Friends of France : $b The Field Service of the American Ambulance described by its membersVarious
History
Friends of France : $b The Field Service of the American Ambulance described by its members
Various
American Field Service; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
In each of the five Sections there are twenty drivers, all Americans
and volunteers. Most of them are college men who have come over from
the United States to "do their bit" for France and see the war at the
same time. Certainly our Section was gathered from the four corners of
the "States." One, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, had
worked for two years on the Panama Canal as an engineer; another, an
Alaskan, had brought two hundred dogs over for the French Government,
to be used for transportation in the Vosges; a third was a well-known
American novelist who had left his home at Florence to be a chauffeur
for France. There were also two architects, a New York undertaker,
several _soi-disant_ students, and a man who owned a Mexican ranch that
was not sufficiently flourishing to keep him at home.
The term of service required by the French authorities is now six
months, though, of course, some of the men have been in the Section
since the battle of the Marne. We all get five sous a day and rations
as privates in the French army, which was represented in our midst by a
lieutenant, a _maréchal de logis_, a mechanic, and a cook.
On February 22 our French lieutenant gave us our "order to move," but
all he could tell us about our destination was that we were going
north. We started from Bar-le-Duc about noon, and it took us six hours
to make forty miles through roads covered with snow, swarming with
troops, and all but blocked by convoys of food carts and sections
of trucks. Of course, we knew that there was an attack in the
neighborhood of Verdun, but we did not know who was making it or how
it was going. Then about four o'clock in the short winter twilight we
passed two or three regiments of French colonial troops on the march
with all their field equipment. I knew who and what they were by the
curious Eastern smell that I had always before associated with camels
and circuses. They were lined up on each side of the road around their
soup kitchens, which were smoking busily, and I had a good look at them
as we drove along.
It was the first time I had seen an African army in the field, and
though they had had a long march, they were cheerful and in high
spirits at the prospect of battle. They were all young, active men, and
of all colors and complexions, from blue-eyed blonds to shiny blacks.
They all wore khaki and brown shrapnel casques bearing the trumpet
insignia of the French sharpshooter. We were greeted with laughter and
chaff, for the most part, in an unknown chatter, but now and again some
one would say, "Hee, hee, Ambulance Américaine," or "Yes, Ingliish,
good-bye."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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