AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER WILLIAM YORKE STEVENSON 0 640 S848a 1917 NLM 050073014 3 NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE LIBRARY. AMEZ ____ Section No. 113, W. D.S.G.O. No.^AB-0.Je.§r.. 3—513 ^-- NLM050073043 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER LIEUT. MARQUIS ROBERT DE KERSAUSON DE PENNENDREFF Commanding Section Sanitaire Ame>icaine N» 1 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER BY WILLIAM YORKE STEVENSON Section No. 1, American Ambulance WITH ILLUSTBATI0N8 BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY &be ffiitoerjfibe prtfl Cambridge COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY WILLIAM YORKE STEVENSON ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published September tqrj ID PREFACE In presenting the following diary to the public, a few words of introduction may not seem superfluous. The writer is a young American who usually is not given to self-expression, although a number of articles from his pen have been published in various magazines, and a book of early sporting experiences was published by Al- temus, some years ago, under the title Joys of Sports. On March 1, 1916, he left his family and his position as financial editor on a Philadelphia newspaper, because he felt strongly this country's attitude with regard to the war, and wished to join the few volunteers who then sought, as far as in their power lay, to pay the debt of service which this nation owed to France. He kept a rough diary which, as the occa- sion offered, he forwarded to his people. It was written offhand, without the re- motest idea of its publication. It is this that constitutes its value at this time. vi PREFACE Any one who has made it his business to read every book hitherto published by cor- respondents and others will realize how few there are in which can be found so many practical details of the things one wants to know, or which give so realistic a view of the war at close range, with its strange mixture of horrors, pleasures, and realities, divested of all literary effort or desire to impress. These notes are here published almost as jotted down at odd times, here and there, where the man happened to be. Only a few entries felt to be unprintable have been omitted, and a few expletives which slipped in when under a fever of excitement in action. Taken as a whole, the diary offers a glimpse of real life at the Front — quite different from the view obtained by the personally conducted visitor — as lived by the men who are doing duty. As such, it may be of use to our young men about to enter upon the great adventure. The reader will find in it no heroics, no attempt at a pose, no desire to magnify the work PREFACE vii or its dangers. It is but fair, therefore, to supplement the young man's simple statement of facts, by publishing, along with the diary, a letter written to a member of his family by Mr. John H. McFadden, Jr., who, in charge of the De- partment of Equipment of the American Ambulance Field Service, visited his Sec- tion in September last, at a time when the strain of work was probably not at its worst, and yet was described by him as follows: — September 9,1916. My dear Mrs. S.: — I have just returned from a visit to Section No. 1, where Yorke is, and although he prob- ably has written to you describing his work, he also probably has omitted a good deal, owing to the fact of his being a member of the Sec- tion. After seeing the extraordinary work that those boys are doing up there, I felt that I would like to write to you and tell you all about it. A good many of the Sections are now living under canvas and have often found difficulty in finding a suitable place to cook. So that we have had built a kitchen on two wheels which viii PREFACE is pulled along by a big two-ton White truck used for sitting cases, and the real reason of my visit was to leave one with Section No. 1. As it happens, they are situated at the present moment in a splendid chateau (the Chateau de Billemont) about four kilometers outside of Verdun. Up to a few weeks ago it was the headquarters of some French officers, but the Germans, having got hold of the fact, shelled them out, so that it has made an ideal place for our men. The "poste de secours" to which they are attached is six kilometers the other side of Verdun; and since ten days before my arrival, and during my stay, the French have been doing incessant attacking and counter-attack- ing, and the work of carrying the wounded has been practically continuous night and day. On going to the "poste de secours" from the chateau, you pass through Verdun and continue on a wide, level road for about one kilometer, and then you start up a very steep hill, which continues right to the "poste de secours," for five kilometers. This road is very narrow and sufficiently dangerous from a driving point of view apart from the fact that it is shelled continuously day and night. In fact, the duty of Townsend, Section Director, is to go out every morning at daybreak with a couple of men and fill up the holes which have PREFACE IX been made during the hours of darkness, so that our cars will not fall into them. The "poste" itself is only one hundred and fifty yards from Fort St. Michel, which, of course, accounts for the attention which that part of the country gets from the German ar- tillery. Besides this, the whole valley and hill- sides are covered with French batteries, and the din at the top of the hill makes it impos- sible to talk in anything like an ordinary voice. The day driving is comparatively nothing. The fact that every car has been hit has made no impression whatsoever on the men. I do not mean to say by this that they are in the least bit reckless or foolhardy — on the con- trary, they take all possible precautions; but when there is anything to be done, it is car- ried out without question. The part, however, for which they de- serve all the praise that we can give them, is for their driving at night. Naturally, no fights are allowed, and I have never seen a country that can produce darker nights than that district. You can try and imagine start- ing from the top of that hill with a car full of wounded, driving down a narrow hillside road in a blackness impenetrable for more than a yard. If it were not for the light given by the firing of the guns and hand-grenades, the work would be well-nigh impossible. X PREFACE What makes it more difficult still is, that it is at night that all the traffic starts and the ammunition is brought up to the various bat- teries, and continually you are finding a team of horses almost on the top of the car before you have any idea of their presence. The round trip from the "poste de secours" to the hos- pital takes from two hours and a half to three hours, which averages a speed of about ten kilometers an hour. This will give you an idea how slowly one has to go. As I said in the beginning, this Section had been doing this work for ten days before I got there, and yet there was not the slightest sign of fatigue or impatience. I doubt if any man in the Section during that time had had five hours' consecutive sleep. But far from shirking what they had to do, they were each and every one of them attempting more than their share. One night, for example, the Medecin Chef who had charge of the "poste," received word to prepare for an unusual number of wounded on account of an expected attack, and fear- ing that Section No. 1 might not be able to handle the situation alone, he called out a French Section which was in Verdun as reserve. I can assure you that no deeper in- sult could have been offered to poor Towns- end, and every man in the Section worked double time that night. Needless to say the PREFACE xi French Section stayed where it was — "In reserve." The idea that any situation was too big for them to handle was something not to be thought of. No matter how carefully a man drives at night, a number of accidents are bound to oc- cur. In one night, there were six. Of course, these are minor accidents and the damage can be repaired in a fairly short time. For instance, the White Camion one night went into a ditch; two cars went head-on into each other in the darkness; two more cars went into ditches, and another fell into a shell hole. Occasionally, of course, something occurs which will put a car out of commission for three or four days, and that means that the Section is that much short. If this sort of thing happens too often, the authorities get impatient and threaten to replace the incom- plete Section by a complete one — which, of course, almost breaks the hearts of our fel- lows; and it occurs to me that it would be a splendid thing if we could have one or two cars in reserve for each Section, to prevent this contingency ever happening. Just briefly, I have tried as nearly as pos- sible to give you an exact picture of the work that Yorke and the rest of the fellows in Sec- tion No. 1 are doing. Without exaggeration, and without any idea of blood-curdling stories, xii PREFACE it really impressed me as so tremendously fine, that I did not feel that we were giving them all the praise they deserve. ^ I hope you have not found this letter too long and will not think that I am bothering you too much, but nothing that I can say can give you an idea of how splendid those boys are, and I cannot help feeling that nothing should be left untried to give them all the as- sistance in our power. Hoping that you are well, I remain Very sincerely yours, Jack McFaduen. For service even more exposing than that described by Mr. McFadden, ren- dered on the 11th of July, 1916, on the occasion of the gas attack in the battle for Souville-Tavannes, the entire Section 1 had already been cited before the Division of the Second Army to which it was at- tached. A second citation was given the Section for the work referred to in Mr. McFadden's letter, which was the battle for Fleury, when again the entire Section so distinguished itself. This time, how- ever, it was cited before the Army. Along with these official citations some wonder- PREFACE xiii ful letters were addressed to Lieutenant de Kersauson de Pennendreff by the sur- geons in charge of the "poste de secours" and those who were in charge of the San- itary Service to which the Section was attached. Since then, the newspapers have reported a third citation for the Section; and recently, when Hon. A. Piatt An- drew, for his distinguished service to France, was awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honor, he chose to receive it with Section 1, because it is the oldest of the American Sections, and because he drove with it before he became the head of the American Ambulance Field Service. General Ragueneau, of General Ni- velle's Staff, performed the ceremony, which took place in the fine courtyard of a splendid sixteenth-century chateau, in which Section 1 was then quartered. Troops formed three sides of a square, and the "ambulanciers" the fourth. Fate was propitious, and the weather was the only sunny weather they had enjoyed since the winter had set in. The big guns were loudly booming, and German aviators xiv PREFACE were dropping bombs on the village just outside the chateau, also in the river near their dining-tent: quite a glorious staging for a scene of this kind. After the ceremony, Major Andrew, as he is now called, presented the Section with a section flag of blue silk, edged with gold fringe, with the American eagle in the center. In the top corner is pinned the Croix de Guerre, with the two stars, which mean that the Section has been twice cited before the Army. As a fact, now, it should be three stars, as recently it has received a third citation, which, for the present, again places Section 1 at the head of all the American Sections, a proud posi- tion which it occupied last autumn with two citations. Later, however, Section 8 caught up to it. But to return to the flag bestowed upon it by Major Andrew: in the other corners are inscribed the names of the battles in which the Section has fig- ured: Ypres, Dunkerque, Somme, Verdun, Argonne, Aisne, and so on: a proud record, to be sure. After the customary ceremony, the Gen- PREFACE xv eral advanced toward the young drivers, who were introduced to him by name, and whose hands he shook. He afterwards invited some of the older men to join him and the Staff in a glass of wine. He made them a most complimentary speech, which ended a pleasant as well as most honorable experience. Having come back to this country on furlough to spend Christmas at home, Mr. Stevenson returned to France on March 4, 1917, and upon arrival in Paris found that his Lieutenant, the Marquis Robert de Kersauson de Pennendreff, had kept his place for him in the Section; he at once, therefore, returned to Verdun to join his squad. Section 1 shortly after- wards was transferred to Champagne and the Aisne where the heaviest fighting of the war was then expected to take place. Since then that expectation bids fair to be realized. Mr. McFadden recently returned to France after a most successful money- raising campaign in this country, through which the American " Ambulanciers," who xvi PREFACE for nearly three years have been keeping up the honor of this country on the fight- ing line, will be provided with proper cars and equipment. They deserve it well. And Hon. A. Piatt Andrew, Henry D. Sleeper, of Boston, who represents the work in this country, and Mr. John H. McFad- den, of Philadelphia, should be congrat- ulated upon the splendid support which they have obtained for those remarkable American volunteer boys. One can but regret that the now his- toric "Ambulance No. 10" will appear no more in the annals of the Field Service. It has done noble work, however, and should have a decent burial in some American War Museum. The celebrated "Flivver," or "Tin Lizzie," as our diarist calls her, should not be allowed to end on a scrap-heap. Who can estimate the num- ber of lives she has helped to save? She is a veteran, and deserves an honorable ending. We should not be ungrateful to a thing which has served us so faithfully. We, who for so long remained out of the conflict, should never forget the debt of PREFACE xvii gratitude which we owe to these young fellows of our race, who from the first, with a keen sense of honor and splendid cour- age, unhesitatingly realized their duty to France and to the ideals which our Nation professed to uphold, and who went alone and served when we discussed and did nothing. To them, to our splendid avia- tors, and to those who enlisted in the For- eign Legion, be all honor and praise for representing, unbidden, the true spirit of the American Nation. " Doing my part of the everyday care — Human and simple my lot and my share— I am aware of a marvelous thing: Voices that murmur and ethers that ring In the far stellar spaces where cherubim sing." Since the diary was written, the au- thor has been placed in command of Sec- tion 1 and has been awarded the Croix de Guerre. The citation, signed by a general whose name is withheld for the present, reads as follows:— "The Commandant Adjoint Steven- son, W. Yorke, American Sanitary Section xviii PREFACE No. 1, enlisted volunteer since February, 1916. "Commandant Adjoint of the Ameri- can Sanitary Section No. 1, never hesitat- ing to expose himself, has largely contrib- uted to the organization and direction of the evacuations under enemy fire. Brave, devoted, and of a rare modesty." The Editor. August 1, 1917. NOTE This is not a Treatise on the War. I know nothing about it. General Joffre never consulted me in developing his plans. It was rather careless on his part, but I'll try to forgive him. Nor did the German General Staff make any special effort to obtain my views. Of course, it has been their loss. Therefore, this little book is merely a record of what one driver of a "Tin Lizzie" happened to see during some nine months spent on the Somme, around Verdun and in the Argonne. William Yorke Stevenson Ambulance Driver Section No. 1 t CONTENTS I. Explanatory......1 II. Paris — Neuilly.....15 III. At the Front at Last ... 32 IV. On les aura......56 V. Preparing for the Battle of the Somme.......80 VI. "Ils ne passeront pas" ... 99 VII. Verdun .......114 VIII. "En Repos"......140 IX. The Battle for Fleury . . . 159 ILLUSTRATIONS Lieutenant Marquis Robert de Kersau- son de pennendreff, commanding sec- TION Sanitaire Americaine No. 1 Frontispiece At the Machine-Shop at Neuilly: Wil- liam Dwight Crane, William Yorke Stevenson, and Robert T. Roche . . 4 Quarters of Section 1 at Mericourt on the Somme........34 Three Philadelphians—Samuel H. Paul, L. Brooke Edwards, and W. Yorke Stevenson — at Mericourt-Cappy . . 40 A Gunboat on the Somme .... 48 The French Artist Tardieu ... 52 Mlle. Flore Granger, the Only Woman in Cappy........58 "Ambulance No. 10," driven by W. Yorke Stevenson in 1916 on the Somme and at Verdun........62 A Slump in Real Estate at Cappy . . 66 Victor White.......70 Bridge on the Somme Canal at Cappy connecting French and British Lines . 80 xxiv ILLUSTRATIONS Senegalese on the Somme .... 94 The Gate of Verdun.....108 The Lieutenant and the Squad . .112 Nelson, Edward Townsend, and Roche . 128 Loading an Ambulance with the Help of a German Prisoner.....128 Copy of Citation of July 26, 1916 . . 144 Fishing a Ford out of a Hole: Roger, Stevenson, the Lieutenant, Herbert Townsend........194 American Sanitary Section No. 1 receiv- ing its Citation and Croix de Guerre for its Work at Souville-Tavannes . 214 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER AT THE FRONT IN A "FLIVVER" CHAPTER I EXPLANATORY "Ont fait preuve du plus brillant courage et du plus complet devouement."1 The old General ceased reading from the Army Corps Citation and, stepping forward, said: — "Gentlemen, as you carry no regimen- tal standard, I have the honor of pinning the Croix de Guerre upon this car as rep- resenting the Section."' 1 General Order No. 189. Group D. E. Staff Headquarters, S. C. No. 6611. November 6th, 1916. The General Commanding the Group D. E., cites by the order of the Army Corps: Sanitary American Sec- tion No. 1, under the command of the Lieutenant Robert de Kersauson de Pennendreff and of the Ameri- can Officer Herbert Townsend: In August and Septem- ber, 1916, has assured the evacuation of the wounded of three Divisions successively in a section particularly 2 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER It was a "Flivver"!! Just a plain "flivver" with an ambu- lance body the after overhang of which gave the outfit the graceful aspect of an overfed June-bug. The following pages were not written for the instruction of the United States Army General Staff, although one might think, from the astonishing questions one is asked on returning from the maelstrom, that an ordinary Ambulance driver had the intimate ear of Generals Joffre and Nivelle, and had been consulted by them prior to most of their major operations. Neither is this a treatise on "How to Run an Ambulance Corps"—A. Piatt An- drew and his able assistants can tell you all about that. This is merely the record of my intimate personal daily existence with the kindly "bunch" of twenty happy-go-lucky pirates, gathered from all dangerous; has asked as a favor to retain this service, in which officers and conductors have given proof of the most brilliant courage and of the most complete devo- tion. (Signed) The General Commanding Group D. E. Mangin. EXPLANATORY 3 parts of the United States, with whom I had the good fortune to be thrown for some ten months of the most interesting, and, I am almost tempted to say, the happiest, months of my life. Judging from the letters received from home, the Field Ambulance Sections are supposed to spend their entire time breathing battle-smoke and gases; dodg- ing shells and swabbing cars saturated with blood. As a matter of fact, some two thirds of the time is spent "en repos," where, apart from the few scheduled runs, the periodical washing of the cars, and the putting them in first-class repair, the drivers literally loaf. The remaining third, however, is more or less strenuous. But even then, this depends upon what portion of the battle line the Division to which the Section is attached happens to be placed. Generally speaking, each Division has an Ambu- lance Section, though lately the French have modified this system to a certain extent, and one becomes part of a " groupe- ment" which may include more than one 4 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER Division. At Verdun we worked with four Divisions at various times, day and night, and at times under really intense fire. At other times, as on the Aisne, on the Somme, and in the Argonne, we worked even closer to the Boches than at Verdun, but there happened to be no really active fighting during those periods. Hence, when the front line is mentioned, it may often mean nothing of serious impor- tance, and yet again it may mean the most appalling activity. For instance, at the time of the unfortu- nate death of Richard Hall, of Section 3, and again on the occasion of the sad tak- ing off of Kelly, of Section 4, these squads were working in what were thought for the moment to be quiet sectors. Yet Sec- tion 1, at Souville, and during the battle of Fleury, had nearly all of its cars hit, but not one man was even scratched. Such is the luck of the game! When we four new recruits — Roche, who was Captain of the Princeton Crew in 1911, Mason, hurdles at Harvard, 1908, Crane, also Harvard, and myself — first // ' // // // i i i i i l l I l l I / /f» // I I \ o M W 2 a: -2 53 P EXPLANATORY 5 made our appearance on the grounds of the big hospital at Neuilly, we were re- garded with a certain amount of interest by the khaki-clad, swank-looking drivers who happened to be loafing about the yard at the time. The impression they made upon us was one of questioning doubt. One felt as though they were un- certain in their minds as to whether one had skipped the country with somebody's wad or his wife, or both. As a matter of fact, I doubt if more than half the men go over to France from really altruistic motives, although later on France gets a sort of grip on you that is hard to explain, and one begins to want to stay and to "see it through." It is her wonderful steadfastness in the terrible vicissitudes through which she has passed. It is the unfailing cheerfulness of the peo- ple and the way they regard the War as a disagreeable duty to be performed. No heroics! No lamentations! They go about the bloody business as if it were part of the day's work. All this does not get to one for a while, 6 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER but it gradually sinks in; and few of the returning men I have seen were going home willingly. It was because of affairs, family, financial, or collegiate; and nearly every one hoped to be able to come back and be in at the finish. Indeed, several did come back during my stay, and since my return to America I hear of more who have felt the strong call. Life seems so banal after one has been a part, however humble, of history in the making. As I write, I know that if I had my way, I should be back there washing my old " Tin Lizzie" in some muddy horsepond, right now. Well, after proving we were white, fairly healthy, and not palpable fugitives from the law, we were permitted to pur- chase uniforms, various sundries, and to join the other new recruits burrowing their oily way into the vitals of more or less dilapidated heaps of junk which we were told were cars that had been brought back from the front to be overhauled. The following pages I have left in diary form, just as they were jotted down at EXPLANATORY 7 irregular intervals. In reading them over, I can see the gradual development of the raw " freshman," in the presence of things that strike him as strange at first, until he reaches the more or less "fed-up" attitude of the average so-called veteran. March 5, 1916. On board French Line S.S. Rochambeau. Carrying three bun- dles, a bag, a bunch of rugs, and A. B.'s luncheon taken at the Holland House, I boarded the Rochambeau with some effort yesterday just as the whistle sounded, while I kissed various people good-bye. For a week I have been doing nothing else. This teary sob-stuff gets on one's nerves, particularly when one is scared to death anyhow. It's the least kind thing one per- son can do to another, to call his attention to various things that may happen to him on a sea trip. I met a number of nice peo- ple, — a Frenchman, a priest, and a silk buyer; the latter wept most of the way out of New York Harbor, recalling "the wife" at home, and giving out a lot of maudlin stuff. I inquired how long he expected to 8 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER remain abroad and he said, "Ten days"! Since then I have disliked him intensely. He kicks about the food too! I have not, as yet, met the other Ambulance men. There are about six, but they keep to themselves. Thank Heaven, the bartender knows how to mix a dry martini. I've got a fine stateroom. The food is poor and scanty, but I expected that. The ship is short- handed and very deep in the water, — even carrying freight piled high on the after deck. Only one good-looker aboard and the Captain has already nailed her — curses! I've met a nice Englishman who is going back to his mother to die. He has lung trouble and prefers mother to his wife and family and Reading, Pennsylva- nia, as a place to finish off. His mother lives at Grenoble, in the Alps. One French- man ordered onion soup this morning for breakfast. Everybody left the table. I got a bully lot of farewell letters, gifts, and telegrams — some from quite unexpected sources. It's nice to find one has so many friends, but why do they all give one shaving kits? EXPLANATORY 9 March 8. Nothing doing yesterday. Met most of the Ambulance men, — nice fellows, — R. T. Roche, the aforesaid Captain of Princeton Crew in 1911, Aus- tin B. Mason, of Boston and of hurdles fame at Harvard, 1908, and William Dwight Crane, of New York and Harvard. Cargo mostly ether and oil; also muni- tions. There is a heavy roll, — racks on table; many dishes broken; tramp steamer caused excitement, likewise hot air about possible German raider. The boys are try- ing to get up a concert with a "busted" piano and no one to sing. Just met an ex- American Ambulance man. Was in the Pont-a-Mousson Section and got Croix de Guerre. He used to do newspaper work. He is now with a "bunch" from Pitts- burgh backed by a rich woman who wishes to drive her own car at the front. She's got a swell chance! He is beginning to get weary of his crowd. They only have one car in "White" and they expect to oper- ate as an Individual Unit! ! ! ! March 9. Still no news as to how the fight went at Verdun. Expected surely 10 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER some information from Eiffel Tower; but if the Captain has received any, he is keep- ing it dark. More German-raider scares, when passing several freighters. I have met a nice old Italian returning from Amer- ica where he was buying horses for his gov- ernment. One of his sons already has been killed in the battle of Trentino. Another son also is at the front. He does all kinds of sleight-of-hand tricks. The sea has calmed down again, and the weather is fine. - Funny how people act in these raider rumors—women get excited, men pretend to be very calm and joke nervously about being marooned on a desert island a, la Robinson Crusoe. The only one I'd like to be marooned with seems to have made a date with some one else. The old Italian has great respect for the Germans, says they are the best business men — not bright, but very efficient. He thinks that neither side has as yet been even moder- ately weakened and looks for the war to last at least two years more. Almost every one else thinks a year should end it. March 10. At last news from Verdun. EXPLANATORY 11 French still holding. Also news of British and Russian gains. Several ships (Allies) sunk; and one German boat reported es- caped from internment at Bordeaux. This aroused some uneasiness, as that is our destination. I have given all my books to the sick Englishman, as he says he can't get anything but French literature at Grenoble. Met a returning French officer — Comte de Portanier de la Rochette. He has been ten months in the trenches with- out so much as a scratch. Has been on an eight days' leave in the United States! Met a former Philadelphian, by name Josiah Williams, a doctor, who has been in the war since the start. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, class '88. Was in the battle of the Champagne tend- ing first poste de secours. Very interesting. He thinks the French have them licked now. Knows Drs." Billy" White, "Jim" Hutchinson, and used to know Dr. Pepper. March 11. Quite rough. De la Rochette says that in the Champagne battle, when they captured German trenches, he, him- self, found seven dead Germans chained 12 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER to their machine guns. Head winds and seas will make us a day late at least. The silk merchant is seasick, so we've had a respite on "the wife back in the States" stuff. I've met a young woman of uncer- tain vintage who is on her way to Monte Carlo. Spends her time knocking Ameri- can efforts to help France; says the Am- bulance men only go over for notoriety's sake. I let her rave on, and when she was all through, bid her good-night, remarking that I was doing that myself. I hope it taught her a lesson. March 12. The Catholic priest and some of his friends announce that they will not attend the concert because little " blondy " collected the money. The ladies are rabid. One went to the priest and told him she understood that his job included being charitable to sinners as well as others. Priest very sheepish and presented a French novel for the auction! The little blonde, of course, is a professional; but she has done more than any one else in the way of getting up things for the wounded. The sea is so calm that several people I EXPLANATORY 13 had not seen before turned up on deck. Imagine being in an 8 x 10 hole for eight days. Passed several tramps. Boats have been swung out and most people expect to sleep for the next two nights more or less fully dressed. We are now in the War Zone. We hold the auction and concert to-night. March 14. Anchored at the harbor mouth and came up late. After much red tape got off boat. They caught one sus- pect — a German Jew. "Taisez-vous, Mefiez-vous, Les oreilles ennemies vous 6coutent." This sign is everywhere posted, on trains, etc. Bordeaux little changed except for lack of autos. Women on all tram cars, and conductors on trains are women. There is quite a movement of troops, and trains are crowded. The reserves are all in the old red pants and caps, the new war pale blue being only used at the front. The new metal helmet is almost a replica of the old pikemen's casques, only enameled a pale dull blue-gray, and the comb is ap- 14 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER plied instead of being all of one piece. It is very light and of tough steel. It is spring in the south. Cherry blos- soms and buttercups, and everywhere the vineyards are being tended and the fields sown. Farther north it is still only plough- ing time. At Poitiers we saw the first train-load of German prisoners; most of them were thoroughly satisfied to be out of the war. I must admit, though, that the tales of their being starved were not borne out by these men. They looked quite healthy. We also saw a train of Red Cross cars carrying wounded to the south for recuperation. Only the slightly injured, however. It seemed almost like returning to one's home to see the familiar towns again, Tours, Blois, and the rest. The curious, hazy atmosphere of France, the tiny villages nestling about their castles like chickens around the mother hen, and, above all, the familiar poplars. Paris is very quiet and dark; but there are plenty of cabs and taxis, and food is as good as ever. CHAPTER II PARIS — NEUILLY 1916 In the wax-works of Nature they strike Off each minute some face for life's hike, And of billions of mugs, On us, poor human bugs, There are no two exactly alike. Euwer Paris, March 16. To-day I met A. Piatt Andrew — bully fellow — much younger than I expected. He's the "whole show" out at Neuilly. Other fellows are very nice too. Several start for the Front to-morrow, so the Equipment Department is very busy. I had to see half a dozen officials, French and American, to get vised. We are to take our driver's exams. to-morrow, and I ordered clothes. At Maxim's for dinner, I sat next to a party of sad-rich American Jews who were lionizing a fat English Jew in uniform. It was pathetic. Just as they were ordering the proverbial "wine," a crippled French 16 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER aviator came in. The whole restaurant did him silent homage. The Aviation Corps of all the armies are by all odds the biggest heroes. The whole cafe, there- fore, drank various toasts to him, and the fat Jews just faded from sight. Just now the Neuilly Hospital is being cleared of its wounded as much as pos- sible. It looks as if they expected a big Ally offensive as soon as the Verdun battle is over.1 There are very few wounded in Paris at present. Most of the Ambulance men are at the Front. They have organ- ized a new special fifteen-day corps for emergencies. It is now at Verdun. I hope I get a chance, although, of course, the turns go more or less by seniority. The food is fair at the hospital — all eat at long tables. There is an immense staff of nurses, doctors, and orderlies, and the place is much larger than I expected. Also it has a much higher standing with official- dom than I had been led to believe. For instance, in getting our residence permit, the moment we entered the court we were 1 This has proved to be the case. PARIS —NEUILLY 17 passed ahead of a large crowd who were awaiting their turns. The same thing oc- curred at the tailor's. The first growl I've heard over war burdens was from a taxi-driver, who ex- plained why his engine was " missing," by the fact that all the expert mechanicians were at the Front and they sent him out these days with an unrepaired "sale comme ca! . . . "(meaning more besides). The only things that never change in Paris are the "cocottes" at Maxim's. They are ever the same. March 18. Busy days, these. I am still "chasing" all around the city after vari- ous necessary papers. I passed auto exam. O.K. We are sleeping in a big barnlike room under the roof. They call it "the Zeppelin apartment." Only one cold shower. You have to warm your own shaving-water. Only one toilet for eighty men. Cots are nice, warm, and clean. It is hard to sleep, on account of the contin- ual coming and going. I got called at 2 a.m. last night. A trainload of wounded arrived from the Vosges; one French 18 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER General among them. We were not taken along, as we have not yet received our uni- forms and would not be allowed within the Station without them. The fellows got through at 7. Some of the new ones looked pretty sick from their first experience with the smell of gangrene and dysentery. All washed their teeth and one man had a cut treated. This is very necessary. Several of the internes have contracted gangrene and tetanus at in- tervals. I talked to one man who had to be oper- ated on seven times in the stomach. He had drains in him for weeks. Then hernia followed and he was operated on for that. He is an amusing bird. He walks about bent up like an old man. After telling me all the harrowing details, he added: "And they gave me a medal for it! I'd rather they'd given me a new stomach!" The French Government has taken charge of the hospital now, and they say the rules are much more rigid, and the "etiquette militaire" much more pro- nounced. The old men "kick" when they PARIS —NEUILLY 19 come back from the Front, where every- thing goes! They say the place no longer feels like the club it formerly was. I saw to-day the stuff captured from the Germans, now at the Invalides. As I entered, a military funeral came out. It must have been some high official. Look- ing into the German cannon muzzles gave one a rather sinking feeling, as the same types of weapons will be firing at us shortly. The workmanship was very good in the guns, but rather coarse (as compared to the French) in the aeroplanes. March 19. I had some fun to-day. I put on the uniform and, for a time, felt like an awful ass strutting about the streets in it, but it gets one a lot of privileges: half price at theaters, half price for such drinks as you are permitted, i.e., wines, beer, but no "hard" liquor, except between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and 5 and 9 p.m., and one must not be seen in uniform on the terraces of cafes. All drinks must be taken indoors. Also etiquette has it that if any sort of spree is contemplated one must dress in civilian clothes. 20 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER Incidentally, as the "cocottes" scorn any one not in uniform and are not per- mitted any alcoholic liquors whatever, the whole system works very well in keep- ing the men straight. The fun referred to above was due to the fact that our uniform is almost identi- cal with that of the English officers, unless one is close enough to note the Red Cross insignia on the cap and buttons. Hence you can strut along the Boulevard and be steadily saluted by all the raw "Tom- mies," of whom there are legions. At first it nearly took my breath away; but I man- aged to pull a solemn face and to salute stiffly back, although I started to use the left hand and I heard one of them remark about it. By the way, one of our drivers back from the Verdun battle tells me that the French, within a couple of days of the start on their big drive, had at least a million men massed there, and that the "Germs" had no more chance of getting through than the Republican Party at home has next fall. Dr. Gros gave us a talk on general be- PARIS —NEUILLY 21 havior. He said one must obliterate all one's personal desires, and work for the good of France and France alone; not for personal glory, dodging shells, and that sort of thing. One is supposed to take ex- treme care of one's self and of one's ma- chine, and not to take it into dangerous places unless so ordered. For instance, there are definite rules in Paris as to Zep- pelin raids. The moment the warning is given, each car, in the parking space at the hospital, must be placed at a hundred- feet interval from every other car, — more if possible, — so that not many will be in- jured. Men must then come indoors in order not to be hurt. When either civil or military calls come from the struck district of the city, cars must not proceed in caravan order, but must assume inter- vals not less than a hundred yards apart, so that not more than one car can be struck. No lights are to be used unless specifically permitted by French authori- ties. All dormitory lights must also be ex- tinguished. March 20. I worked all day in the gar- 22 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER age. At 7 p.m. we received notice that a train of "blesses" was due at La Cha- pelle at 4 a.m. I got more or less sleep and went out in the "padded cell"; and found more cars than were needed, but helped to fill them. The main trouble is that each ambulance and set of ambulances have dif- ferent methods of holding the stretchers, which the new men must find out for them- selves. It is a trifle hard on the wounded, as they get jostled about much more than if all the holders were alike. The Ameri- can Ambulance men have been so careful in handling the wounded, that now every- thing waits until they arrive to carry them from the train to the various corps of am- bulances. There is here, at present, a new Canadian Corps with some very good McFarland cars. When we got through at 7 a.m. we were told that another train would arrive at 5 p.m. Therefore we worked in the garage for a while, then went to bed until 4.30. The first load of wounded were in good con- dition. They smelt very little, and were self-controlled. A reason why the Ameri- PARIS — NEUILLY 23 can Ambulance men now carry most of the wounded is because two men already have been killed by the French brancardiers letting them fall; and many have been se- riously injured in being bumped about the head by careless handling. The cause really lies in their lack of understanding of the different mechanical appliances to hold the stretchers. The average French- man left in this employ is very dull.1 I have been surprised at the average small stature of the French soldiers, but they say it is a good thing in the trench warfare. Fred Dawson turned up from the Vosges to-day. March 21. We broke the record for speed last night. We got 129 men out of the cars in nineteen minutes. I happened to draw the officers' car, and being better fed, some of them were heavy to move, but they were clean and were free from odor. One had his back broken: the trench had caved in on him; but they expect to 1 The reason is that all skillful men, not at the Front, are in the munition factories; only old or very young men are used for this purpose around Paris. 24 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER save him, as he is not paralyzed. We got through at 11 p.m. I drove with an ass of a Belgian who tried to tell me all about his Pierce-Arrow! How E. would laugh! March 23. I met Miss Townsend, of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, to-day. She is a nurse here. She greeted me as a long-lost friend. Another squad arrived from the Front with three cars for us, poor "boobs," to take to pieces and put together again. They are all going back, worse luck, so no vacant places yet. Parsons is going into the Aviation Corps. There are quite a number now who have gone from our Corps. Two new men arrived to-day, so I don't feel quite such a "freshman." I was complimented by the head of the mechan- ical department on quick and accurate work and was put in charge of a lot of fel- lows disassembling a "flivver." So far so good. March 24. Raining. A "bunch" from Section No. 1 came down and had to be entertained. Ewell, the machinery boss, asked me to a Sunday luncheon. He says his wife was a Philadelphian and would PARIS —NEUILLY 25 enjoy talking about the old town. I went in with him and Fenton and had tea at Ciros with Mrs. Ewell and a Miss Elliott from Savannah, a very nice girl. March 25. A man in the private ward next to us died last night. Most of his brains were shot away. Another is ex- pected to die shortly. One "blesse" had a curiously tragic experience. He saw a friend looking over the trench parapet with his arm drawn back, holding a bomb ready to throw. Thinking he wanted the fuse lit, he did so, expecting the fellow to throw the bomb. But the man, not knowing the fuse was lit, did n't throw it and was blown to atoms. The man who lit the fuse, of course, was injured; that is how he happens to be here. The poor fellow was terribly de- pressed by the tragic result of his blunder. They expect a big drive soon. The men have been issued a new kind of knife. It is like a brass-knuckle with a blade about eight inches long sticking out from the middle. The regular equipment for charg- ing now consists of two dynamite cart- 26 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER ridges, six bombs, a knife, and a revolver: no guns at all. I met a rather nice little French girl last night. There is a young Englishman in one of the hospitals, she told me, who has no arms, no legs, is stone blind and stone deaf. He can only feel and talk, and all he does is to beg to be killed. She says a friend of hers who nursed a man, blind and without arms, is going to marry him be- cause she thinks it is her duty, although she does not care for him. She is not pretty; but as the man is blind it will not matter, she says. Such cases are not rare. March 27. We had a funny time yester- day. We were all "canned" for the day because so many were late for roll-call (8.30). Every one of us was up and about, but we didn't know Budd, the Squad Lieutenant, was ready to call the roll. So instead of being permitted the usual after- noon passes, we were all told that we 'd have to remain in until 7.30. Some kicked like steers because they had luncheon and dinner engagements. I had both, but said nothing, and the result was that I made a PARIS —NEUILLY 27 hit with Budd, who took me out to sup- per at the Bal Tabarin and introduced me to a lot of what he calls his "Paris Squadarettes." He is really a very de- cent chap. They tried to teach me pool, which was somewhat amusing!! I took revenge on Budd this morning. I pulled him out of bed at 7 a.m. and rolled him on the floor. The usual weekly switch oc- curred between Neuilly and Juilly to-day. Five Fords here, by the way, are gifts of Johnny Fell — Mrs. Alexander Van Rens- selaer's son. I worked in the garage this a.m. and lunched with Ewell and his wife at their apartment. I met an Englishman named Vaughn; he is very rich, and has given himself and his car to the War Depart- ment. He is a sort of officer's chauffeur. He says they have already got the subma- rine that sank the Sussex. It seems that " subs " have learned how to cut the Chan- nel net; so Havre, Boulogne, and Calais are closed. The " Germs " have invented a method of seeing under water, some of them no longer employ periscopes, but 28 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER the English, he says, are capturing them rapidly. The latest method, after sinking or netting a " sub," is to raise and repair it, and then operate it under its own number and colors. In this way many German "subs" have caught their own boats!! Also several German warships. Fears are being expressed by the Allies that America will get into the war over this latest Sus- sex outrage. What they hope is that we will break off diplomatic relations, thus enabling the English blockade to become really effective. March 28. I had to go out in No. 42 to Juilly with Fenton* to fit a front axle on an old 74 (Daimler). Mac got a "skid" while carrying a hundred litres of gasoline out there, and bent the steering-gear. Parsons, an old hand, then took the wheel and tried to run her into Juilly. The gear locked when they got going fast and the car was ditched. Mac was thrown thirty feet and landed on his nose. A Frenchman 1 Powel Fenton, Section No. 3. University of Penn- sylvania, Philadelphia. Son of Dr. Thomas H. Fenton, president of the Art Club of that city. Fenton, later, served at Saloniki in Section No. 10. PARIS —NEUILLY 29 landed on the roof of the car, but was n't hurt and neither was Parsons. We made the fifty-kilometer trip through Paris to Juilly in an hour and a quarter in the Ford, including a blow-out which we fixed in fif- teen minutes. The return trip in the dark we did in one hour, although we had to relight the oil lamps four times — not be- ing allowed to use the acetylenes. But we broke a spreader, hitting an island on the Boulevard! Two new men were taken out by Eno, whose job is to test out the raw recruits. Some job! Van was driving, tried to take a curve sharply, never having handled a Ford, and capsized completely. One man was shot clear, but Eno and Van remained under the car, which continued to run upside down for a couple of minutes. Neither man was hurt, but Eno said he thought the motor would never stop. He knew it was bound to catch fire, and he said he never spent such a rotten five min- utes. We fixed the car, righted it, and it ran all right, except for a smashed dash- board and a dished hind wheel. Some of the men here have had most 30 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER interesting careers. Budd was in the United States Army, then auto salesman, cowpuncher, and, when the war started, had to work as a waiter in a cafe until he could cash an American check. Aten is an explorer. Has been with Dr. Hiller, of the University of Pennsylvania, to Borneo; and also in the Arctic. Mason and Crane leave for the Front to-morrow. They hap- pened to be the first men on the list of those who arrived on the same day I did. March 29. A call came for La Chapelle for 1 a.m. We did a little diplomatic social stunt by inviting the Canadian Ambulance to 11 o'clock supper. It worked very nicely. One hundred and forty-four wounded arrived from the Bois-des-Corbeaux in front of Verdun; mostly badly injured, many from liquid fire. I got back at 6 a.m. I was told this morning that I might have the choice of joining the famous No. 2 Section — the so-called " Pont-a-Mous- son " — but that they were now in retreat away back of the lines; or I might go with Roche to No. 1, formerly the Dunkerque Section, but which is now north of Amiens PARIS —NEUILLY 31 at the junction of the British and French lines. This, they think, will be the "big bet" when the English offensive begins. So I took a chance on that. Andrew said he thought I had chosen wisely, even though, so far, this Section has not been particularly in the limelight. They say No. 1 and No. 4 (north of Toul) are likely to see the most action; but, of course, it's any one's guess. We leave on April 1st, according to present arrangements. I got a finger infected yesterday from working in the garage and getting a cut, and then carrying wounded; but they will fix me up in time to leave, they say. All band- aged now, hence "bum" writing. Oddly enough, Mrs. Hunter Scarlett (Miss Edith Townsend of Philadelphia, that was) fixed the bandages for me beautifully. Ferguson1 came back from Verdun to- day with his head all bandaged. He ac- quired some sort of skin affection from sleeping in some dirty place. They all call him the "grand blesse," and he gets all sorts of attention on the street! 1 Danforth B. Ferguson, of Brooklyn, New York. CHAPTER III AT THE FRONT AT LAST " They have oozed with the rest into a road and a river of mud, where the food and munition convoys get through three times in five. . . . Where the pelting of steel is as impatient and persistent as the pelt of the sleet and as pitiless." John Curtis Underwood April 1. Cappy. The last twenty-four hours have been more full of kaleidoscopic changes than any I have ever spent. Sit- ting here at Cappy within a mile of the front lines, with the incessant rumbling of the guns, the barking of the mitrailleuses and the shriek of the great shells in my ears, the world seems unreal. It is a beautiful warm sunny day. An old lady in a little shop here has just sold me a couple of perfect brioches and some chocolate. We are waiting for a couple of men to carry back to Mericourt where we have our barracks. The railroad trip to Amiens was interesting, inasmuch as we saw such enormous movements of sup- plies, guns, and troops, including the most AT THE FRONT AT LAST S3 remarkably colored armored trains with big six- and eight-inch cannon and aero- plane guns. They look about the same as the figured walnut stock of a fine shot-gun, the theory being that the mixed coloring is imperceptible in the fog or semi-darkness. We also passed many troop-trains, Eng- lish, South African, and Australian. At Amiens, which is the British Head- quarters at present, we were met by three Section 1 men and lunched with them. Then we proceeded to Mericourt-sur- Somme, which is at the junction of the British and French lines. We saw two ob- servation balloons and hundreds of cam- ions along the road. Guns everywhere, soldiers everywhere, and long lines of tents on the hills. Met the "bunch"; all good sorts; and we were shown our bunks in an old tumble-down farmhouse. We sleep on straw on which we place our blankets. The place is said to be clean, although one of the men was down with " gale," a sort of mange, and left to-day for Amiens for treatment. We go to a pump for washing; but though it is cold now it will be warm AT THE FRONT AT LAST 35 canal on one side has nothing to keep one from skidding into it. The road is full of shell holes and newly blown down or pierced trees. Men are killed there con- stantly, but the Germans only shell it when they know of an important move- ment. Individuals, or even individual autos, are not considered worth bothering with. It was about 4 p.m. on a bright afternoon, and the Germans could see us plainly as we went along. There was a terrific blast and discharge right out of a clump of bushes across the canal, and we found it was a huge eight-inch English naval gun which had been previously con- cealed. She fired right out over our heads; but I was not particularly startled, as I was so busy driving and watching the road. Then a German aeroplane came by, and all along the line the antiplane guns began to pop, studding the sky with puffs of fleecy white. It was a beautiful sight, al- though there is always some danger from the bits of falling shrapnel. The French Lieutenant at the advance post at Eclu- sier ordered me to take the car around 36 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER a corner of the wood out of sight, and to walk back, which I did. He then let me pick up a few relics such as "75" empty cases, and the men sold me a couple of German "77" obus noses (time fuses). I came back after collecting the " tin Derby " of the Medecin Chef who had been killed on the day before, because he exposed him- self above the trench in order to bring back a dead soldier. He was criticized for doing it. In fact, anything foolhardy of that character, instead of being eulogized, is rather considered as reflecting on the in- telligence of the man who does it. I carried a few sick (not wounded) back to the hospital at Villers-Bretonneux. One had pneumonia, another syphilis. The doctors say that the latter has increased forty per cent since the passage of the Germans through Northern France in the first big advance to Paris. The night brought a heavy bombard- ment, the heaviest since the Section has been here (three weeks). We climbed the hill after dinner to watch it — a wonder- ful sight — mixture of a thunderstorm AT THE FRONT AT LAST 37 and Fourth of July; the incessant rumble of the guns with the great flashes lighting up the sky for miles, coupled with the beau- tiful blue-and-white flare bombs which hung in the heavens for half a minute or more at a time, making everything bright as day; then the range rockets from the ob- servation forts indicating by colored lights whether the batteries were shooting too high or low or too much to right or left. And above shone the calm stars looking down on a world gone mad. April 2. We expected to be called out during the night, but when we reached the first lines this morning, we found that the expenditure of thousands of dollars' worth of shells by both sides had resulted, in our Sector of about six miles or more of line, in only two or three carloads of wounded — eight or twelve men! This was out of all proportion, it seems to me, to the ef- fort made. Of course, there were a few dead, and there may have been a larger proportion of losses by the Germans, as it was they who made the attack. The country is zigzagged with second- 38 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER ary and tertiary trenches and bristles with barbed-wire entanglements, but all around and in every direction the peasants are till- ing the fields and the crops are growing. As I sit here now, in our garden at Mericourt, two old women are planting radishes and other early vegetables. Dandelions and violets are in blossom and above my head are the white buds of an apple tree. Yet an observation balloon is in the sky, aero- planes buzz to and fro, and dominating even the twitter of the birds and the buzz of the insects is the steady rumble of the never-ceasing guns. We had a physical inspection this after- noon; one man got sent back for treat- ment, and two for the mange, the same as the first man who had to go to the hospi- tal. It is not really the mange, but a sort of thing akin to it. It looks like hives and is contracted in the trenches. The cure is scrubbing with stiff-bristled brushes until the skin bleeds and then washing with sulphur, which hurts like fire; but one is cured in about five days — until one catches it again. AT THE FRONT AT LAST 39 April 3. I spent the night at our ad- vanced post at Cappy. The town is in ruins. There was no call for the trenches, the night was too clear. I awoke about 4 a.m., thinking it was late because I heard the birds chirping; and found it was only the rats squeaking. The place is full of them. They walk over you at night, but nobody cares. We sleep on the stretchers, which are quite comfortable. The town is shelled every day at intervals. The " Germs " threw a few shrapnel into it this morning, but it did no damage. We ducked around the corner when one whistled close overhead, but it fell in a field beyond. We came back here to Mericourt for breakfast. The country is full of quail and hares, but no one both- ers them and they are very tame. There is considerable aeroplane shelling; but the "Germs" are so high up it is almost im- possible to hit them. All the soldiers with whom I talk are keen for the war to cease, and every one hopes it will be over before another winter. I hear that we may move away from here, and go into 40 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER "repos" with the Sixth Army for about a month, prior to the big attack in the Champagne, but, of course it is only a rumor. April 5. I watched the twenty-first "Suicide Club" practicing hand-grenade throwing this morning. Magoun1 and I noted where the things were thrown, with the idea of picking up a few "fusees" af- terwards. The grenades are pear-shaped, with a little sort of trigger and a ribbon with a button. The button is placed be- tween the third and little fingers exactly as one would spin a top; then you throw, and as the missile leaves the hand, the pull of the ribbon and button relieves the spring which in turn relieves the contact point, so that when the grenade lands it explodes. Now and then they don't land right, so Magoun later picked up a couple of un- exploded ones and offered me one. I de- clined and told him he had better let them alone. Just as we were arguing, up came a file 1 Francis P. Magoun, Harvard; Cambridge, Massa- chusetts. SAMUEL H. PAUL L. BROOKE EDWARDS W. YORKE STEVENSON THREE PHILADELPHIANS AT MERICOURT-CAPPY AT THE FRONT AT LAST 41 of men with shovels to bury the unfired grenades. When they saw Magoun with two in his hands they nearly had a fit; said he was crazy, and to prove it they told us to get in a near-by trench and they'd show us. We all crawled in, and an expert then recocked the little spring and threw the grenade. She went off with a bang that shook the trench! Oddly enough, that evening we got a call to carry two "blesses" just as we were sit- ting down to dinner. It was my turn to go, so I trailed down to the "poste de se- cours," minus dinner. Found one man with his face blown off and another one with his feet blown off. They told me he had been injured "fishing" in the canal. It appears that they threw hand-grenades in and collected the dead fish which floated up to the surface: a nice, sporting thing to do! I must say I could n't feel very sorry for them. The same night we heard a heavy explosion close to our farm and supposed it was an incoming obus. Shortly after, a call came and we collected three more poor fools hurt, and three dead, 42 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER from fiddling with hand-grenades. It oc- curred in the back room of the cafe in which we eat. I made it a point to rub it into Magoun, who is a kid just out of col- lege. That day, in our Sector, the French lost more men through their own careless- ness than from Boche activity. I have been put in charge of the gaso- line, oil, and tire supplies. Not a particu- larly cheerful job, as it cuts me out of a good deal of motoring. I must be at the Store between 7.30 and 9 a.m. and be- tween 5 and 7 p.m. The "Germs" made a little coup last night, capturing about sixty French and a small outpost trench. The regiment which suffered the loss is now expected to retaliate in kind. April 7. Collecting war trophies seems to be the chief recreation. It reminds me somewhat of the old marble days when one traded a clouded agate for two glass ones. A German "77" aluminum "fusee" is more prized than one made entirely of brass. The "105's" and "150's" are still rarer, and the Austrian "360's" are the best of all. Then, they trade hand-gren- AT THE FRONT AT LAST 43 ades and swap all sorts of other odds and ends. They also make various little trink- ets, like inkstands, match-cases, vases, out of the "75's." If the men worked -as hard on keeping their cars tuned up as they do making souvenirs, this would be the best Section ever. I have been switched on to Victor White's car. He is an artist, and quite a good one, and they let him off for a week or so occasionally to paint war pictures. With true artistic temperament, he leaves his car in a rather sketchy condition, and I spent most of yesterday on my back under it cleaning the gasoline line. His brake does not hold, nor does the high gear, so chasing "blesses" with it is no merry jest. April 9. Being "Chow" yesterday I spent the day fixing White's car. (" Chow " means the man who sets the table and waits for the day. Each takes it by turns, but as we eat everything out of the same plate with the same fork and knife, there is no great strain upon the "Admirable Crichton" on duty). April 7th was a busy 44 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER day. After I started this diary I was called out at 4 p.m. for four "coucheV at the front lines, Barraquette-Faucaucourt. The Medecin Chef there lives in what used to be a drain under the main road, between Brussels and Amiens. The "Germs" are within eight hundred yards and a battery of " 75's " keeps going stead- ily on the left side of the road. On the right are some big mortars which fire oc- casionally. The place is pockmarked with shell-holes. I got four "assis" the first time. I got back just before dinner, and was called again to the aeroplane section at Moreuil. Missed dinner, but ate with one of the " brancardiers" at Villers- Bretonneux. He is a funny little guy. I meet him all the time carrying wounded. He has the Croix de Guerre with a star. I got back at 10.30 p.m. The car was stalled four times! Pitch black: gasoline tank full of dirt. I could n't take it down in the dark, so simply disconnected pipe to carburetor and pumped air through it yrith tire pumps. Had to do it several iimes, as dirt kept accumulating and I AT THE FRONT AT LAST 45 did not dare keep wounded waiting. Win- sor1 had one die on him the same night. I got back to bed about 11 p.m. and was just going to sleep when a call came from Barraquette again. The wretched car would hardly run and it was brutally cold, but, of course, it had to be done. After passing Proyant, lights are ordered out. The "Germs" make a point of shelling any moving light on the chance of catch- ing a convoy or reinforcements. I got through all right by aid of the star shells, although challenged by the sentry. I had forgotten to get the password, but he looked me over and said it was O.K. Upon reaching Barraquette I found one contagious "couche." There was heavy shelling. I got to Villers-Bretonneux at 12.30, with engine running badly. A half- hour of red tape before they would take in my man. The Medecin Chef was out, and the concierge had to chase all over the vil- lage to find him. Then he wanted me to take him to Amiens; but I told him the 1 Charles P. Winsor, Harvard; Concord, Massa- chusetts. 46 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER car couldn't make it; so he took him in finally. Coming home alone was poor fun. Two more stops to blow the dirt out. I got here at 3 a.m., and had to be up at 6.30 to set the table, being "Chow." It's a great life, though; I would n't miss it for worlds. We have a lot of fun on the side; play base- ball and a funny sort of adaptation of tennis with a hoop. At night we play roulette for centime stakes, and occasion- ally we fish for pike with a sort of trident made out of old Ford brake rods. We swim now and then when it's warm. Old Rapp, the mechanic in charge of the shop, is a regular character and an aw- fully good fellow. We have lots of fun with him. We teach him every possible sort of fantastic English swear words as English, and he repeats them like a parrot. We tell him some of the most fearful things are words of greeting, and now and then he springs them on an Englishman or a new recruit, and the effect naturally is rather startling to the uninitiated. I gave some essence and cigarettes to one of the AT THE FRONT AT LAST 47 26th to-day and in return he fixed my legging. He turned out to be an expert saddle-maker! Sunday, April 10. I went the round (Barraquette) but found no wounded, and came back and took a walk with Edwards1 and Underhill.2 Saw a very interesting lot of English canal-boat hospitals up the river. I stopped in to ask after A. B.'s brother, but he is not with that Section. I witnessed a rather impressive religious service on one of the gun-boats on the canal. The pulpit, flanked by machine guns, and the altar, lighted by an auto- mobile headlight, looked quite dramatic. The priests' army uniforms are the best- looking of any. Black, with red edgings cut in regular cavalry or artillery style, with black and red fatigue caps and gold insignia. The first time I saw one I thought he must be General Joffre at the very least. In the afternoon Woolverton3 had a funny experience. He was asked by an 1 L. Brooke Edwards, Philadelphia. 2 John G. Underhill, Williams College; Flushing, New York. 3 William H. Woolverton, Yale; New York City. 48 AT THE FRONT IN A FILVVER officer at Chuignes to take him and his orderly to Villers-Bretonneux. On the way they passed some quail, so the offi- cer ordered the car stopped and they got out with army rifles (! !) to shoot at them. If they had hit one there would have been no bird left. Incidentally it was Sunday and out of season as well; thus they were breaking about a dozen laws and Ambu- lance rules. Meantime some English motor-lorreys came along and all stopped to watch the shooting. In fact, the war ceased to exist for about an hour! Wool- verton thought the story too good to keep and told it at dinner, and got severely called down, of course, by the lieutenant. We now call him the Big Game Hunter. A German aeroplane was brought down by the English to-day amid cheers from the onlookers. New French aeroplane sheds have been erected between here and Villers-Bretonneux. A lot of big English guns turned up to-day and are now along the line back of Chuignes to Barraquette. A big army of Russians also is said to be here, as well as Serbians and Italians. ^*aR ^ff^f^ ^MWpi 1 *JMi19§H Ik ' hjNh S Tal ■ Is ' \ BbKlmPl i-j6 ft l8 milk\fo — • .„ .... » * 1 A i AT THE FRONT AT LAST 49 Two "Germ" prisoners were captured at Cappy. The way they catch them is to creep out at night with an automatic pistol and hold up the observation posts. Any "poilu" who "pulls the stunt" gets ten days' holiday and the Croix. One man has fifty days' leave coming to him already. The first-line trenches are prac- tically deserted except for sentinels. The French have succeeded in placing, in addition to the machine guns, a num- ber of "75's" right in the first line! — only two hundred yards from the " Germs " in spots. The General Staff has moved to Villers-Bretonneux. Huge amounts of supplies are coming in and numbers of large ambulances (French army). The Fourth English Army across the canal is also being heavily munitioned, and the Second French Army has come up to back up the Junction of the Fourth English and our Sixth. It looks as if something were in the wind. The new French canal- boat ironclads are about finished, too. They are right back of our quarters here at Mericourt. They carry machine guns, 50 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER anti-aero guns, and one big six- or seven- inch naval gun in a turret. They are only about a hundred feet long, very low free- board, and draw about three feet of water. The "Germs" have a hard time spotting them, as they keep moving up and down the canal. April 11. We had a busy night last night. French aeroplanes raided Peronne. Boche shrapnel made wonderful fireworks; but nothing was hit. Then a Zeppelin tried to drop bombs on Villers-Breton- neux, but got spotted by the search-lights and retired. Then the "Germs" shelled Cappy. Woolverton and Bowman1 were stationed there for the night, and a shell ("77") fell through the roof. They and the "brancardiers" beat it for the cellar. No one was hurt. Raining to-day. The roads are awfully slippery. Some of the "brancardiers" at Cappy pulled a joke on the Medecin Chef; they hung one of the men across the pole with which they bring in the dead and marched solemnly into the "poste de 1 Robert Bowman, Yale; Lake Forest, Illinois. AT THE FRONT AT LAST 51 secours." There the corpse came to life and asked for coffee! April 14. I spent last night at the ad- vance post at Cappy. There was only about a half-hour of shelling. The cres- cendo whistles always sound worse than they are. Most of the " 77's " and " 105's " fell to the north of the town, seeking the big English naval guns. All sorts of jobs fall to the lot of an American Ambulance man! To-day, I posed with Victor White, the Irish artist, for the French artist, Tardieu. He has a Legion of Honor and other medals and is very well known. White took the part of a French "blesse," and I was the Ambu- lance man helping him to the car. The picture is to be used as a poster for the ad- vertisement of a "movie" of our Section, recently taken to be shown in America. April 15. I am back at Cappy again, although it's not my turn. The weather has been so bad that half the cars are in the repair shop. Also, several men are going away on the usual six days' furlough granted every three months. Things are 52 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER quiet so far. The big French mortar shakes the house at about fifteen-minute inter- vals, but the Germans are not replying. There was heavy firing late in the after- noon; more rifles and mitrailleuses shoot- ing than I have yet heard. Many wounded are coming in. I carried three hit through the lungs by mitrailleuse; one lived only an hour after I brought him back from Eclusier. Bright moonlight made the slippery canal bank easier to negotiate than usual, although it is always a ticklish business, as one cannot use lights, being in plain view and only two kilometers from the Germans. The poor fellow could n't breathe, but did not think he was going to die. The sur- geons naturally let him be and looked after the others — which irritated him. I asked if they could n't give him morphia or some- thing, but they said they had none to spare on a dying man. He passed away about two o'clock in the morning. I then started back to Cerisy with three " couches" — two badly wounded. I had to rout out the hospital authorities, as all were asleep. THE FRENCH ARTIST TARDIEU AT THE FRONT AT LAST 53 I got there at 3 a.m., and got back to Cappy at 4. All lights were out as usual. I slept till 7, then took four more down to Mericourt. Some work! I found after the moonlight Eclusier trip that all the bolts on the steering-post had loosened! If I had gone much farther I must have lost control and probably have gone into the canal! I fixed it up by moonlight with the aid of an electric torch, and got back here at Mericourt for breakfast. April 17. I took the Medecin Divi- sionnaire to Fontaine-Cappy, the most advanced post of all, where we are not al- lowed to go except with a "big guy." I am now waiting for him. He is making an inspection of the front trench, "bran- cardiers," and the rest. On his return they brought in another d----d fool. This one had injured himself by making souvenir rings. He poured some liquid aluminum in a casting which had water in it and it blew his eyes out! I took him to Cerisy. There have been a large number of casualties among the souvenir-makers and the hunters; and, as often the shells 54 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER have not exploded entirely, many hands and eyes are injured in working on them. Some of our men have had accidents on account of bad roads. Endx and Nelson2 each smashed wheels, skidding into trees, while Imbrie 3 turned completely upside down, but was unhurt. The car was empty at the time. April 19. Rain, rain, rain, nothing but rain and mud. The roads are frightful. F----is back, cured of the "gale." The doctors say it is a regular germ and is caught in the trenches and is transferred by blankets, clothes, rats, etc. Another fellow of the squad has it now. "Vic," the fox terrier which we got for protection against the rats, is more scared of them than we are. He hides in the beds at night! Woolverton had his jacket-pocket eaten off last night by rats which were after some chocolate he had in it. A number of the "blesses" we carry, I 1 George K. End, Swarthmore-Columbia; New York City. 2 David T. Nelson, University of North Dakota; Mayville, North Dakota. 3 Robert W. Imbrie, Washington. AT THE FRONT AT LAST 55 have noticed, are marked with the fleur- de-lys, meaning that they have been at one time convicts. The Government, shortly after the outbreak of the war, gave prisoners of this kind the choice of enter- ing the army — which most of them did. They are nicknamed "les joyeux," as they are only too happy to be free, and they are exceedingly reckless, as a mention or Croix de Guerre carries with it a re- duction of sentence. Woolverton leaves to-morrow and is kind enough to take this section of my diary back for me. Please take care of it, as I want to preserve a personal record of the Big War, even if my part in it is less in size than the proverbial nit on a gnat's nut! CHAPTER IV ON LES AURA Being an ode to the Vivandi&re, 191£-17 "SWEETIE" "Sweetie has a face like a tadpole; Sweetie has legs like a frog; Sweetie has a shape like a kangaroo; Sweetie has hair like a hog; Sweetie has teeth like a crocodile; Sweetie has a hand like a ham; Sweetie has a skin like an elephant's ear. But Sweetie don't give a D----." Easter Sunday, April 23. Nelson, my room-mate and side partner (we ran No. 2 and No. 1 cars respectively), left to- day to return to Oxford to finish his course. Sorry to lose him. Before he joined the American Ambulance, he worked with the Belgian Commission, distributing food. He says the German Government on the whole acted fairly well, but that the officers tried to work all sorts of graft. He thinks that comparatively few of the Belgians would be satisfied to quit and submit to German rule. ON LES AURA 57 More moving pictures were taken to-day of our Section. The films certainly should boost the American Ambulance. Although they are not faked, of course, only the most thrilling stunts we do were taken. They can't, for instance, depict the end- less car-cleaning, the fumigating, and many such dry details. Being Easter, we were treated to eggs, not only at headquarters, but even here at Cappy, where it was just my luck to get planted for twenty-four hours. However, the weather is fine and it is interesting to watch the aeroplanes. There is heavy fir- ing at intervals, especially at the aircraft. Mlle. Flore Granger, the only woman left at Cappy, made good her promise of last week and wrote out some of the songs she sings to the soldiers. They all love her fondly. She washes their clothes and tends to their wants in the most cheerful manner, though forced to live in a dug- out, under constant shell-fire and only a few hundred yards from the Germans. On account of a slight limp, she is known as "La Boiteuse." 58 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER CHANSON D'CAPPY PAR MLLE. FLORE GRANGER (Sung in the trenches on the Somme) LES TRANCHEESDE DOMPIERRE Aux abords de Dompierre En face de l'ennemi, Pres des amas de pierres — Restants d'la sucrerie. Dans les tranchees Des peupliers, Vite on se f aufile en cachette, Braquant son fusil Sur l'ennemi Pret a presser sur la gachette. REFBAIN Aux environs d'Cappy, Lorsque descend la nuit, Dans les boyaux on s' debine en cachette, Car la mitraille fait baisser la tete. Si parfois un obus Fait tomber un poilu, Dans un fosse Ton colle ses debris Aux environs d'Cappy. Via la soupe qui s'acheve, On prepare son fourbi, Car ce soir c'est la r'leve — : On va quitter Cappy. Des provisions, Et son bidon, C'est c'que jamais Ton oublie; Du p'tit bois, MLLE. FLORE GRANGER The only woman in Cappy ON LES AURA 59 Je connais 1'endroit Ou Ton doit servir sa patrie. REFRAIN Aux environs d'Cappy, Lorsque descend la nuit, Comme il ne peut coucher Dans une chambrette, L'brave soldat se prepare une couchette Dans un trou tenebreux, Faisant des reves affreux. II se reveille pour veiller l'ennemi Aux environs d'Cappy. The Third Division goes into "repos" this week, and it is not certain whether we follow them or remain, connecting up with the replacing division (the Second). The English are gradually spreading eastward. I saw some Indian troops to-day for the first time: very picturesque, but gracious! how those turbans must breed vermin! The Russians are also arriving in consid- erable quantities together with enormous stores of ammunition. Large numbers of additional trenches and wire entangle- ments are being built, and altogether it looks as if something big were afoot. April 27. Lieutenant de Kersauson de Pennendreff, our boss, has had an interest- 60 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER ing life. He was with the Boers against the English, and says they subsisted al- most entirely on the supplies captured from the English. They had more rifles and munitions than they had men to handle them and they buried large quantities for future use. He says he thinks trench war- fare first began in that war. When the Big War broke out, he was selling autos in California. He came back and was made Lieutenant of Automobiles and later took over Section No. 1 of the American Am- bulance. He is a marquis and belongs to an old Breton family. To see a French regiment going to at- tack is interesting. They are all ordered to put on clean underclothes, as this prevents infection of wounds when the bullets pass through their clothing. The men kiss each other good-bye, send all their little knick-knacks and valuables back, and make their wills. They regard it as practically certain death or disable- ment. April 28. All peasants have been or- dered out of Mericourt. It looks like ON LES AURA 61 something doing. Carson1 is leaving to join the new auto repair section near Paris, so I get his car, old No. 10, — an awful lemon, — said to have been through the battle of the Marne.2 All gift cars have the names of the donors painted on the side of the seat. It is certainly tough, after spending two weeks tuning up White's car so that it would really run. Now the work has to be done all over again. I had to put in a new rear axle, new high gear, new glass in acetylene lamps, clean and adjust com- mutator and vibrator and spark plugs; otherwise, "No. 10 was in perfect condi- tion"! A Boche aero passed over us to-day and English and French shrapnel pieces fell all around us as they shelled it. The whistling was anything but pleasant. Two German "avions" were brought down to-day. One man was captured, the other was killed. We had an inspection by the head of the Auto Section yesterday. He 1 James L. Carson, Chicago, Illinois. 1 No. 10 was the car driven by Leslie Buswell at Pont-a-Mousson, and the subject of his delightful book "Ambulance No. 10." 62 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER picked on us a good deal at the time, but told the Lieutenant afterwards that he was much pleased. He couldn't, of course, understand how anything so crudely thrown together as a Ford would run at all. Campbell,1 Francklyn,2 and White are back from their six days' furlough and one new man, Culbertson,3 of Princeton, 1911. The Section is now full. Cunningham 4 is also back with us, having finally been able to tear himself away from the charms of Paris. He's already looking better. Roche, Magoun, Francklyn, and I now occupy the palatial apartment known as the "rat-incubator." Some of the boys have erected a tent — Underhill, Baylies,5 and Paul;6 as they were above us in the Rat Hole, and their feet continually kept coming through the ceiling, carrying plas- 1 Joshua G. B. Campbell, New York City. 2 Giles B. Francklyn, Lausanne. 3 Tingle Wood Culbertson, Princeton; Sewickley, Pennsylvania. 4 John E. Cunningham, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Boston, Massachusetts. 6 Frank Leaman Baylies, New Bedford, Massachu- setts. 0 Samuel H. Paul, Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania. "AMBULANCE NO. 10," DRIVEN BY W. YORKE STEVENSON IN 1916 ON THE SOMME AND AT VERDUN One of the ten first Ambulances of the American Field Service. The gift of Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, in 1015. Driven by Leslie Buswell in 1915 at Pont-a-Mousson ON LES AURA 63 ter and splinters on to us, we are now more comfortable and clean, although Lewis, Lathrop,1 and Edwards are still up there. "Huts" Townsend, White, and Wood- worth 2 have the best rooms in a really well- kept house, while Sponagle, Cunningham, and Winsor sleep next to the repair shop. The Lieutenant and other Frenchmen at- tached to the Section sleep in the Bureau, a nice little well-kept cottage also. The washing is done by a nice little old woman. She hates to leave and hopes to stay despite orders. May 1. At Cappy for twenty-four hours, with Imbrie as partner, now that Nelson has gone. New regime here with the Second in charge. We eat with the officers now. They say there will be a French offensive around here soon. Another Army, the Tenth, has come to back up the Sixth. The General of the Sixth is Fayolle; the General of the First Corps, to which we are attached, is Berdoulet. There is much 1 Julian L. Lathrop, Harvard; New Hope, Pennsyl- vania. 2 Benjamin ' R. Woodworth, Germantown, Penn- sylvania. 64 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER hot air among our men about the chances of getting the Croix de Guerre. They ought to consider themselves well off if they don't get the Croix de Bois! The English repulsed a Boche attack night before last about a kilometer from here and turned it into a small massacre, only losing six or eight men themselves. The "Germs" are beginning to show con- siderable activity against the English, and rumor has it that they are moving their big guns from Verdun toward the western end of the line near the Belgian front and English left. The official rat-catcher was brought down to Mericourt, but as far as results go he only appears to have made them more active by disturbing them. The French are firing about four shells to one of the Germans now, and are using more large shells, "90's," "105's," and "220V They also have a new "400," said to surpass the German "420," and rumor has it that both the English and French are testing out a new "520"! Last night at Cappy was some night! Eighteen shells dropped on the town and ON LES AURA 65 four hit the hospital while Imbrie and I were in it. Imbrie was reading in the front room and I was in bed snatching a snooze before the expected night call. We heard the incessant whistle and crashes, one right after the other. Being only half- dressed, I figured it would be just as well to stay where I was as to go down to the bomb-proof, as the firing would probably be over before I was ready —which proved to be the case. One shell came right through the mortuary window and burst, leaving nothing of the room but scraps. Luckily no bodies happened to be there. Two others hit Castellane's wardroom, one about the door and the other at the step, rocking the house, which, if it had not been substan- tially built of brick as a municipal and school building, would have collapsed. The fourth landed on my side, and I could hear the pieces rattle through the trees. One sliver went slap through the front of my car, and I found it in the back of it this morning. This is the first time one of the cars of this Section has been di- rectly hit, although several have been 66 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER scarred by flying bits of scenery. After firing the salvo of shots which lasted about ten minutes, although it seemed an hour, the Boches were silenced by heavy shelling from both English and French. I got a call for Eclusier (the bad canal run) and got two men. Imbrie also got a call, and thereafter we were running until 9 a.m. ; the most active session I have had yet. They shelled Cappy again just after I left. Apparently they were either after one of the little gunboats which had just arrived up from Mericourt or the extensive diggings around the hospital, making bomb-proofs for "blesses." From an aero- plane the latter may have looked like en- trenchments or emplacements for guns. May 6. I broke the rear axle yesterday while on "Bureau." "Bureau" is the car that takes extra calls when all the others are busy. There are first and second "Bureau" men who relieve each other. Then there are four replacement cars to take on any route over which a regular has come to grief. The order changes every day so that every one gets a turn at the va- A SLUMP IN REAL ESTATE AT CAPPY ON LES AURA 67 rious runs, replacements, and "repos." It takes about a week before one's turn re- peats. I ran all day on "Bureau" calls — about one hundred miles. The first call was at 7 a.m.; the last at 11 p.m., carry- ing four " assis " from Faucaucourt (within rifle range of the Germans), on the per- fectly level Amiens-St. Quentin route. The engine began to race and the car slipped. Luckily Brooke Edwards was with me as orderly, and he ran a kilo- meter to Lamotte and 'phoned for an extra car. Imbrie came and took the "blesses" (they had blown themselves up with blasting powder working in a mine tunnel). I slept in the car all night in the rain on a stretcher covered with blood. I guess I'll get "la gale" all right this time. Every now and then somebody would poke his hand in the back (the road was full of passing soldiers) and wiggle my feet and ask if I was dead or "blesse" and deserted by the driver. I had to explain a dozen times to well-meaning "poilus" that I was waiting until daylight to repair the car. At 9 a.m. Sponagle and Francklyn turned up 68 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER with an extra car and we got it in by 2 —■ starving. May 7. We have had our heads clipped and we look like a bunch of jailbirds. It feels fine, however, and we have gone the Section 2 bunch one better. Growing beards is certainly poor sanitation. Some of the men left little scalp-locks or tiny points like devil's horns which they waxed. Of course, the French regard us as "bugs." The Lieutenant finally vetoed the extra frills as undignified. May 8. I was talking to Campbell this morning regarding the beauty of the new run to Rennecourt through the avenue of blossoming apple trees, saying I was glad to draw it this morning. Good joke on me! As I started down the said avenue, two shells fell, about fifty yards ahead. Need- less to say the rest of the view became a mere blur, as I opened up all speed and beat it past the shell-holes before any more dropped in. I got a blow-out later, but luckily was out of range. May 9. The Lieutenant took Cunning- ham, Winsor, Imbrie, and me to the new ON LES AURA 69 "poste de secours" on foot to-day, by the famous sugar-house of Dompierre, which has been destroyed almost entirely, not by shells, but by machine gun and rifle fire, so intense has been the fighting. The village is still held by the Germans to date, but the French hold the outskirts, and expect soon to take the whole thing. Songs have already been written about the sugar-house. We were between the first and second line trenches in plain sight of the Germans and within easy rifle shot (about four hun- dred yards). It is very interesting to see the trenches from the inside. I saw piles of aerial torpedoes and other munitions, including telephone posts thirty and forty feet underground! One "75" was within five hundred yards of the Boches and they did n't know it! In one of the new posts we have to stop our motors about fifty yards away and turn the cars by hand, as the noise of backing around could be heard and a German mitrailleuse controls the approach. Needless to say we only go there at night. We walked miles through the trenches and could easily have become 70 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER • lost if we had not had a man to accompany us at intervals as we entered new sections. The men seemed comfortable enough, ex- cepting that they never see anything but the sky, as the top of the trench is a couple of feet above their heads. At intervals we passed graves of those killed at times of great activity and who had simply been thrust into the sides and pegged there with basket-work. Rather unpleasant on wet days I should think. Also at times the trenches pass through graveyards, and here again coffin-heads and bones occa- sionally stick out of the sides. May 10. Victor White is cited by the order of the Division "for coolness, effi- ciency, and bravery under fire." He will get the Croix and everybody is delighted. He was loading two wounded men at Cappy when the Germans turned loose their shells and all the men who were help- ing beat it for the cellar. Vic finished the job by himself, started his car, and drove the men down out of shell-fire to Cerisy. A funny thing happened to Lathrop. The Boston papers came out with long VICTOR WHITE ON LES AURA 71 notices of his death under fire. His family nearly went crazy until the Paris Ambu- lance wired them that nothing had hap- pened; but since then they have been receiving letters of condolence. No explan- ation of how the thing started has been given, as no one has even been hurt here, and only one man has been killed in the whole Ambulance so far (Hall). We heard later that one man had died of spinal men- ingitis in another Section, and it was his death that caused the mix-up. May 12. We had received word that we were to be inspected yesterday and that White and Campbell would be officially awarded the Croix de Guerre. Everybody slicked up, shaved, and cleaned rooms, yards, and cars, but nothing happened — the General sending word he would not be able to come. White and Campbell were awarded the crosses because they were the oldest and most efficient men in the Section, the Third Division General having allotted two crosses to our Section. This seemed to be the fairest way to do. White also 72 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER got a special mention by the Second Divi- sion, so he gets two stars, a very unusual thing. There is also talk of giving the whole Section the Croix; but this is only a rumor.1 May 15. The Chasseurs d'Afrique and Senegalese have a uniform practically like the English khaki. They wear red fezes called "kitshia"; but the inside of these is yellow, so that when within range they simply reverse the hats. The Second Colonials have a fine band, — the first I have heard at the Front, — and we have concerts almost every day. I got the old "bus" working again with a new motor, new rear construction, new wheels. The chief remains of No. 10 are the frame, body, insects, and radiator. As all the replacing parts are old, anyway, the chariot is no ball of fire at that, but she wheezes along somehow. May 18. We are here at Harbonnieres on the new twenty-four hour service, with the Third Division — four of us; quiet nights — but this morning an aeroplane 1 This they did get later. See preface, pp. xii-xiv. ON LES AURA 73 fight took place right over us. Two French machines brought down a German who was reconnoitering over our lines. He landed about three kilometers within our lines. I talked to an old French farmer who seemed very well up on late events. He said he believed Wilson would surely be de- feated at the next election, and that Roose- velt would again be President. In common with most French landowners I have talked to, he felt that the aftermath of the war would be very serious. He was afraid of in- ternal troubles over the partitioning of the spoils. He invited me to his farmhouse and gave me a glass of cider. He thinks the Boches are by no means done, but that they are on the wane. He looks for a sec- ond battle like Verdun here on the Somme, as this is a naturally weak position, being a junction of the two armies. On the other hand, the enormous amount of effort to make it impregnable is obvious. Rows and rows of second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth line trenches; acres of barbed wire; fields sown with mines, and every tree and 74 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER bush a mask for a cannon or mitrailleuse show that nothing is being neglected,while additional railways are being built to bring up supplies and the roads (thank God!) are being overhauled and repaired. The winter and spring have put them in a frightful state and our cars certainly re- flect it. May 22. A German flyer played a clever trick on being chased by four French planes to-day. He pretended to be driven to earth, stopped his engine, and prepared to alight. The French ceased firing, came planing down near him, and stopped; he then quickly started his motor again, veered off to the right over some woods, and got back to his lines before the French, who had actually grounded, could get up again. I am back again at Cappy, for the first time since I broke my rear axle in a shell- hole. End and Magoun did the same thing. We have to sleep in the cave now! — very annoying. It's damp and stuffy. Loads of more guns up here. The French are using a new "270," and the fields are full of am- ON LES AURA 75 munition, covered with branches of canvas painted like scenery. We went up to one of the new "postes de secours" where we are under mitrailleuse fire. We have to turn the car around by hand so that the Germans won't hear the noise of the re- verse gear. On coming back we found the road blocked by a newly fallen tree hit by a shell. It took an hour, with the help of the "brancardier," to jack it up and shove it around. Certainly I got a thrill on the second run coming back from Cerisy by moon- light about 2 a.m. Just before crossing the Somme, I noticed low-lying wisps of misty vapor. Having already been stopped twice by sentries and as the cannonading was heavy, it suddenly struck me that an attack might be going on and that this was gas. It looked pale blue in the moonlight. I stopped my motor and got my gas mask out, but as there seemed to be no general movement of troops, I decided to go ahead. I hurried through, and was greatly relieved to smell the good old fog smell. The two sentries, French and English, on the Somme 76 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER bridge must certainly have a bad time. Shelled continually, and being at the low- est point in the valley, they are more apt to get the gas than the troops quartered on the higher ground. White and Campbell finally received the decorations to-day. An amusing inci- dent occurred when the General took White (who had been told to stand out in front of the line) to be a mere onlooker and ordered him back. It had to be explained to him that this was the hero who was to be decorated! He apologized, of course, but it got every one giggling and somewhat marred the solemnity of the occasion. May 26. Culbertson came back from Cappy with a long tale of experiences this morning. He had not been to the Sucrerie of Dompierre Poste before, and got a call at 2 a.m. He took a "brancardier" to show him the way. They got out in the open road on the top of the hill and could n't find the "poste"; so the "bran- cardier" went on to look for it and Cul- bertson stopped his motor and waited. He says it seemed about a year before the man ON LES AURA 77 came back. Meantime every time the mi- trailleuse would start in, old Culby would try to find some place to hide, and he says there wasn't the vestige of anything within sight. Finally they got down to the "poste," and he tried to turn, with the re- sult that he backed off the road into a trench. He had to get a lot of soldiers to lift the car out. They pushed it out amid cheers, everybody forgetting the Boches, and, incidentally, the"blesse." Then, they heard a yell from the "blesse" whom they had nearly run over with the car as he lay in the road. Culby says the Germans seemed so close that he felt as if the front wheels were in the German trenches and the back wheels in the French. Finally, coming back, he says he was so glad that he started to beat it fast, when the "bran- cardier" put his foot on the electric light- switch by mistake, and suddenly the lights flared up, and a moment later the Boches started shelling. He says he thought he hit every shell-hole back to Cerisy, and once he ran over a ball of barbed wire left to be stretched at the side 78 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER of the road, but he did n't care so long as he got there. The marvelous part of the whole thing was that the car was scarcely hit at all; only a few bolts loosened. The name of the " poste " is " l'Arbre-en- Boule," because there is a large stump of a tree there which the French hollowed out and used as an observation point. The Ger- mans got onto it and shelled it down and, having the exact range, kept the French from using it. They also employed it as a range-finder for other things, such as bat- teries. The French, then, moved it one night about ten yards and set it up again. Ever since, the Germans have been shell- ing it and missing not only the tree, but the other objectives. At Harbonnieres to-day with Imbrie, Francklyn, and Woodworth. There is a steady drizzle, and nothing to da for twenty-four hours. Imbrie is an interest- ing bird. He has traveled all through Africa with a professor who went there to study monkey talk; — locked himself up in a cage with gorillas, and such! and claims to have discovered twenty words. Imbrie ON LES AURA 79 says "it's all rot"; but that the shooting was fine and the trip most interesting. He says that after he made up his mind that the monkeys knew more than the profes- sor, he left him and got some splendid elephant hunting. I went over to the English lines this afternoon and saw a series of impromptu boxing-matches. There was a new Ser- geant-Major in one company who was be- ing watched to see how he would turn out, and he organized the matches, starting in himself in the first bout. The best of feel- ing prevailed, and when the men threat- ened to become too rough, they were cau- tioned by the Lieutenant who kept time. Many French soldiers came over to see the bouts and both armies fraternized in the most cheerful manner. They daily play soccer football also. CHAPTER V PREPARING FOR THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME La vie est breve; Un peu d'amour, Un peu de reve, Et puis — bonjour! La vie est vaine; Un peu d'espoir, Un peu de haine, Et puis — bonsoir J June 1. Big doings to-day; the order came at 10 a.m. to move the whole encamp- ment from Mericourt toLamotte-Santerre, and we were ready by 2.30. Then, just be- fore we left, we were told to go to Bayon- villers instead; and here we are! It is not such a bad billet. The town is more mod- ern and in better repair than Mericourt. We are sleeping in our cars to-night, but will find quarters to-morrow, which does not do Imbrie and me any good, as we go to Cappy for twenty-four hours and so get "stung" out of any decent pickings for sleeping accommodations. The Section BRIDGE ON THE SOMME CANAL AT CAPPY CONNECTING FRENCH AND BRITISH LINES / PREPARING FOR BATTLE 81 remains with the Third Division. The Twentieth Corps, which withstood the first shock at Verdun and thereby earned its place in the Hall of Immortals, is to straddle the Somme, having had a month "en repos." When the "Regiment de Fer" came in with its flags — or what was left of them — flying, everybody sa- luted. They are said to have saved the day in the first German rush, the critical period at Verdun. The Sixth (ours) won its spurs in the Champagne, and is next to the Twentieth, and we continue to handle the front line as before, but from a different base. The English have moved a kilometer to the west, so that the conflicting orders bound to occur at the Somme are elimi- nated. A lot of new rail lines have been put through in the last few days, and the sup- ply of ammunition in the fields is some- thing beyond belief. Word has been given that everything in the way of preparation must be finished by the 20th. The French had arranged to be ready by the 15th, but the English asked for five more days. The 82 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER battle of the Somme should be some bat- tle. The fields are full of poppies, yellow daisies, and cornflowers, and the country is beautiful. The poppies remind one of Omar's " I sometimes think that never blows so red The rose as where some buried Caesar bled." At Verdun, so far, they say, the German losses amount to 450,000 and the French to 200,000 — even the poppies grow no thicker! Big mortar batteries are arriving along the Front. I saw several here, at Cappy, this afternoon, hidden near the cemetery. Even when a man gets killed he is not per- mitted to rest in peace nowadays. The Germans are bound to blow hell out of the cemetery, trying to reach these new mor- tars. June 2. Bayonvillers is not a bad town, but our quarters are awful; all of us bunk together in a big loft, with the cars and the eating-place about two squares away. The reason for the crowding is the piling- up of new troops in all these districts. I PREPARING FOR BATTLE 83 had fun with Francklyn this morning. It appears that he used Imbrie's "paillasse" last night, and when Imbrie and I returned from Cappy it was nowhere to be found. Francklyn was still asleep, so we carried him bunk and all, out into the main street and placed him on the sidewalk. A large crowd immediately gathered, thinking he was a "blesse," as he had nothing on but a blanket. He woke up just as a Division Staff was passing, and he certainly did make a quick jump for the yard with the blanket flapping like the tail of a kite be- hind his long, bare legs, as he beat it. June 3. An amusing afternoon. Being second "Bureau," I had nothing to do, and it so happened that a bunch of kids from Harbonnieres came down to be confirmed; the girls in their little white dresses and the boys in their best Sunday-go-to-meet- ing clothes. Bowman, who was just back from Paris, brought out the Victrola with a lot of the latest records (I don't know what we'd do without that Christmas-gift Vic- trola from Miss Caroline Sinkler), and we had a regular raft of children all over us all 84 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER afternoon, as the school let out at the same time. One girl, a little older, who serves the store at Harbonnieres and who had come down with the diminutive brides in all their white gear, appeared to have fallen desperately in love with Duffy Lewis.1 She had his picture and looked us all over, but could n't find Duffy. Then she spotted Paul's back (Paul being about the same size as Lewis) and rushed over to him, only to return disappointed. " Ce n'est pas lui!" Then Woody, twisting his mustache, came over to ease her mind, telling her Lewis would be here, but unfortunately he was "soused," and sleeping it off! (Lewis never touched a drop in his life.) We got a lot of pictures of the priest and others and shortly afterward Duffy turned up, and what he did n't get in the way of chaf- fing, — some fun! After dinner I got a call to go in a hurry for a "blesse" at the "Ravin" de Mor- court, nobody knew what "ravin" was meant, so I spent from 8 p.m. until 2 a.m. going up and down ravines all over the 1 Philip C. Lewis, Harvard; Indianapolis, Indiana. PREPARING FOR BATTLE 85 map. One time I struck a road which appeared to be taking me slap into the German lines, which was anything but pleasant. I returned twice to get further instructions, but no one knew anything, so finally I was told to turn in. Roche, Ed- wards, Imbrie, and Campbell all had the same experience that night. The trouble was that all the Divisions were being shifted and nobody knew where any of the "postes" were. Campbell did n't get back till nearly breakfast time. He had been called to Chuignes and Chuignelles to get three "blesses" and had found no one. I suppose that things will be straightened out in a day or two. I am off on the new Lamotte twenty-four hours' service to-day with Imbrie. June 6. Culbertson, Imbrie, and I went over to Mericourt to our old camping- ground and brought over the body of No. 19 which we had left there. All the natives were delighted to see us and expressed sor- row that we were not to return. Espe- cially cordial were the two old ladies. We then crossed the canal and paid a visit to 86 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER an English Captain (Duffy), who gave us tea and toast served on a table by an or- derly, with napkins and real china! Those English certainly go to war in great style! He even had his two-room portable cabin decorated with pictures. I returned to find Vic White and Campbell in serious dis- cussion. It appears White's mother con- sulted some sort of palmist or medium, who told her her son would be in great danger in the latter part of June, which was easy enough to guess, as the big offensive is likely to start then. She had written to him to come home. Vic does n't want to worry her, so Campbell and I suggested his merely giving her the idea that he was not right at the Front, which after all is more or less true, as we only run up to the lines on certain routes, and are living about two miles back. Campbell then said he lately had been growing superstitious and that he had a feeling he was going to be killed. Odd for a man who has been in the war since the beginning! He argued it all out on the doctrine of chances; he says that it's just for the very reason that he PREPARING FOR BATTLE 87 has been in the field longer than any of us that he is therefore more likely to get it in the neck than the newer men. He says if he pulls through the big offensive of this summer, he is going home, and White says he will go with him. Pete (who has no feelings of any kind) says he dreamed several times lately that some of the Sec- tion are going to be killed or wounded. Al- together the bunch are certainly pessimis- tic — but I fancy the cold, wet weather and the lack of work just now have most to do with it. June 8. Big train of great" 220 " mortars came by on their way to Chuignes this morning, eight of them drawn by huge Renault & Jeffery (American) trucks, whose wheels in front, as well as rear, were tractors — the couplings of these to the carriages carrying the trails and "ca- mion" were the same as those on railways, and the carriages were made in Troy, Ohio. They shoot a shell five feet high weighing three hundred kilos, and carry about ten kilometers. They are meant only to reduce fortifications. 88 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER I hear that the new Section (No. 8), sent out under Mason as chief, ran right into a gas attack at the very first crack. They are stationed in Champagne, and are said to have done remarkably well, especially as they were all new men. The big-gun train is camping here tem- porarily until the emplacements are finished. Everywhere house barracks and log protections are being erected and the country is simply alive with working men. One hundred "camions" turned up here to-day, of the largest size. They are just the ordinary service wagons for the " 8-270's "! Another train of "220's" passed later. The gunners had amused themselves by naming them "Le Bourdon," "Le Gueu- leur," and so on. All their guns and their accessories are in the multi-colored tones of paint, green, ochre, black, and brown, and look like maps. One "camion" drags the base and turntable, another the gun itself; the rest, gasoline and ammunition. June 10. Dr. Maine and Peter Kemp turned up from Paris with two new cars. I went back to Cappy to-day. The roads PREPARING FOR BATTLE 89 are jammed, and we have to run for miles on the low gear behind the heavy artillery and ammunition trains. I had to tighten the low gear band twice yesterday and it is practically worn out. I will put in a new one in a day or two. Life in the barracks is amusing. Some of the men insist on talk- ing half the night, while others try to sleep, and still others keep their lamps lit late try- ing to read and write. The chief annoyance in fact is the utter lack of privacy. Roche and I came to a compromise with Cunning- ham and Campbell on the light question. They want all lights out at ten o'clock, so we said if they would stop talking at nine, we would " douse the glim "at eleven. Francklyn and Avard have an amusing arrangement to wake each other up in the morning. If one cannot arouse the other by quarter to seven, he has the privilege of tumbling him out of bed! The result is each watches the other like a cat when the alarm goes off and there is generally a reg- ular wrestling-bout. Yesterday morning Gyles broke Peter's bed, so Pete said he'd tumble Gyles out at 2 a.m., the next night. 90 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER Gyles in self-protection built a barricade of bags and saw-horses around himself and slept on the floor on a stretcher. The great connecting link is "Vic," the fox terrier pup. The dog is sick just now, and they have been taking him to a veterinary and are nursing him like a baby. It's Pete's dog, but to devil him we all call it Francklyn's, which jars Pete extremely. Pete, who is considerably older than Gyles and has had a very varied career, roughing it all over the world, at first used to beat up Gyles pretty regularly and browbeat and bully him; but lately Gyles has dis- covered that he can lick Pete wrestling, so he has taken to issuing official com- muniques every morning as to the state of their bed war! Latimer took them both in at checkers the other day and beat them easily, as they soon got squabbling over the proper moves to make. It certainly is better than a circus. Little Woodworth is the life of the party with his continual good humor, his songs and dances, and general liveliness, and we will be sorry to see him go in July when he returns to America. PREPARING FOR BATTLE 91 The place will be a gloom without him, as no one else in the squad is quite such a natural comedian.1 Pete is also going. June 12. I have just finished lunch with a party of unusually jovial Frenchmen. One used to be first violin at the Carlton in London, and having borrowed the piano from Mlle. Granger, he played accompani- 1 Benjamin R. Woodworth, after Herbert P. Towns- end's departure early in 1917, became Chief of Section No. 1. On June 16, 1917, he accepted the invitation of Chatkhoff, an American aviator, to take a spin near the town of S. The plane side-slipped, and he was killed instantly, crushed beyond recognition. To W. Yorke Stevenson with whom he had grown to be on terms of intimate friendship, fell the sad duty of bringing his re- mains back to the Section's headquarters — a ghastly run of 100 miles. In a letter the author described the funeral as follows: — "Stockwell, Ned Townsend, Hibbard,and I were the pall-bearers. Had wonderful flowers as the boys spent all morning picking big bunches of red poppies, white roses, carnations and apple blossoms, and blue cornflowers. The coffin was draped with French and American flags, and the Croix de Guerre was pinned on it. " Shells were falling nearby as we lowered the coffin. It was just as he would have wished, and the American aviators were flying over his grave." Mr. Woodworth was most popular and much beloved by many. He was gifted with a sunny disposition and much ready wit. The Diary shows the regard in which the author held him. The latter succeeded him as Chief of Section No. 1. 92 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER ments to a couple of others who sang war songs, etc. They were all much impressed with Peter Kemp's appearance. He is six feet five, as tall as Walter Wheeler, of Phil- adelphia, and heavier. We explained to them that that was the reason that Amer- ica does n't go to war — the average men are all about as big as Peter and it takes too long to dig trenches to fit 'em! In addition to the customary bombard- ment we are in the midst of a violent thunder and hail storm; the crashes of thunder and lightning mingling with the roar of the guns certainly is creating a real pandemonium. This makes one week so far of solid rain and the roads are almost impassable from mud and traffic com- bined. Everywhere are bogged autos and dead horses. The soldiers skin the latter for rugs and coats. "Rosalie" is the af- fectionate term the "poilus" apply to the new, long, four-cornered bayonet which makes a wound almost impossible to heal, as it cuts like a cross. "Rosalie" is also the name of the new paper method of smoking a pipe; a round-cut piece about PREPARING FOR BATTLE 93 the size of a tail light lens with a small hole in the center. The advantage is a cool and easy smoke without effort of drawing and good in a wind. The roads are so blocked that the food is slow to reach the Front just now. To- day, for instance, we were on half-rations here at Cappy. As we sat at our coffee, however, the "ravitaillement camions" turned up and there was great rejoicing. I saw " La Boiteuse'' later to-day. She's a great old girl; still as cheerful as ever and glad to have her piano in capable hands. She gave me some postcards of Cappy and a luck piece. She sent her love to Nelson. June 13. I got a call to Eclusier village at 2.30 a.m. The road along the canal was six inches deep in water and could hardly be told from the canal itself, except for the yellow color. The result was that it was quite daylight when I got there, and the Boches could see us loading the car (three " couches ") plainly, but they did n't fire. In fact they have been very quiet of late. The church at Eclusier is but an empty shell with great holes down through 94 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER the sides and no roof to speak of — birds flit through the broken windows and the rain drops dismally on the floor. Most of the images are smashed, but the big stone font is still intact. The old graveyard be- side it is just a tangled mass of stones and weeds, while the new soldiers' graveyard was placed in two huge shell holes the sides of which have been graded like steps, and neat little crosses bear the records of the dead. Some fifty or more found places in the two holes, and yet there was re- spectable space between each grave and around the edges. Back to Villers-Bre- tonneux with the wounded and back at Cappy by 8 a.m.; the slowness due to weather and congested roads. Shoals of Senegalese are passing toward the Front, and it certainly looks as if the offensive was coming soon. The Russian victory in Galicia is said to be merely a diversion to help Italy just now and the real offensive has not even begun. I got stopped by what looked like the whole General Staff on the road to-day. They all had so many stripes it looked like PREPARING FOR BATTLE 95 a flock of zebras. A trooper had fallen off his horse and hit his head and they or- dered me to carry the unconscious man to Villers-Bretonneux. The car was already full, but I piled him in and took him along to save argument. Of course I had a hideous time at the hospital at Villers, not having a ticket for him. Nobody could take him in for an hour or so — the usual red-tape. The "brancardiers" tell me they have great difficulty with the wounded negroes, as they cannot explain how they feel; also the climate is very hard on them. The French "camion" drivers tell me that their well-known makes, such as Pan- hard, Fiat, Berliet, Renault, etc., are un- able to put in the same high-grade ma- terial in their cars as before the war, and that the American cars are regarded as quite as good if not better — especially the Pierce-Arrow, which is making quite a name for itself both here and in Russia. Five hundred of them passed here in long trains yesterday. I hear we are going to be shifted again; 96 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER headquarters to be at Proyart and evacu- ate to the new hospital at Marcel Cave. This will be just before the big attack. At Marcel Cave the French have erected an enormous hospital on the railway. To illustrate what is expected, they have purchased from the town an additional site for a graveyard to accommodate five thousand dead, expected to be the casual- ties from this hospital alone — not from the trenches, but those who cannot sur- vive treatment. This gives more of an ink- ling as to the preparation in our Sector than anything else I have seen. And our Sector only covers some three or four miles of the Front. June 14. I had an interesting talk with a Lieutenant to-day as we watched a regi- ment of Zouaves go up to the Front. He said that now that they were here together with the Colonials, the Senegalese, the Chasseurs d'Afrique, and the Twentieth Corps, the advance would not be long in coming. He says the Senegalese are aw- fully hard to handle. They won't stand shell fire, but don't mind machine guns, so PREPARING FOR BATTLE 97 they put Frenchmen on either side of them, fifteen hundred Senegalese in each Divi- sion. They have strings of Boche ears which they keep as trophies. On the other hand, the "Germs" always kill the black wounded and prisoners, so it's about fifty- fifty. This same officer says the big attack now depends entirely on the English. If they can only manage Champagne and Neuve Chapelle, stalemates will not be repeated. June 17. Red-Letter Day! The first hot bath in a tub since I've been at the Front! "Huts" Townsend, our Section Chief, took "Gimp" Cunningham and me in to Amiens. We simply wallowed in baths which only cost a franc. We did a little shopping and brought the boys back some cherry tarts for supper, for which we received loud cheers. Good old Pete Avard left to-day and took back an old car which, as usual, was stripped to the bone before it was allowed to go. The boys al- ways attack a car going down, like a bunch of ghouls. A new man turned up with Magoun, Little, by name, from Andover, 98 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER and seems a decent sort. The fellows that sleep in the tent are not having such a pleasant time of it now. A whole regiment of artillery ("270's") has camped all around them, and the noise of men and horses keeps them awake all night long, and naturally they are afraid of thefts, particularly from the Senegalese; although the loft in which the rest of us sleep is dark and dirty, it is, at least, fairly safe from that sort of thing. The blacks love anything bright and shiny, like radiator caps or nickle-plated tools. With the ad- vance of the hour we all now have to get up at 5.30 instead of 6.30 and already sev- eral have been caught on the "no break- fast after 6.30" order. As we go to bed an hour earlier we '11 work into it all right soon, I suppose. CHAPTER VI ILS NE PASSERONT PAS If this little world to-night Suddenly should fall through space In a hissing, headlong flight, Shrivelling from off its face In an instant every trace Of all the little crawling things; — Ants, philosophers, and lice, Cattle, cockroaches, and kings, Beggars, millionaires, and mice, Men and maggots all as one As it falls into the Sun, — Who shall say that at the same Instant from a planet far A child may watch us and exclaim, "See the pretty shooting star!" Oliver Herford June 18. We saw a French aeroplane fall yesterday afternoon right near the camp at Villers-Bretonneux. The aviator trying to volplane too near the ground, the thing slipped sideways, and smashed into a field. My car was full, so I was of no use, but Woodworth happened to be pass- ing at the same time and ran out with a stretcher. For some time they could not get at the men on account of the flames 100 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER and were forced to watch them burn to death. They say their cries were awful. One man managed to reach in and get hold of one of the aviator's arms to drag him out, but all the flesh came away in his hand. Woody carried one to the hos- pital, but he was dead when he got there. Of the other there was nothing left worth carrying. . . . "C'est la guerre!" June 20. Things are moving rapidly now. All "permissions" have been can- celed which kills any expectation of Paris on the 4th of July. Lewis got a splendid citation for the Croix, at Fontaine-Cappy, for bravery under fire. He was ordered to leave by the Medecin Chef, and refused to do so, because he had not completed his rounds. The old man was delighted with him and cited him the next day. We move to a camp in a field between two batteries at Chuignes and will evacuate to the big new barracks hospital at Marcel Cave. The grand attack is due to start in about a week and some of the fellows are talking of making their wills. I should worry! ! ! A new gun has appeared, a " 120 " built on ILS NE PASSERONT PAS 101 "75" principles, light carriage, oil recoil, and very mobile but shorter in the barrel, thereby bringing down the weight, I sup- pose. It must be a terror, as it is almost double the famous " soixante-quinze." We have been unable to buy a map of the coun- try between the Foies-Dompierre-Faucau- court line and Peronne anywhere, even in Amiens, so it looks as if that was to be the direction of the big push. End and I had a long walk to-day. He is an interesting chap. He was in Ser- bia with the Columbia Ambulance. We visited the two big aviation camps and watched them sighting one of Barclay Warburton's "Lewis" air-cooled mitrail- leuses. They have a sight much like the finder on a camera; it must be easy to aim with. We saw Farman and Condronplanes, the latter with double "gnome" type- motors in front, the former with V-type twelve cylinder Renault motor aft. We did n't see any of the famous Nieuports, as they won't come from Verdun until the last moment, nor did we see the new self-start- ing Voisin planes. The orders are to'' shed 102 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER everything but the barest necessities. We also saw the funeral of two aviators. It was quite impressive, with several Gen- erals walking behind the coffins, while one plane made the sign of the cross in the heavens above the grave. June 21. I am up at Cappy again, and got a call right off to Eclusier and mighty near fell into the canal, as some idiot had left a pile of wood for fuel in the road and in trying to go over it the car skidded one wheel over the bank. I just caught it with the brakes in time. Imbrie, as the only lawyer in the Squad, offers to make wills cheap for cash. One gets thinking about things like that in the face of what's coming. June 22. Most depressing news. We are to go to Verdun. We are shifted from the Colonials because they are to bear the brunt of the attack, and the cars which are necessary for the tremendous evacuation work must be the largest possible, while ours will be more useful on the bad roads around Verdun. Our evacuation center is Bar-le-Duc where Section No. 2 and the ILS NE PASSERONT PAS 103 new No. 8 are stationed. I am sorry to have seen only the beginning of what must prove the biggest offensive of the war. On the other hand, I will be glad to be able to say I have been at Verdun, and the 250- mile trip across the country will prove most interesting. It means that we will travel from one end of the French battle line to the other,— truly a wonderful opportunity. June 23. Such a splendid trip! We came down through Senlis, the town where the Boches did their worst. They burned every tenth house, and shot the citizens, including the Mayor. Then we came along the valley of the Marne, and saw the whole of the great battlefield. A perfect day, and the Lieutenant ran slowly so that the "convoi" should get a chance to take in the views. At that, we are to-night at Chalons — some ride! Every bone in my body aches and it's hard even to keep awake to write this. Woody got an awful spill. He nearly went to sleep, a very common thing after one has been driving for a great many hours — sort of hypno- 104 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER tism; his car turned turtle, but threw him clear. Paul also went to sleep, but saved himself. Imbrie nearly got ditched, too, doing the same thing. I find the only thing to do is to try to compose a letter or a verse or remember songs one half knows. It keeps one's mind out of that hypnotic rhythm. Here I am on a wonderful soft down bed with sheets! The Russians are here also. The lady of the house where I am quartered says that last night there was a Boche aeroplane raid, but it did no dam- age, except it made her baby cry with the noise. She says to-night it will be so sleepy it won't disturb me!!!—After three months of the guns! — an amusing idea! The French kids are good little fellows. One insisted I should have a rose in my button-hole to-day. Everywhere they give one flowers or candy. Another led me all around the village of Pont-St.-Maxice by the hand, and all along the roads they al- ways, girls and boys, click their heels to- gether and give the military salute when we pass. JuneM. My hostess charged "what- ILS NE PASSERONT PAS 105 ever I chose to pay " for the room. I asked if two francs would suffice, and she agreed. In the morning she handed me a bottle wrapped up and told me to say nothing about it. She would accept nothing for it and when I opened it later I found it was a pint of champagne! Certainly nice of her. Board and lodging and champagne for two francs! We passed many smashed-up villages to-day, including Sermaize and the fa- mous Vitry-le-Francois, the turning-point of the battle of the Marne. We stopped at Trois-Fontaines and saw the ruins of a twelfth-century abbey, — wonderfully beautiful, — and the chateau of Trois- Fontaines belonging to the Count of Fontenoy. The Boches did not injure it for some strange reason. The abbey was ruined by the French Revolutionists. As we neared Bar-le-Duc we passed the Tenth Cavalry, every man leading an extra horse. All the horses are little, quick- acting animals of the polo pony type. They looked very efficient. We also passed the Seventy-ninth "de ligne" returning from 106 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER the Front. The men were haggard and done, but a fine-looking lot. Ten days should put them on their toes again. After one of our caravans goes through a sec- tion of country, the "pays" breaks out in spots with Ford sores for days. We have only "shed" five altogether and two are due to rejoin to-night. Woody broke his front and Edwards his back axle. Bow- man burned out a bearing, Little broke a front wheel, and Lathrop had carburetor trouble. There were, of course, the usual lot of blow-outs. I had two, but was able to rejoin each time without losing my position in the line for more than a few minutes. Each man carries a part of the general extras on a hike. I was lucky in drawing the tire supply, which saved me many minutes, as I used the tires lying loose in the car rather than undo my care- fully packed-away spares. June 25. We arrived at Bar-le-Duc yes- terday afternoon at 5 o'clock, and had our tents up and kitchen working by 6 p.m., to the astonishment of a neighboring "ca- mion" section. We turned in at 9 o'clock. ILS NE PASSERONT PAS 107 At 11 p.m. a call came to go at once to Ver- dun, as there had been a big gas attack. We chucked everything out of our cars, got masks and "tin derbys," and beat it. We made the outskirts of Verdun (fifty kil- ometers) by 1 a.m. over fearful roads and not a car broke down, though there were several blow-outs. We ran into the Norton Section and our No. 2. They were very much surprised — as they knew we had only arrived that evening — to find us right on the job. As we loaded the cough- ing men into the cars, the guns were going like mad and a terrific explosion occurred — either a mine or a powder depdt. The whole sky was bright, as when Du Pont's powder mills blew up at Wilmington last winter and we saw it in Philadelphia, — except this time it was quite close. Each car took five men and we landed them back at Bar-le-Duc as the day was breaking. Little burned out a bearing, but otherwise we made the return trip without accidents, at a very fast clip. In fact, too fast for the good of the cars, but the Lieutenant wanted to make a good 108 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER impression at the start. The thing really developed into a race. Claxon horns, extra tires, and all sorts of loose objects fell off, and I think we got even some of the sol- diers nervous. I had two bottles of beer lying between the fender and the body of the car, which Baylies had asked me to carry the previous day, and in the hurry of the moment and the dark I forgot about them. As we beat it along at sixty kilo- meters an hour, I began to hear a new knock in my engine. I thought the wretched old thing had every known knock already from piston slap to main bearing bang, but this clink was a new one. It got no worse nor less, whether up grade or down, and I thought, "Well, as ever, a Ford is full of infinite resources for surprise"! When we got to Verdun I be- gan oiling up, and there were the two bottles and the explanation of the knock. Believe me, we did n't do a thing to them! The funny part of it was the boys thought I had great foresight in bringing them along. To-day we are taking things easy and 40tr^J*>.-- !. f.fe MtJ THE GATE OF VERDUN ILS NE PASSERONT PAS 109 awaiting orders. The man who sat be- side me told me that the reason they got caught by the gas was that they had taken their masks off in order to see more clearly, as the ground was treacherous and full of shell-holes, and some of the gas was still lurking in the low places. We all went to bed at 7 a.m. and slept until Roche was awakened by something licking his face. Thinking it was one of the dogs, he just gave it a slap, and then the whole tent nearly collapsed! A stray cow had drifted in and tried to get acquainted! The riot that followed set all thought of further sleep at an end, so we started in tinkering with the cars and generally shaking down. Temporarily, our camp is pitched on the grounds of an old chateau at a little place called Veel, just out of Bar-le-Duc. June 27. No rest for the wicked. We had only just got thoroughly repaired and straightened out after our first trip, when we were called out again: this time to a little east of Verdun at 3 a.m. Well, we galloped out over that awful road again, dodging two solid lines of "camions" and 110 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER guns for the whole fifty kilometers. The French, by the way, call it the "Voie Sacree" (Sacred Way), as, when the rail- road was cut, the use of this road for carry- ing supplies saved Verdun. Nobody got into much trouble, however, except La- throp who broke his brake, and as he was the next behind me he kept bumping into me steadily. When we got to Dugny we found it packed with ambulances. There had been another gas attack. I ran into Mason, head of the new Section No. 8, and several other fellows from Sections 2 and 3. Also the English "St. Johns" Section composed of Quakers who do not believe in fighting. Chapman, the American airman, was killed yesterday near here. He shot down three Boches before he got his own. We saw his wrecked plane. Section 8's cars were a sight. It was a shame, as they were new only three or four weeks ago; but, of course, they were nearly all new drivers and were bound to get smashed in such traffic. Most of their fenders and side boxes were ripped off as ILS NE PASSERONT PAS 111 well as lamps and radiators which were broken or bent. One of the men was wounded and two were unable to stand the strain and have returned to Paris. We got back here at noon, starving, as we had no breakfast, and got busy fixing up the cars: three broken front axles and one back axle. All I had to do was to clean out the carbon and grind the valves. We got mail at last this p.m., the first in nearly two weeks. It develops that the reason we were sent for was only partly to concentrate the American Ambulance, but also for the purpose of replacing a French Section of twenty cars, of which only ten are now working and whose drivers are about all in. Five of the men got caught in a tunnel the other night when two Austrian "380's" exploded one at either end and a third on top. The air concus- sion threw them some fifteen or twenty feet, first one way and then the other, while not only the glass headlights, but even the floor boards of their cars were blown in! 112 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER Copy of letter dated 6 max, 1916 V" Corps d'Armie Coloniale — W* Division. Au nom du Directeur du Service de Sant6 du V Corps d'Armee Coloniale, et a son nom personnel le Medecin Divisionnaire de la 2me Division Coloniale, felicite M. le Sous-Lieut, de Kersauson et ses conduc- teurs de la Section Sanitaire Americaine N° 1, pour Pempressement digne d'eloges avec lequel dans la nuit du 4 et celle du 5 Mai, 1916, ils ont assur6 l'evacuation des blesses des postes de recueil de Cappy et de 1 'Eclusier. Le MSdecin Principal de 1*" classe, MHecin Div. Emily. Q.G.U6 mai, 1916. Copy of letter dated 10 juillet, 1916 Quartier GSnSral, lw Corps d'Armee Coloniale. Direction du Service de Sante, le Medecin principal du ler Colonial, Lasnet, Directeur du Service de Sante du ler C. & C, au Lieut, de Kersauson, S.S.A.U. No. 1. Au moment ou la S.S.A.U. No. 1 est appelee a suivre une autre destination, le Directeur du Service de Sante adresse au Lieut, de Kersauson et a tout le per- sonnel de la Section ses chaleureuses felicitations pour le zele, le courage, et I'activite inlassable dont tous ont fait preuve pendant leur sejour sur le secteur du lw Colonial. Les troupes Coloniales ont su apprecier le devoue- ment des Volontaires Americains et elles leur en gardent une vive reconnaissance. C'est avec un profond regret qu'elles les ont vu partir, et elles n'oublieront pas de longtemps les conducteurs hardis, habiles, et empresses qui venaient enlever leurs blesses jusque dans les postes des secours les plus avances. (Sign6) Lasnet. THE LIEUTENANT AND THE SQUAD Standing: Lines, Stevenson, Tyson, Lindsay, Roche, Culbertson, Lieutenant de Kersauson, Jones, Sponagle, Tison, Walker, Lott, Rapp Seated: Wilson, Wallace, Edward Townsend, Campbell, Herbert Townsend (Sub-Lieutenant), Woodworth, Kurtz, Potter ILS NE PASSERONT PAS 113 Copy of letter dated 4 aoilt, 1916 Le Medecin Major Saint-Paul, Medecin chef de la 127e Division, au Lieutenant Commandant le S.S.A.U. N°- 1, Lieut, de Kersauson. Mon Cher Camarade: — J'ai 6te extremement con- trarie lorsque j'ai appris que votre section quittait la 127e Division. Pendant les journees dures que j'ai pas- sees avec elle, je me suis assure que cette section four- nissait un service parfait et faisait preuve du plus beau courage militaire, d'une intrepidite digne d'admiration dans les terrains les plus severement battus par le feu. Vos Conducteurs sont des gens aninies d'un esprit de devouement digne des plus grandes 6loges; flegma- tiques, braves, d'une education excellente et, ce qui ajoute encore a leurs merites, d'une modestie singu- liere. Je vous adresse done toutes mes f61icitations pour la fa^on dont vous dirigez ce corps d'elite, n'hesitant jamais a payer de votre personne et a donner 1'example du courage et du devouement. J'ai remarque les mgmes qualites chez votre adjoint M. Townsend auquel je vous prie d'adresser ainsi qu' 4 votre personnel et en particulier a M. Campbell mes souvenirs affectueux. Bien cordialement, Saint-Paul. CHAPTER VII VERDUN For history's hushed before them, And legend flames afresh; Verdun, the name of thunder Is written on their flesh. Laurence Binyon June 29. We have been moved to Dugny on the Meuse, six kilometers from Verdun. It is to be our headquarters like Mericourt and Bayonvillers, and we are to run up to the "postes de secours" from here. We were taken to Fort Tavannes, the cabaret, and other " postes de secours." While at the cabaret the Germans began shelling the series of batteries which were all along the road. Some twenty huge (at least, they seemed huge to us) shells fell around us. This was the heaviest shell-fire I have yet been under, and I sure was glad to have something to do to keep my mind off of it. Two men about one hundred yards away were decapitated and there were a number of dead horses about. I can see VERDUN 115 we are going to have a lively time. Coming back, an incendiary shell set a big house on fire on the outskirts of Verdun, and the shells came whirring rapidly. We passed several smashed ammunition wagons and one ambulance all in pieces. After dinner we saw some German prisoners going by. They had just been captured and were a bedraggled lot, but were neither extremely young nor extremely old, indicating that there is still a pretty good "bunch" of Boches left. We started in our service this evening and calls began to come in right at dinner-time. We send a car out every twenty-five minutes at night, but in the daytime we go every hour and a half. There is practically no "repos." Alternate days we do "Bureau" calls, in- terchanging with Section 8, which takes on the regular cabaret run. One gets some astonishing directions when one is working in a new country at night. For instance, in going to Fort Ta- vannes, which is now being shelled by the Germans, I was told to go along the---- road, until I passed two smells and then 116 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER turn to the left. This referred to two piles of dead horses. Some Russians tried to escape from Metz last night and two suc- ceeded. The Russian force is not just around here apparently. At least I hear nothing of them. Some Section 2 men drifted into town to-day. They are working on the Mort Homme and Hill 304. I went over with End, who talks German, to see the pris- oners. They are not such a bad-looking lot — they are well built and wiry, and they don't look ill-fed. Neither were they depressed, but answered questions freely, looking us straight in the eyes. Their average age was twenty-four to twenty- five, and they said they had not been shifted back and forth as is so often re- ported, but had been here right along. Al- together I got an impression that they were right on the job. They were all sur- prised to find we were Americans and not English. The country just behind the front lines is littered with broken cars, smashed wagons, and dead animals. Nobody has VERDUN 117 time to take them away. We gathered in some useful springs and an anvil to-day and hope to tow in a whole "camion" shortly that looks as if it could be made to run. Verdun itself is pretty well shot to pieces. I noticed a marble statue of Na- poleon standing up in a hole above the street which used to be a window in a house. It creates a rather impressive ef- fect, as it looks out over the ruins and desolation toward the smoking, rocking hills. June 30. Edwards had a close call last night. A shell exploded right over his car and a dozen pieces were cut through the top and sides; even went through the tool box under his seat and perforated his oil can, yet not one touched him. He con- tinued to work all night, and should get the Croix, except that we are new here and the Lieutenant may not cite him.1 Bowman carried a Division Commander whose leg was cut off by a "77." He died in the car in the arms of his orderly, whose 1 L. Brooke Edwards, of Philadelphia, did get the Croix de Guerre. 118 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER only words were, "It's too bad, too bad,to be killed by a mere ' 77' after all he's been through." Nothing under a "130" is re- garded as amounting to much around here. Latimer broke an axle in a shell-hole; Woodworth fell into one, too, and had to be hauled out. The trouble is, the new holes are made between the time one goes out and comes back, and so they fool one. Thiaumont seems to be the Boche objec- tive just now. It has changed hands four times already. July 1. A chance of six days' Paris "per- mission," due to-day, is gone. Goodness knows when I will get a holiday now, and I certainly had looked forward to the 4th in Paris. Well, there will be no lack of noisy celebration around here, but not ex- actly as "safe and sane" as in the States. Woody goes to-day. I'm terribly sorry. He's the best friend I've made in the Sec- tion. I shall send the second and third parts of this diary by him. We have now three dogs attached to the Section. Besides "Vic," Magoun has VERDUN 119 picked up a little woolly one at Bayon- villers; while Bowman got a sad sort of mongrel pointer along the road to Bar-le- Duc. They are really more trouble than they are worth, as they continually get lost, while at night they come nosing into the men's blankets and get kicked out to the accompaniment of the usual yelping. Fleas,of course, also help! There are signs, I see, of another joining the squad here. It looks somewhat like a young hyena and is hanging around the cantonment. The tame crows and fox of the "camion" drivers at Bayonvillers were amusing and could be caged, but these pups are con- tinually escaping. What with our three tents, the Zouave, "Lizzie," and the varied menagerie, we certainly are assuming the aspect of a traveling circus. July 2. I had an amusing trip with a Captain this morning. I had been running all night from Tavannes and the cabaret. The Germans made an attack near Vaux and our "tir de barrage" stopped it. We drove past some one hundred guns," 75's " and " 105's," whose muzzles project over 120 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER the road, and when they fire as we pass in an incessant "tir rapide," the noise is enough to break the ear drums. I stuff cotton in my ears and keep my mouth open. The sheets of flame come half across the road and the concussion has even broken some of the little windows in the cars. Well, this Captain was at Dugny and asked me to take him up to Tavannes, as he was on his way to the front lines. Being daylight it was against our official rules; but, individually, we endeavor to be of as much aid as we can to the army and often waive such rules. When we passed the cabaret we could see the German "sau- cisses," and, of course, they could see us. At Tavannes, the Captain suggested that I carry him on to the Mardi Gras redoubt close to the lines and in plain sight. I told him I was "under his orders," so we pro- ceeded, passing more dead horses and all sorts of smashed stuff, and winding our way around huge craters. At last we got there. In thanking me he said some com- plimentary things, and remarked that he VERDUN 121 had asked a member of another Ambu- lance Section to take him up here a few days ago, and that he had refused, although it was still only dawn. Incidentally I picked up three "blesses" at the redoubt who were about to be taken the couple of miles down to the cabaret "poste de secours" on "pousse-pousses," little two-wheeled pushcarts which carry one stretcher. This meant the saving of an hour or more for them. When I got back here, I found Will Irwin and another mag- azine writer being shown the fighting by Piatt Andrew. Unfortunately they missed the " tir de barrage " which, alone, is worth crossing the ocean to see. A solid line of flame several kilometers long, crowned by exploding shrapnel and all kinds of colored lights and flares and a noise so deafening as to make one's head reel and one's brain stop working. There were eleven hundred guns working just as fast as they could (about twenty-five shots a minute) for an hour in the space of about two square miles. No words of mine can do justice to that "tir de barrage" across the Etain 122 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER road. I have been scared in my life, but never like that. The German "incomers" one regards as luck. One hears the warning whistle and thinks it's coming right at one, and it falls a hundred yards away. Again one hears the whistle and regards it as dis- tant — and she blows up right beside one. There's a cheerful uncertainty that means bad luck if one is hit; but when obliged to drive in front, within twenty feet, of those "75's," and others, with the flame ap- parently surrounding you, and unable to hear or think for the stunning noise, you don't know whether the motor is going, and you also wonder where the wads are going. They, alone, are enough to kill a man. You also hope the gunners are on to their job, as some new recruit might aim a foot too low! Then, occasionally, a badly timed shot bursts at the muzzle, which means exactly above the car. Be- lieve me, I'd rather take a chance with the erratic "Germ" incomers than to have to pass that often. If I get out of this without being permanently deaf, I'll be lucky. VERDUN 123 Just as the old Fokkers beat all other war planes and the Nieuports beat the Fokkers in point of speed, the Boches have suddenly, within the last few days, introduced a new Fokker much faster than the fastest Nieuport. Johnston, one of the American Ambulance men who went into the Aviation Corps, and is in the camp at Bar-le-Duc, told Sponagle to-day that he and his squadron were caught by surprise over the German lines, and only escaped by the greatest luck. The French and English, of course, will immediately start to build an even faster plane, but temporarily the supremacy of the air ap- pears to have been snatched from the Al- lies and even our own aviators admit it. The French batteries are certainly beau- tifully concealed. One can only spot them at night by the flashes. In the daytime they shoot and shoot and one never sees them. July 3. George End this morning saw a man killed by the shock of a "210" on the road into Verdun. The "Germs" were attacking Thiaumont again. The 124 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER shell exploded just beside the road and the man was n't even touched, but was killed by the shock. Funny the directions the fellows give each other as to the safest roads to take! End, of course, advised me not to go to the cabaret by way of Verdun, but to go through the woods where Edwards was hit. Ten minutes later Francklyn came in and said to be sure to take the road through Verdun, as the Germans were shelling h—1 out of the "casernes" on the wood road, and to be careful. Imbrie, with his usual cheerfulness, remarked: "Careful! Careful! Good Lord, how's anybody going to be careful? If we wanted to be careful we should have been careful not to leave America!" July 4. My idea of nothing to do is to go out under shell-fire in the pouring rain. That's what Squad A of Section 1 has been doing all day. It rains thirty days out of each thirty-one in the month, and in those months that have only thirty days, it is n't clear at all. While we were swimming in the Meuse VERDUN 125 yesterday, we saw a Boche aeroplane at- tack one of the fifteen "saucisses" around Verdun and in a few moments the thing burst into flame and fell like a plummet. The observer was killed. The French chased the aviator, but he got away. Imbrie is certainly a scream. He re- marked to-day that on going out on his run to the "poste" the road was O.K., but coming back he saw a fresh-killed horse. He said: "Now, that's the sort of thing that causes one to stop and reflect, but I did n't. I jammed down both levers and did my reflecting at forty miles an hour!" There are a number of Philadel- phia cars in Sections 1 and 8. Two new ones from the Huntingdon Valley Country Club came up yesterday. There is one from Henry Brinton Coxe, and one from John' K. Mitchell, one from the Univer- sity Club, one from J. H. McFadden, one from George F. McFadden, and one from Clement B. Newbold. Great news! The Government has awarded forty-eight hours' "permission" 126 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER to all Americans in the army to allow them to celebrate the 4th of July. Only five of our Section are allowed to go, how- ever, but as my regular "permission" was due July 1st, along with Roche, Lewis, Paul, and Edwards, we were the five se- lected. Section 8 is allowing eleven men off; but, of course, they have been here longer and deserve it more. All the avia- tors and all the other Sections are letting men go down, and, believe me, we'll have big times in Paris. The Boches got Thiau- mont this morning; but I guess that's about all for them if the Somme offensive continues to progress. July 5. I arrived in Paris yesterday with five to ten men from each of the American Ambulance Sections and some Norton men, and saw all the old bunch of fellows at Henri's, including----, who invited me to dinner at Maxim's. He gets his divorce to-day! This morning, after a hectic night, I stopped at the hospital to see our wounded "ambulanciers," espe- cially Hollingshead, of the Norton Squad, who came over on the steamer with me. He VERDUN 127 got hit on the shoulder at Bras, near the Mort Homme; but is coming around all right. The three "blesses" whom he was carrying were killed and the car was smashed. The two Frenchmen were bur- ied, but they left the body of the Boche lying in the ambulance for the Germans to find. They were thought to be about to capture the place at the time, but I be- lieve have since been pushed back. I saw several other wounded American Ambu- lance men including the new fellow from Section 8 who had only been at the Front about twenty-four hours before he got a piece of shrapnel in the arm. Barber, the Section 4 man who got an "eclat" in his stomach, will recover, after all. July 9. I got back yesterday and worked on the car all day putting in a new engine. Ned Townsend returned; he, Roche, and Paul bringing up some new, or rather rebuilt, cars. They are not balls of fire by any means; but anything is better than driving some of the old cripples they heretofore have handed us. George End is down with dysentery, and some of the 128 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER others also complain of it, Vic White particularly. We had to shoot the little woolly dog. Its ribs were crushed by a car, poor little beggar! Section 8 has gone " en repos "and we are now working with new English and French Sections. We have had no trouble whatever in holding up our end so far. An attack on Souville last night was repulsed. Ned Townsend was up there, and had a splinter clink off his "tin derby"; the first time I've actually known of their being useful to us except to keep the rain off. In the trenches when only the head is exposed, of course, they are very useful; but judging from the general line of solid ivory nuts we've got with us, other parts of the body require more protection than the dome! I've become very humble of late. I, honestly, never realized what an awful ass I must have been at the start until (en- tirely involuntarily) I was forced to listen to the idiotic drool pulled by some of the new men in the watches of the night. They all regard themselves as young Atlases NELSON. EDWARD TOWNSEND. AND ROCHE LOADING AN AMBULANCE WITH THE HELP OF A GERMAN PRISONER VERDUN 129 supporting France and the world through the grace of God and Ford. And oh, those eternal arguments about the whateverness of whichever! — or words to that effect — when all that it is necessary for them to know and do, is to crank a car and steer it to where they are told to go! July 10. Having had swims in the Somme, the Marne, and the Meuse, we are now looking forward to a paddle on the Rhine. I have a hunch that before very long there may be an attack to the east of Verdun beyond the St.-Mihiel salient, or possibly right there. My only reason for this is the advent of fresh Senegalese and other Colonial attacking troops, such as we saw on the Somme. Also the Russians on this front are yet to be heard from, while their brethren on the other side are doubtless doing as well. Bonne nouvelle! I have been given a new car; not a made-over wreck, but a real new one. July 11, 4 a.m. I am writing here at the Etain-Moulinville cross-road beside a dead and odoriferous horse. Watching 130 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER the dawn break and listening to the whin- ing of the shells from both sides pass- ing overhead, and now and then one breaking entirely too near for comfort is, believe me, no place for a nervous child! I 'm simply writing this to keep my mind off the crape and " don't-he-look-natural- please-omit-flowers " stuff! It's cold, and it's going to rain, and these blessed "brancardiers" are late with their trench "pousse-pousses." I'm also hungry and I'd give a quarter for a fifteen-cent drink; and I'd as leave have it at the Racquet Club in old Philly as here. Just now the Boches are firing "210's" which are land- ing in the ravine a hundred yards away. I hope they '11 keep perfectly accurate and are not going to give any raw greenhorns practice. I entirely sympathize with the fellow in Bairnsfather's famous cartoon: "There'll be dirty work at the cross-road to-night." Later. It appears that one of the shells I listened to lit close to "Huts" Town- send's car at the Tavannes cross-road and nearly crowned old Roger. They came up VERDUN 131 and ordered me to return, as I had stayed over my allotted time. In the afternoon, the Lieutenant, Spo- nagle, and I went up to Fort Dugny and had the luck to see another attack on Sou- ville. For once it was clear and the sight was marvelous. The whole hill smoked. We also saw the American Escadrille go into action, six of them; but they disap- peared in the smoke far back of the Ger- man lines. The big bombardment was followed by a gas attack between Vaux and Douaumont, and the fight was fierce all night, around Damloup. We began to get calls around 5 a.m. and, thereafter, ran all day under heavy fire. I saw a bully " 155 " shell on the road and wanted to pick it up, and had already slowed down, when one burst within thirty feet of the car—I changed my mind and moved on! Nearly all the men we carried were * * gassed.'' They kept coming in all day from the trenches, or rather shell holes, in the Bois Fumant and Froide Terre near Fleury. We alone carried some twelve hundred of them, and believe me, it was some strain. 132 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER Many new dead horses along the road. The gas gets them, even the smallest whiff, and, of course, they have no masks. Even at 10 a.m. there was still enough gas to make our eyes smart. The Germans tried a new dodge, — a sort of "tir de barrage " of " 77 " gas shells. They do not make much noise, just about as much as a yacht cannon, but the gas spreads fast. It was about forty feet high and extended for about two hundred meters along the Etain road. The men who were caught by it all admitted they had taken off their masks for one reason or another. Some get sick at their stomachs and that forces them to take off their masks. It is not amusing to talk to men who don't know they're as good as dead! One really should have two masks, and switch in such a case, not breathing meantime. We all have had another one issued to us to-day. The work became exactly like a road race. At our cantonment, after deliver- ing the wounded, we had a table on which were coffee and crackers. There were ex- tra tires, oil, water, and gasoline, and the * VERDUN 133 mechanics all ready to put them in. We made eleven round trips during the day from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Some cars only carry five and some six, so that the total wounded carried would have been over eleven hun- dred if all had been going perfectly. Dur- ing the night we necessarily worked slower, but carried some nine hundred, I should judge. I broke a spring clip which de- tained me a little while, and I lost about a half-hour around noon, but made it up later. The doings of the last two days are chronicled more or less in the " official com- muniques." The bombardment being dig- nified by the term — "Extreme violence." The Germans again got within five hun- dred yards of Tavannes, by the use of gas. This evening, at 6.30 p.m., without artillery preparation, the French coun- ter-attack was made and was entirely successful. Not only was all lost ground regained, but they captured some one hundred prisoners, several machine guns, etc. The leaving out of the artillery preparation entirely fooled the Boches. As the hospitals are overflowing, we have 134 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER had to take in a lot of the gassed men with us in our cantonment. It is pathetic to hear them try to get their breath as if they were drowning; also it's not conducive to sleep. I carried the Commandant who was in the attack. He had a piece of shell in his stomach, but he was a brave beggar. Never said a word, and thanked me when I apologized for the jolting he got. The "Germs" got the Damloup redoubt to- day. We nearly had a scrap of our own just now. One man implied that another had been running less than the rest. He was sent to call him and found him sleeping while all the others were on the road. We had to pull them apart. It is due to over- work, overexcitement, strain. Every one's nerves are on edge. It's wonderful to see the French artil- lery in action. Our "poste" at the cabaret is entirely surrounded by batteries; and to see the relief come galloping up, split in fours, and each go dashing out into the fields by the pale light of a clouded moon, is a sight one can never forget. In about VERDUN 135 two minutes they are unhooked and old Mr. Boche is receiving "billets-doux de soixante-quinze.'' We were ordered to move to rejoin the Division which has been "en repos" about a week. The Boches started shelling the railway station with the Skoda "380's" this afternoon; but everybody was too sleepy even to go up to photograph it. They never hit it, anyway, and the old peasant women continue to tend their gardens all around the huge shell holes. All through the valley back of Tillat, Ta- vannes, the Mort Homme, and so forth, the peasants till their fields under shell- fire. Now and then they lose a horse through asphyxiating gas; but otherwise they don't give a curse for the Germans. July 13. We leave in caravan to-day to rejoin our Division "en repos" at a little village outside of Bar-le-Duc. The heavy fighting has died down again and now everything is quiet. We have received quite a lot of praise for our work through the gas attack. The new location is Tan- nois, just outside of Bar-le-Duc. We are 136 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER beautifully situated in a little valley, with a clear mountain spring, ripe cherry trees, and wild strawberries everywhere. We all celebrated the day with champagne, and Pierre got fresh with the Lieutenant and was given twenty-four hours in jail; but to-morrow being the 14th, the sen- tence really only holds good for a few hours, as all minor offenders are to be re- leased. The Lieutenant knew that before he sent Pierre to jail. The " Loot," as every one calls him, is really one of the best of fellows, and knows just how to handle the men so that they don't feel too much restraint, and yet are kept well in hand. Roche and I go to Paris on our long-de- layed "permissions" to-morrow. Winsor is going down on sick-leave. End joins us to-morrow. He leaves for good, after two years' service, partly in Serbia. We had a mock marriage to-day with a little girl in an "epicerie" shop, — who was tickled to death and got right into the spirit of it, — and Sam Paul. Sam was so rattled he could n't say or do anything but blush! Josh Campbell was the Master VERDUN 137 of Ceremonies and it was a scream! They bathed the old Zouave cook, De Vaux, in champagne. The "Loot" is tickled to death with the way the Section went through the at- tack. He received an awfully nice letter from the General of the Division, and he told Roche and me coming down in the train that he believed the whole Section might get cited — a very unusual thing. It appears that we broke the record for the number of wounded carried dur- ing twenty-four hours in that Sector, or something of the sort. Culbertson got off a classic to-day. He was talking of heavy shell-fire coming in, and of being scared, and somebody asked him the size of it. He replied, "Oh, I guess about a * 105' or, you know, a '380' Bowman"! We speak of the "77's" and "105's" as "380 Bow- mans" now.1 July 17. Trouville and a salt bath. A thing I've forgotten to mention is the staining of the white horses a sort of sorrel. 1 Bowman was a young man in whose eyes things loomed large. Hence the joke. 138 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER What reminded me of it just now was the way they are fading, on account of the months of rain. Here in Trouville they are becoming a sort of pale "baby pink." Some of the dead horses around Verdun also have been washed almost white again by the rain. They are very useful land- marks at night. I have seen more pathetic sights here than almost anywhere else. The Trou- ville and Deauville casinos are conva- lescent hospitals. Most of the big hotels are also. I was driving along the land just back of the beach, past the fine-look- ing private villas, when we came to a series of the same sort which looked like "Little Italy," with the clothes hanging out and the babies all over everything and small chimneys sticking out of the win- dows, the regular New York tenement look. I asked what on earth it was doing in the middle of Trouville, and was told that it was part of the Belgian refugee camp sections, which are scattered all along the northwest coast. One almost has to apologize for not being a cripple at VERDUN 139 Trouville. It's terrible to stand the looks of scorn! But one can't stop and explain to each individual that one has been dodg- ing shells at Verdun for two weeks, and is only on a two-days' "permission" here. CHAPTER VIII "en repos" Prance, you may pin sparse tokens with war-tried fingers to the breasts that lift beneath eyes that look to you living and dying. But the decoration you have set in these faces belongs to millions that march and that serve you still, living or dead. John Curtis Underwood Paris, July 24. Old End finally left. He was a good fellow. I remember the time when he forgot the password for the bridge at Cappy, which the Germans were diligently trying for with "77's" and " 105's." The sentry stopped him, of course, asking the word, and in his slow, drawling, vague way George said in Eng- lish, which, of course, the sentry could n't understand, "I don't remember exactly, but it seems to me it sounded something like * Motor Boat.'" The word was " Mon- tauban." What with the noise of the bursting shells and the rest, the sentry simply gave it up and let him pass. He woke me up at 4 a.m. to say good-bye and to give him a cocktail. EN REPOS 141 I ran into Waldo Peirce in the chateau, with Foster, who is going to Serbia with the Rockefeller " Foundation." Peirce had a close call at Nouvelle Fleury. A piece of shrapnel got him in the chest, but was deflected by his heavy leather pocket-book which was filled with papers and money. Peirce says he's never going to be without money hereafter — he does n't care whose! He's shaved his beard and lost about twenty pounds. I hardly recognized him. Cartier tells me that when Waldo's wife wrote asking him when he was coming back, he did n't answer; then she cabled requesting a reply; so he wired back — "Apres la guerre." July 25. Bonne nouvelle! The Section has been cited by the Order of the Divi- sion for the work before Verdun. They will have to solder the Cross on an oil can, I suppose, as we carry no pennant. A thing that is worthy of record, but which as we all know it so thoroughly I had forgotten to mention in the part of this diary writ- ten at Dugny, is that "Huts" —otherwise called "Herbert"—Townsend, of New 142 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER York, our leader, has all kinds of nerve. When I went up to the cabaret the night of the final gas attack on Souville, I thought, each time, that his calm manner and perfectly casual talk only acted on me personally. I was scared so that I did n't know whether I was coming or going, al- though, of course, I did not show it; but every man of our Section with whom I have since talked said the same thing. Old "Huts" steadied us down, whereas if he had shown signs of getting rattled, some of us might have become nervous. As a mat- ter of record we all rolled thirty-two hours without a serious hitch of any kind — except when C---- and B---suddenly declared a personal war of their own. "Huts" will wear the Croix, I suppose, and he deserves to wear a dozen of them. July 26. Off at last in the Hotchkiss. I made the trip without a hitch. The boys were all glad to see us. We brought much mail, and cakes, and so forth. On our way we stopped at Montmirail for lunch. There we ran into a Mrs. Squiers, of New York, who had become a Sister of St. Vincent de EN REPOS 143 Paul and is located at a hospital there. . She told us that one of her sons was in the English Ambulance Service and the other in a motor battery. She was glad to talk with English-speaking people again, she said, after so long; but as she did all the talking I couldn't see that we did her much good. Triaucourt, July 27. We were deco- rated to-day by the Divisionnaire. He was unusually complimentary, — said we were cool, brave, drove where we were told and showed'' an elan most commendable,'' and so forth; and finally pinned the Croix on Edwards's car, representing the Section. Copy of Order No. 78 2IM Armee, Direction du Service de SanU du Groupement E. En execution des prescriptions reglemen- taires, le Directeur du Service de Sante du 6me Corps d'Armee cite a I'ordre du Service de Sante du 6me Corps d'Armee — La Section Sanitaire Automobile Americaine N° 1. Sous la direction du Lieutenant Robert de Kersauson de Pennendreff, et des OflSciers Americains Herbert Townsend et Victor 144 AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER White, la Section Sanitaire Americaine N° 1, composee entierement de volontaires, a assure remarquablement le service quotidien des evacuations en allant chercher les blesses le plus loin possible, malgre un bombardement parfois violent. S'est particulierement dis- tinguee le 11 Juillet 1916, en traversant a plusieurs reprises une nappe de gaz toxiques sous un feu intense sans aucun repit pendant 32 heures pour emmener aux Ambulances les intoxiques. Le Directeur du Service de SanU, J. TOUBERT. Quartier GSnSral le 26 Juillet 1916. Sponagle also got one for repairing a car under heavy fire. He is our head me- chanician and an awfully good fellow. His citation was signed by Joffre himself. Brooke also received his Croix and got a bully citation from Nivelle. Altogether it was a gala occasion. TheSection's "Croix" will be framed with the "Citation" and a copy given to each of us. That also comes from Nivelle. July 28. For some reason or other the boys nicknamed me "The Judge" almost from the first moment I joined the squad 2e Armee Au Q.G.A.le 26 Juillet 1916 iroupeme Group N°78 r»l E 20e Escadron T.D.K.M. N° 1 A L' IA SECTION SANITAIRE AUTOMOBILE AMERICAINE N?l cfiy^^JK ^crtc/e^/r ^V^^C