The War Romance of the Salvation ArmyHill, Grace Livingston
History
The War Romance of the Salvation Army
Hill, Grace Livingston
World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Salvation Army
While the offensive was on in Argonne and north of Verdun, those who
were in the huts in the old training area, which were then used as rest
buildings, decided to do something for the boys, and on one occasion
they fried fourteen thousand doughnuts and took them to the boys at the
front. They traveled in the trucks, and distributed the doughnuts to
the boys as they came from the trenches and sent others into the
trenches.
By the time they were through, the day was far spent and it was
necessary for them to find some place to stay over night. Verdun was
the only large city anywhere near but it had either been largely
destroyed or the civil population had long since abandoned it and there
was no place available.
Underneath the trenches, however, there had been constructed in ancient
times, underground passages. There are fifty miles of these underground
galleries honeycombed beneath the city, sufficiently large to shelter
the entire population. There are cross sections of galleries, between
the longer passage ways, and winding stairways here and there. Air is
supplied by a system of pumps. There are theatres and a church, also.
The Army protecting Verdun had occupied these underground passages.
When the officer commanding the French troops learned that the
Salvation Army girls were obliged to stay over night, he arranged for
their accommodation in the underground passage and here they rested in
perfect security with such comforts as cots and blankets could insure.
It was said that they were the only women ever permitted to remain in
these underground passages.
VII.
The Chateau-Thierry-Soissons Drive
When the trouble at Seicheprey broke out the Germans began shelling
Beaumont and Mandres, and things took on a very serious look for the
Salvation Army. Then the Military Colonel gave an order for the girls
to leave Ansauville, and loading them up on a truck he sent them to
Menil-la-Tour. They never allowed girls again in that town until after
the St. Mihiel drive.
That was a wild ride in the night for those girls sitting in an army
truck, jolted over shell holes with the roar of battle all about them;
the blackness of night on every side, shells bursting often near them,
yet they were as calm as if nothing were the matter; finally the car
got stuck under range of the enemy’s fire, but they never flinched and
they sat quietly in the car in a most dangerous position for twenty
minutes while the Colonel and the Captain were out locating a dugout.
Plucky little girls!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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