World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities; World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
After the battle of Hartmannsweilerkopf the section was decorated as
a whole, and twelve men individually were decorated. Lovering Hill
of Harvard has been in charge of this section. He has received two
citations, two Croix de Guerre, which he doesn't wear, because he knows
that the Western Front is full of good men who have not been decorated.
The boys formed "The Harvard Club of Alsace Reconquise," and had
Harvard Alumni Dinners when the fighting eased up.
"I think that we have saved the wounded many hours of suffering,"
writes Henry M. Suckley of Harvard, 1910. In that quiet statement lies
the spirit of the work done by the American Field Service.
From the head of the Valley of the Fecht, over 10 miles of mountain, 5
up and 5 down, to Krut on the other side--that has been the run.
W. K. H. Emerson, Jr., says:
"Once I went over a bank in an attempt to pass a convoy wagon at
night without a headlight, such light being forbidden over part of
the Mitlach road. I was lucky enough to lean up against a tree before
slipping very far over the bank, and within ten minutes ten soldiers
had lifted the machine, and put it back on the road, ready to start.
Nothing was wrong but the loss of one sidelight, and the car went
better than before. There was great merriment among the men who helped
to put it on the road."
After four months the section had its barracks, at the 4,000-foot
level, blown down by a gale. So they used a new road. Suckley writes of
finding two huge trees across the path.
"I had three wounded men in the car, whom I was hurrying to the
hospital. I walked down two miles to get some men at a camp of
engineers, the road being too narrow to permit turning. There is a new
service to the famous Hartmannsweilerkopf, or, rather, within half a
mile of this most southerly mount contested by the Germans. For three
miles it is cut out of the solid rock, just wide enough for one of our
cars to pass. You can imagine the joys of this drive on a dark night
when you have to extinguish all lights, and when the speed of the car
cannot be reduced for fear of not making the grades. The first aid
post, called Silberloch, is but 200 or 300 yards from the famous crest
which has been the scene of many fierce combats. The bursting of shells
has taken every bit of foliage from the wooded crest, carried pines
to the ground, so that only a few splintered stumps stick up here and
there. At the post no one dares show himself in the open. All life is
subterranean in bomb-proofs covered by five feet of timber. The road is
concealed everywhere by screens, and the sound of a motor may bring a
hail of shells down on your head. The stretcher bearers are so used to
meeting death in its worst forms--by burning oil, by shell fragments,
by suffocating shells--that they have grown to look at it smilingly."
It is a St. Paul's School car that operates there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account