every day, and some of the boys also. They joke around here, saying that I am getting so well that they have lost interest in me and must move on. In three or four days I go to the hospital at Neuilly where I can have every comfort.
Of course you won't worry about me. I will be just as good as new soon, and really this is true.
The Germans peppered the life out of my car. No one goes over the road in daylight, but the fellows brought me back the next day a handful of bullets taken from it, and said they could get me a bushel more if I desired them.
A----, I got your letter; it was great. The first one that I have received from some one who has heard from me.
F----, thanks for the $----. I am sorry I have made you so much trouble about the prescription. It is just my shiftlessness.
For three days I was not allowed to eat or drink and could hardly move in bed. My spirits were high, too. I will try to write better and take more pains.
Good-bye, WILLIAM
_Neuilly-sur-Seine, July 10, 1916_
Well, I am here at Neuilly! This is a wonderful hospital and they do treat you great! I am just getting back to normal and have no temperature. The doctors here are _the_ best in the world....
Now I want to ask your advice or permission. When I get well, in two or three weeks, how would you like it for me to spend a week resting in some suburb of London? I would just take a room there and live and sleep. I have read so much about life in England that I am dying to try it and I think it would do me good. I don't think the cost would be heavy and I will consider it a go if you cable me a loan for the trip.
When my wounds heal up, which they are fast doing, I will be just as good as new, no scars at all. I am very happy here and hope every day that you are as happy and never worry about me. I surely have given you a lot of trouble and anxiety, and hope that I will do always as you say after this. The best of my experience is that I have never once regretted this great trip, and I think I have done a small part of a great work, and my _Médaille_ shows what the French think of my services. I will throw aside modesty for the moment. It is given for discipline and valor, and by the way, what amuses me, there is an annual pension of one hundred francs. I have been treated wonderfully since I had it given me. The French keep me in official quarters and give me officer's grub, which is about one hundred per cent better than the soldiers'. I am having some wonderful experiences....
I am still continuing my diary, and I assure you it is full of thrills. I am the only ambulance boy who has been given a _Médaille_, and I am told that Mr. Balsley, an American aviator, is the only other American who has it. Well, enough of this conceit.
Excuse writing; written in great haste in bed.
Please cable me some money if you will permit me to go to England for a week. Perhaps I can get ---- to go with me.
Lots of love to all; my best to Grandma.
WILLIAM
[_The following paragraphs are from a letter written to the family of William Barber by his Section leader, Lovering Hill._]
... William was wounded on the night of the 27th of June while bringing back wounded from the _poste de secours_.
It was a dangerous road, and seeing some shelling on the road ahead of him, he had stopped to await its cessation. He was about to start up again when a shell fell a few feet away, many small fragments of which struck him, one large one striking him a glancing blow on the side. He ran back a few yards and was picked up by one of his comrades who brought him to the dressing-station at Verdun, where I was at the time. There his wounds were dressed; one of them proved to be serious.
I got in touch at once with the _Médecin divisionnaire_, who is the chief of the _Service de Santé_ of our Division, who immediately took charge of the case and personally accompanied your son in the ambulance which brought him to Vadelaincourt--the nearest surgical ambulance, twenty-five kilometers back. There he awakened a very well-known Parisian physician and surgeon, Dr. Lucas Championière, who operated at once.
As soon as I could leave my work, at six o'clock the next morning, accompanied by our French lieutenant, I went to Vadelaincourt to see William, who was just coming to from the anæsthetic. The doctor told me it was serious because the fragment had cut into the peritoneum, but without injuring the intestine--the danger being in the chances of peritonitis setting in; that he could tell me in forty-eight hours whether there would be the danger of this complication. On your son's insistence, and on my own judgment, I decided not to cause you needless anguish by cabling until his case should have been judged. On the third day I was told he was out of danger, so I advised William to cable you, and I cabled his brother myself.
One of his other wounds consisted in a small splinter that lodged in his lung, but this was not considered by the doctor to be the cause of any concern, the only wound which might have dangerous consequences being the abdominal one.
The Section was moved away shortly after, so that July 1st was the last day on which I saw him, but I have telephoned for news daily, and have been always told he was doing well.
Before closing I wish to tell you how courageous he has been throughout, not only after he was wounded, when he showed the most splendid pluck, but before, when he was doing really dangerous work with enthusiasm and coolness. The French authorities have recognized this in awarding him the _Médaille Militaire_, the highest medal for military valor in France.
TRIBUTES AND CITATIONS
_Armées de l'Est_
_État-Major Général_
_G. Q. G., le 24 Mai 1916_
NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE
Le Général Commandant en Chef à Monsieur PIATT ANDREW, Inspecteur Général du Service aux Armées de l'hôpital Américain de Neuilly
Je vous remercie vivement pour votre offre d'une nouvelle section automobile, qui va porter à cinq le nombre de vos formations sanitaires aux armées.
Je tiens à vous exprimer ma satisfaction de l'oeuvre accomplie par vos volontaires qui n'ont cessé, en toutes circonstances, de faire preuve de courage, d'endurance et de dévouement.
Les bons résultats donnés par votre organisation sont dus, pour une bonne part, à votre activité et votre zèle inlassables.
Agréez, Monsieur, l'expression de ma considération très distinguée.
[TRANSLATION]
_Armies of the East_
_General Staff_
_Grand Headquarters, 24 May, 1916_
The General Commanding in Chief to Monsieur PIATT ANDREW, Inspector General of the Field Service of the American Hospital of Neuilly.
I thank you warmly for your offer of an additional automobile section, which will increase to five the number of your sanitary units with the army.
I desire to express to you my satisfaction with the work performed by your volunteers who have unremittingly, under all conditions, given proof of their courage, endurance, and devotion.
The excellent results achieved by your units are due in large measure to your own untiring activity and zeal.
Accept, Monsieur, the assurance of my most distinguished consideration.
RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE
_Ministère de la Guerre_
_Sous-Secrétariat d'État du Service de Santé Militaire_
_1{ère} Division Techn._
_Paris, le 31 octobre 1915_
_Monsieur,--_
Mon attention a été appelée sur les services éminents rendus au Service de Santé par la Section Sanitaire Automobile Américaine N{o} 2, que vous dirigez, et particulièrement sur le zèle et le courage avec lequel elle a porté secours à nos blessés, dans la région de Pont-à-Mousson.
J'ai appris avec plaisir que votre formation dans son ensemble, et la plupart de ses membres à titre particulier, avaient été cités à l'ordre du jour de la 73{ème} Division de Réserve.
Je me fais un devoir d'adresser à la Section Sanitaire Automobile Américaine N{o} 2, les sincères remerciements du Département de la Guerre.
(Signé) JUSTIN GODARD
MONSIEUR SALISBURY _Chef de la Section Sanitaire Automobile N{o} 2_ PONT-À-MOUSSON
[TRANSLATION]
RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE
_War Department_
_Office of the Under Secretary Military Sanitation Service_
_First Technical Division_
_Paris, 31 October, 1915_
_Monsieur,--_
My attention has been called to the eminent services rendered to the Sanitation Service by American Automobile Sanitary Section No. 2, which is under your direction, and especially to the zeal and courage with which it carried succour to our wounded in the Pont-à-Mousson district.
I have learned with pleasure that your unit as a whole, and the greater number of its members, have been mentioned in the orders of the day of the 73rd Reserve Division.
I make it my duty to extend to American Automobile Sanitary Section No. 2, the sincere gratitude of the War Department.
(_Signed_) JUSTIN GODARD
MONSIEUR SALISBURY _Commanding Automobile Sanitary Section No. 2._ PONT-À-MOUSSON
RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE
_Ministère de la Guerre_
_Cabinet du Sous-Secrétaire d'État_
_Paris, le 23 mai 1916_
_Monsieur,--_
Je connais et apprécie la part très active que vous et vos amis avez pris aux propagandes faites en Amérique, depuis le début de la guerre, en faveur de la cause du Droit que défendent la France et ses Alliés. Je sais, en particulier, vos efforts pour aboutir à la manifestation de la sympathie de vos concitoyens pour nos vaillants soldats, par une coopération effective et pratique à la tâche du Service de Santé français. Aussi je tiens à vous exprimer, d'une façon spéciale, toute la satisfaction que donnent à mon Département, depuis leur entrée en service aux Armées, les Sections sanitaires automobiles de l'Ambulance américaine.
Grâce non seulement à leur excellent organisation matérielle, mais encore et surtout au dévouement courageux du personnel d'élite que nous a envoyé votre Pays pour les diriger, ces Sections contribuent, de la façon la plus heureuse, à atténuer les souffrances de nos blessés, en abrégeant les heures si douloureuses qui s'écoulent entre le moment où le soldat tombe sur le champ de bataille et celui où il peut recevoir, dans des conditions convenables, les soins qu'exige son état.
Veuillez donc agréer, pour vous, Monsieur, et transmettre à vos amis d'Amérique l'assurance de ma profonde gratitude, pour l'oeuvre que vous avez si parfaitement conçue et réalisée, et dont vos compatriotes continuent d'assurer l'entretien en personnel et en matériel, avec autant de vaillance que de générosité.
Agréez, Monsieur, l'assurance de ma considération distinguée.
(Signé) JUSTIN GODARD
_Monsieur_ PIATT ANDREW
[TRANSLATION]
RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE
_War Department_
_Office of the Under-Secretary_
_Paris, 23 May, 1916._
_Monsieur,--_
I know and value highly the very active part that you and your friends have taken in the propaganda carried on in America, ever since the outbreak of war, in favour of the cause of Right, which France and her Allies are defending. I know, in particular, of your efforts to arrive at a manifestation of the sympathy of your fellow citizens for our gallant soldiers, by effective and practical coöperation in the work of the French Sanitary Service. Therefore I am desirous of expressing to you, with special emphasis, the perfect satisfaction which the Automobile Sanitary Sections of the American Ambulance have given my department since they first entered the service of our armies.
Thanks not only to their excellent material organization, but beyond even that, to the courageous devotion of the picked personnel which your country has sent us to lead them, these Sections are contributing in the most gratifying fashion toward lessening the sufferings of our wounded by shortening the agonizing hours that elapse between the time when the soldier falls on the battlefield and that when he is able to receive, under suitable conditions, the care that his condition demands.
Pray, therefore, Monsieur, accept for yourselves and convey to your friends in America the assurance of my profound gratitude for the work which you have planned and carried on so perfectly, and of which your compatriots continue to ensure the support, both in personnel and in supplies, with no less gallantry than generosity.
Accept, Monsieur, the assurance of my distinguished consideration.
(_Signed_) JUSTIN GODARD
_Monsieur_ PIATT ANDREW
RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE
_Chambre des Députés_
_Paris, le 6 août 1915_
_Monsieur le Directeur,--_
J'ai l'honneur de vous remercier, au nom de la Commission d'Hygiène publique, des soins éclairés et dévoués que l'Ambulance Américaine prodigue à nos blessés de Pont-à-Mousson.
Dans les tristes heures que nous vivons, il nous est particulièrement doux de savoir que des mains amies s'empressent autour de ceux des nôtres qui si courageusement versent leur sang pour la défense de notre Pays.
Veuillez agréer, Monsieur le Directeur, l'assurance de ma haute considération.
(Signé) LE PRÉSIDENT DR. H. DOIZY
DR. H. DOIZY _Maison de Convalescence_ SARCELLES (Seine et Oise)
[TRANSLATION]
RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE
_Chamber of Deputies_
_Paris, 6 August, 1915_
_Monsieur le Directeur,--_
I have the honor to thank you, in the name of the Commission of Public Health, for the enlightened and devoted attention which the American Ambulance is lavishing upon our wounded at Pont-à-Mousson.
In the distressing hours that we are passing through, it is particularly sweet to us to know that friendly hands are zealously employed about those of our troops who are shedding their blood so fearlessly in defence of our country.
Pray accept, Monsieur le Directeur, the assurance of my distinguished consideration.
(_Signed_) THE PRESIDENT DR. H. DOIZY
DR. H. DOIZY _Convalescents' Home_ SARCELLES (Seine et Oise)
_Détachement d'Armée de Belgique_
_État-Major_
_1{er} Bureau_
_Au Q. G. le 5 mai 1915_
Le Général PUTZ, Commandant le Détachement d'Armée de Belgique,
à Monsieur ANDREW, Inspecteur du Service des Ambulances de l'Hôpital Américain
_Monsieur_,--
Mon attention a été appelée sur les précieux services rendus au détachement d'Armée de Belgique par la Section Sanitaire Automobile Américaine qui lui est attachée.
Cette Section a du, en effet, concurremment avec la Section Anglaise, assurer l'évacuation d'Elverdinghe sur Poperinghe de nombreux militaires blessés au cours des récents combats. Malgré le bombardement d'Elverdinghe, des routes qui y accèdent, et de l'Ambulance même, cette évacuation s'est effectué nuit et jour, sans interruption, et dans d'excellentes conditions de promptitude et de régularité.
Je ne saurais trop louer le courage et le dévouement dont a fait preuve le personnel de la Section et je vous serais obligé de vouloir bien lui transmettre mes félicitations et mes remerciements pour l'effort physique considérable qu'il a si généreusement consenti, et les signalés services qu'il a rendus.
Veuillez agréer, Monsieur, l'expression de ma considération très distinguée.
(Signé) PUTZ
[TRANSLATION]
_Detachment of the Army of Belgium_
_Staff_
_1{st} Bureau_
_Headquarters, 5 May, 1915._
General PUTZ, Commanding the Detachment of the Army of Belgium, to Monsieur ANDREW, Inspector of the Ambulance Service of the American Hospital.
_Monsieur_,--
My attention has been called to the valuable services rendered to this army by the American Automobile Sanitary Section, which is attached to it.
This Section did, in fact, in conjunction with the English Section, safeguard the removal from Elverdinghe to Poperinghe of numerous soldiers wounded in recent battles. Despite the bombardment of Elverdinghe, of the roads leading to it, and of the Ambulance itself, this removal was proceeded with, night and day, without interruption, and with particular efficiency as to speed and regularity.