FROM 
 
 "POILU" 
 
 TO 
 "YANK" 
 
 WILLIAM YORKE STEVENSON 
 
Class Jk^Ul 
 Book ff 
 
 Gopyrightl^^^SliL 
 
 COPHRIGHT 'DHPOSm 
 
FROM "POILU" TO "YANK' 
 
JEANNE d'ARC AND THE CATHEDRAL AT RHEIMS 
 The author and Paul Kurtz standing at the foot of the statue 
 
FROM "POILU" 
 TO "YANK" 
 
 BY 
 
 William Yorke Stevenson ^ 
 Section No. 1, American Ambulance, 1917 
 
 ,/ WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
 1918 
 
 oopy 
 
^^'\ 
 
 
 
 COPYRIGHT, I918, BY WILLIAM YORKE STEVENSON 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 Published October iqi8 
 
 /SO 
 
 NOV 20 1918 
 
 'CI.A506652 
 /vvo V 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 When we parted from the happy-go- 
 lucky heir to Leslie Buswell's famous 
 Ambulance No. 10, — now, alas, defunct 
 and gone to its long rest on the scrap heap, 
 — he and his somewhat wheezy "Ford" 
 had just gone through the fiery furnace 
 of what at that time was regarded as the 
 greatest battle fought by the French 
 armies since the battle of the Marne — ■ 
 the victorious battle for Fleury-Souville- 
 Tavannes, near Verdun. That the young 
 American volunteers had done their full 
 duty on that momentous occasion appears 
 without comment on the last page of the 
 lively account of the fray as described by 
 the author of At the Front in a Flivver, 
 where the citation of the entire Section 
 No. 1 in the order of the Army Corps is 
 
VI INTRODUCTION 
 
 reproduced. This was awarded for the 
 brilliant and devoted work done by the 
 Section in the months of August and Sep- 
 tember, 1916. It is a curious fact that one 
 year later, Lieutenant Stevenson's ac- 
 count of the battle and of the sort of work 
 done by himself and his companions, so 
 highly recognized by the heads of the 
 French Army, received further confirma- 
 tion from a source which, though humbler, 
 was even still better qualified to pass judg- 
 ment upon its quality. 
 
 The incident referred to is sufficiently 
 singular to be given here. It was some- 
 time in early November of the following 
 year — 1917 — that a French officer of 
 infantry. Lieutenant Froument, arrived 
 on leave in Philadelphia, where he had 
 lived many years prior to the war, earning 
 his living as instructor in languages in a 
 well-known school. That he had distin- 
 guished himself in sundry places of danger 
 
INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 was attested by the array of his decora- 
 tions. Not only did the much- valued 
 Croix de Guerre appear upon his breast, 
 but four silver stars enhanced its value, 
 in addition to a Russian order. 
 
 To the inquisitive reporter of a Phila- 
 delphia evening paper, who interviewed 
 him on his arrival, he obligingly told the 
 story of each star, every one of which rep- 
 resented a citation for bravery. When he 
 reached the fourth, he told the following 
 story, which in its essential part was pub- 
 lished in the Evening Bulletin in its issue 
 of November 10, 1917, where it was read 
 by thousands of people on that evening: — 
 
 It was a year before, at Verdun, on the 
 4th of September, 1916, in the fight for 
 Souville, that, having received orders to 
 go forth with his battalion of two hundred 
 and fifty men to hold the fort against an 
 expected German attack, he went over 
 the top. Upon arrival at their objective. 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 the men were surprised to find it lifeless. 
 On penetrating it they discovered that it 
 had been occupied by the Germans the 
 night before, but that the tremendous 
 shelling of the French batteries had de- 
 stroyed the occupants. None but dead 
 Germans were found there. 
 
 The French battalion then passed to 
 Bois-Chapitre, a short distance, which, 
 the attack having come on, they held 
 against the Germans' violent onslaught. 
 Their numbers, however, from two hun- 
 dred and fifty were reduced to forty valid, 
 unwounded fighters. But the attack was 
 repulsed. All officers had been either 
 killed or wounded. No medical help was 
 at hand. Lieutenant Froument could not 
 stand: both legs had been damaged — 
 three splinters having struck his right leg 
 while seven had seriously crippled his left. 
 This had occurred at four o'clock in the 
 afternoon. His captain, wounded in the 
 
INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 head, had lost an eye and was suffering 
 acutely. One of the men suggested that if 
 the badly wounded men could manage to 
 drag themselves to a certain road a mile 
 or so distant, he thought that they might 
 be picked up by some American ambu- 
 lance, should one pass empty, as that was 
 one of their routes on duty. 
 
 It was nine-thirty, however, when the 
 wounded men — the two oflScers, a badly 
 hurt sergeant, and two seriously wounded 
 men — were dragged over the distance 
 that separated them from that road, on 
 the forlorn chance, and placed literally 
 with their backs to the wall of a ruined 
 fort, to await such developments as fate 
 might send them. The road was then 
 under shell fire. 
 
 When asked how long they had waited. 
 Lieutenant Froument smiled a weary 
 smile. "At such times, moments seem 
 hours. I could not tell you. I was past 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 taking note of time. It seemed years to 
 us." The road was being shelled, and the 
 helpless men's feelings cannot well be 
 described. Finally, an American ambu- 
 lance hove in sight. As it approached the 
 men hailed the driver. He stopped and 
 came to them. He was business-like and 
 cool. Fortunately his ambulance was 
 empty. He carefully loaded the five men 
 into his car, said Lieutenant Froument, 
 " as deliberately as though he had been in 
 his own house, although the shells were 
 bursting around the spot." Indeed, quiet 
 speaker as the Lieutenant seemed to be 
 by nature, he rose to something very near 
 enthusiasm as he later described the inci- 
 dent. He had spoken to the American and 
 had found that he was a Philadelphian. 
 He wished to see him, if he had returned, 
 to thank him for what he had done. He 
 wanted to shake him by the hand, for he 
 was a brave man. 
 
INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 One may well understand his feelings 
 of relief and what this thing meant to him 
 and his comrades. But it gives one a real- 
 izing sense of the work of these young men. 
 To them, such tasks are all in the day's 
 work. In his two years of service this man 
 had picked up hundreds of similar cases; 
 but to each man who was picked up, it 
 might mean his life. 
 
 Well, the five men and the "ambu- 
 lancier" reached the "poste de secours" 
 at Dugny, near Fort Marceau, and the 
 driver went his useful way. Lieutenant 
 Froument was three months in a hospital 
 before he was about again. A long period 
 of convalescence followed before he was 
 sent to this country to become a member 
 of the Bureau of Information at Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 Meantime, thousands of people in 
 Philadelphia had read his story as cur- 
 sorily given in the paper, and among those 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 thousands was a friend of Lieutenant 
 Stevenson, to whose mind it seemed fa- 
 miUar. Turning to At the Front in a 
 Flivver the entries for the beginning of 
 September were referred to, and sure 
 enough, under date of September 6, 1916, 
 the following entry was found: "One man 
 I carried by the way, asked me where I 
 came from, and I answered, 'America.' 
 He said, *I know; but what city?' I said, 
 * Philadelphia.' 'Thought so,' he said. 
 'I lived for years at Thirteenth and Pine 
 Streets, and taught in the Berlitz School 
 there!'" 
 
 After calling up the Berlitz School to 
 verify the correctness of these facts and 
 finding that Lieutenant Froument had 
 taught several years in that institution, 
 from which he had retired in 1914, the 
 friend in question wrote to that officer 
 and arranged for an interview with the 
 family, which took place on Christmas 
 
INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 Eve, 1917, in which most of the above 
 details were obtained. As he left the 
 house, Lieutenant Froument said that 
 ever since that day he had tried to meet 
 his friend-in-need and he asked Mr. 
 Stevenson's friends when they wrote: 
 "Please tell him that I have tried to thank 
 him for what he did. It was our duty to 
 defend our country to the last man; but it 
 was not his. He and those who like him 
 came over from this side, leaving every 
 comfort, went into that hell to help us — 
 that was magnificent. Please write to 
 him that I came to thank him." 
 
 After the great battle of which the 
 above is but an infinitesimal personal epi- 
 sode, the volunteer " ambulancier " had 
 returned on leave to spend Christmas with 
 his family. His intention was to return 
 on February 1, but having met with an 
 automobile accident in which he was 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 hurt, it was only toward the end of March 
 that he finally sailed on the Espagne, to 
 return to his work. Soon after his arrival 
 on the other side, the United States at 
 last proclaimed war on Germany. This 
 at once altered every one's attitude in 
 France toward this country — a change 
 which our author was quick to perceive 
 upon his return. It also greatly altered 
 the situation of the volunteer ambulance 
 service. 
 
 As Mr. Henry Davis Sleeper, the able 
 administrative officer of the American 
 Ambulance Field Service, and its repre- 
 sentative in the United States, has so well 
 put it in a report issued in the winter of 
 1918, in which an account of his steward- 
 ship is given: — 
 
 ''During the present period of our tran- 
 sition, in justice to those who have given 
 themselves so unsparingly to this work, 
 there could have been no other policy than 
 
INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 for us to have offered as prompt and com- 
 plete cooperation as possible to the United 
 States Army Ambulance of which we are 
 to become a part, and which has to accom- 
 plish in so few months so great a task. If 
 we cannot, perhaps, wholly repress a sense 
 of regret in having to yield all rights of 
 administration, and the personal satisfac- 
 tion which an intimate knowledge of each 
 day's achievement in such work as this 
 means, it is compensation to remember 
 that the Americans whose courage and 
 energy these past three years have made 
 so fine a record in France, and those of 
 us here whose privilege it has been to 
 stand behind them, are now able to turn 
 over to our own army at one of the great- 
 est moments of need in its history, so 
 useful an organization." 
 
 Under these conditions, it was impos- 
 sible that the transition stage from the 
 volunteer system to that of the regular 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 army should have been accomplished 
 without some diflSculty. There was per- 
 haps no man in the service who felt the 
 change more keenly than did the author 
 of the present book. 
 
 When he returned to France in April, 
 1917, there already were rumors of plans 
 and adjustments by which the service 
 was to be passed over to the United States 
 Army. This created an uneasiness among 
 the boys which manifested itseK in an 
 effort to forestall the event by personally 
 changing into other arms. Aviation exer- 
 cised upon all an irresistible fascination, 
 and all who could qualify passed from the 
 Ambulance Service into aircraft. Next to 
 flying, the artillery was the most popular. 
 The necessary increase of the Transporta- 
 tion Service, in which the French authori- 
 ties requested the assistance of Major A. 
 Piatt Andrew, also created unrest, as the 
 former "ambulanciers" were offered in- 
 
INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 ducements to enter that service, the least 
 popular though the most indispensable of 
 the various services that go to form the 
 efficiency of an army. 
 
 Taking it altogether, the summer and 
 autumn of 1917, preceding as they did 
 the final elimination of the wonderful 
 volunteer organization known as the 
 American Ambulance Field Service in 
 the creation and support of which so 
 many prominent people had taken a cred- 
 itable part, — none so honorable, however, 
 as the young drivers themselves, who had 
 kept up the traditions of the founders 
 of this great commonwealth in going for- 
 ward at the crucial hour to assist France, 
 the France of Lafayette, of de Grasse, the 
 France of Franklin, — was a period of 
 considerable unrest among the boys and 
 of anxiety to their officers. 
 
 In the forthcoming pages, Lieutenant 
 Stevenson throws side-lights upon the 
 
xviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 feelings of the college lads who, at that 
 time, largely constituted the personnel of 
 the corps. He, also, in one of his conver- 
 sations with an intelligent French officer,^ 
 shows of what importance to France 
 thinking Frenchmen thought the Ambu- 
 lance Field Service over and beyond its 
 concrete usefulness to the sanitary de- 
 partment in providing intelligent carriers. 
 This importance lay in the interest which 
 their presence in France created in her 
 struggle among the men's friends and rela- 
 tives in the United States. Whole com- 
 munities took pride in their action. Whole 
 colleges and universities had their atten- 
 tion directed toward the questions in- 
 volved in the war by the fact that their 
 graduates had gone into the m^lee, and 
 through their letters these became un- 
 conscious propagandists of the truth and 
 the greatness of the cause. When the boys 
 
 1 See pp. Ill, 112. 
 
INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 won distinction, their alma mater, their 
 home town, the newspapers of the various 
 localities burst into acclaim, in which the 
 cause for which they had toiled so bravely 
 was extolled, while other young men, fired 
 with enthusiasm by their example, en- 
 listed in the hope of doing as well. Thus 
 was daily increased the subtle influence 
 that was gradually strengthening the 
 love of France among the generous young 
 manhood of America, and through the 
 young manhood, among all who were 
 connected with it. 
 
 While Lieutenant Stevenson had from 
 the beginning hoped to go into aviation 
 — I believe that he tried four times to do 
 so, but was rejected owing to imperfect 
 sight — he did what he could loyally to 
 promote the interests of the Service, when 
 the final adjustments were made for the 
 elimination of the volunteer American 
 Ambulance Field Service, and its merger 
 
XX INTRODUCTION 
 
 into the American Army. Of course, the 
 change was more than a mere signing into 
 the Army. The boys under the volunteer 
 system had felt that they were, so to 
 speak, a sort of club or fraternity, whose 
 headquarters were at 21 Rue Raynouard. 
 Of course there was a certain amount of 
 discipline. That is, when they went too 
 far, they usually were quietly sent back to 
 Paris. But every one evidently wished to 
 be easy with them. This appears clearly 
 through the pages of the present book. 
 There was a camaraderie between officers 
 and men which found expression in a 
 fellow-feeling when things happened, dis- 
 turbing to a proper conduct of the work. 
 All this made the transition somewhat 
 difficult, and still more irksome was the 
 constant need for reporting and record- 
 ing which was required of the command- 
 ing officer — and which we call red tape. 
 But while these things were realized they 
 
INTRODUCTION lexi 
 
 were accepted and acted upon with regu- 
 larity. 
 
 Before the passing away of the Ameri- 
 can volunteer took place finally, on Janu- 
 ary I, 1918, however. Section No. I was 
 privileged to see some glorious days, not 
 only in Champagne, at Craonne, at the 
 Chemin des Dames, Route 44; but at 
 Verdun, Hill 304, and Douaumont, and 
 other points, now famous, during the 
 great French victory of August-Septem- 
 ber, 1917, when for the fourth time the 
 "Section Solitaire" was cited, this time 
 before the Army, an honor which added 
 the palm to the Croix de Guerre on its 
 Section flag, as well as to that worn by 
 its French and American commanders. 
 
 Meantime, while going through the 
 horrors of this wonderful war, as well as 
 through its excitements, the "ambulan- 
 cier's" life, as presented by Lieutenant 
 Stevenson, was not without its charm for 
 
xxii INTRODUCTION 
 
 men who were good sports and who loved 
 life in the open. It is largely this spirit 
 which pervades Lieutenant's Stevenson's 
 writings, as well as his sense of humor, 
 that makes his books good reading. He 
 deals with the gruesome side of war, as 
 he does in his appreciation of the Boche 
 character, with an easy philosophy that 
 has all the merit of originality. One 
 understands what he thinks, but he does 
 not quite say it. And that is restful in 
 these days of penny-dreadfuls. 
 
 The Editor 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Part I 
 March to July, 1917 
 
 I. Return to the Front .... 3 
 
 II. Craonne — Berry-au-Bac ... 17 
 
 III. America to the Rescue . . .51 
 
 IV. The Death Roll 58 
 
 V. Officer and Chief of Section 1 . 79 
 
 Part II 
 Jtdy to October, 1917 
 
 VI. Immortal Verdun 107 
 
 VII. Six Weeks under Fire — Heroic 
 
 Endurance 128 
 
 VIII. Section 1 earns Army Citation and 
 
 the Palm 163 
 
 Part III 
 
 IX. DOMREMY AND VaUCOULEURS — RE- 
 WARDS 179 
 
 Note 206 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Jeanne d'Arc and the Cathedeal at 
 Rheims Frontispiece 
 
 Russians at Chateau de Bellemont, 1917 20 
 
 Section 1 and its Flag at Muizon, with 
 A. Piatt Andrew 28 
 
 Benjamin R. Woodworth, Paul Kurtz, 
 AND J. M. Sponagle at Rheims, with 
 Shell-Hole of a 380 32 
 
 The Author and the New French Lieu- 
 tenant OF Section 1, James Reymond . 36 
 
 Waking him up: Baylies, Sponagle, and 
 Stevenson 56 
 
 Gamble, Stevenson, Patterson, and Wood- 
 worth (holding the Mascot "Rheims") 64 
 
 Raoul Lufbery 68 
 
 From a sketch in oils by Lieutenant Farre 
 
 Stevenson, Edward Townsend, and Philip 
 S. Rice 84 
 
 The Ludes "Poste," where Norton was 
 KILLED 94 
 
 A Bungalow near Souville .... 122 
 
xxvi ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Caserne Marceau 122 
 
 Typical French Camouflage, with the 
 Section 1 Staff Car and Sponagle, 
 Woodworth, and Stevenson . . . 134 
 
 A Shrapnel Explosion 144 
 
 The Once Village of Fleury . . . 162 
 
 Abri near Chaulnes Wood, with Tardieu's 
 Indian-Head Sign 200 
 
 At Meaux 206 
 
■p^^^..^^ 1776 -1783 
 
 ACTA 
 
VNENT 
 
 191^ _ 1917. 
 
FROM " POILU " TO " YANK 
 
 PART I 
 
 March to July, 1917 
 
 The Boy- Volunteers 
 
 The Driving Back of the Germans 
 
 Champagne — Rheims, Craonne 
 
 Chemin des Dames, Route 44 
 
 Battles on the Aisne 
 
FROM "POILU" TO "YANK" 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 RETURN TO THE FRONT 
 
 We heard the deep vibrations of a bell. 
 
 The Tongue of Fate that, tolling on the blast. 
 
 Repeated o'er and o'er 
 
 "Awake! your horoscope is cast; 
 
 The Old World and the New shall live apart no more. 
 
 Awake! the Future claims you." , , ^ 
 
 John Jay Chapman 
 
 After waiting three days in New York, 
 where, by the way, I had a wonderful time 
 with friends, I sailed on the Espagne at 
 three o'clock on March 26 — a glorious 
 afternoon. 
 
 There was quite a crowd on board — 
 among them Dr. Alexis Carrel, the famous, 
 whom I found a very pleasant-spoken 
 sort of chap. On the next day, I ran across 
 Charley Clark ^ who is going back to work 
 
 ^ Charles Motley Clark, of Philadelphia, son of the 
 late Clarence H. Clark and his wife, who was Miss 
 Motley of Boston, a niece of the historian of the Nether- 
 lands. 
 
4 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 in the Harjes-Norton Section with six or 
 seven others. The last time I saw him it 
 was back of Verdun by the Hght of a lan- 
 tern. Before that, we had n't met for ten 
 years. 
 
 Gradually, I am getting to know the 
 twenty boys of whom I was put in charge 
 by Hereford. Most of them are extremely 
 young, but, on the whole, they are a de- 
 cent lot, and they'll soon get the range of 
 life over there. There are three aviators 
 on board, one of whom, Zinn by name, 
 was in the Foreign Legion. He was 
 wounded, and got transferred to the Avi- 
 ation Service. The others are American 
 Army aviators who are going to study 
 French methods. 
 
 Of course, we have the customary Ger- 
 man raider scares. We had one this after- 
 noon — it turned out to be a Dutchman. 
 
 On the third day out, I ran across Miss 
 Harriman, with whom I crossed before 
 
RETURN TO THE FRONT 5 
 
 on the Rochambeau. She says that she 
 could n't stand the United States, and 
 simply had to come back. She is working 
 in the Societe des Dames de France and 
 she is thinking of making her home in 
 France. 
 
 On March 30 we had a scream of a 
 night! A blessed fool by the name of 
 Brown got some of the boys together and 
 insisted on my getting up a meeting of the 
 Norton-Harjes and the American Ambu- 
 lance Field Service men, and to have them 
 addressed by Drs. Carrel and Powers.^ 
 Then, out of a simple conference, the news 
 spread, and the whole ship turned up in 
 the smoking-room, and I had to introduce 
 the speakers! Then, as if that were not 
 more than enough, they called on me to 
 give a talk on the field work. But I 
 dodged that, and they made Charley 
 Clark talk. After which they called on me 
 
 ^ Dr. Powers, of the American Red Cross. 
 
6 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 again. But I only said a few words of 
 thanks to the previous speakers. It was 
 an awful bore, but the thing seems to have 
 made quite a hit. The funny part of it to 
 me is that I was a sort of master of cere- 
 monies to the great Alexis Carrel, of all 
 people in the world. 
 
 April 1. We went through boat drill, 
 life-preservers, and the rest. Also, we had 
 an auction this evening. The son of one 
 of the owners of the line, Ducrot by name, 
 was auctioneer and did it very well. He 
 netted about three thousand francs for 
 practically nothing. 
 
 I had an interesting talk with Have- 
 meyer, who is taking charge of the Paris 
 end of the Norton-Harjes Ambulance. 
 They are going to standardize their cars 
 on the American Ambulance system — 
 Fiats and Fords. 
 
 A patrol boat came close to us to-day 
 (April 4) and evidently gave us instruc- 
 
RETURN TO THE FRONT 7 
 
 tions. We are now in the War Zone. We 
 should sight land to-morrow. 
 
 I met Dr. Reese, who is going over to 
 take charge of a hospital near Bordeaux 
 for the French War Relief Committee of 
 the Emergency Aid of Pennsylvania. He 
 was in London at the time of the first 
 Zepp raid. Then he went as ship doctor 
 on an English transport, taking troops 
 from Australia to GallipoH, Egypt, South 
 Africa, and Salonica. In the doing, he got 
 chased by submarines, was wrecked on 
 the coast of Africa, etc. A most interest- 
 ing companion, for, besides all this, he is 
 one of the few survivors of the "First 
 100,000." And now he is going to Beau- 
 mont-du-Perigord! ^, 
 
 ^ Dr. Reese has made a fine record for himseK at the 
 hospital and in a wide radius of the neighborhood, where 
 his name is blessed by the inhabitants. The hospital is 
 run by the Delpit family, one of whose daughters teaches 
 in Smith College, and another at Bryn Mawr, where 
 they have many friends who help them in their fine 
 work. (Editor.) ■ 
 
8 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 April 5. Arrived at Bordeaux at noon 
 with my twenty recruits, having seen 
 no warships whatever all the way over: 
 only one patrol boat. I dined with 
 Charley Clark and Frauntz, and took the 
 ten o'clock evening train for Paris with 
 Havemeyer, of Harjes-Norton. 
 
 I left my men in charge of Clark, who 
 had to stay over to get his Packard off 
 the boat and put it together. The inno- 
 cent lamb had cut the chassis in half, be- 
 cause they told him that the cranes at 
 Bordeaux could not lift it off the ship as 
 a whole. Now, he's got to have it joined 
 together. I suggested hinges, so he could 
 go around corners like a snake. It turns 
 out that the cranes here handle up to 
 five thousand pounds! Old Charley is 
 certainly sore. 
 
 April 6. I went to Henry's, where I 
 met Ned Townsend, who told me that 
 "Woodworth" has superseded in 
 
RETURN TO THE FRONT 9 
 
 charge of Section 1. apparently did 
 
 n't size up and Lieutenant de Kersauson 
 de Pennendreff got Andrew to recall him. 
 
 I called at the Rue Raynouard and saw 
 Mason and Arboter, chiefs of Sections 8 
 and 2 respectively. They are returning to 
 the States. Piatt Andrew, Galatti, and 
 Cartier seemed delighted to see me and 
 said many nice things. Also Ewell. The 
 boys of Section 1 have arranged for me to 
 come right up, keeping a place vacant for 
 me. So I leave with Ned Townsend on 
 Saturday for Bar-le-Duc. The Section is 
 "en repos" at Vadelaincourt. Took din- 
 ner at Maxim's and afterwards went to 
 the Folies Bergeres. 
 
 April 7. Dined with Persons, Fred 
 Dawson, Ned Townsend, Waldo Peirce,^ 
 and Webster. We went to the Olympia 
 afterward and had quite a time. Waldo 
 
 1 From Bangor, Maine, graduate of Harvard, mem- 
 ber of S.S.U. 3. 
 
10 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 is as funny as ever. He has gone back to 
 his art work. Dawson has gone into some 
 sort of diplomatic service, and was just 
 back from Egypt. 
 
 War is declared at last! Andrew, how- 
 ever, says that the Ambulance Service 
 will continue and probably will be taken 
 over by the American Army, if an expe- 
 ditionary force is sent. Of course, there is 
 a remarkable difference in the attitude 
 of the French toward the Americans. At 
 last we are treated like human beings. 
 American flags are flying all over Paris. 
 
 Arrived at Bar-le-Duc with Ned Town- 
 send at 5 P.M. Every sort of courtesy was 
 shown us. The gate man hardly looked 
 at our tickets. They even passed our 
 luggage free. We leave on the postal 
 wagon to-morrow, as we are no longer 
 allowed to run into Bar-le-Duc to get our 
 men, on account of sTiortage of essence. 
 
 April 10. I spent Easter at Vadelain- 
 
RETURN TO THE FRONT 11 
 
 court. Woody,^ Sponny,^ Kurtz,^ and the 
 "Loot " ^ fell on my neck. We had a triple 
 celebration for Easter, the war, and my 
 return! The "Loot" opened wine. Later, 
 the French aviators and mechanics joined 
 us with more wine — we had quite a time. 
 The French contingent of Section 1 read 
 us a regularly prepared speech welcoming 
 us as allies. We did not expect this, so 
 after some argument, I was made to get 
 up and answer. 
 
 Last night, the 9th, the Boches made 
 an air raid on us, dropped bombs, but did 
 no damage. The mitrailleuse would n't 
 
 ^ Benjamin Woodworth, of California and German- 
 town, Philadelphia; killed in Champagne. See page 67 
 et seq. 
 
 ' James M. Sponagle, of Gloucester, Massachusetts. 
 He is now First Lieutenant in charge of Section 622 
 (old 65). 
 
 ' Paul B. Kurtz, of Germantown, Philadelphia. Killed 
 in May, 1918, having left the Ambulance Service to 
 enter Aviation. 
 
 * Lieutenant Marquis Robert de Kersauson de Pen- 
 nendreff. See At the Front in a Fliwer, p. 59, et seq. 
 
n FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 work, so we contented ourselves with 
 firing rockets at the planes ! 
 
 One of the men who took the places of 
 Walker, Wallace, Culbertson, Tison, and 
 me in December last, was fired for getting 
 drunk. 
 
 April 12. We are moving to-day to 
 Dombasle and take over Section 12's job 
 in the Mort-Homme-304 Sector, where 
 Kelly, of Philadelphia, was killed last 
 September. Our Section was there in 
 February and had a beast of a time, the 
 thermometer being below zero and the 
 roads almost impassable from snowdrifts. 
 So many cars were out of commission, 
 owing to the inexperience of the new men, 
 that not a single citation was given, al- 
 though the work was almost as severe as 
 it was on the right bank at the time of the 
 battle of Fleury and Souville.^ 
 
 ^ The Section received a belated citation eventually, 
 however. (See infra, page 37.) Also Messrs. Wood- 
 
RETURN TO THE FRONT 13 
 
 An aviator was describing to me to-day 
 the new anti-Zeppelin flame bombs. They 
 can make a curtain of fire in the air, now, 
 alternating with shrapnel. This was how 
 the Zepp was brought down a month or so 
 ago. The new aeroplane bombs, too, are 
 wonders. They carry as much explosive 
 as a "420" and only weigh fifty-six kilos. 
 He tells me that most of the attacking 
 squadrons have left Verdun, and are now 
 grouped around the Champagne district 
 and to the north, as indeed are the picked 
 French troops. 
 
 There are a great many more Portu- 
 guese about, some two hundred thousand, 
 it is said. 
 
 April 13. I took No. 5 over to Dom- 
 basle, then came back and took over No. 
 17, as their drivers were on "permission." 
 
 worth, BDibbard, Kurtz, and Townsend got a citation 
 for their winter's work around Hill 304. (See infra, 
 page 41.) 
 
14 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 After noon word came that Ned Town- 
 send had broken a rear axle at Esnes, close 
 to Hill 304. So I was ordered to take No. 
 18, my new car, with "Eddy" Sponagle 
 to fix it. We passed the place where Kelly 
 was killed and Sanders was so badly 
 wounded, and saw the famous Mort- 
 Homme. We were in plain sight of the 
 Germans about one thousand yards away. 
 They were lobbing " 105's " over our heads 
 into the Bois d'Avocourt. Then we came 
 in sight of Hill 304 and found Ned. It 
 took us about two hours to fix him, but 
 the Boches let us alone. We got back at 
 about 7 P.M. for a cold supper. 
 
 I spent this morning tuning up No. 18. 
 In the afternoon General Herr, the Com- 
 mander of the Sixteenth Corps d'Armee, 
 inspected us. We were introduced to him 
 individually and he said some very com- 
 plimentary things, remarking that with 
 the entry of America into the war "the 
 
RETURN TO THE FRONT 15 
 
 combat would be shortened." He pro- 
 phesied that great things shortly would 
 be doing. Amen, I say. 
 
 The "Loot" announced that we were 
 leaving the Verdun Sector and the Second 
 Army in a few days to get into the great 
 battle now beginning in Champagne. 
 Fine! 
 
 General Herr was formerly in command 
 of the Sixth Army around Verdun, when 
 the Boches began their historic attack in 
 February, 1916. It is said that he disre- 
 garded the warnings of the aviators and 
 failed to take sufficient defensive meas- 
 ures. He was recalled to the rear, and 
 only recently has he been given important 
 commands again — first of a division, and 
 later of the army corps he now commands. 
 
 April 14. Section 15 arrived this morn- 
 ing. We moved this afternoon. Our first 
 scheduled stop is at Chalons. We are to 
 join the Fifth Army somewhere near 
 
16 PROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 Epernay. Flynn ^ took Lidden of the new 
 Section to the Esnes "poste." On their 
 way, at the bad corner, two shells dropped 
 right close to them on the road, leaving 
 several big holes in the car and ripping the 
 whole back out of Lidden's coat! Surely 
 a remarkable escape, and "some" experi- 
 ence for a brand-new man on his first 
 appearance on the firing line. He had to 
 remain at the "poste" for twenty-four 
 hours, too! 
 
 ^ Robin Jay Flymi, California; now in the Canadian 
 Artillery. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 CRAONNE — BERRY-AU-BAC 
 
 There was a Vale of Peace I knew and there. 
 
 Where lustful breezes paid a dangerous court 
 
 To flowered beauties and kindred sort. 
 
 Where poppies bent their flaming heads and rare ... 
 
 did sweet dreams abound. 
 
 Came Discord, of a day, and Iron Wrath 
 Strewing Destruction vast along its path . . . 
 A man-made earthquake, by a mad-man willed 
 And shattered all my Vale of Peace and killed 
 Oiu: flowers . . . 
 
 E. M., S.S.U. 2 
 American Field Service Bulletin, August 3, 1918 
 
 April 15. I made a quick trip from 
 Dombasle to Chalons and slept there last 
 night. We had quite a party in the morn- 
 ing with Hibben, Stockwell/ Kurtz, 
 Woodworth, and Sponagle. I left Chalons 
 this morning, lunched in the woods, and 
 reached the outskirts of Epernay this 
 afternoon — a village called Vaudancourt. 
 
 * Roy Stockwell is now Lieutenant in the Field Artil- 
 lery Service, A.E.F. 
 
18 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 There is here a bully sixteenth-century 
 chateau. Everywhere we are greeted with 
 enthusiasm, now. 
 
 We are quartered at a small champagne 
 grower's place. He sells us the finest vin- 
 tage for four francs a bottle; it is the sort 
 of stuff he sells to Pol Roger and to Pom- 
 mery for eight hundred francs for two 
 hundred and sixty bottles. He says the 
 best recent vintages are those of 1904 and 
 1906, and that they are almost as fine as 
 the famous 1893. The 1905 vintage also is 
 very good but scarce, as everybody drank 
 it "ad libitum," owing to the uncertain- 
 ties of the war. The Boches also, I regret 
 to say, took away a good deal. What a 
 waste of good stuff! 
 
 April 16. The French attacked Sois- 
 sons this morning with one hundred and 
 forty-eight tanks. The big Champagne 
 offensive, for which artillery preparation 
 has been in progress for the last week, is 
 
CRAONNE — BERRY-AU-BAC 19 
 
 on. To-night, fifty more tanks are to 
 attack south of Soissons. We are still 
 awaiting orders. 
 
 Woodworth, Kurtz, Stockwell, and I 
 went into Epernay for a bath this after- 
 noon. Two new men have joined us and 
 three "permissionnaires" have returned. 
 
 One of the new men is a second M , but 
 
 may develop. The other seems to be a 
 good "scout" and quiet. The bunch, as a 
 whole, looks a good deal better than some 
 of the letters I had received implied. 
 
 April 17. We have left Epernay. The 
 call came at 4 a.m. and we started at once. 
 We passed through Rheims at 9 a.m. and 
 proceeded toward Soissons.^ We saw a 
 good many Russians, who still seem to be 
 here in considerable numbers. Last night's 
 attack was very successful. Seven thou- 
 sand prisoners were taken. The Rus- 
 
 ^ Just one year later — March 21-31, 1918 — the 
 Germans rolled over the identical ground. 
 
20 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 sian troops figured in it as well as the 
 French. 
 
 Our orders came to roll at 7 p.m. and 
 the whole Section went out. We handled 
 the wounded from Berry-au-Bac and 
 Craonne.^ There was heavy fighting and 
 heavy losses. The Russians suffered 
 severely, but notable progress was made, 
 and some fourteen thousand prisoners 
 were taken. 
 
 The receiving hospital is far to the rear; 
 the traffic congestion was frightful. The 
 roads were scarcely fit to move over. 
 Nearly all the cars got lost or ditched at 
 some time or other during the night, but 
 nevertheless all, save Orton, got back all 
 right. He broke his steering-gear. 
 
 I was ditched once, but got out again 
 with the aid of a passing "camion." The 
 
 * The very ground that was re-invaded by the Ger- 
 mans and heroically fought for again by the Allies, re- 
 inforced by the Americans, in the spring and summer 
 of 1918. 
 
< 
 
 H 
 ^< 
 
 X 
 
 <: 
 
 I— ( 
 
CRAONNE — BERRY-AU-BAC 21 
 
 hospital was so full that we had to wait 
 four and five hours before the cars could 
 be unloaded, and the wounded, naturally, 
 suffered terribly. As usual, it rained and 
 it was also very cold. I got back at seven 
 in the morning to our headquarters at 
 Muizon. 
 
 These quarters are quite comfortable. 
 They are in a handsome chateau which 
 dates back to 1658. We share it with a 
 battery of auto-cannon. There are a 
 bunch of "370's" and "400's" around us, 
 and the explosions shake even the two- 
 foot walls of the chateau. There also are 
 many heavy guns mounted on cars along 
 the railway line. 
 
 April 18. Orders came this afternoon 
 that we were to roll again to-night. For- 
 tunately I had some sleep to-day. My 
 gear-bands were pretty nearly worn out 
 last night, shifting them so continuously 
 in the heavy traffic. I doubt if they will 
 
22 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 last through to-night. They will have to 
 be changed to-morrow at all events. The 
 attack is still on despite the rain. 
 ' April 19. Such a hectic night! I carried 
 Russians from Chalons to Antilly. There 
 I found that the place was full. After a 
 long argument, I managed to get rid of 
 them, however. They lost three thousand 
 wounded and six hundred killed out of ten 
 thousand ! 
 
 When I got back and had gone to bed, 
 a sudden influx of Russians going into 
 "repos" turned up, and we were all forced 
 to double up! The place is just jammed 
 with them. The stench is something 
 fearful and they are covered with lice! 
 It is awful! The whole place now is in 
 a mess. 
 
 After they had been bedded down, 
 around one o'clock in the morning, and 
 we had all gone to sleep again, the gas 
 alarm sounded and everybody had to 
 
CRAONNE— BEREY-AU-BAC 23 
 
 hustle out and get his mask. As usual, it 
 was a false alarm and we turned in once 
 more. 
 
 At about five o'clock we were awak- 
 ened again, this time by bombs falling 
 around the town. Two Boche aviators 
 were trying for the railway. They finally 
 were driven off. 
 
 The Russians, of course, steal every- 
 thing they can lay their hands on. I've 
 already lost my shaving-soap and glass. 
 Many have self-inflicted wounds on feet 
 and hands in a vain attempt to avoid war 
 duty. I hope to God that they may be 
 sent farther to the rear. Their front-line 
 positions have been taken over by the 
 French. 
 
 April 20. An interesting day. The 
 "Loot" took Woody, Kurtz, and me to 
 inspect possible advance posts. We had a 
 splendid view of the opposing lines in 
 front of Rheims and the famous Fort 
 
24 FROM POn.U TO YANK 
 
 Brimont, which is still holding out.^ The 
 French have practically surrounded it and 
 the huge "320's" and "400's" are falling 
 on it steadily. The Russians having failed 
 to take it, their divisions are being brought 
 back, and the Chasseurs Alpins, the best 
 troops the French have, are going to 
 attack. We saw the shifting going on, 
 the roads being blocked with troops and 
 artillery. 
 
 They say that General Michelet, in 
 charge of the first operations, has been 
 blamed for their failure, and has been 
 demoted to a minor sector. At present 
 cavalry is blocking the roads — the first 
 time I have seen any great amount of it 
 in the two years I have fussed around the 
 Front. The horses are splendid. The men 
 are equipped with lances as well as with 
 rifles. 
 
 * This is where, in the spring of 1918, centered a 
 tremendous stand by the French in their retreat. 
 
CRAONNE-BERRY-AU-BAC 25 
 
 X , a comparatively new man of 
 
 rather surly disposition and most unpop- 
 ular, was fired by the "Loot" to-day. He 
 got "fresh" with the "Loot" and the 
 latter had just been waiting for a chance 
 to remove him. So he left on the postal 
 
 wagon. I also understand that L has 
 
 been eased out — not exactly "fired," but 
 that, having gone down on "permission," 
 he will not be allowed to return. He was 
 harmless, but awfully dull. A new man 
 has arrived by the name of Stout ^ who 
 seems to be a good sort. Victor White's 
 brother also has joined us. He is very 
 much like "Vic" in mannerisms and 
 general looks — quite an "air de famille," 
 as our French allies would put it. 
 
 April 24. I went into Rheims with a 
 man who owns a good deal of real estate 
 in and around the town. He found that 
 
 ^ Richard Stout has entered the Aviation Service. 
 {Editor.) 
 
26 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 one of his block of houses had been burned 
 and another had been badly damaged by 
 shells. There are still about four thousand 
 civilians who linger, as against an ante- 
 helium population of seventeen thousand. 
 Nevertheless, market was going on as 
 usual, and, as the shells were coming in 
 at three minutes' intervals, the civilians 
 with their baskets would gauge their 
 movements accordingly, running from 
 cellar to cellar like prairie dogs. One man 
 with a long beard was particularly funny. 
 He popped out of a cellar, galloped to a 
 post-box, mailed a letter, and scurried 
 back, his beard streaming in the wind. 
 Three dead horses were lying at the corner 
 of the square where the Cathedral stands, 
 and the shells were landing there steadily 
 — "220's." The Jeanne d'Arc statue is 
 still uninjured. But the Cathedral is 
 slowly being chipped to pieces. 
 A Boche "saucisse" broke loose this 
 
CRAONNE — BERRY-AU-BAC 2r 
 
 morning and came right over our camp. 
 The anti-Zepp battery beside us failed to 
 hit it, but three planes went up and set it 
 on fire, and it fell, a mass of flames, not 
 more than a couple of miles away. 
 
 The "Loot" is dissatisfied with our 
 present connections — or lack of them, 
 rather, as we seem to be unattached to 
 anything just now. He is trying to get us 
 transferred again, this time to the Sixth 
 Army near Fismes, where he knows a good 
 many of the authorities. 
 
 April 27. While in Rheims the other 
 day, Woody, Kurtz, Sponagle, and I 
 picked up a little fox terrier pup for a 
 mascot. We matched to see who should 
 be the permanent owner, and Kurtz won. 
 We call him "Rheims." 
 
 The Germans shelled the railway all 
 day yesterday. One shell landed on a 
 passing cart and killed five civilians. The 
 railway station-master's wife also was 
 
28 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 badly injured. A Zeppelin went over last 
 night at about one o'clock and dropped 
 five bombs. I did n't even wake up ! — 
 but was told about it this morning. 
 
 April 29. This was an interesting day. 
 Word came that A. Piatt Andrew was to 
 be decorated with the Legion of Honor. 
 General Ragueneau, General Nivelle's 
 second, the head of the entire Automobile 
 Service, and so many other "stripers" 
 that it reminded one of Sing-Sing, turned 
 up. The cars were formed in a square in 
 the chateau's courtyard, and some two 
 hundred troops formed a square in front 
 of them. 
 
 Section 1 had been selected as being the 
 oldest Section in the Service, and An- 
 drew's own Section besides. The day was 
 perfect; Andrew arrived and presented us 
 with our new Section flag, with the Croix 
 twice starred on it, and the names of 
 the battles in which we had served: Dun- 
 
1-3 
 
 H 
 Q 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 02 
 
CRAONNE— BERRY-AU-BAC 29 
 
 kirk, Ypres, Verdun, Somme, Argonne, 
 Aisne, Champagne — some eight or ten 
 
 names 
 
 1 
 
 We were introduced to the General, 
 individually; and, after his speech, some 
 of the older men were invited in to drink 
 the health of France and the United 
 States: Sponagle, Woodworth, Kurtz, 
 Stockwell, and I were chosen. As it hap- 
 pened, the big guns were roaring straight 
 ahead, behind and in front of us. In addi- 
 tion, Boche aviators chose the moment to 
 drop bombs on Muizon (our town), and 
 the anti-aircraft batteries were going full 
 tilt. One bomb fell into the Vesle right 
 near our tent. We had been swimming in 
 the stream but a short time before. It was 
 a splendid "mise-en-scene" for such a 
 military ceremony. 
 
 Andrew incidentally asked Kurtz and 
 
 ^ The Section Flag carried three stars and one palm 
 at the end of the season. {Editor.) 
 
30 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 me to agree to be Section chiefs if he 
 needed us. We acquiesced rather from a 
 sense of duty than from any real desire, 
 as it means a sacrifice of personal liberty. 
 I asked to be allowed to stay for a month 
 or two, and our "Loot" also kicked like a 
 steer. So Kurtz and I go down next week 
 and I am not to be called till June. An- 
 drew also says that, if all goes well, we may 
 get commissions in the American Trans- 
 port Service which he is forming. He ex- 
 pects to get, and the French Government 
 has asked for, ten thousand "camion" 
 drivers as the most useful immediate aid 
 the United States can give, and those of us 
 who talk more or less French and have 
 had experience will be called upon to fur- 
 nish material for minor officerships. 
 
 Too bad that our third citation could 
 n't be "pulled off" with the big cere- 
 mony. As it was, seven minor French of- 
 ficers were decorated with the Croix de 
 
CRAONNE — BERRY-AU-BAC 31 
 
 Guerre after Andrew's Legion d'Honneur 
 award was given. 
 
 April 30. We heard this morning, not 
 without grim amusement, that one of the 
 German bombing machines, by mistake, 
 had dropped a big one right on the prison 
 camp not far from here, and thus killed 
 or injured some fifty of their own citizens 
 last night! A case of taking their own 
 medicine, all right! 
 
 We had quite an excitement after 
 luncheon. An enemy aviator came over 
 and got four "saucisses" in succession 
 right in front of us. Some of the observers 
 got away in parachutes; but a couple were 
 followed down by the blazing balloons, 
 and, I fear, killed, as there was little or no 
 wind. The " Germ," apparently, got away 
 untouched, although every gun in sight 
 was firing at him. 
 
 May 1. Kurtz leaves to-day to take 
 charge of the new Section 18, known as 
 
S2 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 the Cornell Section. Everybody is sorry 
 to lose him. He was a first-rate worker 
 and a good comrade. A new man, by the 
 name of Patterson, has arrived. He was 
 on the Penn Squad for three months, and 
 got transferred. 
 
 Ned Townsend, Woodworth, and I saw 
 " Kurtzy " off at Epernay. We "kidded" 
 him about the Boche aviator who came 
 down close to the ground and wiped out 
 the company of Zouaves with his machine 
 gim, yesterday afternoon, by the same 
 train. I tried to get a bath at Epernay, 
 but all the attendants were upset because 
 of the bombs dropped on the gas plant 
 and the cafe last night. There was quite 
 a fire afterward. No baths for us until 
 too late this afternoon to enable us to get 
 back to Muizon in time for dinner. 
 
 May 3. Lieutenant de Kersauson de 
 Pennendreff — otherwise known as the 
 "Loot" — and I took a long walk and 
 
■-?'•;-*-*• * '^■ 
 
 
 M 
 
 r- 
 ^ 
 
 ...^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 1 
 
 J 
 
 BENJAMIN R. WOODWORTH (left), PAUL KURTZ (center), 
 AND J. M. SPONAGLE (right) AT RHEIMS 
 
 Woodworth is in the shell-hole of a 380. A corner of the Cathedral 
 shows at the left 
 
CRAONNE-BERRY-AU-BAC 33 
 
 saw the fighting for Brimont again; also 
 the Httle gunboats that used to be on the 
 Somme. There were many Boche aviators 
 out bombing. Four new men have arrived. 
 They look fairly hopeful. 
 
 May 4. The Germans have finally man- 
 aged to set fire to the main part of Rheims. 
 The Hotel de Ville is burning now, and 
 the little cafe on the corner of the square 
 where we always stopped, was "crowned" 
 by a "220," just before we got there to- 
 day. The proprietor and his family nar- 
 rowly escaped by going into the cellar and 
 then getting out again before the house 
 burned down over their heads. So the 
 Section pup's home is gone. The heavy 
 bombardment of Brimont still is in prog- 
 ress, and it looks like another French 
 attack on the fort. I trust it won't be 
 such a failure as the last. 
 
 May 5. The French attacked and made 
 four kilometers, but they lost half their 
 
34 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 gain later. The bombardment still goes 
 on. I went into Rheims with the "Loot,'* 
 Woody, and Flynn. The Hotel de Ville is 
 now gutted, and our little cafe is a heap 
 of ruins! What strikes one as odd in all 
 these French bombarded towns is, that 
 the men always are equipped with hel- 
 mets and gas masks, while the women and 
 children go about just as usual, bare- 
 headed or with a shawl, in the most un- 
 concerned manner! 
 
 May 6. We got the shock of our lives 
 last evening. Orders came for Lieutenant 
 de Kersauson — our "Loot" — to leave 
 Section 1, of which he has had charge for 
 two years, and take over the new school 
 at Meaux for training of ambulance men 
 to be American officers. It certainly was 
 a "jolt." For the "Loot," of course, it 
 means a captaincy, when he gets through 
 with the school and takes charge under the 
 new plan of four sections of ambulances or 
 
CRAONNE — BERRY-AU-BAC 35 
 
 trucks, each with an American Lieuten- 
 ant.^ Meantime, we have a temporary 
 Lieutenant for the next couple of days 
 when our new officer is to arrive. No 
 one knows anything about him. 
 
 We got some champagne and we saw 
 our Lieutenant off at about ten o'clock in 
 the evening in a driving rain and thunder- 
 storm. It was a gloomy party. All chance 
 for the "fourragere" for the Section is 
 gone now, as it required a hustler like 
 de Kersauson to put it over, by placing 
 the Section in a position to earn it. 
 
 May 7. The new temporary officer ar- 
 rived last night and seems a good sort. 
 The regular Lieutenant turned up later, so 
 for the time being we have two "Loots "; 
 but the temporary one leaves this morn- 
 ing. He was a generous fellow and most 
 amusing, and he ordered champagne all 
 
 * This new system has not yet been put into operation. 
 {Editor.) 
 
36 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 around. He told us that his wife came 
 from Denver, Colorado; that he himself 
 was a Cornell man. He certainly under- 
 stands things American. His sister is at 
 Bryn Mawr College! It all seems very 
 familiar, does n't it? ^ 
 
 Our regular officer, by name Reymond, 
 has been wounded, has the Croix, and 
 was only recently promoted to a stripe. 
 But he also talks English with facility 
 and looks like a hustler — but has never 
 been in America. Will he understand the 
 boys? 
 
 There seems to be more infection about, 
 this spring, than there was last year. 
 Quite a number of the men have infected 
 hands, some quite severely. Kenyon had 
 both hands so infected from minor cuts 
 that he had to go on sick-leave. Wilson 
 also is on sick-leave for "la gale," while 
 
 * He was Lieutenant La Forgue, and is now a liaison 
 officer with the American Army. {Editor.) 
 
THE AUTHOR AND THE NEW FRENCH LIEUTENANT 
 OF SECTION 1, JAMES REYMOND 
 
CRAONNE — BERRY-AU-BAC 37 
 
 Townsend, Hanna, Plow/ Stout, and 
 Pearl all have had some trouble of the 
 same kind. I managed to ward off a felon 
 with dioxygen and iodine, and Sponagle 
 also staved off an infected cut with gaso- 
 line and iodine. I suppose that this is due 
 to this part of the country having been 
 fought over so long. 
 
 It was at this time that Section 1 was 
 cited for the third time by the General 
 Order of the Sixteenth Army Corps, Staff 
 First Bureau. 
 
 Citation to the Order of the Army Corps 
 
 The S.S.U. No. 1, American Sanitary Section 
 Under command of the Second Lieu- 
 tenant de Kersauson de Pennendreff and of 
 the American officer Herbert P. Townsend, 
 at the Front since January, 1915, has been 
 particularly distinguished by a devotion, a 
 dash, and a courage worthy of all praise in 
 
 1 Richard Plow is now in the Canadian Artillery. 
 iEdit&r.) 
 
38 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 the execution of the Service, particularly be- 
 fore Verdun and during the attacks of Jan- 
 uary 26th, 27th, and 28th, 1917, in the course 
 of which it has assured, night and day, the 
 evacuation of numerous wounded from a 
 poste de secours at the Front line to the 
 Ambulances through a road exposed to sight 
 of the enemy and constantly subjected to the 
 fire of enemy artillery, so that many cars were 
 struck by shell fire. 
 
 (Signed) General Here 
 General Commanding the 16th Army Corps 
 
 May 9. We were shelled last night by 
 big fellows; but nobody was hurt. 
 
 May 10. The Lieutenant-Colonel and 
 his staff, who have been occupying with us 
 the Chateau de Muizon, moved out this 
 morning to a place farther away from the 
 lines, because of the recent shelling; so 
 we now have much more room. 
 
 May 12. I had an interesting afternoon 
 to-day. I went down to the front line 
 with the new *'Loot," Woodworth, and 
 de Mare, to see a colonel, who is de 
 
CRAONNE — BERRY-AU-B AC 39 
 
 Mare's brother-in-law, in an effort to get 
 attached to his division. After getting 
 disconnected from the old 32d, de Ker- 
 sauson had hoped to "hook up" with a 
 live one, but with the loss of de Ker- 
 sauson, our chance for a good berth dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 The fellows, however, have kicked so 
 that Woody has taken matters into his 
 own hands. Meantime we sit around, 
 and read, eat, swim, play ball, and sleep. 
 
 The Colonel received us kindly and cor- 
 dially enough, and said he would do what 
 he could. His dug-out was twenty feet 
 underground and it was interesting to 
 watch the handling of a regiment in the 
 trenches by telephone. He said that he 
 lost six hundred men and twenty officers 
 in the last attack, which failed owing to 
 insufficient aviation and lack of heavy 
 artillery. Altogether he was very frank, 
 and hardly optimistic. # 
 
40 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 We went into the observation posts and 
 saw the Boche lines, only six hundred 
 yards away. Coming back we saw an 
 aviator fall in flames into the German 
 lines. I could not make out whether he 
 was an Ally or German. Anyhow, it was 
 a fierce sight, and the only comforting 
 thought was that he must have died 
 almost instantly. 
 
 May 15. We have organized two base- 
 ball teams. The "Back and Forths" and 
 the "Here and Theres." We have games 
 every day, some of them most exciting. 
 We have quite an audience of "poilus," 
 too. Of course, the playing is rather 
 weird, but we get a lot of fun out of it. 
 
 I went up with Woody, Hibbard, and 
 Gamble ^ to call on Mrs. Tolstoy, an Amer- 
 ican girl, a Miss Frothingham, of Boston, 
 who is nursing at the Frigny Hospital. 
 She married a Russian. She knows the 
 
 * Robert Gamble, of Jacksonville, Florida. He is 
 now an oflScer in the Aviation Service. 
 
CRAONNE — BERRY-AU-BAC 41 
 
 Frothinghams of Philadelphia. The Com- 
 tesse de Benoist-d'Azy is in charge of the 
 hospital.^ The latter tells me that Mrs. 
 Tolstoy's name has been sent in for the 
 Croix de Guerre for her work in the recent 
 bombardment of the village in which the 
 hospital is located. It appears that a 
 woman was killed in the street, and her 
 child, a baby in arms, was taken care of 
 by Mrs. Tolstoy, who, instead of hiding 
 in the dug-outs, went about ministering 
 as best she could to the villagers and sol- 
 diers injured by the bombardment. This 
 occurred about three weeks ago. She 
 does n't know yet that she has been cited. 
 May 16. We had a big night last night. 
 Word came that the old 32d Division had 
 cited Woody, Hibbard, Kurtz, and Ned 
 Townsend for their work last winter 
 
 * Madame de Benoist-d'Azy is a sister of Mr. Scam- 
 mon Jones, now of Philadelphia. She has been deco- 
 rated for her brave work. 
 
42 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 around Hill 304. Kurtz, of course, has 
 left us, and Ned is on sick-leave. But 
 Woody and Hibbard opened wine and "a 
 pleasant time was had by all." I guess 
 that's about the last of the Croix de 
 Guerre opportunities. The Section seems 
 to be hopelessly "canned" now. We are 
 unattached and there is not the slightest 
 chance of our getting anything but punk 
 — evacuating work, if even that. It is 
 certainly tough luck to have come all the 
 way over for this. 
 
 May 17. One of the "Loot's" friends 
 by the name of Jones turned up yester- 
 day. He is in charge of an English Ambu- 
 lance Section No. 16, which is near here. 
 Quite "a guy" — half French, half Eng- 
 lish ; wears a monocle. I went in to E,heims 
 with Woodworth and the two "Loots" 
 after dinner and we had quite a party in 
 a new cafe which we have discovered, 
 where there is a piano and a Victrola. 
 
CRAONNE— BERRY-AU-BAC 43 
 
 Jones says that the new French tanks were 
 very badly handled in the Craonne offen- 
 sive, and that he, himself, saw five burned 
 up. Instead of taking their positions dur- 
 ing the night, they moved up in broad 
 daylight and the Boches simply played 
 with them, shelling with phosphorous 
 igniting shells. Their gas tanks were 
 badly protected, and it was an easy mat- 
 ter to set them on fire. 
 
 A whale of a big gun turned up here to- 
 day — a 380 marine ! The barrel is over 
 fifty feet long and it is mounted on a rail- 
 road truck. The French call it "La Reine 
 Elizabeth." 
 
 May 18. I hear that Andrew got rid 
 of the French Lieutenant of one of the 
 Sections. It is said that when the Boches 
 attacked a while ago around Hill 304, 
 the rumor got abroad that they had 
 broken through. So this "Loot" lost no 
 time in packing up his things and in 
 
44 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 running off to a town well back of the 
 lines in his staff car. And then he tele- 
 phoned to the Section, which was working 
 night and day, that, if they needed him, 
 they could find him at this rear post. The 
 Germans did get a couple of hundred 
 yards of trenches, but the Americans re- 
 mained on the job in spite of their " Loot " ! 
 So the latter duly faded out of sight. 
 
 Woody and I took a four-" striper" and 
 a priest into Epernay yesterday. He cor- 
 roborated all we had heard about the 
 failure of the spring offensive. 
 
 Finally we have obtained a little direct 
 front-line work. Only one car for twenty- 
 four hours, though, evacuating four little 
 front-line "postes de secours." Every- 
 thing is quiet and we are merely given this 
 because we have been "kicking" for a 
 month both in Paris and with the local 
 army heads. 
 
 May 22. Lieutenant Jones, of English 
 
CRAONNE — BERRY-AU-BAC 45 
 
 S.S. 16, dropped in and asked Woody, the 
 *'Loot," and me to dine with him at 
 Epernay. We went down in his car and 
 met Sponagle returning from "permis- 
 sion.'* We had a very nice *'feed" and 
 stopped at Rheims on our way back at the 
 little cafe. Spone's description of condi- 
 tions at Rue Raynouard was not encour- 
 aging. 
 
 May 9,3. While we were playing base- 
 ball to-day, the Boches jumped on two 
 "saucisses." One of the observers came 
 down in his parachute all right. As there 
 was not a sign of wind he was lucky to 
 escape his falling gas bag. The other was 
 simply squatted upon by his burning bag 
 and vanished in a cloud of smoke rising 
 lazily up to heaven as from a factory 
 chimney on a dull, hazy day. 
 i White came back this morning from his 
 twenty-four-hours "poste" work and re- 
 ported an active night. He had his tire 
 
46 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 punctured by an "eclat" which landed in 
 the yard of the "poste" at Chateau- 
 Thierry 1 and simply plastered the French 
 car beside him. Luckily no one was 
 hurt. 
 
 May 24. We have been definitely at- 
 tached to a mixed division — the 152d, 
 much of which is dismounted cavalry. 
 We serve two "postes," Pouillon and 
 Villers-Franqueux — right close up, and 
 we evacuate to Chalons-sur-Vesle. For 
 the moment we will retain the Chateau 
 de Muizon as the regular "cantonne- 
 ment." Every one is delighted with the 
 change, and especially with being actually 
 hooked-up with something definite, in- 
 stead of being a sort of pariah section. 
 
 May 25. Disaster! All are plunged in 
 woe! They have spread manure over our 
 baseball field ! ! 
 
 1 Where the Americans so distinguished themselves 
 in June, 1918. 
 
CRAONNE — BERRY-AU-BAC 47 
 
 May 26. Steve Galatti turned up 
 to-day with the new staff car. He tells us 
 that two Section 13 men were wounded 
 last night over to the east of Rheims. But 
 neither is badly hurt. 
 
 May 27. Aviators dropped a dozen 
 bombs on the town this morning. One 
 fell within twenty or thirty feet from our 
 tent. The fellows dived under beds or 
 anything conveniently near. One man fell 
 into the "feuillee" in his excitement. 
 
 May 28. We saw a thrilling plane fight 
 over our heads to-day. Two Frenchmen 
 brought down a German. The latter 's 
 gas tank exploded, and then they fairly 
 riddled him with their mitrailleuses. He 
 wormed down slowly, and finally fell in 
 the field near Muizon. It proved to be a 
 three-man plane. One was dead, the other 
 two only slightly wounded. The motor 
 was a six-cylinder Bruz, with four valves 
 to each cylinder — a beautiful machine. 
 
48 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 It carried two mitrailleuses. The " Germs *' 
 were made prisoners and were rather 
 roughly handled before an officer came up 
 and took charge of them. The machine was 
 nearly stripped bare by souvenir hunters. 
 A poor ape, a new man, — or rather 
 child, — went up to the front-line "poste" 
 at Villers-Franqueux yesterday, on the 
 regular schedule, and got an "eclat" in his 
 front wheel. Immediately, he rushed over 
 to the Medecin Auxiliaire and got him to 
 write a sort of signed affidavit that it had 
 occurred; and then took it to the Lieuten- 
 ant with the idea that it was good for a 
 Croix de Guerre. The whole Squad are 
 having the time of their lives with him 
 now! Every time anybody goes out in his 
 car, he brings back a receipt and solemnly 
 presents it to Woodworth. Flynn says 
 he 's going to get a book like the messenger 
 boys' and produce it at each hospital, 
 saying, "Here are two blesses, sign here." 
 
CRAONNE — BERRY-AU-BAC 49 
 
 May 29. I was at the Pouillon "poste" 
 for twenty-four hours with Flynn and 
 Weld,^ interchanging at Villers-Fran- 
 queux. We had pretty active shelHng at in- 
 tervals. I climbed up in the church tower 
 and watched the lines through binoculars. 
 I could see the shells falling steadily on 
 the trenches, but saw no troop movements. 
 
 Our *'abris" at Villers-Franqueux are 
 amusingly named. One is *'le Metro"; 
 another is "fa m'suflfit," which the men 
 pronounce *'Sam Suphy"; still another, 
 "Grotte des Coryphees," etc. Shells were 
 dropping around near, and the concussion 
 of one caused the sandbags of our "abri" 
 doorway to cave in partially blocking the 
 entrance. 
 
 I went up to the Front at 3 a.m. ; dawn 
 was beginning to show. I nearly ran into 
 a camouflage which had been hit by a 
 
 ^ Gameau Weld is still in Section 625 (old 1). He 
 has just been awarded the Croix de Guerre (July, 
 1918). {Editor.) 
 
50 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 shell and blocked the road. Found only- 
 one dead man, and came back. The 
 "Germs'* are only six hundred yards off 
 here and the road is in plain sight. 
 
 We have to make the run at 3 a.m., 
 whether called or not, as the only means 
 of communication is by messenger, the 
 telephone being cut so often by shells that 
 they have given up attempting to keep it 
 connected. 
 
 May 30. This is Decoration Day. We 
 put up a big flag, and when it was lowered 
 at night we all lined up and oflficially 
 saluted. It was the first time that we 
 had observed any such ceremony. 
 
 I hear that Sam Chew broke his arm 
 cranking his car out in the Argonne, where 
 we were posted last fall, and that he has 
 gone home. His brother Oswald was 
 looking very well a month ago when I 
 passed through there. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 AMERICA TO THE RESCUE 
 
 Nous apportons ivres du monde et de nous mfemes, 
 Des coeurs d'hommes nouveaux dans le vieil univers. 
 E. Verhaeeen {La multiple Splendeur) 
 
 I SUPPOSE that I shall remain until the 
 war is ended; but in what capacity I 
 frankly admit I am at a loss to ascertain. 
 The American Army is arriving, and we 
 are, all of us, wondering whether we are 
 to be given oflScers' jobs with it, or be 
 merely taken over as ambulance men; or 
 whether we will remain in the French ser- 
 vice. Meantime, many of us have put in 
 an application for the Officers' Training 
 School for Americans. As for the present 
 work, things are relatively quiet. The 
 nightly air raids by the Germans do very 
 little damage as compared with their 
 expenditure of expensive ammunition. 
 You see, a bomb can't do much unless it 
 
52 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 lands exactly on top of the object aimed 
 at, which is more or less a matter of luck I 
 
 The first American contingent has ar- 
 rived, but as yet I have seen none near 
 the Front. I assume that they are being 
 trained "somewhere." 
 
 As for an officer's commission, I am 
 very doubtful if I can pass the examina- 
 tion, as the course is quite technical and 
 difficult.^ You go to a regular training 
 school for six weeks and the work is ex- 
 ceedingly strenuous. After that, you pass 
 into the Transport Service which, of 
 course, is not nearly so interesting as the 
 ambulance work; merely drudgery with- 
 out the excitement. However, I shall fol- 
 low the general lead of the volunteers, as 
 no one yet seems to be very clear as to 
 just what to expect. 
 
 * As a fact Lieutenant Stevenson eventually passed 
 highest in a class of one hundred and fifty French and 
 American officers and "non-coms." There were two 
 others who did also : Lieutenant Tomkins and Lieuten- 
 ant du Casse. (Editor.) 
 
AMERICA TO THE RESCUE 53 
 
 It looks at present as if the American 
 Ambulance Field Service proper might 
 remain almost in its present form, the 
 new truck end of it going over to the 
 American Army. 
 
 Excepting for the nightly aerial bomb- 
 ing raids and for considerable air fighting 
 during the day, the sector here is relatively 
 quiet just now, and our work is light. The 
 difficulty is to get sleep, as every night 
 the Boches come over and drop bombs 
 on our town, and naturally it keeps us 
 jumpy. 
 
 June 2. Back from my twenty-four 
 hours at the "poste." Nothing much 
 doing where we were; but there seemed to 
 be more or less dislike a little farther 
 over toward Craonne. Around Berry-au- 
 Bac, they were pasting hell out of each 
 other, and when I went up to Route 44 
 "poste" at the customary hour — 3 a.m. 
 — I stopped and watched the argument. 
 
54 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 It surely was Fourth-of-July stuff! 
 "77's" and "75's," flares, hand grenades, 
 mitrailleuses, shrapnel, and, now and 
 then, a big fellow, besides the "torpilles"! 
 Coming back I nearly got a "crack" on 
 the head from a camouflage which had been 
 dropped by a shell a couple of hours pre- 
 viously. Incidentally the staff car's wind- 
 shield was broken by the same camouflage 
 earlier in the evening. The thing had 
 sagged down just low enough to catch 
 the driver's head. 
 
 Our "abri," by the way, is "some 
 sleeping-joint." The rats crawl around, 
 over, and under you all night, and the air 
 is evidently meant to train you for 
 asphyxiating gases. 
 
 As to food: sugar, tea, coffee, sardines 
 we can obtain comparatively easily; but 
 bacon, catsup, chocolate, salt crackers, 
 good ham, are a great luxury. Orange 
 marmalade, too, is hard to obtain, as the 
 
AMERICA TO THE RESCUE 55 
 
 British Army practically gets the whole 
 output. The war will continue several 
 years if there is to be an end by crushing 
 the German military force. They are 
 quite as strong as they ever were on the 
 Western Front, so long as the Russians 
 are out of it. Their new "77's" are as 
 good as the *'75's" now, too, and the 
 Austrian "130" is "a bird"! I can speak 
 with authority, as they are fired at us 
 continually. 
 
 June 4. Rice returned to the Section 
 yesterday. Brewer, an old Section 1 man, 
 though extremely young, came with him, 
 making two extra men for the moment. 
 But as Flynn and Hibbard are just now 
 bemg disciplined for having stayed over 
 in Epernay twenty-four hours, they are 
 not allowed to rim their cars or to go off 
 the chateau grounds, and the new men 
 will take their places for the next ten days. 
 
 A Boche plane was brought down by 
 
5Q FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 Guynemer here to-day. One man fell out 
 before the plane came to the ground and 
 there was not much left of him after the 
 Arabs and niggers got through kicking 
 the corpse around. The other was burnt 
 up by the tank or by the carburetor 
 exploding. 
 
 June 5. Last night was quite a night. 
 The *' Germs" began raiding us about 
 eleven o'clock and dropped bombs all 
 over the place, several falling so close that 
 the flashes lit up the tent and the ground 
 shook! Then, when we thought it was 
 over and were beginning to doze off, 
 another squadron came over and the 
 same thing occurred all over again. Four 
 times did this happen until we were all so 
 jumpy that every time one heard the noise 
 of a plane it seemed to be a Boche. Need- 
 less to add that no one got much sleep, 
 and even this morning another raid was 
 attempted ! But this time the Huns were 
 

 
AMERICA TO THE RESCUE 57 
 
 driven off easily. Some of the fellows ran 
 over from the tents to the archways of the 
 chMeau, but Woody, Sponagle, and I 
 figured that it was rather silly, as the 
 bombs were so large that the archways 
 were really more dangerous than where 
 we were lying on our tent beds in the open 
 on the lawn, as here at least there would 
 be no flying bricks and stones to speak of. 
 I received to-day bully letters from 
 
 mother and C . Certainly it is a relief 
 
 to hear at last. The blessed Chicago is so 
 slow that it takes a full month between 
 letters, when the old raft's turn comes. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE DEATH ROLL 
 
 If the bowl be of gold and the liquor of flame. 
 
 What if poison lie in the cup? 
 If the maiden be fair — our soul's in the game; 
 If her kisses be death — we'll kiss her just the same, 
 Sang the legion of boys who never grew up. 
 Charles Law Watkins 
 American Field Service Bulletin, June 1, 1918 
 {The Boys Who Never Grew Up) 
 
 June 6. Went over with Kenyon, Plow, 
 Woodworth, and Sponagle to Fismes, to 
 call on the aviators located there. We 
 had a great time with Guynemer's *' Spad " 
 Section and a bombing and scouting Sec- 
 tion of Caudrons and Farmans. They 
 have a regular little club-room in one of 
 the hangars, with a piano and bar deco- 
 rated by real artists. 
 
 Kenyon played the violin and one of the 
 aviators accompanied him on the piano. 
 At about eleven o'clock a German plane 
 came over and dropped four bombs within 
 
THE DEATH ROLL 59 
 
 less than fifty feet of the hangars. Need- 
 less to say that every one was flat on 
 the ground. Guynemer being there, the 
 Boches are constantly after him and they 
 say that his health is failing. All the same, 
 he brought down two Germans yesterday, 
 bringing his record up to forty-three — 
 which tops them all.^ 
 
 ^ Guynemer was killed September 11, 1917, three 
 months after this. One is tempted to publish here the 
 remarkable allocution delivered by General Anthoine, 
 commanding the First Army, in honor of Guynemer, 
 before all the flags of the First Army, the aviators, and 
 the members of the Legion d'Honneur, on November 30, 
 1917, on the Aviation Field of Saint-Pol-sur-Mer: — 
 
 "If I have invited you to-day to render to Guynemer 
 the last homage that is due to him by the First Army, 
 it is neither before a coffin nor near a grave. Neither, 
 at Poelcappelle reconquered, has a vestige of his mortal 
 remains been foimd. It seems as though Heaven, jealous 
 of its hero, had refused to restore to earth even the 
 spoils which as a right should be returned to it — as 
 though Guynemer entire had flown to the empyrean 
 by some miraculous ascension, disappearing in all his 
 glory. 
 
 "In assembling on the very spot whence he darted 
 toward Infinity, we pass above the customary rites of 
 sadness which crowned the end of a man's life, and we 
 
60 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 June 7. Our old "Loot," de Kersauson 
 de Pennendreff, turned up yesterday and 
 spent the night with us. Allen Muhr and 
 
 mean to salute the entrance into immortality of the 
 Knight-of-the-Air without fear or reproach. 
 
 "Men pass, France remains. 
 
 "Each of those who fall for her bequeath to her one 
 ray of glory; and of those rays is built up her splendor. 
 Happy is he who enriches the common patrimony of 
 the race by a gift more precious, more magnificent 
 of himself. Happy, therefore, among all, the child of 
 France, of whom we exalt the almost superhuman 
 destiny. 
 
 "Honor to him in heaven where he reigned so often 
 victorious. 
 
 "Honor to him on earth and in our soldiers' hearts, 
 and in om* flags, those sacred emblems in which are 
 embodied for us the cultus of Honor and the worship of 
 country. 
 
 "Flags of the Second Group of Aviation and of the 
 First Army, ye who piously gather in the mystery of 
 your revered folds the memory of the virtues, the devo- 
 tion, and the sacrifices, in order to form and to keep 
 through the ages the treasure of oiu* national tradi- 
 tions — 
 
 "Flags, ye in whom survives the soul of dead heroes, 
 of which one seems to hear, when flutters your bunting, 
 the voice that orders the living to march on through the 
 same perils to the same apotheoses — 
 
 "Flags, may the soul of Guynemer dwell eternally 
 in you. 
 
THE DEATH ROLL 61 
 
 Reed were along. Both of them are pupils 
 at the Meaux School. It appears that the 
 course is rauch more difficult than any of 
 
 "May it through you create and multiply heroes in 
 his image. 
 
 "May it, through you, inspire the same ardent re- 
 solves in neophytes who will wish to honor the martyr 
 in the only manner that is worthy of him, by imitating 
 his lofty example; and may it give to his valiant fol- 
 lowers, the strength to revive in them Guynemer in his 
 legendary prowess. 
 
 "For the only homage that he may henceforth expect 
 from his brothers in arms and that we owe him here, is 
 action — the proud continuation of his work. 
 
 "At that supreme moment, where, on the limits of 
 life, he felt his thought about to escape him, when he 
 embraced in one sweep, as through a lightning flash, all 
 the past and all the future, if he could know one last 
 pleasiu"e, it must have been found in his absolute faith 
 in his comrades' power to finish the task imdertaken in 
 common with him. 
 
 "You, gentlemen, his friends, his rivals in glory, and 
 now, his avengers, I know you; and such as was Guy- 
 nemer, I am sure of you. You are of a size to face those 
 formidable burdens which he has bequeathed to you 
 and to nobly realize the vast hopes which, with good 
 reason, the country had set upon him. 
 
 "It is to affirm in front of our flags, noble witnesses, 
 this assured contiuuity so necessary, that I wish to 
 bestow in the course of this very ceremony, under the 
 
62 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 us imagined and quite technical in regard 
 to motors. Also, when you graduate, you 
 do not take charge of an ambulance sec- 
 
 segis of Guynemer's memory, under his invocation, to 
 two of you — two of the stoutest fighters — distinc- 
 tions which at once are the reward of the past and a 
 guerdon of the future. [The General then fastened the 
 Cross of OflScer of the Legion of Honor on Captain 
 Heurtaux's breast and that of Knight of the Legion of 
 Honor on Adjutant Fonck's]. 
 
 "Let us rise in our hearts, united in one fraternal 
 thought of respectful admiration and of gratitude for 
 the heroes whom the First Army can never forget — • 
 for her hero of whom she was so proud, and of whom the 
 Great Shade will ever soar in history in the memory of 
 his actions in Flanders. 
 
 "Such Shades as those of Guynemer siu'ely guide 
 those who know how to follow toward the triumphant 
 path which through ruins, graves, and sacrifices lead 
 the strong and the true to glorious Victory. 
 
 "Amen." 
 General Order No. 50. 
 
 Le General Commandant la I^''® Armee, cite k 
 I'ordre de I'Armee: — 
 
 M. Guynemer, Georges, Capitaine Commandant 
 I'Escadrille, N°3: — 
 
 Mort au Champ d'Honneur le 11 Septembre 1917. 
 Heros legendaire, tombe en plein ciel de gloire, apres 
 trois ans de lutte ardente. Restera le plus piu* symbole 
 des qualites de la race — tenacite indomptable, energie 
 
THE DEATH ROLL 63 
 
 tion, but of a truck section, which is by 
 no means as interesting work. Altogether, 
 their news was disappointing. 
 
 It does not look as though Piatt Andrew 
 could have as much control, now that the 
 regular American Army is arriving. Ten 
 thousand men already have landed in 
 Bordeaux, and as many more are on the 
 way. The plan is to have one hundred and 
 twenty-five thousand men here by au- 
 tumn. It is said that General Pershing 
 already is in France. Those of us who 
 were thinking of trying for grades are not 
 so keen now that we are obtaining a more 
 
 farouche, courage sublime. Anime de la foi la plus 
 in^branlable dans la victoire, il legue au soldat frangais, 
 un souvenir imperissable qui exaltera I'esprit de sacri- 
 fice et provoquera les plus nobles emulations. 
 
 (These words are inscribed on the wall of the Pan- 
 theon in Paris.) 
 
 Adjutant Fonck has splendidly made good. A few 
 days after this, he avenged his friend by kUling Lieu- 
 tenant Weisemann, his slayer; and, in August, 1918, he 
 even outstripped his hero, by bringing down his sixtieth 
 plane. (Editor.) 
 
64 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 definite line on what we would get to do 
 if we did graduate. The next School starts 
 on July 20 with twenty-five instead of 
 fifteen men. The present School ends next 
 week. 
 
 June 8. The Boches dropped a lot of 
 bombs on Frigny, killing eight and wound- 
 ing several other men. At Epernay a 
 division commander was killed at the 
 headquarters, which was the house of 
 Chandon — of Moet et Chandon fame. 
 The entire mansion was destroyed. 
 
 I knocked my little finger out of joint 
 playing ball. A nuisance! 
 
 June 10. Farlow leaves to-morrow, his 
 six months being up. He is going to try 
 for the artillery. Everybody is sorry to 
 see him go. We gave him a party last 
 night. Stockwell sang "The Big Black 
 Bull"; Hibbert played the mandolin; 
 champagne flowed, and every one had a 
 pleasant time. 
 
O 
 
 Eh **? 
 H 
 
 <: 
 o 
 
 m 
 
 > 
 
 tl 
 pq 
 
 S 6: 
 
THE DEATH ROLL 65 
 
 I put my thumb out of joint playing 
 ball! Both wretched hands are crippled 
 now ! 
 
 The morale of the troops around here is 
 very poor. A regiment from the "midi" 
 of a cavalry division revolted on the 
 day before yesterday, killing their officers, 
 because they were not allowed to go "en 
 repos." The Annamites had to be called 
 out, and two hundred men were shot 
 before order could be restored. The en- 
 tire division is to be sent to Salonica as a 
 punishment. 
 
 June 12. Three of our fellows pulled a 
 kindergarten stunt yesterday. The first 
 two had been trying for several days to 
 get transferred to the Artillery School, 
 but had received no reply from Andrew. 
 So they announced that they were going 
 to get themselves sent down to Paris, and 
 proceeded to make a lot of noise, threat- 
 ening to "get Woody," who, incidentally, 
 
66 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 had done all he could to get them trans- 
 ferred. Contrary to their hopes, the rest 
 of the Squad sided with Woody and their 
 plan fell flat. They only succeeded in 
 making asses of themselves. The poor 
 little babies ought to be sent to a kinder- 
 garten, rather than to an artillery school. 
 
 June 13. It was decided to jail for four 
 days the leaders and to let the third go, 
 as he was younger and a sort of "goat" 
 for the other two. Unfortunately, how- 
 ever, orders came from Headquarters for 
 the first to report in Paris. So they es- 
 caped after all. But thank goodness, we ' ve 
 got rid of the leader. The Section certainly 
 is lucky to lose him. 
 
 June 15. I got up to the "poste" by 
 luck, being third "remplagant" — two 
 men *'en permission," and Holt sick with 
 "la gale." I had a rather amusing day. 
 We spotted a Boche camouflage and the 
 artillery gave them hell ! With customary 
 
THE DEATH ROLL 67 
 
 Teutonic thoroughness, they'd built a 
 regular forest in front of the road from the 
 north to Rheims. That's where, with 
 customary lack of perception, they failed 
 to "get by." The French, naturally, 
 know their own country, and they also 
 knew well enough that a forest would n't 
 grow up overnight. If they'd faked a 
 "picture" of the road, it would have been 
 a different thing. Well, very few Boches 
 will get by those five kilometers these 
 days. 
 
 June 16. Woody was killed last eve- 
 ning. I have not got quite used to the 
 idea yet. It does n't seem real. He was 
 the best friend I had in the Ambulance. 
 Chatkoff, of the observing and directing 
 escadrille, driving a Caudron, invited him 
 and Sponagle to go up with him. Spone 
 went first, stayed up about twenty min- 
 utes, and came back so that Woodworth 
 could have his turn. They decided to go 
 
68 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 beyond Soissons to see the American 
 Escadrille. They got over all right. 
 
 Jones to-day told me the rest. On start- 
 ing to come back about six o'clock, it is 
 thought that Chatkoff, who had failed to 
 be asked to join the American Escadrille 
 (Lafayette), was anxious to show them 
 what he could do. Before he and Wood- 
 worth were sixty feet off the ground, he 
 tried to make a fancy hank, side-slipped, 
 and it was all over. 
 
 Luf beryl s^yg ^^jr^^^ jj. ^^^ ^g um^h plain 
 
 ^ Raoul Lufbery himself was killed in combat a year 
 later. At the time of his death he was the leading 
 American flier in the Lafayette Escadrille. He was fly- 
 ing long before the United States entered the war. He 
 was buried with every honor on May 21, 1918. The last 
 time Lieutenant Stevenson saw him to speak to was in 
 Paris shortly before his death, when both men were 
 "en permission," and came cross each other at Henry's. 
 Lufbery was brought down by a big Boche double 
 plane, quite near the camp where Lieutenant Stevenson 
 had his quarters. When his plane caught fire, he at- 
 tempted to jump into a water-coxn-se below from a 
 height of some five hundred yards. He missed and fell 
 into a garden and was killed instantly. As usual, his 
 
RAOUL LUFBERY 
 
THE DEATH ROLL 69 
 
 murder as any one could see. He had no 
 right to risk another fellow's life just to 
 show off. Woody never knew what hap- 
 
 comrades flew over his grave, throwing flowers over him 
 as he was lowered to his last resting-place. 
 
 Lufbery had nineteen Boches to his credit and at the 
 time of his death was far and away the leading American 
 flyer. At that time. Lieutenant Stevenson said that 
 Frank L. Baylies was creeping up to second place with 
 six official enemy planes to his credit, while the news- 
 papers credited him with eleven victories. But Baylies 
 is in the French Escadrille "Les Cigognes," and it is 
 possible that he would n't be scored with the Ameri- 
 cans. For Baylies' record see below, p. 90, et seq. 
 
 In the War Letters of Edmond Charles Clinton Genet, 
 page 284, the writer claims the honor of having deco- 
 rated this little living-room where the Lafayette Esca- 
 drille made history. He writes: — 
 
 "Our living-room, where we are most of the tima 
 when off duty, is a mighty attractive little den. We 
 have covered the walls with corrugated cardboard 
 strips — smooth side outside — over the rough boards, 
 and on this, in various places I have drawn and painted 
 vivid scenes of aerial combats between French and 
 German machines, and here and there I have made 
 other pencil drawings of girls. Each of the two doors is 
 draped with attractive blue and brown curtains, the 
 four windows have white curtains, except one which 
 caught fire from a lamp by accident last night, and a 
 huge painting of an Indian head, the symbol of the 
 
70 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 pened. The motor fell on him. Skull 
 crushed; no face left; both legs broken at 
 the hips and all the flesh scraped off the 
 bones. 
 
 escadrille, which is also painted on each of our machines. 
 The Indian's mouth is open as though he were shouting 
 his terrible war cry in defiance of his enemies, and he 
 looks very warlike indeed. It's quite an appropriate 
 symbol for the escadrille, being something so genu- 
 inely American. For entertainment, we have a pretty 
 fair piano," etc. 
 
 Among the aviators whom Lieutenant Stevenson 
 met about this time was Nungesser who recently has 
 been named Officer of the Legion of Honor, having 
 added two more victories to his already numerous list. 
 This swells his record to thirty-six enemy planes. He 
 enjoys the uncomfortable distinction of having been 
 more wounded than any living pilot. Le Matin re- 
 cently published a full list of his wounds, as follows: — 
 
 "Fracture of the cranium, cerebral commotion, inter- 
 nal lesions, five fractures of the upper jaw, two fractures 
 of the lower jaw, shell eclat in the right arm, two dis- 
 located knees, one knee redislocated, shell splinter in 
 the mouth, atrophied ligaments of the lower left leg, 
 atrophied calf, two fractures of the jaw, dislocated 
 clavicle, internal lesion, wrist, leg, and right foot out of 
 joint, fracture of the horizontal branch of the inferior 
 maxillary, contusion thoraco-pulmonary. He was three 
 times reformed in Class No. 1, but he never would 
 accept convalescence leave. Whilst in the Dunkirk hos- 
 
THE DEATH ROLL 71 
 
 Chatkoff had three skull fractures, both 
 legs broken at the hips, and a splinter 
 through the lower part of his body. He is 
 still alive, but in a state of coma and is 
 not expected to live. 
 
 I drove over to get Woody's body — 
 fifty miles there and fifty back. All the 
 officials were most kind. Spone and I 
 lunched with the American aviators and 
 came back in the afternoon, dead tired. 
 Hibbard and Plow went to Epernay and 
 got a fine zinc-lined coffin, lots of flowers, 
 and so forth; I wired Kurtz, Balbiani, and 
 de Kersauson; also Andrew and Dr. Gros. 
 
 pital, he took advantage of his days out to bring down 
 nine official planes! And now, he continues his record 
 by bringing down Boches by pairs!" 
 
 "While quoting the Matin's list," says Mr. Steven- 
 son, "I may add that this does not take into account 
 the time when his chaufifeur died while driving his car 
 in Paris, and the car ran into a stone wall. Nungesser 
 blew into Maxim's a few minutes later with his head all 
 bandaged, and had a cocktail with one or two of us who 
 happened to be there, while he arranged for the body 
 of his man to be taken care of." {Editor.) 
 
72 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 Jones, Johnson, and Shaw will try to get 
 over to-morrow, although it is out of their 
 army. I wired Miss Brown of Philadel- 
 phia. Woodworth's father is dead and he 
 has no near relatives. It's sickening. He 
 and Sponagle and I had been living lately 
 together in a little tent. 
 
 June 17. We buried Woody at Chalons- 
 sur-Vesle, our evacuating "poste." The 
 weather was fine; shells coming in occa- 
 sionally. All the oflScers of the Division 
 whom we knew were there together with 
 some of the other Divisions, and a platoon 
 of Zouaves as guard of honor. Andrew 
 could not get up, but Galatti was on hand 
 with a beautiful bronze wreath. The boys 
 picked wild flowers all morning and had a 
 bully display. Ned Townsend, Hibbard, 
 Stockwell, and I carried the coffin. Every- 
 thing went without a hitch and the Epis- 
 copalian minister delivered a fine sermon. 
 A mistake was made in having on the 
 
THE DEATH ROLL 73 
 
 cross at the grave the word "aviator" 
 instead of "ambulancier"; but the cross 
 already has been changed, and later a 
 stone monument will replace it. He was 
 buried with his own American silk flag 
 on which was pinned the Croix de Guerre. 
 
 June 18. Sponagle, being Sous-Chef, 
 takes the lieutenancy pro tem, and I was 
 made Sous-Chef. Pearl was made Chief 
 Mechanician, replacing Sponagle, who 
 had been temporarily holding the two jobs. 
 
 Of course, the fact that Chatkoff had 
 no right to take up a passenger and to 
 fly into another army zone, and that 
 "Woody" had no right to go out of his 
 army either, has created a big row, and 
 the Section is likely to be punished by 
 withdrawal to the rear. At all events, we 
 are bound to be watched and inspected 
 very carefully, so all the men are on the 
 jump, every car washed, all the motors 
 overhauled. No leaves of absence are 
 
74 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 granted beyond the "cantonnement," etc. 
 Even "permissionnaires" are no longer 
 taken to Epernay in an ambulance, but 
 must find their way walking or begging 
 a lift from a passing "camion." 
 
 June 19. The cavalry horses broke 
 loose last night, frightened by bombs, and 
 scattered all over the place. The men were 
 out all night catching them. Such a riot! 
 
 June 21. Word came to move and we 
 were busy all day. Holt returned cured of 
 "la gale" and Gamble is over his fever. 
 Both were up at the Chalons Hospital for 
 a week or so and had a very good time 
 with the pretty nurses. 
 
 Louvois is our new "cantonnement." 
 It is about fifteen kilometers southeast of 
 Rheims. Apparently we are in luck not 
 to get sent to the rear and are to take over 
 really more front-line work than we have 
 had. 
 
 June 22. This is a very interesting sec- 
 
THE DEATH ROLL 75 
 
 tor. We have pleasant " cantonnements " 
 in the quaint Httle town to the east of 
 Rheims. Sponagle and I being the officers 
 have a small bedroom; the boys are all 
 together in a big, airy room — a much 
 better arrangement than to let them sepa- 
 rate into cliques. We all eat at one long 
 table also. The arrangement as to work 
 is rather odd. Six cars stay away three 
 days. Four at Ludes, the village where 
 the hospital is, and one at each of the 
 advanced "postes" which are "whales"! 
 They are shelled all the time. Two men 
 are relieved each day, so that everybody 
 gets a hack at the work. I hear that Sec- 
 tion 13 near here had eight men wounded 
 the other day, and their Lieutenant had 
 both legs shot away. They got an Army 
 citation. I received to-day a nice letter 
 from Kurtz anent Woodworth's death. 
 Kurtz is still in charge of Section 18, now 
 at Glorieux near Verdun. 
 
76 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 But to return: The work is interesting 
 with four "postes" on the front line and 
 evacuations to Epernay, so that we have 
 a good variety of driving, and it keeps the 
 men busy and interested. For a time we 
 had considerable trouble with the boys 
 who were "fed-up," grouchy, and nervous. 
 The lack of sleep was the worst trouble, as 
 even back in the "cantonnements" the 
 nightly aero raids kept every one, who 
 was at all nervous, on the jump. Some of 
 the men have since confessed to me that 
 they had virtually not slept throughout 
 the last period when the moon was shin- 
 ing — that's when the planes come over 
 — a matter of two weeks at a stretch. 
 Now, our camp is suflBciently far back to 
 be out of the raiding area, especially as it 
 is not near a railway — the usual Boche 
 objective. Personally I am such a sound 
 sleeper that I never heard the bombs un- 
 less they actually fell in our immediate 
 
THE DEATH ROLL 77 
 
 neighborhood. But some of the boys 
 say that it was the sound of the approach- 
 ing plane that "got their goats"! They 
 could hear it gradually getting nearer and 
 nearer and dropping bombs as it came, 
 and it was a sort of fifty-fifty with them 
 as to whether those night birds would lay 
 one of their iron eggs on the tent or not. 
 
 Well, I'm glad to say we've gone away. 
 I hated the place since poor Woody's 
 death. The cars now go up the line, and 
 stay there for a period of three days 
 each — six of them — and are relieved by 
 two's. The officers and the doctor also are 
 a fine lot of men — quite different from 
 the last bunch we were with. So all is for 
 the best in the best of worlds! 
 
 June 23. Holt's "gale" has returned 
 and he is to be sent again to the hospital. 
 The men as a whole respond very well to 
 the stricter regulations and "Eddy" and 
 I have had little trouble so far. 
 
78 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 We met the local officers last night, and 
 they were most polite and pleasant. They 
 drank our health, and that of all Ameri- 
 cans, etc. 
 
 June 24. We dined with the Medecin 
 Chef and his staff at the hospital. They 
 gave us a bully dinner and all were most 
 kind. Such a difference from Muizon! 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 OFFICER AND CHIEF OF SECTION 1 
 
 Toute la vie est dans I'Essor . . . 
 
 Car vivre, c'est prendre et donner avec Hesse 
 
 . . . Avide et haletant 
 
 Devant la vie intense et sa rouge sagesse! 
 
 Vebhaeren {Les Forces Tumvltueuses) 
 
 June 25. Word has just come that I 
 had been made "Chef" and that Spone 
 goes to Meaux. I hate to think of the 
 utter loneliness before me. It is hard to 
 lose the last of the Mohicans. First 
 Woody, and now Spone! I'm left now 
 practically the only one of the old Somme 
 gang, excepting Ned Townsend. 
 
 The great honor of being appointed 
 Commander of Section carries with it the 
 equivalent of a First Lieutenancy in the 
 French Army. I do hope I can hold down 
 the job properly. It is a difficult one, as 
 the men are so hard to keep disciplined 
 
80 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 when they are not getting much work. 
 Little cHques form, and grouches develop, 
 and a general spirit of unrest is apt to pre- 
 vail. Just now we are fairly active and the 
 morale is good; but of course, one never 
 can tell how long this will continue. 
 
 I expect to go down to Paris on my 
 "permission" about the first week in 
 July, and hope to run across Harry Dillard 
 and the rest of the doctors from Phila- 
 delphia, although I am not sure whether 
 they have remained in Paris or have been 
 shifted somewhere else. 
 
 In a way, I am sorry to be taken off my 
 car, and the life of a Section Chief is 
 rather lonely, as one cannot play around 
 with the men as much as before, t On the 
 other hand, one has a staff car of one's 
 own, and a private officer's room with an 
 orderly, and all that, so that one's crea- 
 ture comforts are fine. It remains to be 
 seen if our new Lieutenant has the push 
 
CHIEF OF SECTION 1 81 
 
 that made de Kersauson so successful; but 
 I like him and I get along with him very- 
 well. I dined with the French officers 
 quartered here last night — mostly cav- 
 alry — and I had a very good time. The 
 previous night I dined with the Medecin 
 Principal and his staff. I'm not awfully 
 keen on that sort of thing, but that is 
 one of the duties of an officer's job. They 
 were all awfully polite and pleasant, how- 
 ever. 
 
 Two men arrived to-day. G. F. Norton^ 
 looks good; also Rice (Philip S.). He is no 
 relation to W. G. Rice. No doubt he'll 
 turn out all right. He is a Pennsylvanian 
 — comes from Wilkes-Barre.^ 
 1 June 26. Sponagle left to-day with 
 Plow, who was recalled, owing to his esca- 
 pade with Kenyon at Muizon. I was sorry 
 
 * George Frederick Norton, of New York. 
 ^ Philip S. Rice, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, 
 stock-broker. 
 
8^ FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 about it, and told him so; but it could n't 
 be helped, and Sponagle promised to see 
 what he could do to prevent his being 
 given a black mark. 
 
 When I got back from taking them to 
 Epernay, who should have turned up but 
 Andrew with a man named Osborn, whom 
 he was taking to see his brother who had 
 been seriously wounded in Section 28.^ 
 
 Andrew announced that he wished to 
 take W. G. Rice and Hibbard for Chefs of 
 new Sections, so that we are losing four 
 good men on one single day! Well, it is 
 all in the game ! They left on the noon 
 train. 
 
 I put in a good word for Plow with 
 Andrew, and I think that he will get out 
 of the scrape. 
 
 Gamble tells me that the crowd is 
 pleased with my appointment because 
 
 * Paul Osborn died. He was cited and decorated by 
 order of the Fourth Army. {Editor.) 
 
CHIEF OF SECTION 1 83 
 
 they feel that I will be "perfectly fair 
 with them." That's some consolation 
 anyway. 
 
 June 28. I fired a man to-day. I hate 
 this sort of thing, but it has to be done. 
 I told him that we only want men up 
 here who are both able and willing to work 
 and that he seemed to be neither. " What 
 have I done?" he asked. "It's what you 
 have n't done," I replied: car never clean, 
 breaking minor rules, shamming sickness 
 when it is his turn to work, and so on. 
 Everybody says I was perfectly right. In 
 my official letter I merely stated that he 
 did not seem physically able to keep up 
 the standard of work required by this 
 Section, and that I thought something 
 lighter than field service would suit him 
 better. The boys all seem to approve the 
 
 step. 
 
 June 30. Philip S. Rice received his 
 baptism of fire all right the first night I 
 
84 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 sent him out. Gas attack and heavy 
 shelling — quite complete ! All the cars 
 at the "poste" were kept rolling all night. 
 He came through with flying colors. Stout 
 got a shrapnel "eclat" through his wind- 
 shield. 
 
 It is funny how stories get exaggerated. 
 Some one must have remarked to a doc- 
 tor about the car being hit. The doctor 
 told some one else, and this afternoon we 
 were called by the Etat-Major asking 
 about the three cars they heard had been 
 destroyed ! 
 
 The Lieutenant and I took a hurried 
 trip of inspection around the "postes" and 
 found that it was all due to the one hole 
 in Stout's car, and so reported to Head- 
 quarters. But the four-striped Medecin 
 Principal had to make assurance doubly 
 sure. So we had to take him around to 
 all the "postes" again. Incidentally the 
 Germans were shelling Sillery so hard that 
 
u 
 
 s 
 
 ay 
 
 CM 
 (— I 
 
 s 
 
 Q 
 < 
 
 Q 
 
 Q 
 
 ^' 
 O 
 
 :^ 
 
 H 
 
 C/2 
 
CHIEF OF SECTION 1 85 
 
 the General ordered the "poste" evacu- 
 ated, and we found it only after hunting 
 around, at the far end of the village, 
 established in a wine cellar. The old 
 "poste" at which we worked until last 
 night was utterly destroyed and is now 
 simply a mass of overturned ruins. The 
 car-drivers were lucky to have escaped. 
 
 I have made Jim White,^ Vic White's 
 brother, Sous-Chef. The crowd seemed 
 pleased. A new man, Tapley, arrived to- 
 day. The Section is now complete. 
 
 July 2. This, certainly, is no soft job. 
 I spend most of my time acting as a 
 bumper between the Frenchmen in the 
 Section and boys who insist on "kid- 
 ding" them. A Frenchman does not un- 
 derstand the American method of teasing 
 and jollying, and he gets raving mad, 
 
 ^ James M. White, brother of Victor White, of New 
 York. See At the Front in a Flivver. He is now Lieu- 
 tenant in the Gas Service, A.E.F. 
 
86 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 feeling insulted. And so I spend my time 
 smoothing over alleged insults which were 
 never meant. I have given strict orders 
 to all the fellows now, that they "must n't 
 tease the animals." But, of course, it is 
 very hard for them not to "kid" some of 
 the men we have with us who are cer- 
 tainly a childish lot. Among them are a 
 few who, being extremely young and just 
 graded, have the typical college graduate 
 idea that they are about the most im- 
 portant personages in the universe. Of 
 course the fellows just laugh at them. 
 Well, I suppose that it is all in the 
 day's work, but it is a decided nuisance 
 for me. 
 
 July 5. We had a wonderful banquet 
 yesterday. The corporation declared a 
 two hundred and fifty francs dividend, 
 and Pierre, the "fournier," and the chef 
 outdid themselves. We even had ice- 
 cream! The boys all acted nicely. The 
 
CHIEF OF SECTION 1 87 
 
 "poste" men were out of luck, but we sent 
 up to them what we could. We had the 
 American and Section flag up too. All 
 agreed that it was the very best dinner 
 the Section ever had. The Government 
 allowed us the customary forty-eight 
 hours' "permission," and we picked three 
 men who would not be on duty for two 
 days — Patterson, Flynn, and Pearl. The 
 latter is our Chief Mechanic and has been 
 working his head off lately, and deserved 
 a rest. 
 
 I've decided to take only four of my 
 seven days' "permission," as there have 
 been signs of increasing activity here- 
 abouts recently. 
 
 July 7. I had most interesting talks in 
 Paris with McFadden, Cartier, Galatti, 
 Ewell, Plow, and Bosworth. Evidently 
 there is to be a big change in the Ameri- 
 can Ambulance Field Service. Ewell, 
 Galatti, and McFadden are practically 
 
88 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 running everything. Dodge, of Section 3, 
 has been made co-inspector with Galatti. 
 Then there is the Harjes-Norton compli- 
 cation ! 
 
 I dined with Muhr and End. The latter 
 is as sore as a crab over his treatment in 
 Salonica. He is going home. 
 
 July 8. I saw Giles Francklyn,^ who is 
 driving a truck for the moment, waiting 
 to get into the Army. They won't give 
 him a berth, although he talks French as 
 well as he does English. He has the Croix 
 de Guerre, and is of military age. Really 
 it is a shame. He is undecided as to 
 whether to try the only avenue — avia- 
 tion — through Dr. Gros. He wants to 
 get into the artillery. He told me of 
 Baylies' latest: — 
 
 It appears that the first time he was 
 put on one of those trying-out machines 
 
 * Giles B, Prancklyn, of Lausanne. Served in Sec- 
 tions 1 and 3. 
 
CHIEF OF SECTION 1 89 
 
 at the School which run along the ground 
 and have only cut wings to prevent them 
 from flying, so that beginners can't be 
 hurt, he managed to so handle the thing 
 that, to the utter amazement of every one 
 in the field, he made it jump some forty 
 or fifty feet in the air; a performance 
 that never had been attempted or seen 
 before. 
 
 Then, when he found himself up there, 
 he did n't know how to land. He set him- 
 seK about twenty minutes to live, as the 
 tank held but little gasoline. Meantime, 
 every aviator and mechanic had rushed 
 to the field to see the flying freak which 
 no one knew could fly. Baylies was flying 
 round and round, in the lap of the gods! 
 They were as ever merciful to him. After 
 some minutes of helpless flying, with true 
 Baylies luck, he finally crashed into a nice 
 soft tree, smashed the machine to pieces, 
 and was not even scratched ! The yarn is 
 
90 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 all over the Front already, and it only- 
 happened a couple of days ago ! ^ 
 
 * Frank L. Baylies, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, 
 who furnished the author so many amusrag paragraphs 
 in At the Front in a Flivver, and who, for the " Ambulan- 
 ciers" of Section 1, became the origin of the new verb 
 "to bayhes," used as an equivalent for the French 
 "faire un gaflFe," but whose good luck never deserted 
 him, eventually became a noted aviator. He entered 
 the Flying Corps on his return from Salonica, where he 
 had gone with a newly formed ambulance. In April 
 last he already had brought down his fifth Hun machine, 
 and his exploits as well as his adventures have become 
 legendary. He was, when recently reported killed, a 
 member of the celebrated Escadrille "Les Cigognes," 
 which Guynemer immortalized and the glorious tradi- 
 tion of which Captain Heurtaux, recently among us, 
 and Adjutant Fonck have so nobly continued. Bay- 
 lies' escape from capture by the Germans in April, 
 1918, when after an air-fight he was obhged to land 
 in No Man's Land some five hundred yards from 
 the enemy trenches, thrilled two continents. The Ger- 
 mans, of course, as he approached, began to pepper 
 his plane, and Baylies, who was a good athlete, as he 
 came low enough to the earth, sprang out of his ma- 
 chine and made time for the French lines. The Germans 
 ran in pursuit, chasing him with rifles and machine 
 guns. The French, seeing the game on, opened fire on 
 the Huns. They dropped one German and drove the 
 rest back to their own lines, while Baylies sprinted 
 
CHIEF OF SECTION 1 91 
 
 July 11. I returned to the Section, and 
 found that Andrew had been here, but 
 
 for dear life. He declared that he made the last sixty 
 yards of that race in record time. At this time Lieuten- 
 ant Stevenson wrote home that the French general com- 
 manding the Section personally congratulated the 
 young American upon his good work and narrow escape. 
 Since last April, however, Baylies had "bagged" his 
 sixth Boche, and the cry was "Still they come," for on 
 June 8 of this year a cable dispatch to a newspaper an- 
 nounced that Bayhes had destroyed his eleventh official 
 German airplane. 
 
 His account of his latest exploit at that time, as re- 
 ported by Mr. Paul Ayres Rockwell, was that he was 
 on patrol five kilometers (three miles) behind the Ger- 
 man lines, and when about to start homeward, as his 
 fuel was getting low, he noticed a French observer 
 machine tumbling down in a "vrille" with four German 
 monoplanes in pursuit, firing at it. He thought the 
 Frenchman done for, but he also thought he'd take a 
 hand in the fight. He attacked the topmost Hun whom 
 he sent down on fire. Then he retreated. At one hun- 
 dred yards from the ground he saw the Frenchman rally 
 and make for his own lines. He had seventeen bullet 
 holes in his make-up . The pilot laughingly said that 
 he had feigned to be mortally disabled; but that he 
 must have been in a dreadful predicament but for 
 Baylies' timely diversion. His observer was severely 
 wovmded. 
 
 Our young old friend was in a fair way to take the 
 place of the much-regretted Lufbery, and it is a pleas- 
 
92 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 only stayed a little while and knew, or 
 pretended to know, nothing about the 
 American Ambulance Field Service's 
 future. 
 
 En attendant, minor attacks are occur- 
 ring and the boys have been fairly busy. 
 Rumors of Austria entering into negotia- 
 tions for a separate peace are rife. Also 
 rumors of coming big attacks by the 
 Allies on the Belgian seacoast and near 
 the Swiss frontier. Meantime, the Boches 
 have approached a little closer to Rheims. 
 Some of the men have had fairly close 
 calls. 
 
 ure to record his splendid work. In aviation, daring and 
 luck count for much, and Baylies seems for a time to 
 have had both. It was, therefore, with more than usual 
 dismay among those who knew the brave lad that the 
 news of his death was received; and one clung to the 
 hope that his phenomenal luck might not have deserted 
 him, and that he might have been made prisoner. The 
 German aviators, however, dropped the information 
 on the airdrome of "Les Cigognes" that he had been 
 killed in action; and the American Field Service Bulletin 
 of July 14, 1918, states that he was shot in the head. 
 {Editor.) 
 
CHIEF OF SECTION 1 93 
 
 July 13. Norton was killed at the Ludes 
 Chalet, last night at ten o'clock. An aero- 
 plane bomb dropped about twenty feet 
 from the boys' sleeping quarters. They 
 all were in bed, excepting Norton, who, 
 after putting out the light and lying down, 
 heard the planes and got up to look out. 
 An "eclat" caught him squarely in the 
 throat, cutting the jugular vein and kill- 
 ing him without his ever knowing what 
 hit him.^ 
 
 Elliott had a very close call. Three or 
 four " eclats " smashed through the wall 
 right above where he lay. If he'd been 
 even sitting up he must have been hit. 
 Gamble and Oiler were in the front room 
 and Oiler's bed was covered with broken 
 
 ^ Mr. Philip S. Rice, of Wilkes-Barre, who was a 
 close friend of Mr. Norton, in his spirited account of his 
 death, states that a spHnter also had pierced his heart. 
 Mr. Rice had crossed over with Mr. Norton and they 
 had entered S.S.U. No. 1 together. See An Ambulance 
 Driver in France, p. 48, etc., by PhiUp Sidney Rice, 
 Wilkes-Barre. {Editor). 
 
94 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 glass, a piece coming through the wall 
 only a couple of inches above him. He 
 was unhurt, while Gamble got a cut on 
 the shoulder. All the wires were down, 
 and Gamble drove in to Louvois in his 
 stocking feet to get me. His socks were 
 soaked in Norton's blood. I got up and 
 dressed, and we were at the "poste" in a 
 very few minutes. The body of Norton 
 had been taken to the hospital by Oiler 
 and Elliott. They had a hard time getting 
 it out of the little chalet, as the place 
 was a mess of broken glass, splinters, and 
 blood. 
 
 The doctor and the other officers were 
 most kind. We arranged for the funeral 
 for nine o'clock the following night, as the 
 cemetery is in view of the Boches and any 
 gathering of people would be observed. I 
 made all the arrangements for the coffin 
 and for flowers, and 'phoned Rue Ray- 
 nouard. 
 
Q ^ 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 o 
 :^ 
 
 J2 O 
 
 w a. 
 
 
 1—1 « 
 
 V > 
 
 S-i 0) 
 
 O •<;? 
 
 II 
 
 -1-1 "^ 
 
 O o 
 
CHIEF OF SECTION 1 95 
 
 In a way, it was lucky that the boys 
 had to work all last night. The wires 
 being down it was hard work, too; but it 
 took their minds off the casualty. Oiler, 
 a brand-new man, was pretty well rattled, 
 but stuck to his job as well as did the 
 others. I told them that Norton could not 
 have asked for a better death. It was ab- 
 solutely instantaneous, and in the course 
 of duty. 
 
 Strater came in from the "poste" with 
 a load, and was rather upset, as he had a 
 dying man in his car and the road was 
 being shelled. He had a miss in his engine 
 and was too excited to locate it. I did it 
 for him and sent him along without telling 
 him about Norton. Later, when he came 
 back, he found the chalet empty and blood 
 all over everything. When the others got 
 in, they found him wandering about with 
 a rock in his hand, thinking that a murder 
 had been committed ! 
 
96 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 Patterson, who took Norton's place at 
 the "poste," and Gamble got into a 
 wrangle, but as I appreciated that their 
 nerves were on edge, I simply shut them 
 up and let it go at that. 
 I July 14. They worked all night hard 
 and were about "all in" in the morning. 
 Gamble, who had received a slight wound 
 on the shoulder said nothing about it 
 until yesterday, when I told him to get the 
 anti-tetanus injection. All the men acted 
 finely. Gamble had his *'brancardier" 
 quit him on the road to Sillery. A shell 
 burst right beside the car and cut the 
 roof over their heads, and the "bran- 
 cardier " insisted on getting out and crawl- 
 ing into a dug-out. Gamble eased on 
 through the shells, got his wounded, and 
 came back. Pretty good for a man who 
 has just been wounded, is it not.^^ 
 
 Oiler came and thanked me to-day for 
 sending him to the Front "poste." He 
 
CHIEF OF SECTION 1 97 
 
 said it was the best thing that could have 
 happened to him. 
 
 A letter written by the author under 
 the spell of these events shows what he 
 thought of his men: — 
 
 Dear X: We have had a hectic time lately, 
 but the boys stood up to the work finely. 
 Three others were in the "poste" waiting to 
 go out when called, when the bomb exploded 
 which killed Norton. They all had marvel- 
 ous escapes, and one, Gamble, was slightly 
 wounded, but said nothing about it and con- 
 tinued to roll for forty-eight hours thereafter. 
 Of course, I went down to the "poste" and 
 did my best to steady them up throughout 
 the night, for which they all thanked me 
 afterwards. Two of them were new and I had 
 to make minor repairs for them, as for a time 
 they did not seem to be able to think very 
 consecutively when their motors balked. But 
 they were splendid. Andrew came up to the 
 funeral, and all the officers near by were on 
 hand. 
 
 The work has eased up a bit now, and I 
 
98 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 have spent most of the day writing letters 
 of thanks in "near French" for flowers and 
 other expressions of kindness. I think that 
 the making of the arrangements for the fun- 
 eral was even more tiring than the real work, 
 because 't is something of a strain to talk to 
 the high oflScials and to try to speak really 
 correct, dignified French! 
 
 Norton was buried on the hillside above 
 Rheims, with the shells bursting and plane 
 guns going, trench lights rising, flares, col- 
 ored signals, and the rattle of the mitrail- 
 leuses, and the tracing shells streaking the 
 heavens. It seemed as though the Boches 
 were joining in doing him honor. 
 
 The men are all pretty tired, but they are 
 still on the job. To-day, our Section French- 
 men are giving us a return spread for the 
 one we gave them on the Fourth, this being 
 the 14th. They went out of their way to 
 get delicacies, such as crawfish, snails, etc., 
 but I fear that most of the Americans will 
 have difficulty in pretending to enjoy such a 
 succulent menu. However, the champagne 
 comes from Rheims! 
 
 Most of us have cut out all liquor except 
 white and red wine; but on the 4th and the 
 
CHIEF OF SECTION 1 99 
 
 14th of July, we make exception to a moderate 
 extent. 
 
 The funeral went off without a hitch. All 
 day the lieutenant and I went around seeing 
 "stripers," and explaining what had hap- 
 pened, and finally, after more trouble we 
 found a soldier Protestant minister. 
 
 He seemed a trifle overwhelmed at being 
 called upon to oflBciate at such a function; 
 but he carried it off very well. We saw the 
 Chief, and he said that, of course, Norton 
 would be cited, and he would let the citation 
 go up as high as possible. Two civilians and 
 a nurse sent flowers besides those of the offi- 
 cers, the doctors' and ours. Andrew brought 
 up a bronze wreath. The coffin was draped 
 with the tricolor and American flag with the 
 Croix de Guerre on top. We buried him in 
 the new graveyard, as the old one only had 
 trenches for eight more bodies left, and the 
 French were kind enough to allow him a sepa- 
 rate grave. His was the first in the new loca- 
 tion, and the priest spoke of this as a sort of 
 dedication. So there he lies by himself for the 
 present, on the hillside, among the vineyards, 
 looking down on the Cathedral of Rheims to 
 the left, and the Moronvilliers hill on the 
 
100 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 right — where the battle is raging. Norton 
 had been with Peary on one of his polar expe- 
 ditions. He had hunted big game in the north 
 of Africa, and was one of the first men to learn 
 to fly a plane, having taken lessons from the 
 Wrights many years ago. He was forty years 
 old, and that was what kept him out of the 
 flying game now. He was a fine all-around 
 man, and one of the best we ever had in the 
 Section. 
 
 July 15. To add to my troubles, Weld 
 received a telegram yesterday annomicing 
 the death of his uncle. He was his nearest 
 relative and he has to go back to settle his 
 estate. He left on the noon train. That 
 leaves us two short with four men "en 
 permission"! However, every one is 
 working hard and I expect some new men 
 and one "permissionnaire" back to-day. 
 I asked for Plow and Francklyn, but 
 hardly hope to get them back. 
 
 I made the usual round by the "poste." 
 Considerable shelling. 
 
CHIEF OF SECTION 1 101 
 
 July 20. One of the French officers at 
 the Chateau Romont, one of our "postes" 
 where the Etat-Major is, had a lucky 
 "squeak" the other day. He had just 
 laid out his kit, preparatory to rolling it 
 up to go "en permission," and had walked 
 out of his room to arrange some detail, 
 when a big shell, a "220," landed plump 
 into the room and blew the whole side and 
 roof off the chateau! No one was hurt; 
 but the officer was as sore as he could be 
 over the loss of his kit, and left on "permis- 
 sion " in the clothes he had on and nothing 
 else, except a terrible grouch. 
 
 Two new men have arrived to replace 
 Norton and Weld. Their names are 
 Kreutzberg and O'Connell. Both seem 
 to be willing, quiet, and sensible sort of 
 chaps. 
 
 July 25. The "permissionn aires" re- 
 turned. White, Hanna, and Dallin. They 
 all report the same impossibility in Paris 
 
102 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 to get into the Army. White had an amus- 
 ing experience with an old and deaf Amer- 
 ican officer recruiting for the engineers. 
 After Hstening with difficulty to White's 
 term of experience at the Front, his cre- 
 dentials, etc., he said: "Sign these papers. 
 Then you may have a job in this office 
 as a civilian clerk!" White says he just 
 looked at him once, and walked out of 
 the place. 
 
 He tells me that a friend of Norton in 
 Paris received a letter on the day of his 
 death, advising him to come out to Sec- 
 tion 1, because the men were "all good 
 fellows, especially the Chef " ! Pretty nice 
 of him, considering that really I had never 
 had more than the most formal conversa- 
 tions with him. 
 
 July 22. The anti-tetanus knocked 
 Gamble hard. He's all swollen up and 
 has red splotches all over him. So I in- 
 sisted upon his going to the hospital where 
 
CHIEF OF SECTION 1 103 
 
 he can be properly taken care of. He is 
 too good a man to lose through just pre- 
 tending he's not sick! His wound, too, is 
 suppurating. 
 
 July 23. The work the Section did dur- 
 ing the forty-eight hours when Norton 
 was killed seems to have made an impres- 
 sion, as the old boy has, according to the 
 "Loot," decided not only to cite Norton, 
 but Gamble, Elliott, Flynn, and me. I 
 hope that it proves true, as it has cer- 
 tainly been irritating to have so many 
 cited, some of whom deserved it and 
 others did n't, as we all know. It seems 
 to be part luck and part pushing one's 
 seK forward, except, of course, when it is 
 really deserved as in the case of Gamble, 
 Elliott, and some others. Flynn should 
 certainly have had one at Esnes (Hill 304), 
 and the man with him did get it, which 
 jarred old Jim. Anyway, the family will 
 be happy. 
 
PART II 
 
 July to October 1917 
 
 Verdun — Douaumont, Hill 304 (Mort 
 
 Homme), Bezenvaux, and Recapturing 
 
 THE Forts in Fierce Struggle 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 IMMORTAL VERDUN 
 
 Dans son brasier, il a jet€ 
 Les cris d'opiniS,trete, 
 La rage sourde et seculaire; 
 Dans son brasier d'or exalt€, 
 Maltre de soi, il a jet^ 
 R^voltes, deuils, violences, coleres. 
 Pour leur donner la trempe et la clart6 
 Du fer et de I'^clair. 
 E. Vbrhaerbn, Le Forgeron (Les Villages Illusoires) 
 
 July 24. Orders came to move out of 
 the Fifth Army back to the Second Army, 
 at Verdim. So we are off to Bar-le-Duc. 
 Everything was packed up smoothly and 
 we made Vitry-le-Frangois to-night — a 
 good run. Strater broke a back spring, and 
 Curtis burnt out a bearing; otherwise all 
 made the grade. I got a good swim in the 
 Marne; had a fine lunch at Chalons and 
 a splendid dinner at Vitry. 
 
 July 25. Writing to a near relative at 
 this time, the author said: — 
 
108 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 You '11 be glad, I know, to hear that I have 
 been personally cited for the Croix de Guerre 
 by the General of the 42d Cavalry Corps. 
 I don't know just why they picked on me, 
 but I suppose it was for straightening the 
 tangle the night Norton was killed. Anyway, 
 the order reads as follows : — 
 
 The Adjutant Commander Stevenson, W. Yorke: — 
 
 Section sanitaire Americaine N°. 1. Engage volon- 
 taire depuis Fevrier 1916, Commandant adjoint de la 
 Section Sanitaire Americaine N° 1, n'hesitant jamais a 
 payer de sa personne, a largement contribue a I'organi- 
 sation et a la direction des evacuations sous le feu de 
 I'ennemi. Brave, devoue, et d'une modestie rare, 
 
 (signe) LoiJET 
 Quartier General, le 30 Juillet, 1917 
 
 Some hot air! However, I am awfully glad 
 to get it just the same. 
 
 We have moved from the Rheims district, 
 and are back again on our old stamping 
 ground, Verdun. The figuring is that there is 
 going to be a resumption of activity here- 
 abouts; but, of course, rumors are so thick 
 along the line that one never knows what 
 is fact. I should not be surprised, however, 
 if you heard from this Section again. We 
 made the trip over here in fine shape — just 
 
IMMORTAL VERDUN 109 
 
 twenty-four hours and only two cars broken 
 down, both of which rejoined before we 
 reached our ultimate destination, which is 
 the famous Saint-Mihiel salient.^ 
 
 There seem to be quite a few American 
 troops scattered along the line already. We 
 ran across them several times on our way 
 over here. We came along the Marne Valley 
 by way of Chalons, Vitry-le-Frangois, and, 
 by luck, had good weather. By the way, an 
 Army Corps citation bears the gold star. 
 
 July 25. The absence of the Rochet 
 Schneider "camion" makes the White 
 truck and all the ambulances carry a lot 
 of extra weight, which certainly is hard 
 on them. So I set a very easy pace. We 
 got to Bar-le-Duc all right. We found 
 there Sections 6, 9, 15, and a Harjes truck. 
 Evidently we are going "en repos" await- 
 ing the much-talked-of Verdun offensive. 
 The place is thick with troops; but if the 
 
 ^ Where the American Army made its first indepen- 
 dent ofifensive on September 11, 1918, imder General 
 Pershing. {Editor.) 
 
110 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 Boches continue to attack at Craonne, 
 this offensive may have to be put off. I 
 had to leave Gamble at Louvois in the 
 hospital, as he has n't recovered from his 
 wound. 
 
 We reached Evres at noon to-day. 
 Everybody all right, but terribly dusty 
 and tired. Pretty poor "cantonnements," 
 especially after Louvois, which was the 
 best we ever had. 
 
 July 26. Gamble rejoined us to-day. 
 He made a quick trip by way of Sainte- 
 Menehould where he lunched with Sec- 
 tion 13, which he says is in poor shape, 
 with a personnel much below the stan- 
 dard set by Sections 1, 2, and 3. He says 
 that apparently we have a very high 
 reputation among the newer Sections, and 
 are much looked up to. 
 
 He likewise says that the night after 
 we left Louvois, the Boches dropped over 
 two thousand shells on the "poste"at 
 
IMMORTAL VERDUN 111 
 
 SlUery and Esperance, and that the Sec- 
 tion which reHeved us quit cold, and re- 
 fused to budge for six hours, so that the 
 "postes" were jammed with wounded. 
 Pretty rotten, that. And also hard luck 
 for us, as had we been there that would 
 have meant another citation for us in all 
 probability. The boys never would have 
 allowed such an opportunity to go by. 
 
 July 28. Flynn and Stockwell have 
 agreed to sign up for another three months. 
 I am awfully glad to have been able to 
 persuade them to remain, as they are 
 both A No. 1 men. 
 
 I had an interesting talk with an offi- 
 cer who is "cantonned" here, and is in 
 the artillery. He remarked that he had 
 heard from our "Loot" that I had been 
 cited. I said something about not under- 
 standing why they were so generous with 
 the Croix to Americans, when lots of 
 Frenchmen had not got it who had ac- 
 
112 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 tually been in the trenches. He replied 
 that that had nothing to do with it. They 
 were forced to go in; many of them very- 
 much against their will; whereas the 
 Ambulance men, who had volunteered 
 long before the United States had entered 
 the war, were each and every one a small 
 but vital factor in bringing America in. 
 Every time a man volunteered, he car- 
 ried with him the hopes and sympathies 
 of all his relatives and friends; and as the 
 Ambulance grew, so did the pro-Ally 
 sentiment grow by leaps and bounds in 
 the United States.^ 
 
 * Mr. Coningsby Dawson, in his latest little book 
 Out to Win (pp. 58-59), when dealing with the various 
 causes that brought the United States into the war, 
 seems to agree thoroughly with this idea. He points 
 out how, in the face of our neutrality, "one by one, and 
 in little protesting^ bands, the friends of the Allies 
 slipped overseas bound on self-imposed sacrificial 
 quests; they went like knight-errants to the rescue. 
 They were men like Alan Seeger, of the Foreign Legion; 
 others chose the Ambulance Service; others, positions 
 on the Commission for the Relief of Belgium. Soon 
 
IMMORTAL VERDUN 113 
 
 That was a point of view of which I 
 had not thought, but apparently it is 
 held by a great many Frenchmen. He 
 said that he had no doubt that this was 
 the reason why Andrew, as head, had 
 received the Legion of Honor. He added 
 that he, for one, would give the Croix to 
 every American who had come before the 
 war had been declared and who had act- 
 
 *le Train Americain' was seen rolling througli France 
 under both the French and the American flags. At 
 Neuilly, the American Hospital sprang up. By the time 
 President Wilson flung his challenge, eighty-six War 
 Relief Organizations were operating in France; while 
 ninety per cent of their workers were toiling in the 
 United States sending over supplies: 
 
 "Long before AprU, 1917, American college boys had 
 won a name by their devotion in forcing their ambu- 
 lances over the shell-torn roads in every part of the 
 French Front, but, perhaps, with peculiar heroism at 
 
 Verdun The report of the sacrificial courage of 
 
 these pioneers had traveled to every State of the Union. 
 Their example had stirred, shamed, and educated the 
 Nation. It is to these knight-errants — very many of 
 them boys and girls — that I attribute America's eager 
 acceptance of Calvary, when, at last, it was offered to 
 her by her statesmen." (Editor.) 
 
114 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 ually been under fire. Of course, some of 
 the new Sections have never been up to 
 the lines; nor has the Paris Section. Also 
 we have had a small percentage of quit- 
 ters; but, aside from these, he thinks that 
 all should have it, varying the degree 
 according to special cases. 
 
 He thinks that the men killed or 
 wounded should get the palm; the Chiefs, 
 the gold star; and the privates, silver or 
 bronze stars, according to circumstances. 
 
 July 29. My landlady is a pessimist. 
 Her front windows open right on the 
 road to Verdun and she says she has n't 
 a chance to leave the front room because 
 passing "poilus" "swipe" everything. 
 She says that she is only too glad when 
 they go by in "camions," despite the 
 dust which is so thick that she can't 
 recognize her own furniture, simply be- 
 cause they can't reach in and get away 
 with her pans, clothes, and other belong- 
 
IMMORTAL VERDUN 115 
 
 ings. She declared that they don't seem 
 to care whether the clothes they take are 
 women's clothes or not. 
 
 Although of a stern exterior and sur- 
 rounded with a deep haze of gloom, she 
 really is kind-hearted enough under- 
 neath, and takes good care of me in her 
 morose sort of way. She had never seen 
 a typewriter before, and when, after sev- 
 eral days of hearing the tictac, her curi- 
 osity overcame her aloofness and pride, 
 she actually poked her head in to see 
 what it was; she was hypnotized watch- 
 ing the printed lines forming. She was 
 particularly interested in the manifolding 
 process. 
 
 Dick Plow came back to-day and 
 every one was delighted. His return and 
 a little persuasion on my part enabled 
 me to sign up Flynn, Townsend, Stock- 
 well, Elliott, and Hanna for another 
 three months. Funny how a little thing 
 
116 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 like that sometimes makes a lot of differ- 
 ence. The Section would have been shot 
 to pieces next month if all those men had 
 quit. 
 
 August 1. Orders came to move to 
 Haudainville near Verdun. I went over 
 to look at the Sector and found it "a 
 bird"! Mostly in reconquered territory. 
 The "poste" is beyond even Fleury, 
 right up to Douaumont, at Haudromont. 
 Three cars stay at the old Caserne Mar- 
 ceau "poste," and go from there forward 
 to Forts Vaux, Damloup, and Souville. 
 Fleury is merely a spot on the map. The 
 town is obliterated. Two other cars are 
 stationed at Verdun and run to Tavanne 
 and beyond Bras, toward Douaumont, 
 Haudromont, and Louvaumont. In fact. 
 Section 1 is doing what it took two Sec- 
 tions to do before. And what pleases us 
 most is that Section 4 takes our evacu- 
 ations back to Vadelaincourt, a fact which 
 
IMMORTAL VERDUN 117 
 
 naturally they do not enjoy. We dump 
 our wounded at Verdun. 
 
 There is much talk of an attack here, 
 and "permissions" have been canceled 
 throughout the Second Army. V^e are 
 attached to the 69th Division. I met all 
 the high chieftains and they certainly 
 were most friendly and polite, although 
 Reymond had a funny argument with 
 the Medecin Chef at Vaux, who insisted 
 upon our carrying corpses of men killed 
 right around the "poste." We demurred, 
 saying that it was the job of the mor- 
 tuary wagons. Finally we compromised, 
 the Lieutenant agreeing that if the 
 corpses were still warm (!) we should 
 carry them; but not any that had been 
 dead a length of time. Rather gruesome, 
 that, is it not? 
 
 We relieved the 109th French Ambu- 
 lance Section whose cars were not equal 
 to the bad roads, being too low-hung and 
 
118 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 in bad repair. They had two blown to 
 pieces a couple of days ago, and the med- 
 ical department decided they'd have to 
 get a new Section. They expressed them- 
 selves as much pleased to have us. The 
 quarters at Haudainville are bad, and 
 full of rats, and the boys are grumbling. 
 They have been spoiled by the Louvois 
 and Muizon chateau quarters, although 
 those at Haudainville are a lot better 
 than those we had last year when we 
 were at Dugny. 
 
 August 2. The boys did splendidly last 
 night, despite not knowing the roads. I 
 was only able to take a couple over them 
 the previous day; but the "poste" oflfi- 
 cers were all much pleased, as they had 
 every "poste" cleared before morning. 
 
 I had trouble with C over food. 
 
 He chose to sleep late at the "poste" and 
 to miss his coffee, expecting to get it 
 when he came back to Haudainville. Of 
 
IMMORTAL VERDUN 119 
 
 course, there was nothing doing, and 
 now he has a grouch. All the others 
 had sense enough to get theirs; and they 
 say that the "poste" food is all right. 
 Of course, it is plain "poilu" food, but 
 
 C complained of that too. If he 
 
 does n't like it he need not stay. 
 
 This afternoon, the General dropped in 
 unexpectedly and inspected us. Luckily 
 we were in good shape, and he was satisfied. 
 
 August 3. Another active night. A 
 shell fell in front of Rice, Flynn, and 
 Holt as they were on their way to Hau- 
 dromont. Two cars were ditched and 
 four horses killed, but no men were hurt. 
 Rice could n't get out and I had to go 
 up later with Hanna and a tow-rope. 
 To-morrow Verdun will be closed, and 
 we will evacuate to Brivaux, right next 
 to Verdun. I suppose that they expect 
 the Boches to "crown" Verdun when 
 the push starts. 
 
no FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 August 4. Changed hospitals and, after 
 some trouble, I arranged that our cars 
 should do only front-line work, a French 
 Section taking the evacuation. Section 5 
 now evacuates to Glorieux; so we no 
 longer are "cantonned" together at the 
 "poste." Galatti stopped in and in- 
 spected us, expressing himseK as well 
 satisfied. 
 
 August 5, A lucky day! All spare 
 parts, including new motor recently or- 
 dered, arrived this morning. This after- 
 noon the Lieutenant handed me the cita- 
 tion from the Second Cavalry Corps of 
 the Fifth Army, the text of which is 
 given under date July 25. 
 
 Gamble and Elliott were also cited for 
 their work on the night when Norton 
 was killed. The work is too heavy just 
 now for us to celebrate; but we will do 
 so later with a big dinner. 
 
 We are up to our ears in work now, and 
 
IMMORTAL VERDUN 121 
 
 several of the men have had close calls. 
 We are working in reconquered territory, 
 and it is most interesting, but ghastly, 
 as the bits of bodies lie unburied for days. 
 The men are working finely and I never 
 had a better crowd. Rain, of course, all 
 the time, and the most frightful roads. 
 In fact, no roads at all in spots. As for 
 Douaumont, it is a sight! Patterson re- 
 turned from his "permission" and found 
 an order for him to go back to Paris to 
 report to the American Army Commis- 
 sion for examination. As he had been 
 two days on the road trying to find the 
 Section and sleeping on chairs, tables, 
 and any old thing, he was anything but 
 pleased. However, he had to go back. 
 
 August 6. Busy night. There was 
 heavy traffic and fog, and the combina- 
 tion made it very hard on the men. We 
 had no accidents, however. 
 
 August 8. Our chief troubles are broken 
 
122 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 springs. Working out around Douau- 
 mont the roads are frightful. Dead horses 
 lie around for days and also bits of hu- 
 man beings — for when a shell lands near 
 some one the pieces are never all gath- 
 ered. The only signs of life one sees are 
 the flies, rats, and ravens. Passing along 
 that road the other day to get one of our 
 men out of a ditch, I saw a boot lying on 
 the way. I picked it up to throw it out of 
 the road and found a rotten leg still in it! 
 
 August 9. The Germans shelled the 
 Caserne Marceau next to the hospital 
 just at dinner-time. Everybody fell flat on 
 his stomach or dived under cars or into 
 "abris." Quite a funny sight. The shelling 
 kept up for about twenty minutes — 
 big fellows. They killed a lot of officers' 
 horses, and knocked some bodies out of 
 their graves in the cemetery, but only a 
 couple of men were slightly wounded. 
 
 BuUard, of Norton-Harjes — brand- 
 
A BUNGALOW NEAR SOUVILLE 
 
 CASERNE MARCEAU 
 
IMMORTAL VERDUN 123 
 
 new, — turned up. He is going to work 
 with us from to-morrow. He says his 
 men are all raw. They have never been 
 under fire. He himself used to be in 
 Section 5. I told him that we would do 
 all we could for him, show them the 
 "postes" and help them out. 
 
 The following is a letter received from 
 Major A. Piatt Andrew at this time: — 
 
 Dear YorJce: — ' .^ 
 
 I congratulate you sincerely on your very 
 fine citation. Please express to Mr. Gam- 
 ble and Mr. Elliott our gratification also in 
 regard to their Croix de Guerre. Steve ^ 
 brought back a glowing account of Section 
 No. 1, of its condition and of its prospect. 
 The Section never has done better than it is 
 doing under your leadership and that is say- 
 ing a great deal. 
 
 Such a letter is most encouraging. But 
 certainly the men are a splendid bunch 
 
 * Meaning Stephen Galatti, second in command of 
 the Field Service. 
 
124 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 of lads, and their work is wonderful. We 
 are in the midst of the heaviest work the 
 Section ever had, not even excluding the 
 battle for Fleury, last year at this time. 
 I am told we must hold out for about 
 another week, which will make almost a 
 record for a single Section doing front- 
 line work for all the "postes" of the 
 Army Corps. Our own Division has been 
 "en repos" a week already; but we asked 
 as a favor to be allowed to remain and 
 do the work of the new attacking Divi- 
 sions. The men and the cars are sights 
 — plastered with mud from top to bot- 
 tom. No fenders or side boxes left; 
 nearly every car full of holes from "eclats " 
 of shells, and two of them with their 
 entire sides blown out. We use these for 
 the gassed men as much as possible, as 
 they need all the air they can get. Two 
 of my men have been gassed, themselves, 
 but were given rapid treatment and are 
 
IMMORTAL VERDUN 125 
 
 all right. Another, Oiler, is in the hos- 
 pital with appendicitis; and still another 
 has had a nervous breakdown, and I use 
 him only in the daytime, on rare occa- 
 sions, and only at easy "postes." The 
 rest are rolling. 
 
 August 12. After moving from Hau- 
 dainville to the hospital at Caserne Be- 
 vaux on the 9th, we had to move out 
 again to a plateau, just beside it, where 
 we pitched our tents. The reason being 
 that a little martinet of a doctor in 
 charge of the hospital, was "en permis- 
 sion" when we moved up here, and of 
 course was not consulted. When he got 
 back, in order to show off his authority, 
 he put us outside. The five-* 'striper" 
 Chef came up to-day and told him plainly 
 that it was "one of the biggest mistakes 
 he had made yet!" 
 
 The Harjes-Norton Section has come 
 up here, too, and is to work with us. 
 
126 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 Gamble knocked his shoulder out of 
 joint this morning, cranking his car. So 
 I '11 let him go down to Paris, as he is no 
 more use to us, now. He has a chance 
 for a captaincy in the United States 
 Army, and he might as well put in his 
 time, until his shoulder heals, in arrang- 
 ing his own affairs. I am terribly sorry 
 to lose him. 
 
 Farnham ran over a drunken "poilu" 
 last night, and broke his leg. He is much 
 upset about it, although it wasn't his fault. 
 
 August 13. Last night was a big night. 
 Most of the Squad was running. A muni- 
 tion dep6t blew up right close to our 
 "cantonnement" and kept popping for 
 hours thereafter. 
 
 Meantime, I had to go out with Pearl 
 and Day to supervise putting in a back 
 axle in C.'s car at La Source, one of the 
 Front "postes." C, of course, drives 
 like a fool, so that his car is out of busi- 
 
IMMORTAL VERDUN 127 
 
 ness much of the time. When I got back 
 I found that one of the men had gone to 
 pieces. Several shells dropped near him 
 along the road to Haudromont, and 
 when he came back and found the muni- 
 tion depot going, he collapsed. The 
 Lieutenant had given him some brandy 
 and had put him in my bed. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE — HEROIC ENDURANCE 
 
 There 's a feud between Kelly and Klaw, 
 
 They sputter like steaks on a grid. 
 For Klaw calls big Kelly a "Chaw," 
 
 And Kelly says Klaw is a "Yid"; 
 There's a row between Linton and Jones, 
 
 And there's trouble with Hyland and Wright, 
 And our Barrack resounds with the tones 
 
 Of quarrel, dissension, and fight. . . . 
 
 But wait till it's over; then Klaw 
 
 And Kelly will patch up their row. 
 And Linton and Jones will haw! haw! 
 
 At the way that they carry on now. 
 The winners and those they defeat 
 
 Will act like good men who fight well. 
 For the finish is not hard to meet — 
 
 It's only the worry that's hell. 
 
 " The Breaking Point" in Camp and Trench 
 
 Berton Bbalet (Songs of the Fighting Trenches). 
 
 During the night, gas shells came in 
 at the Haudromont "Poste," and Kreutz- 
 berg and Hanna worked in masks for 
 some time. Purdy, too, got some hard 
 work; and when the "brancardiers" 
 dropped one of his wounded men as they 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 129 
 
 took him out of the car, he, also, went up 
 in the air; but he cahned down in a few 
 minutes and returned to his "poste" at 
 Douaumont. 
 
 August 14. Last night was "a bird!" 
 All the roads were under heavy bom- 
 bardment — high explosives and gas 
 shells. Holt got knocked down, and his 
 mask fell off; and if it had not been for 
 a Harjes-Norton boy whom he had taken 
 up to show him the road, he undoubtedly 
 would have been done for, as he was 
 blinded and only semi-conscious. They 
 dragged him a couple of hundred yards 
 to the "poste de secours" at Haudro- 
 mont, where he was given anti-gas treat- 
 ment, and he got back all right. White 
 and Flynn each got the side of his car 
 blown out by shells, and got some gas as 
 well; while little Tapley had his car al- 
 most entirely destroyed by a shell and 
 two of his "blesses" killed. All the boys 
 
130 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 did finely. Curtis's car broke down, so 
 I gave him No. 5 — that is. Gamble's 
 machine — and he drove twice through 
 gas to the "postes" with it. Stout and 
 some of the others, earlier in the evening, 
 got shelled as they crossed the Douau- 
 mont Hill, and had very close calls, hav- 
 ing to remain in La Source dug-out for 
 several hours, before the barrage let up 
 and they could return with their wounded. 
 
 Dallin ^ broke down and was towed back 
 this morning. We'll scrap Tapley's car 
 and rebuild 17 and 14 out of it. 
 
 August 16. I nearly "got mine" yes- 
 terday. Kreutzberg broke down No. 4 
 in the Froide Terre, and I was out with 
 the "camion," Pearl, and Day to repair 
 it. After it was fixed up, as the car was 
 not far from the Haudromont "Poste," 
 
 * Arthur Dallin. He went into the Artillery School 
 at Fontainebleau and joined the 32d Regiment of Ar- 
 tillery. 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 131 
 
 I took it over to help get the "blesses" 
 out, as Kreutzberg was worn out and I 
 wanted him to get some sleep. On the 
 way I met Patterson *'en panne," and 
 he warned me not to go by the Bras road, 
 as they were "shelling hell out of it." 
 He had only a flat tire, and, of course, I 
 went on up by the Bras road. If I had not 
 "Pat" would have had no respect for his 
 officer. I got there all right, and just as 
 I was unscrewing the radiator cap to see 
 how the water was, a shell fell through 
 the camouflage within five or six feet of 
 me. It blew straight up in the air, luck- 
 ily. It is the closest call I ever had except- 
 ing at Cappy. Stones, mud, and sticks 
 rained down and the car was hit in sev- 
 eral places. The " brancardiers " stand- 
 ing near by said it must have been the 
 mass of camouflage which came down 
 that checked the "eclats." No. 4, with 
 its new front triangle, steered all over 
 
132 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 the place, not having been correctly ad- 
 justed. But I got my load of "blesses" 
 and eased back all right. It was cer- 
 tainly lucky, as "77's" and "155's" 
 were raining all around. Lots of newly 
 wounded and killed men and horses lay 
 all along the road for at least a couple of 
 hundred yards. 
 
 Flynn, who is driving No. 17, a car 
 presented by the "young girls of San 
 Francisco" and which bears that name 
 on its plate, came back to-day announc- 
 ing "another German atrocity!" They've 
 been knocking out the "young girls of 
 San Francisco!" The whole side of his 
 car was blown out and it now has been 
 repaired by using up what was left of 
 Tapley's No. 13. But it is certainly a 
 queer-looking ambulance: half a red cross, 
 half an Indian head, "17" on one side, 
 "13" backward and upside down, on the 
 other! 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 133 
 
 Strater came in with a big hole in the 
 back of his car, where a "couche" must 
 have had a hair-breadth escape. It 
 passed just under the "brancard." 
 
 DaUin is a funny chap. He likes to go 
 up to the "postes," even when off duty, 
 and always asks to accompany the driv- 
 ers. Just now he asked to go with Plow 
 in the " camionnette," although the wood 
 is being heavily bombarded. They, cer- 
 tainly, are a great bunch of boys! One 
 could n't ask for a better crowd to lead. 
 
 Mr. Norton came up to inspect his 
 Squad. He seems to be a very decent 
 sort, excepting that he wears a monocle. 
 The Inspector and Chef of the Automo- 
 bile Service fell upon us this morning. 
 But despite the fact that the cars are 
 awful sights — holes all over them, radi- 
 ators and mud-guards bent up, side 
 boxes "busted" — he expressed himself 
 as pleased with the work of the Section. 
 
134 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 He was very anxious about the actual 
 road ability of the cars; and when he 
 found that all the twenty were marching, 
 he was surprised and pleased. That is 
 due to Pearl, who is working his head 
 off. He keeps the cars going in spite 
 of everything and has grown a scraggy 
 beard and worn out his clothes in the 
 doing. But they go. The boys, too, are 
 jBne. Hardly any sleep, food grabbed 
 when they can get it, but they make 
 good every time. They are a splendid 
 bunch! 
 
 August 17. Rice came in plastered 
 with mud, this morning. It rains every 
 day and the roads are quagmires. Rice, 
 who has a well-developed sense of humor, 
 remarked, "If I were the French, I'd 
 give the Boches the damned country 
 and then laugh at them!" 
 
 Pearl was wounded last night. He 
 went up with Rice to repair Stockwell's 
 

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SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 135 
 
 car which had broken front springs 
 through faUing in a shell hole at Hau- 
 dromont. A big one exploded right be- 
 side them and drove a hole as big as an 
 egg through his forearm. Pearl kept his 
 nerve, Rice took him to the "poste," and 
 he calmly smoked a cigarette while the 
 doctor dressed the wound, which was a 
 nasty one. All the ligaments and muscles 
 are torn, and he will retain only partial 
 use of his hand. The Medecin Chef cited 
 him on the spot. He is now in the hos- 
 pital here at Bevaux, but I hope to get 
 him down to Paris in a few days.^ Red 
 
 ^ Mr, Rice, in his little book An Ambulance Driver in 
 France, gives a wonderfully graphic account of the inci- 
 dent. He and Mr. Pearl, as mentioned by Lieutenant 
 Stevenson, had been ordered by him to go to repair Mr. 
 Stockwell's car at Fort Haudromont, It was a bad 
 night. A shell came at them with a terrific shriek, and 
 then, a crash. 
 
 "Pearl had stepped partly from the seat and had 
 crouched down. I had put my head down, and covered 
 my face with my arms. The pieces of shell and rocks 
 spattered around the car and hit it in several places. 
 
136 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 Day ^ has taken over the mechanic's job, 
 and is doing finely. He is quicker than 
 
 Each fraction of a second, I expected to feel a stinging 
 sensation; but I quickly came to a realization that I was 
 not scratched. I raised my head and asked, 'Are you 
 all right. Pearl?' Then I saw a magnificent display of 
 calm courage. As he stood up, Pearl replied as quietly 
 as if he had discovered something wrong with the front 
 tire, 'I think my arm is gone.' 
 
 "It was not gone, but badly shattered. With nervy 
 calm and head cool, though he was bleeding badly, he 
 got up on the seat beside me. The nearest dressing- 
 station was at Houdraumont, and we drove on. . . . 
 
 "At Houdraumont, we left the car at the cross-roads, 
 and started to climb the steep, muddy embankment to 
 reach the dressing 'poste.' Pearl was losing blood and 
 getting weak, but still calm. I am sure he was more 
 calm than I was. 
 
 "While his wound was being dressed, I telephoned 
 and reported the accident to Stevenson. I reported that 
 I would remain at Houdraumont until he could be 
 
 ^ Harwood B. Day, of Providence, Rhode Island, 
 at the time the above was written had not yet been 
 through the technical school at Meaux. Since then, he 
 has taken the course and passed well. He enlisted in 
 the American Ambulance in September, 1915, joining 
 Section 1 in Flanders, returning home in the winter of 
 
 1916. He went back, returning to his old Section in 
 
 1917, and is now First Sergeant in S.S.TJ. 625, and Chief 
 Machinist of the Section. {Editor.) 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 137 
 
 Pearl, though not so thorough. William 
 Armour Pearl ^ is a Rhodes Scholar and a 
 wonder. He is the second man wounded 
 in this drive and probably will lose the 
 use of his arm, fortunately the left. But 
 
 moved. There was some question as to whether he 
 might be obliged to stay all night. But it was finally 
 decided to move him back to the hospital at Bevaux 
 without waiting until morning. It was now pitch dark 
 and the roads were crowded with traffic. Progress was 
 extremely slow on the way back. We would perhaps 
 drive a quarter of an hour and then be held up for a 
 quarter of an hour. Shells were arriving and shells were 
 departing — it was a bad night. 
 
 "Whenever we stopped, I would open the little front 
 window of the car, and ask Pearl how he felt; and al- 
 ways would come back the reply, *A11 right.' Once we 
 were held up for an unusually long time, and I walked 
 ahead to see what was holding up the traffic. It was a 
 large gun that had become ditched, and men, horses, 
 and trucks were pulling and straining. Finally we were 
 on our way, and without other bad delays we reached 
 the hospital. It had taken two hours to cover less than 
 ten miles. I saw Pearl carried from Ms stretcher; and 
 then I could n't refrain from telling him what I felt: 
 'Pearl, you have got the finest, coolest nerve of any man 
 I have ever seen.'" 
 
 ^ Mr. Pearl was awarded the "Medaille Militaire" 
 on Jxme 29, 1918. It carries with it a pension. {Editor.) 
 
138 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 both men had a lucky escape. I have 
 been driving myself in order to let some 
 of the most worn-out get a little rest. 
 
 A new man, Regan, has arrived and 
 looks pretty good. I eased him into the 
 work at once. Oiler has a touch of ap- 
 pendicitis and I have had to send him 
 down to Vadelaincourt for treatment. 
 But I have just received a wire saying 
 that another new man was on his way. 
 
 August 18. Tapley had a lucky escape 
 to-day. Up by the Vaux "Poste" a big 
 "420" dropped behind him and com- 
 pletely demolished the road, causing a 
 sort of landslide down into the ravine. 
 He telephoned that he could n't get back, 
 as the road was completely blocked and 
 wanted to know what to do. I told him 
 to get the "Genie" to fix it, which they 
 did after some hours' work. 
 
 Every hour some story of lucky escapes 
 and weird experiences is brought in as 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 139 
 
 the men return from the "postes." It is 
 the biggest work the Section has ever 
 done. . , 
 
 August 19. The attack starts to-mor- 
 row at 4 A.M. We are to be reheved of 
 the Haudromont "Poste" by two French 
 Sections! Some compliment, consider- 
 ing that only one half of Section 1 was 
 working the "poste"! In order to help 
 out, I took Oiler's car and drove around. 
 We cleared the "poste" completely by 
 night, so they could start with a clean 
 slate. 
 
 August 20. The attack is on. Carriere 
 Sud "Poste," where the Lieutenant and 
 I are to take turns, is cut off temporarily 
 by heavy barrage. He will go out with 
 cars as soon as possible, and I am to re- 
 lieve him to-morrow morning; mean- 
 while attending to this end. 
 
 Stout broke down on Douaumont Hill 
 and had a merry time being towed in by 
 
140 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 Day and the White truck. A new man, 
 Paul Cram, has arrived. 
 
 The Lieutenant showed up finely to- 
 day. He cleared the road by driving the 
 trucks deserted by their drivers out of 
 the tangle, shot a lot of wounded horses, 
 and had the "Genie" drag the carcasses 
 as well as the bodies of the drivers and 
 so on. The road was cleared by nine in 
 the morning, and the cars are now roll- 
 ing all right. 
 
 According to latest reports we ad- 
 vanced one and one half kilometers in 
 front of Douaumont, not so much over 
 by Haudromont but sufficiently along 
 both banks of the Meuse to take in the 
 whole of Hill 304 on the left bank. Long 
 strings of Boche prisoners are coming in, 
 grinning and apparently delighted to be 
 out of it. We see many plane fights. The 
 boys are all rolling finely excepting Stout, 
 and he will be on the White truck until 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 141 
 
 Day gets the car fixed up. I refused 
 flatly to roll the whole Section at once, 
 knowing that the next couple of days 
 will be harder yet. That's why I'm roll- 
 ing ten and saving ten. 
 
 August 22. I spent yesterday at the 
 "poste." The attack has been an un- 
 expectedly big success. All counter-at- 
 tacks have been frustrated. The Sani- 
 tary Service worked finely. Everybody 
 is praising the Americans. Piatt Andrew 
 and Colonel Kean, of the United States 
 Army, came up in the afternoon. They 
 had a lively trip both ways. I showed 
 them around and came back with them. 
 A shell broke right alongside of the car, 
 and showered rocks and mud all over it. 
 Shrapnel also came close to us, and we 
 passed many dead bodies of men and 
 horses in every stage of decomposition 
 and dismemberment. We also passed 
 many Boche prisoners. In fact our visi- 
 
142 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 tors were treated to the entire "mise-en- 
 scene " of the battle of Verdun. I think 
 that they were decidedly impressed. 
 
 To-day things are quieter. Rice had 
 another close call at La Source, however. 
 Cram, the new man, did well; also the 
 other new man, Regan. 
 
 It is funny how certain things help. 
 There has been a dead horse lying for 
 several days just at the top of the hill, 
 coming out of Chambouillat. First he 
 swelled up, and now he is beginning to 
 disintegrate. The boys have christened 
 him "Old Wrinkle Belly." They feel 
 that, once they have passed him, they 
 are comparatively safe. This is not true, 
 as the shelling at Fleury corner and 
 Saint-Fismes is just as dangerous, al- 
 though the road improves. At night they 
 can always smell "Old Wrinkle Belly" 
 fifty yards before they come to him, and 
 that encourages them, they say. 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 143 
 
 Of course, the smell is terrific every- 
 where; and some of the troops wear their 
 gas masks on accomit of this as much as 
 because of the gas. The drivers of the 
 dead wagons generally wear their masks, 
 too, as do the collectors of the dead. At 
 first I was inclined to attribute it to a 
 sort of superstition, as not wishing their 
 faces to be exposed during their grue- 
 some business of putting together dis- 
 membered bodies or collecting them in 
 sacks; but they tell me that it is simply 
 on account of the odor. 
 
 Still another new man came up to-day: 
 Mark Brennan, who has been in Salonica 
 with Section 10. He looks a bit nervous, 
 but may be all right. 
 
 August 23. I was asked by the Harjes 
 contingent to stand sponsor for the 
 decoration of Reed, their man who had 
 his hand blown off. As there were, as 
 yet, no Croix de Guerre men in their 
 
144 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 Section, they invited me to oflficiate. So 
 the ceremony came off yesterday after- 
 noon. 
 
 Last night we had a big aeroplane raid 
 around here. One man was killed by a 
 mitrailleuse on the road in front of the 
 hospital, and an ammunition storage 
 place was blown up. Many bombs fell 
 close to our camp and most of the boys 
 took to the trenches and to the dug-outs. 
 
 Dallin leaves to-morrow. I am aw- 
 fully sorry to see him go. I am sending 
 down Curtis, as he is in a nervous condi- 
 tion and is useless to us; also Oiler, who 
 has appendicitis, and poor Pearl. O'Con- 
 nell came to me with a tale of woe about 
 being sick also, and I am easing him off 
 too. The fewer weak brethren we have 
 with us just now, the better. This is real 
 work. 
 
 August 24. This job certainly is in- 
 structive, if nothing else. I am becoming 
 
o 
 
 m 
 O 
 
 "A 
 
 a 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 145 
 
 quite a doctor. I treat all my children 
 with the medicine chest furnished by the 
 Service. All the various dopes are de- 
 scribed and numbered in a little cata- 
 logue. I catechize the patient, look wise, 
 scratch my chin, and then, after a quick 
 "once over" of the catalogue, hand 
 him out the pills, quoting the instruc- 
 tions as if I really knew something about 
 them. Personally, I have lived through 
 two years on "granules des Vosges" 
 and "pinard" very successfully. The 
 former is the best cure for colds I ever 
 struck, and the other settles all stomach 
 troubles. 
 
 Strater broke down again to-day. This 
 time it is a back axle. I first sent out 
 Plow in the "camionnette," and then, 
 luckily, thought I'd take a look myself 
 with the staff car. Found him in the 
 bottom of a ravine near Fort Tavannes, 
 and it would have been impossible to get 
 
146 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 him out except by hooking up both cars 
 tandem and touring him out that way. 
 We've christened it "System D." 
 
 August 27. The French made another 
 advance last night on Beaumont, but 
 later got thrown back. We are taking 
 prisoners of the Bavarian Guard just now. 
 The French big guns did some remark- 
 able shooting the other day. There was 
 a sort of obelisk about the size of Cleo- 
 patra's needle, some three kilometers 
 inside the Boche lines, which they used 
 as a sighting and observation post. One 
 of the big guns back at Haudainville, 
 fully fifteen kilometers away, was or- 
 dered to destroy it. The first shot fell 
 right beside the monument, and the 
 second blew it to pieces. 
 
 One of the Harjes men, fooling with a 
 "75" detonator fuse, pretty nearly blew 
 off his hand yesterday, and received a 
 number of splinters in his stomach. He 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 147 
 
 had to go through a severe operation; 
 but, of course, he is getting very Httle 
 sympathy, as he certainly has had enough 
 warnings not to fool with hand grenades, 
 fusees, and the like. 
 
 Curtis, O'Connell, Oiler went off on 
 sick-leaves. I also sent down Pearl and 
 Dallin, the latter's term being up. I am 
 awfully sorry to see the two latter go not 
 to return. 
 
 Up at the "poste" again yesterday. 
 The road is in better shape, but the smell 
 is frightful from the unburied dead. 
 
 BuUard, the Chef of Harjes Section, 
 which is working with us, had a re- 
 markably narrow escape the other day. 
 An "eclat" of a shell which exploded 
 right in front of his car hit his watch after 
 cutting his trousers and coat. The watch 
 was hammered into his stomach, but 
 only one eighth of an inch or so, leaving 
 a nasty cut and a big bruise. The 
 
148 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 "eclat" was driven into the watch and 
 through a half -franc piece! He's got the 
 whole collection as a souvenir. This even 
 beats Waldo Peirce's pocketbook for 
 luck, although BuUard was too much 
 shaken to pull the "bon mot" Waldo did. 
 Bullard is a splendid fellow, and he is 
 doing mighty well with his raw Section. 
 He looks dreadfully tired, and it must 
 be some strain to have to tackle such a 
 Lieutenant as his — especially, perfectly 
 new at the game as he is — in addition 
 to his new men. I certainly take off my 
 hat to him. 
 
 August 28. Boche counter-attacks con- 
 tinue, but the French artillery seems 
 able to hold them. Long lines of pris- 
 oners still come past us. The Germans 
 are bombing and shelling everything in- 
 discriminately, including hospitals. They 
 killed a number of women nurses at 
 Vadelaincourt. The hospital there is 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 149 
 
 dose to the aviation camp, and they may- 
 have been trying for the latter. At Be- 
 lonpy and Dugny, however, there was no 
 mistake. They killed a number of nurses 
 and also the Division Paymaster. 
 
 Here, at Beaulieu Bevaux, they shell 
 the barracks on one side of us and the 
 railway on the other, and lob big fellows 
 on to the "convois" below and behind 
 us. So the fellows who are supposed to 
 be resting from front-line work get rela- 
 tively little sleep. The strain is terrific, 
 but the men are standing up to it mag- 
 nificently. 
 
 August 29. The 42d Division, which 
 bore the brunt of the big attack and to 
 which we asked as a favor to be at- 
 tached, is coming out to-day, and our 
 own Division, the 69th, is going in. This 
 means a continuation of the work for us, 
 for a while at least; but it should help 
 our reputation a lot! It is about the 
 
150 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 longest the Section has ever had in real 
 attacking work, and every car is still roll- 
 ing. I slipped Stocky, Holt, and Purdy 
 surreptitiously on to Paris. It helps the 
 morale of the men to feel that they are 
 not being *' stung" out of their "permis- 
 sions"; and they certainly deserved it. 
 
 I suppose that we shall lose the Harjes 
 Section now that we are attached once 
 more to our own Divisionists. Fine as 
 are the fellows, I shall not regret their 
 very annoying Lieutenant, who is con- 
 stantly butting into our affairs. Being the 
 oldest man in point of service, he has a 
 right to give orders to our Lieutenant, 
 despite the fact that this Section is by 
 far the elder of the two, and that the men 
 are all experienced and quite capable of 
 teaching him his job. He is not a Chev- 
 alier Bayard, and he assumed for him- 
 self all the credit for our Lieutenant's 
 splendid work up at the Front "postes." 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 151 
 
 He himself stayed back here and let us 
 handle the advance stuff. Then he'd 
 undertake to give all sorts of conflicting 
 orders, to which, however, we paid not 
 the slightest attention, but kept on do- 
 ing our own job — and doing it well, too. 
 August 31. A shell landed right on top 
 of car No. 4 at Carriere Sud last night. 
 Luckily, Regan, the driver, slid for the 
 dug-out in time. The car was entirely 
 destroyed and two Harjes Fiats were 
 also badly damaged. We have stripped 
 what could be used and scrapped it, wir- 
 ing Andrew for a new car to replace it. 
 Red Day and I had a tight squeak in the 
 staff car at Haudainville. They were 
 shelling the road with "220's" at half- 
 a-minute*s intervals. So we got up as 
 close as we dared, and then made a dash 
 for it with the throttle wide open just 
 after a shell had landed. We made it by 
 the skin of our teeth, the next shell fall- 
 
152 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 ing within thirty feet behind us exactly 
 on the road. The shock was terrific and 
 our ears were dulled for an hour or more. 
 Coming back, the shelling had stopped. 
 
 September 1. Section 61, our next-door 
 neighbors, were celebrating last night, 
 as they are going to the rear. They in- 
 vented a new battle song for the occa- 
 sion, the chorus of which began: "Hur- 
 rah! Hurrah! We're going to the rear!" 
 Hardly heroic, but doubtless expressive 
 of the real sentiments of those concerned. 
 Our boys "kidded" them, shouting over 
 in derision: "Section 1 to the Front, 
 Harjes to the rear!!" Boys will be 
 boys! 
 
 September 2. Our Division the 69th, 
 is in again. Having served it from Au- 
 gust 1 to 10, and then the 42d from Au- 
 gust 10 to September 1, we are going on 
 again now. Some record! We took the 
 Medecin Principal up this morning in 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 153 
 
 Cram's car. It was a scream. The road 
 was being shelled both with shrapnel 
 and high explosives and the old man 
 was pretty nervous. When we got to the 
 Carriere Sud opening, he did not even 
 wait for the car to stop before he jumped 
 for the "abri." He forgot to thank Cram 
 for taking him up! 
 
 The Boches shelled around the hos- 
 pital all day to-day, and the smell is 
 fierce, as they landed several of their 
 shells in the graveyard. They nearly 
 did for Regan, incidentally, as he came 
 around the corner to enter the hospital 
 with a load of "blesses." The Harjes 
 Section, after all, got left about going to 
 the rear! They are simply "en repos" 
 here. 
 
 We get shelled all day, and the "avi- 
 ons" drop bombs on us every clear night. 
 For the first time I hear the men hoping 
 for rain! Those boys, by the way, have 
 
154 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 been wonderful. I never saw such work 
 as they have been doing. It far exceeds 
 anything the Section has done before, 
 and I really don't see how they keep it 
 up. Of course, I give them every bit of 
 rest I can, and insist upon their being 
 fed at all hours, both day and night. It 
 is putting a crimp in the Section's books, 
 but it 's keeping them physically fit, any- 
 way. 
 
 September 4. Yesterday was a big day 
 for S.S.U. No. 1. Six men were cited. 
 Flynn, Tapley, Hanna, Stockwell, White, 
 and the Lieutenant. Fine citations, too, 
 all for special work for the 42d Division 
 — not our own, but the one for which 
 we were asked as a favor to work. Har- 
 jes's got two — but they are being sent 
 to the rear. An English Section takes 
 their place. We worked with them about 
 this time last year, and they are sup- 
 posed to be about the best English Sec- 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 155 
 
 tion. Another attack is scheduled for 
 around the 8th, and they tell us they 
 want the very best Sections to be had! 
 Some compliment! 
 
 Flynn went in on "permission" to- 
 day. I fear that he won't come back. 
 The Hayes Section lost two men by de- 
 sertion yesterday, to cap the climax of 
 their troubles. Altogether they're in 
 wrong. 1 feel sorry for poor Bullard, 
 who is such a fine fellow. 
 
 Here is a copy of the letter of the Col- 
 onel of the 153d Brigade : — 
 
 153^ Brigade. £tat-Major. P.O. 21 Aa&t 1917. 
 
 Le Colonel Pongin, Cdt, la 153® d'infanterie. 
 
 A Monsieur le General Commandant 
 
 la 42® Division. 
 
 J'ai I'honneur de vous signaler la conduite 
 
 absolument remarquable du detachement du 
 
 B.D. 42® depuis son arrivee au secteur a la 
 
 Carriere Sud. Je tiens a vous signaler parti- 
 
 culierement : 
 
 Le groupe des auto-sanitaires Americains 
 
156 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 S.S.U. No. 1, et S.S.U. 61, qui a fait preuve 
 de la plus belle eranerie et d'un courage 
 superbe en assurant, de jour et de nuit, sous 
 les bombardements les plus violents, malgre 
 les gazes toxiques et le mauvais etat des 
 routes, le transport de nos blesses. 
 
 (signe) A. Pongin 
 
 Stockwell returned last night. He will 
 stay until his commission in the Ameri- 
 can Artillery comes through. He tells 
 me that Purdy has signed up again — 
 good news! As for Holt, he has tonsil- 
 litis in Paris caused by the gas he in- 
 haled at Haudromont. Buell, one of the 
 new men, got a touch of gas last night, 
 and I got the doctor to give him an eme- 
 tic. He's all right to-day. We had gas 
 here at Bevaux also last night. It kept 
 every one snuffling and sneezing, but 
 was not strong enough to bother with 
 masks. 
 
 Steve Galatti came up from Paris to 
 give us the "once over" yesterday. As 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 157 
 
 the Boche long-range guns were shelling 
 the place at the time, and, the night be- 
 fore, the German aviators had dropped 
 bombs on him at Souilly, where he had 
 been passing the night on his way here, 
 and as the gas was quite perceptible, he 
 got a fair idea of our work even without 
 going to the Front "postes." I offered 
 to take him, but he declined on account 
 of lack of time, and went down on the 
 line to see the other Sections. 
 
 September 6. I went the round of the 
 "postes'* with the Lieutenant yester- 
 day. When we reached the top of the 
 Douaumont Hill, we found Ned Town- 
 send blocked on his way to Carriere 
 Sud; the road was being shelled and an 
 enormous crater had been formed — or 
 rather a series of craters. Really, there 
 was no road at all. We fixed it up by 
 pulling away debris sufficiently to per- 
 mit a Ford to worm its way past, and 
 
158 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 finally got up. Coming back, Ned blew 
 a tire right in the same spot; and, as the 
 Boches could see us plainly, it was n't 
 much fun fixing it. We had to duck for 
 an "abri" once, when a bunch of shells 
 lit right close by. The lieutenant got 
 some good pictures, I hope. 
 
 We have made all arrangements to 
 work with the new English Section No. 
 1. We are paid a compliment by the Med- 
 ecin Chef, who refused to allow us to 
 work on alternate days. He said that he 
 wanted to be sure to have a few Fords, 
 as it would be impossible for the big 
 English cars (Rolls-Royce, Napiers, Pan- 
 hards, etc.) to get up the Carriere Sud 
 road. 
 
 Poor Rice went to pieces at about din- 
 ner-time; but when he overheard White 
 calling him a quitter he went out and 
 cranked his car and started up. The man 
 was all gone; so when I heard he had dis- 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 159 
 
 obeyed orders, I went to hunt him up 
 around ten o'clock. I found him out near 
 Sainte-Fismes, and cursed him for dis- 
 obeying and sent him back. I also 
 jumped on White, who had no business 
 to criticize a man who had worked until 
 he broke down.^ It is the quitters that 
 need cursing — men who lie down on 
 
 ^ Referring in his book to this episode, Mr. Rice 
 says: — 
 
 "On the fifteenth of September, after forty-five days 
 and forty-five nights under shell fire day and night, we 
 received orders to go on repose. A little while later 
 Stevenson packed me in his staff car and started me on 
 my way to Paris to see a doctor. 
 
 "I was not elated — I was utterly dejected. I had 
 wanted to finish strong and I had all but finished in the 
 discard. 'Take a month off or as long as you need, but 
 I want you to come back,' was Steve's kind and cheer- 
 ing parting, as the car pulled down the road. 
 
 "The men in the Section had all been wonderful. 
 Lieutenant Reymond had been magnificent; but I am 
 sure but for the brainy, watchful, sympathetic leader- 
 ship of William Yorke Stevenson, the Section would 
 never have held together those long days and nights, 
 in that seething, shrieking, blood-stained Hell in front 
 of Verdun — 'the valley of the shadow of death."* 
 
160 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 their work. I have to be constantly after 
 the latter. In one case it was easy to get 
 rid of the man the moment he asked to 
 go. He got his wish so fast that it must 
 have surprised him, as it did others. 
 Little Tapley has an abscess; so, as he 
 is pretty well done up, I sent him down 
 to Paris for his Croix and gave him two 
 days* "permission" to get his teeth 
 fixed. 
 
 An amusing thing occurred at Bar-le- 
 Duc: Tapley was buying a little Croix 
 ribbon, and an old *'poilu," noticing his 
 extreme youth, came up and kissed him! 
 You may imagine Tapley 's feelings! 
 
 A photograph, taken at this time, of 
 the station of the village of Fleury shows 
 that there is not a vestige of the village 
 left. You can tell it by one piece of rail! 
 The Boches are just behind the camou- 
 flage, which may be seen along the road, 
 where the car is. The man in the raincoat 
 
SIX WEEKS UNDER FIRE 161 
 
 is William A. Pearl, who was wounded 
 near there later that very afternoon, and 
 will lose the use of his arm. H. B. Day 
 is the other fellow standing beside him; 
 while I am taking a picture of the post, 
 with the sign "Gare de Fleury" propped 
 up on the unexploded Boche "220" mil- 
 limeter shell. Douaumont is on the left, 
 and Vaux and Tavannes on the right, 
 but concealed by the camouflage. 
 
 We are still hard at work, and the men 
 are still doing wonderfully, considering 
 the strain under which they have been 
 for five weeks. Two of the cars have been 
 completely destroyed by shells, and sev- 
 eral others have been very badly hit; 
 but we have managed to patch them up 
 with bits of board and odds and ends. 
 They don't look like ambulances, but 
 they run. The sides of one have simply 
 been remade out of two canvas sleeping- 
 bags. Only two of the men have broken 
 
162 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 down under the nerve strain, but they're 
 all getting pretty jumpy. The wounded 
 man and two of the men who were gassed, 
 I sent down to Paris. The others who 
 were only slightly gassed were fixed up 
 here. 
 
04 
 P 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SECTION 1 EARNS ARMY CITATION AND 
 THE PALM 
 
 Void I'heure qui bout de sang et de jeunesse . . . 
 Un vaste espoir, venu de I'inconnu, deplace 
 L'Equilibre ancien dont les 4mes sont lasses; 
 
 La nature parait sculpter 
 Un visage nouveau a son eternite. 
 
 Verhaeben, La Foule {Les Visages de la Vie) 
 
 September 7. The attack starts at 4.30 
 A.M. to-morrow. Last night was a stinger. 
 Dix ^ was from 9.30 to 4 a.m. getting 
 through, and his car was hit half a dozen 
 times. One of the English cars was 
 ditched, and the road is simply lined with 
 dead and womided men and horses, 
 ditched and smashed trucks, caissons. 
 
 Two of Dix's "couches" got out of the 
 car and hid in "abris," and he had a 
 
 ^ Roger Sherman Dix, Jr., entered the Aviation Ser- 
 vice. He died of injuries received at the Front in an air- 
 plane accident on May 16, 1918. He was from Green- 
 bush, Massachusetts, and was a Harvard man. (Editor.) 
 
164 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 hard time finding them. I cannot under- 
 stand how the one in the top stretcher 
 ever managed it; Farnham and Patter- 
 son had bad times too. Rice's nerves are 
 better to-day; I dosed him with Veranol 
 and put him to bed. To-day he insisted 
 on taking his turn; he is still game! — 
 but I shall order him off to-night.^ 
 
 Fords are apparently classed with car- 
 rier pigeons by the French Army now! 
 At least, I received the following letter 
 this morning: — 
 
 H.D. Sept. 6th, 1917 
 
 Captain Foix, Intelligence Officer, to the 
 
 Staff of the 32d Army Corps: — 
 
 To the Officer Commanding the American 
 
 Ambulances : — 
 
 Dear Sir: I herewith send you two crates 
 
 of pigeons for General Riberpray's Division 
 
 whose headquarters is in the Carriere Sud. 
 
 ^ Mr. Rice's heart, I have since heard, was not strong 
 when he went over; but his pluck carried him through 
 almost until the very end of those awful six weeks. 
 (Editor.) 
 
CITATION FOR SECTION 1 165 
 
 You would be very kind to deliver them on 
 behalf of the 32d Army Corps. You would 
 thus do me a great service, for our cars can- 
 not go so far. I thank you very sincerely for 
 your kind help and remain, dear Sir, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Henri Foix 
 
 With this letter there came two crates 
 of perfectly good carrier pigeons, to be 
 used because telephone communication 
 is cut, and the road is not likely to be 
 constantly passable! Some *'ad" for 
 Ford cars! I gave them to Ned Town- 
 send and told him to "fly" with them! 
 
 Regan pulled "a funny one" up at the 
 "poste." He had some pretty close calls 
 getting there, so he asked the Lieutenant 
 if he could see the Catholic priest, as he 
 had not confessed for some time. The 
 Lieutenant found the priest, but the 
 latter could n't understand English and 
 Regan knew no French. Regan then 
 asked the Lieutenant to translate his 
 
166 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 confession; but the Lieutenant, being a 
 Catholic himself, refused, because, he 
 said, it was n't the proper thing for a 
 third party to hear a confession. Then 
 the priest had a happy thought, and said 
 that he could absolve, or do whatever 
 Kegan's sins required, without under- 
 standing them. So Regan confessed in 
 English, and got next to Heaven in good 
 shape, although the priest did n't under- 
 stand a word. At any rate, everybody 
 seems to have been satisfied. 
 
 September 11. Some hectic sessions 
 we've had in the last few days! On the 
 9th a heavy fog obscured the roads and 
 we had much gas. Six cars were knocked 
 out; Stocky and Hanna collided full head 
 on and smashed both front assemblies; 
 Buell wrapped himself up around a tree 
 — which he swears walked right out in 
 the middle of the road. He was so dead- 
 tired that he saw things moving. I have 
 
CITATION FOR SECTION 1 167 
 
 often had that happen myself. Cram 
 broke the engine support of his own car, 
 and later, dropped No. 5 (Tapley's) over 
 the bank, and down some twenty feet, 
 at Chambouillat, too, the hottest corner 
 there is on the run. He could n't see on 
 account of his mask; and when the latter 
 came off as he dived under his car, he got 
 considerable gas. His car brought up 
 against a *' camion" which had previ- 
 ously tumbled over the bank at the same 
 place. Luckily it remained upright and 
 we were able to tow it out this morning. 
 
 As for Cram, himself, he first fell over 
 a dead horse, and then landed in a trench 
 on top of a dead man. Shrapnel was fall- 
 ing all over the place; but he finally got 
 out all right, although he is pretty low 
 now from gas. 
 
 The latest method to rehabilitate 
 *' blesses," particularly "couches," is to 
 be stopped by a cut road or a smashed- 
 
168 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 up "ravitaillement" train, while shells 
 are coming in. Stout, Dix, Buell, and 
 several others report remarkable resur- 
 rections. "Couches" get out and run 
 like deer; while "assis" make regular 
 Annette Kellerman dives into "abris." 
 Dix had to go up and down a line of dug- 
 outs shouting: "Oosong mes blesses! 
 Oosong mes blesses!" for half an hour 
 the other night, before he finally cor- 
 ralled them and proceeded on his way. 
 He said that one of his "couches" actu- 
 ally climbed off the top-stretcher and 
 succeeded in unfastening the back all by 
 himself ! 
 
 Purdy broke his rear axle running over 
 a dead horse. Three of the big English 
 cars were ditched and the men refused to 
 run any more at night. So we take on 
 most of the night work, and they will 
 help us all they can in the daytime. 
 ^ The attack, by the way, was only 
 
CITATION FOR SECTION 1 169 
 
 partlj^ successful and very costly. One 
 Division, the 128tli, lost over three thou- 
 sand men, one entire regiment being sur- 
 rounded and wiped out. The Lieutenant 
 and I took turns at the Front "poste." 
 
 Last night the road was completely 
 cut by a heavy barrage. As soon as it 
 ceased, I went up and filled the largest 
 holes by throwing rocks into them, and 
 removed broken caissons, etc. I found 
 the people at the "poste" acting like a 
 bunch of "nuts." No one doing any- 
 thing but rave. So I took charge and we 
 cleared the "poste" within two hours. 
 
 An amusing incident occurred when a 
 shell fell and destroyed completely one 
 of the big English cars which already had 
 been injured. I was fixing things so that 
 our cars could pass up to the door of the 
 "abris," avoiding the burning English 
 car, when a tall man in a blue cap called 
 to me, "Why haven't you got on your 
 
170 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 helmet?" Thinking that he was just a 
 Lieutenant Hke the rest of us, I shouted 
 back, *'How about yourself?" There was 
 a laugh from one or two of the other 
 "stripers" who were in the group with 
 the tall man, and when I looked up to see 
 what they were laughing at, I saw it was 
 General Riberpray, himself! — the Com- 
 mander of the 128th Division. I sup- 
 posed that I 'd get at least a reprimand for 
 taking liberties with a superior officer; 
 but he only grinned and said nothing. I'd 
 forgotten to put on my tin derby in the 
 hustle of getting my cars out of danger. 
 
 Later, General Riberpray asked me 
 about the condition of the road. I told 
 him of the big horse "camion," full of 
 "pinard" and cheeses, which we had 
 been obliged to move out, as the horses 
 had been killed and the men had "beaten 
 it." I also told him that we could n't get 
 away with the "pinard," as the kegs 
 
CITATION FOR SECTION 1 171 
 
 were too big to handle, but that we had 
 taken as many cheeses as we could. 
 "Mon Dieu," he shouted, "those are my 
 cheeses! that's my ravitaillement wag- 
 on!" I said I guessed that he was out of 
 luck; and we had a good laugh over it, 
 he thanking me for fixing things so that 
 the roads could be used. Afterwards 
 fresh horses were sent down and the 
 wagon was brought up. 
 
 I came back with Brennan^ at about 
 three o'clock in the morning. The road 
 had been repaired by the "Genie" and 
 the night had cleared; and except for 
 the customary shrapnel, there was noth- 
 ing going on. 
 
 ^ Mark V. Brennan remained with the Section when 
 it became S.S.U. 625. In April 19-22, 1918, he distin- 
 guished himself at Seicheprey for coolness and bravery 
 and received a letter of commendation from General 
 Pershing. Two other men of the Section, Harold E. 
 Purdy and Edward A. G. Wylie, received similar letters. 
 (See Bulletin of the American Field Service, June 22, 
 1918. Editor.) 
 
172 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 Meantime the hospital and surround- 
 ing grounds were being shelled with big 
 fellows — probably "380's." One landed 
 square in the hospital yard while I was 
 working at the typewriter. "Eclats" and 
 bits of rock sang all over the place; but, 
 of course, I was flat on the ground. 
 
 Rice had a narrow escape when an 
 "eclat" as big as your hand fell exactly 
 where his head should have been on his 
 pillow. It came straight down through 
 the tent. Usually he lies reading at that 
 time in the morning; but this time he 
 happened to be outside. Another fell 
 through the dining-room tent and nearly 
 brought down Weeny, our waiter, as he 
 was peeling potatoes. Rice remarked 
 that he'd just as leave go up to the 
 "poste" and sleep there! By a curious 
 dispensation of Providence, full of poetic 
 justice, the only casualty on that occa- 
 sion, however, was a perfectly good 
 
CITATION FOR SECTION 1 173 
 
 Boche prisoner who was killed instantly 
 by a bit of stone hitting him square on the 
 forehead, a la David and Goliath. 
 
 September 12. General Riberpray was 
 killed yesterday morning. It couldn't 
 have been more than two hours after we 
 had the conversation about "pinard," 
 cheeses, and helmets! It appears that he 
 went down the line and a shell got him. 
 It is too bad; he seemed to be a good 
 sort. He is to be buried at Bar-le-Duc. 
 
 We had a comparatively quiet night 
 for us. Only three cars smashed! Elliott 
 and Ned Townsend collided at Cham- 
 bouillet; Ned having previously smashed 
 the front and back axles of his own car. 
 No. 7, at Carriere Sud, while taking up 
 Harold Kingsland, who used to be in our 
 Section, and is now taking movies to 
 raise Red Cross funds, with Paul Rainey, 
 the explorer and brother of Roy Rainey, 
 the pigeon-shooter. Ned then took the 
 
174 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 new car. No. 4; but it has only a bent 
 front axle and triangle. Elliott's car is 
 practically gone; both front and back 
 axles, side box and fenders. Ned will now 
 drive No. 9 (Rice's) and Hugh, No. 5 
 (Tapley's). Flynn returned last night 
 and I gave him No. 4 to fix up. Robin 
 Jay was not exactly pleased, but every- 
 body has got to do the best he can with 
 the wrecks we have. I have wired Paris 
 for another new car and a new man as 
 well. 
 
 The "remorqueurs" came again this 
 morning. They were not too well satis- 
 fied when they found where they had to 
 go to get Ned's and Elliott's cars. Shell- 
 ing was light, however, — only gas. I 
 gave them "pinard" and coffee, which 
 put them in a better humor; but they re- 
 marked that if they were us, they'd find 
 another garage for their cars. 
 
 At last, orders have come for us to 
 
CITATION FOR SECTION 1 175 
 
 move. We leave to-morrow for Vaucou- 
 leurs, immortalized by being the place 
 where Joan of Arc came to beg the local 
 Duke to come to the assistance of the 
 King of France, Charles VII. The boys 
 are perfectly delighted. 
 
 September 14. I spent a rotten night. I 
 could n't sleep for fear some of the boys 
 at the "postes" would get killed on their 
 last night. The Lieutenant remarked the 
 same thing. Everybody came through, 
 however, and we left for Bar-le-Duc, 
 where I arranged to give the boys a big 
 dinner and a night's rest between sheets at 
 the best hotel. The Lieutenant left this 
 morning on "permission" long overdue, 
 and goes to Dinard to join his wife. 
 
 As we left, the Boches gave us a part- 
 ing send-off by landing half a dozen big 
 shells around us. It certainly sped up the 
 parting guests! How fast the tents were 
 taken down was beyond all imagination. 
 
176 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 The Englishmen (A.A. No. 1) invited 
 the Lieutenant and me to dinner last 
 night and were mighty nice to us. They 
 said that we "had set them a pace that 
 they found it damned hard to follow." 
 Pretty good for the usually undemon- 
 strative and supercilious Englishman, 
 was n't it? 
 
 September 15. The dinner was a big 
 success. As usual it rained during the 
 run to Bar-le-Duc. Cram pulled a regu- 
 lar "Baylies" by driving deliberately 
 over a bank. It's getting to be a habit. 
 I had to have him hauled out by a wreck- 
 ing crew and towed. The boys now refer 
 to "Cramming a car" in the same way 
 we used to employ the verb "to Baylies." 
 The fellows made me pretty speeches at 
 the dinner; and Patterson was the only 
 man to get gay, although I gave them all 
 the champagne they wanted. 
 
PART HI 
 
 October 1917 
 
 The Passing of the Volunteer 
 
 S.S.U. No. 1 BECOMES No. 625 
 
 Ambulance Corps, U.S.A. 
 
 En Repos in Lobraine 
 The Land of Jeanne d'Arc 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 DOMREMY AND VAUCOULEURS — REWARDS 
 
 O brave young soul! who went forth unafraid, 
 A simple peasant Maid; 
 
 The Saints who bade thee go are silent now — 
 But speaking still art thou. 
 
 Under the Stars that greet the stars thine eyes 
 Behold in Paradise, 
 
 Under the Stripes to thy loved France revealed. 
 Thy comrades take the field. . . . 
 
 Though the barbarian level to the ground 
 The fane where he was crowned. 
 The timorous King who left thee to thy fate. 
 They did not come too late. . . . 
 
 Thy voice, above the Voices heard by thee. 
 Shall bid them set France free; 
 They shall complete the work thy love began! 
 For thy dear sake, Sainte Jeanne! 
 
 Edward Fuller {Public Ledger, Philadelphia) 
 
 The Vaucouleurs trip was somewhat 
 broken as to convoy, as I had to turn in 
 four cars at the Bar-le-Duc " pare," to 
 have their bodies rebuilt and generally 
 overhauled. The Kitchen car and a cou- 
 
180 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 pie of others got lost, but they turned up 
 all right later. We have pleasant quar- 
 ters; many of the men, however, preferred 
 to rent rooms in the town, the average 
 price for which is from five francs to seven 
 francs a week. The main squad are quar- 
 tered in the ballroom of a little cafe. 
 
 This is a beautiful part of France — 
 Nancy, Vaucouleurs, Toul. The country 
 has not been messed-up by the war, and 
 it is the first time I have realized that 
 some of those rare tapestries which I used 
 to look at, but failed to appreciate, were 
 mere exact copies of what the country 
 looks like. 
 
 We are slowly getting over the recent 
 work. Personally, I slept straight through 
 for twenty-four hours, after I had settled 
 the men in their cantonnements and had 
 officially reported that we were here minus 
 four cars which had been smashed by the 
 Boches. Our wounded man. Pearl, is 
 
DOMREMY AND VAUCOULEURS 181 
 
 coming around nicely, excepting for the 
 loss of the use of his left arm; and the 
 gassed men are pretty well, thanks to the 
 antidotes they got in good time. 
 
 We have had wonderful luck in coming 
 out of the offensive virtually intact, at 
 least as far as men go, for not a single car 
 in the whole outfit, excepting the staff car, 
 escaped without a hole. The reason the 
 staff car did not get "stung," too, was 
 that we did n't dare use it, and I ran to 
 the posts in an ambulance. 
 
 At all events, we seem to have made 
 quite an impression, as the English Sec- 
 tion working with us could not make the 
 front posts excepting in the daytime, 
 whereas we made them day and night on 
 account of the lightness of the Fords, and 
 the quick-wittedness of our drivers who 
 filled up shell holes as fast as they were 
 made, with anything handy. Often we 
 would remake the road sufficiently for a 
 
182 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 Ford to pass over, three or four times in 
 one night. 
 
 We are now "en repos," far from the 
 firing-line. The Medecin Chef has been 
 most kind and has cited several of our 
 boys whom th^ Lieutenant and I thought 
 especially deserving. 
 
 On our way here we passed many 
 American troops in training, and they 
 gave us no end of cheers when they saw 
 the famous Indian Head sign on our cars, 
 and so knew that we had just come out 
 of Verdun. 
 
 One of the American oflScers remarked 
 that he "never had seen such a looking 
 crew." To be sure, one half of the boys 
 were wearing poilu trousers and poilu 
 shoes! Some had on helmets; and all had 
 a week or two's growth of beard. Every 
 one was covered with mud, and the cars 
 were all smashed up as to headlights, fen- 
 ders, radiators, and also covered with 
 
DOMREMY AND VAUCOULEURS 183 
 
 mud and dozens of eclat holes. Altogether, 
 it was a scaly -looking bunch of heroes — 
 Don Cesar de Bazans, every one! 
 
 September 17. I sent down Farnham, 
 Day, and Townsend on "permission" and 
 Regan on sick-leave. The latter has a 
 badly infected eye. I am slowly getting 
 the cars cleaned — also the men. 
 
 It is curious how these sophisticated 
 fellows turn to religion after it is all over. 
 Here are Brennan, Ryan, White, Flynn, 
 and others, who all went to church! 
 
 September 18. The Lieutenant being 
 away as well as de Mare, all the "paperas- 
 serie" has fallen on Fortin and me. 
 We are having a beastly time with the 
 "dinky" official letters, telegrams, tele- 
 phone calls, and the rest. Poor Fortin is 
 working his head off. As for myself, my 
 brain is turning into a sort of whirling 
 spray. The "Loot" went off too soon, it 
 seems, and I spend my time soft-soaping 
 
184 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 officials and trying to explain his absence 
 — which is not always made easy. 
 
 We expect to move again shortly, and 
 the blessed White truck has a "bum" 
 wheel. We are situated where we have no 
 auto park to call upon, being neither in 
 the Nancy, Toul, or Bar-le-Duc districts, 
 and hence are hopelessly handicapped. 
 The Rochet-Schneider will have to make 
 at least two trips to move the essence and 
 oil supply to the Atelier. 
 
 As for the future, and notwithstanding 
 Paris gossip about the personnel of the 
 coming service, in the new adjustments, 
 as far as I can judge, Piatt Andrew and 
 Colonel Jefferson Kean will work together. 
 We, the field men, are to be taken over. 
 Section 1 has not as yet been reached by 
 the recruiting officers, as we shifted just 
 about the time when they were due to 
 take us. At present showing, I think that 
 about sixty or seventy per cent of the fel- 
 
DOMREMY AND VAUCOULEURS 185 
 
 lows will sign up, although the Norton- 
 Harjes crowd have quit *'en masse." I 
 had a long talk with Mr. Richard Norton 
 himself about it. He was very nice in 
 what he said. He considers that his work 
 has been done. The old club volunteer 
 spirit must now be eliminated. 
 
 I must say that in this I think he is mis- 
 taken, because we will be affected to the 
 French Army; and apart from the red 
 tape, which is even worse with us Ameri- 
 cans than it is with the French, there 
 should be little alteration brought into 
 our mode of life and work. 
 
 I understand that I am to be taken into 
 the American Army with the equivalent 
 rank to that which I hold in the French 
 Service at present, which is that of First 
 Lieutenant. I wear two stripes. Person- 
 ally, I do not care much, so long as I can 
 remain with my men and with the French 
 to whom I am accustomed. There is 
 
186 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 much in knowing the ways and point of 
 view of those with whom one is serving, in 
 such work as this. 
 
 September 20. Two new men arrived 
 during the night. They are Huston and 
 Kleineck. The latter looks very good. 
 He is middle-aged and serious. The for- 
 mer is very young and knows nothing 
 about a Ford; neither does he know any 
 French; but doubtless he'll soon pick up 
 enough to get along. So far, my boys are 
 behaving nicely, thank the Lord; but I'm 
 not crazy about staying here long, with 
 the bad example of the raw recruits who 
 are now around us. We are to leave for 
 AUainville, near Neuf chateau. 
 
 September M. This is a nice little town 
 hidden away in a beautiful rolling country 
 said to be full of wild boars. ^ Stout and 
 
 ^ Lieutenant Stevenson eventually had some good 
 sport, as shown in a letter to a friend: "I was invited 
 by the Mayor of a near-by town to go on an official 
 
DOMREMY AND VAUCOULEURS 187 
 
 Plow have been out hunting, but so far 
 have failed to get a shot. 
 
 The Auto Service wants to make a cere- 
 mony of the distribution of the new Croix 
 de Guerre awarded for the September 
 work done by the 69th Division. First, I 
 inclined to have the other men who were 
 decorated by the 42d Division also offi- 
 cially decorated at the same time. But 
 on second thought, we decided, Fortin 
 and I, that it would look like too much 
 of a crowd for so small a personnel; so I 
 distributed the Croix last night. Fortin 
 made a speech before handing them out 
 
 wild boar hunt last Sunday, and had a great time. 
 They employ beaters and dogs, and they handed me an 
 ancient shot-gun using the old-fashioned pin-fire car- 
 tridges of Civil War days, I got one boar, but, worse 
 luck, he died ia another fellow's sector. There were 
 quite a number of important civilians in the party. We 
 had a bully picnic luncheon, and forgot there was a 
 war going on, except for an occasional airplane fight. 
 During the luncheon a Boche two-seater was brought 
 down, the occupants being smashed to a pulp. One of 
 them wore the Iron Cross." (Editor.) 
 
188 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 to Elliott, Flynn, Hanna, Stockwell, Tap- 
 ley, White, and me. Of course, Elliott 
 and I won ours in Champagne; but as we 
 left the 42d Cavalry at that time, we 
 never went through any regular ceremony 
 other than reading the citations. Accord- 
 ingly, we had a little speechifying, and a 
 mild jollification. 
 
 September 28. Lieutenant Reymond re- 
 turned from his "permission" to-day. 
 The boys have lots of fun with the peas- 
 ants. They dance with the girls and jolly 
 them in great style. We had a regular 
 party last night — Rapp, Ogier, et al.y 
 whistled on pieces of cardboard; others 
 sang, and all had a fine time. 
 
 September 29. Ned Townsend, Rice, 
 Farnham, and Day got back from their 
 "permissions" rather the worse for wear; 
 but who could blame them.^^ My own 
 "permission," which I have not been able 
 to take since August, is so long overdue 
 
DOMREMY AND VAUCOULEURS 189 
 
 that it may have to go by altogether. I 
 don't dare to leave while these citations 
 are hanging fire. There are splendid ru- 
 mors about, but, as yet, nothing official. 
 
 October 4. Section 1 has been cited By 
 Order of the Army, and gets the Palm. 
 Also Lieutenant Reymond and myself! 
 
 I have wired home the citation which 
 reads as follows: — 
 
 26me Armee, fitat-Major 
 Ordre General N" 924 4 Octobre 1917 
 
 Section Sanitaire Americaine N° 1 
 
 Sous la direction du Sous-Lieutenant Rey- 
 mond, James, et du Commandant Americain 
 Stevenson, Yorke, s'est vaillamment com- 
 portee au cours de I'offensive devant Verdun, 
 en aoiit 1917, faisant I'admiration de tons 
 par sa cr^nerie et son zele, en depit du bom- 
 bardement incessant des routes par gros obus 
 asphyxiants. N'a pas interrompu son service 
 malgre des pertes sensibles. 
 
 (Signe) Le GSneral Commandant I'ArmSe 
 
 GUILLAUMAT 
 
190 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 October 6. Other citations have come in 
 — Kreutzberg, Farnham, Purdy,^ Stout, 
 Holt, and Dallin. The last two have left, 
 but I am very glad they got theirs, as they 
 deserved them well. More citations are 
 still coming in — Day, Townsend (this 
 makes his second), and Plow; also Rapp 
 and Blanchard, two Frenchmen who are 
 connected with our Section. 
 
 The Medecin Principal of the 69th 
 Division, to which S.S.U. No. 1 was at- 
 tached at the time of the second attack 
 
 ^ Harold E. Purdy remained with the Section when 
 it became S.S.U. 625. He was one of those loaned by 
 Lieutenant Stevenson to the American Division next 
 to the French Division to which he was attached, 
 and "volunteered to do stretcher-bearer work under 
 heavy fire when the regular men ran short, and ac- 
 quitted himself with conspicuous bravery during the 
 three days' fighting around Seicheprey. April 19-22, 
 1918." 
 
 The above is quoted from a letter Mr. Purdy received 
 from General Pershing himself, published in the Bulle- 
 tin of American Ambulance Field Service, June 22, 1918. 
 Two other men of Section 625 were also commended for 
 similar service at the same time. {Editor.) 
 
DOMREMY AND VAUCOULEURS 191 
 
 on Bezenvaux, at Verdun, who had been 
 seriously wounded on that famous night 
 when General Riberpray was killed, wrote 
 to congratulate us on our fine citation of 
 which he had heard. ^ The letter is ad- 
 dressed to Lieutenant Reymond: — 
 
 Mon cher camarade: — 
 
 C'est a Castrier, ou je suis en train de me 
 remettre de la grave blessure que j'ai regue le 
 7 Septembre devant Verdun, que me parvient 
 I'heureuse nouvelle de la citation a I'ordre de 
 I'Armee obtenue par la S.S.U. N° 1. J'ai vu 
 a I'oeuvre votre brillant personnel, et je suis 
 enchante d'apprendre qu'on a rendu, justice 
 a son magnifique allant, a son endurance, a 
 son courage, et a son devouement. Je vous 
 
 * At the time the surgeon was wounded, the road was 
 completely cut oflF by barrage fire; in fact, there was 
 no road until Lieutenant Stevenson with some of his 
 men went up and repaired it enough for the Fords to 
 get through. That night, General Riberpray, Com- 
 manding the Sector, and the 128th Division, thanked 
 the Lieutenant personally for reestablishing commu- 
 nication for traffic, and he earned his second reward. 
 The General was killed two or three hours later on that 
 night. (Editor. See below, September 12.) 
 
192 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 adresse, ainsi qu'au Lieutenant Stevenson, 
 mes plus chaleureuses felicitations. 
 
 Votre cordialement devoue 
 
 (Signe) W. P. Gary 
 MSdecin Principal de la 96^ Division 
 
 Our real reward, however, is that the 
 Section has figured in the big French vic- 
 tory at Verdun, and has received all sorts 
 of praise from those who saw it at work. 
 We had only two men wounded, although 
 several others were gassed, and some had 
 nervous breakdown. We certainly were 
 lucky, as so many of our ambulances were 
 destroyed or badly damaged. Several of 
 our men, however, are now ill with dysen- 
 tery as a result of the gassing they got. 
 Stockwell has been operated on; Buell, 
 Elliott, and Dix are being treated at 
 Johns Hopkins Hospital, near here. I, 
 myself, had a couple of close calls, as I 
 drove myself at intervals to give some of 
 the men a rest. And, of course, the Lieu- 
 
DOMREMY AND VAUCOULEURS 193 
 
 tenant and I took turns at the front-line 
 "postes." Bodies of men and horses Ut- 
 tered the roads in various stages of disin- 
 tegration and many still lay there for days 
 after the battle ended. Luckily I have a 
 good constitution. I am feeling fine and 
 getting stouter every day. I shall be a 
 sight when I get home at this rate — per- 
 fectly round, like a ball. 
 
 Dilapidated as the Section seems to be 
 just now, we feel that we are going out of 
 the old regime into the new with every 
 reason to be proud of its record. Person- 
 ally, I cannot find words to express what 
 I think of those wonderful boys. May the 
 new Service live up to the old! 
 
 Webster and his recruiting squad ar- 
 rived here on September 30, and about 
 one half of the Section signed up. Some 
 of the best men are leaving — also some of 
 the least eflScient, so that, on the whole, I 
 am fairly well satisfied. All the more so 
 
194 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 as we are to remain with the French 
 Army. Our Division is now training the 
 American troops. 
 
 Of course, "Bob'* Glendinning is a 
 friend of mine, and has suggested my join- 
 ing him. But that would mean ground 
 aviation work, owing to my defective eye- 
 sight. It would be something like a clerk- 
 ship in Paris. On the other hand, Piatt 
 Andrew's attitude toward the question is 
 that "to every man his best job." In 
 other words, I know this game and would 
 have to learn the other. Most of my 
 friends now are in aviation, so I was rather 
 keen to be with them. However, I shall 
 stick to this job "au grand air"! There- 
 fore, I have accepted a First Lieutenancy 
 in the American Ambulance Service. 
 
 After all, I love the life; and the Sec- 
 tion's standard, as far as the personnel 
 goes, is as good as ever. Of course, I'd 
 like to go home for a while and see the 
 
DOMREMY AND VAUCOULEURS 195 
 
 family; I miss my people; but, on the 
 other hand, I don't have to go to the 
 Assemblies, and that helps some! 
 
 The recruiting officers tell me that Piatt 
 Andrew is to be made a Major and will 
 remain in the Service — for which I am 
 truly glad. Of course, with so many of the 
 men leaving, we are busy breaking in new 
 recruits. It is well that we are still "en 
 repos." Andrew has treated this Section 
 well. He has sent us a jfine lot of men quite 
 fully up to the standard to which we are 
 accustomed. He told me that he had 
 picked out for us the best he could. He 
 certainly has. 
 
 You see, when it became likely that the 
 American Army would take us over, many 
 of the old men went into other branches 
 of the American Service — Engineers' 
 Corps, Aviation, Artillery, and Camou- 
 flage — the more interesting branches. 
 So we have to replace very nearly one half 
 
196 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 of our force. For the most part, our fel- 
 lows were college lads from the various 
 universities and colleges of the country. 
 Now, however, we have a wonderful vari- 
 ety, not only geographically speaking, but 
 of human experience and outlook, and the 
 accompanying list may afford a glimpse 
 of the material that will form the new 
 Section No. 625 of the Sanitary Field 
 Service of the United States Army when 
 it shall have been turned over oflScially, 
 and of which I have the honor of remain- 
 ing in command. 
 
 J With such a varied crew of professional 
 experts, one might found a new commun- 
 ity, and yet, although the group as a whole 
 may seem singular as assembled for the 
 one purpose, the men uniformly are, 
 nevertheless, splendidly willing workers, 
 and all amenable to army discipline. Of 
 course, their nerve has yet to be tested 
 under fire, as we are still "en repos"; but 
 
DOMREMY AND VAUCOULEURS 197 
 
 List of the Men of S.S.U. No. 1 
 At the Time of the " Passing of the Volunteer " 
 
 19 
 
 Railway clerk 
 
 Pittsburgh 
 
 31 
 
 Life guard 
 
 California 
 
 18-19 
 
 Four college students 
 
 Yale, Haverford, Harvard, 
 Michigan 
 
 27 
 
 School-teacher 
 
 Boston 
 
 20 
 
 Advertising agent 
 
 Chicago 
 
 32 
 
 Gold-miner 
 
 Iowa 
 
 18-20 
 
 Two bank clerks 
 
 Chicago and Pittsburgh 
 
 26 
 
 Garage owner 
 
 Providence 
 
 24 
 
 Wool merchant 
 
 Providence 
 
 20 
 
 Plumber 
 
 Pittsburgh 
 
 19 
 
 Salesman 
 
 New York 
 
 16-17 
 
 Three schoolboys 
 
 Minneapolis, San Francisco, 
 and Coatesville 
 
 42 
 
 Stock-broker 
 
 Wilkes-Barre 
 
 22 
 
 Chauffeur 
 
 Boston 
 
 33 
 
 White slave investigator 
 
 New Bedford 
 
 32 
 
 Civil engineer 
 
 New York 
 
 26 
 
 Mechanical engineer 
 
 New York 
 
 39 
 
 Farmer 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 32 
 
 City magistrate 
 
 New York 
 
 34 
 
 Newspaper writer 
 
 Pittsburgh 
 
 31 
 
 Professional swimmer 
 
 Newark 
 
 I firmly believe that they are going to turn 
 out as fine a body of men as any squad in 
 the field. 
 
 October 10. While in Paris, on my long- 
 deferred "permission," I had our Section 
 
198 J, FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 sign, our famous Indian Head which was 
 painted for us by Tardieu on the Somme 
 last year, used on our stationery as a head- 
 ing for our Section. I tried to get the 
 Army gray for the paper, but it seems 
 that it cannot be done. The printer, how- 
 ever, made a pretty fair copy of Tardieu's 
 emblem, I think. While it resembles the 
 emblem of the Lafayette Escadrille, it 
 differs from it in so far as their Indian is 
 represented with his mouth open, uttering 
 his great war-whoop, whereas our Indian 
 is a nice Indian, who keeps his mouth shut. 
 I received a letter from Brooke Edwards 
 the other day, and he is doing well, but 
 does not expect actually to go Boche- 
 hunting in the skies until the end of June. 
 Paul Kurtz also is doing well and should 
 be about beginning now.^ Indeed, all our 
 
 ^ Paid Kurtz was killed in May, 1918, just as he 
 was beginning to do active service. See above, p. 11. 
 (Editor.) 
 
DOMREMY AND VAUCOULEURS 199 
 
 boys who have gone into aviation appar- 
 ently are doing finely — especially Sam 
 Walker, who is dropping iron eggs on sub- 
 marines in the Navy Aviation Corps. 
 
 Baylies, however, is the wonder of the 
 ages. After his adventure with the "Pen- 
 guin," of which I sent you an account 
 some time ago, he is now reported as rap- 
 idly bagging Boches. He surely is a great 
 lad, and one of the nicest fellows you ever 
 saw. I never met with a man who could 
 stand "ragging" as he did when he was 
 with us. And now he is on his way to 
 being one of the notabilities of the Air 
 Service. 
 
 This was a red-letter day. Quite a mail 
 from home. Also letters from many 
 friends. One from Ralph Pemberton's 
 sister. It was very nice of her to take the 
 trouble to write. If people only knew how 
 good it is to feel one is not forgotten. Miss 
 G. E. writes that she is taking care of 
 
200 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 French babies near Lyons. Miss "Fifi" 
 Spencer is getting bombed and shelled 
 daily in Paris, working at the hospital out 
 at Neuilly. It is really very much safer 
 at the Front. Aside from a little gas now 
 and then, we really live a life of surprising 
 luxury and ease. And, by the way, judg- 
 ing from the number of prisoners each 
 side claims to have captured, in a short 
 time all the French and British will be in 
 Germany, and all the Germans will be in 
 France and England, and then each can 
 take a hack at running the other fellow's 
 country. This might be a good solution 
 of this terrible mix-up on the subject of 
 peace. 
 
 I met not long ago an American who, 
 before the war, was employed to get the 
 necessary concessions for the German 
 Bagdad Railway. He says that they paid 
 him $200,000 for his work. He was most 
 interesting in his stories about the jug- 
 
I— I 
 Q 
 
 I— ( 
 
 m 
 
 P 
 w 
 
 Q 
 
 H 
 
 K 
 
 Q 
 O 
 O 
 
 P 
 
 W 
 o 
 
 3 
 
 « 
 
DOMREMY AND VAUCOULEURS 201 
 
 gling of that railway, which, as every one 
 knows now, doubtless, was one of the 
 original hidden causes of the present scrap. 
 
 October 15. On my return I found the 
 boys all on their toes for work. The spirit 
 of them seems to be just the same even 
 with the influx of some nine new men, and 
 by the way, they have invented a new 
 game to stop snoring in the barracks. 
 When some one is found to be a disturber 
 of the peace, they sprinkle bread-crumbs 
 over him and add a little piece of cheese, 
 and in about a minute there is sure to be 
 a rush of rats over him which generally 
 wakes up the victim with a yell ! 
 
 They brought down a couple of Zep- 
 pelins near here. One of them must be 
 fully seven hundred feet long; it lies clear 
 across a valley the two ends resting on the 
 hills on either side. It is beautifully fin- 
 ished. The Captain's cabin is all enam- 
 elled in white, and the various "nascelles" 
 
202 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 are of polished wood and metal just like 
 high-priced motor boats. A regular ship's 
 gangway connects them together. It has 
 four motors of some three hundred horse- 
 power each. Altogether a wonderful piece 
 of work. 
 
 We are still quartered in a marvelous 
 chateau belonging to the Comtes de Beau- 
 fremont. Parts of the edifice are Roman 
 and the rest was erected about 1400, with 
 additions as late as 1600. Some of the old 
 fireplaces are superb, and we live finely, 
 now that we have patched up the windows 
 and part of the roof. There is a superb 
 view, as we are on one of the high Vosges 
 hills and can see the country for miles 
 around. We are not far from Domremy, 
 the birthplace of Jeanne d'Arc, and there 
 are many interesting ruins near by, as 
 well as fine places, such as a splendid 
 chateau of the sixteenth century built by 
 the Comtes d 'Alsace. 
 
DOMREMY AND VAUCOULEURS 203 
 
 The de Beaufremont family goes back 
 to the thirteenth century. The more an- 
 cient ruins have oubHettes, fosses, and 
 columbaria. The church is of fifteenth- 
 century Gothic, built by Jean de Beau- 
 fremont who was killed at Agincourt. 
 
 It seems passing strange to see Ameri- 
 cans here. But thank Heaven, the 
 "Yanks" are now pouring into France 
 — just in time, in the face of the Russian 
 and the Italian debacles. The men look 
 well and are rapidly picking up modern 
 warfare. The unfortunate cyclists, how- 
 ever, have to wear the large-brimmed 
 sombrero and are compelled to steer in 
 the wind with one hand, as they often 
 must hold their hat with the other. Now, 
 that's "some" job, believe me, on the 
 slippery, muddy roads always packed 
 with traffic! There are little things like 
 that. 
 
 But seriously, c'est la guerre! The 
 
204 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 Americans are here with the Stuff. 
 I would buy French bonds, British bonds, 
 American bonds, and feel that the money 
 was well spent. America at last is doing 
 her full share, and She is doing it well 
 AND THOROUGHLY. Make no mistake 
 about that. It's the real thing at last. I 
 can't tell you how glad I feel, even though 
 I don't anticipate much more fun out of 
 the work from now on, after I become a 
 full-fledged Lieutenant in the United 
 States Army. But soon I will get accus- 
 tomed to the routine, of course, and will 
 learn the new job and like it. 
 
 I believe that, to begin with, I shall 
 have to go to the technical School for 
 American officers at Meaux, for a six 
 weeks' course of intensive training this 
 winter. 
 
 And, by the way, I figured out to-day, 
 that if we kill off about 1,000,000 Germans 
 per annum, and they produce 600,000 
 
DOMREMY AND VAUCOULEURS 205 
 
 new ones — like most vermin, they breed 
 very rapidly — it would take about one 
 hundred and fifty years to exterminate 
 them. We'll have to do better than we 
 are doing, you see. 
 
NOTE 
 
 On January 1, 1918, after many tribu- 
 lations, complications, and adjustments, 
 the American Ambulance Field Service 
 finally and officially ceased to exist and 
 became a part of the Ambulance Field 
 Service of the United States Army. Si- 
 multaneously 21 Rue Raynouard, its 
 headquarters, in its original form also 
 passed out of existence. The latter event 
 was marked by a grand celebration in 
 Paris, which took the form of a memo- 
 rable banquet attended by the many 
 friends of the institution, now trans- 
 formed into a Club. 
 
 S.S.U. No. 1, being on duty in Lorraine, 
 was unable to attend the festivities that 
 marked in Paris the passing of the Ameri- 
 can Volunteer. But the justified pride of 
 the Section in its record, as well as its 
 unalloyed loyalty to the American Flag 
 
NOTE 207 
 
 under which it felt honored to serve, had 
 already been voiced by its leader on a 
 former occasion in a simple speech to the 
 boys. It is quite Napoleonic in its brevity, 
 and Tacitus himself could not have said 
 more in so few words: — 
 
 "Fellows: I had a little chat with the 
 Medecin Chef this morning. We talked 
 of what is coming and of what has been. 
 I said I was anxious to get the Section up 
 to the Front again. He replied : — 
 
 "* Ah, s'ils marchent comme les autres!' 
 "Do you know what that means .^^ It 
 means learning to drive by night exactly 
 as if it were day, and without lights. It 
 means driving with a gas mask, and it 
 means never quitting. * S'ils marchent 
 comme les autres' has been my motto and 
 my standard, ever since 'Huts' Townsend^ 
 
 * Herbert P. Townsend, of New York, succeeded 
 Roger Balbiani as Adjutant Commander of Section 1, 
 when the latter entered the Aviation Service. 
 
 Roger Balbiani's death was reported in May, 1918. 
 
208 FROM POILU TO YANK 
 
 — the best leader the Section ever had 
 
 — left us. I've copied his methods and 
 tried to get the same type of men he 
 had. I think I've succeeded. We have 
 what we've always had: *Pep' and Devo- 
 tion. I expect it of Section No. 1 under 
 the American Flag, just as it was taken 
 for granted under the Tricolor. 
 
 *'I think it is fitting to drink this day 
 a silent toast, standing, to Our Dead: — • 
 George Frederick Norton, 
 Benjamin Russell Wood worth, 
 and Howard B. Lines." ^ 
 
 He was American Chef de Section S.S.U. No. 1 at the 
 time of the Battle of the Yser and of Ypres. He en- 
 tered the Aviation Service, and Herbert P. Townsend 
 took his place. He originally came from Cuba, but his 
 family was well known in Paris. He won the Croix de 
 Guerre while in the Ambulance Service. He had many 
 friends who affectionately knew him as "Balbi." He 
 was killed in action, {Editor.) 
 
 ^ Since then the necrology of the Section has more 
 than doubled with the deaths of Paul B. Kurtz, Roger 
 Balbiani, Roger Sherman Dix, Peter Avard, and I think 
 others. {Editor.) 
 
NOTE 209 
 
 May Section No. 625 of the Ambu- 
 lance Field Service, U.S.A., "live long 
 and prosper." For, like Cicero, looking 
 back, it may well proudly say: — 
 
 "Hoc maxime officii est, ut quisque 
 maxime opis indigeat, ita ei potissimum 
 opitulari." 
 
 That is: — 
 
 "This is our special duty, that if any 
 one specially needs our help, we should 
 give him such help to the utmost of our 
 power." (Cicero, de Officiis, i, 15.) 
 
 The Editor 
 
 THE END 
 
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