With the Doughboy in France: A Few Chapters of an American EffortHungerford, Edward
History
With the Doughboy in France: A Few Chapters of an American Effort
Hungerford, Edward
American National Red Cross; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
Nine American Red Cross infirmaries were operated at base ports and
along the lines of communication for our doughboys. These served--and
served efficiently--men taken ill on trains, or casuals passing through.
During October, 1918, one of them treated 659 cases, while another in
three weeks had 850 cases, while with the increase of deportation of our
sick and wounded the work of our Red Cross infirmaries was greatly
increased. In November, 567 cases passed through the one at Brest and in
the following month 6,549 cases through the Bordeaux infirmary. In
addition to these two most important base ports, infirmaries were also
operated at Dijon, Bourges, Angers, Nantes, Tours, Limoges and St.
Nazaire.
A still more interesting line of Red Cross work closely allied to its
hospitals was in the convalescent homes which it established at various
places in France, almost invariably at points which had especial charm
of scenery or climate to recommend them. There were eleven of these; at
St. Julien, at Biarritz, at Morgat, at St. Cloud, at Vetau, at Le
Croisic, at Rochefort-en-Terre, at Villegenic-le-Buisson, at
Hisseau-sur-Cosson, at Avignac, and at Antibes. In some cases these were
established in resort hotels, temporarily commandeered for the purpose
and in others in some of the loveliest of the châteaux of France. It so
happened, however, that our convalescent home at Antibes, at the very
point where the Alps come down to meet the sea, was in a hostelry--the
Hôtel du Cap d'Antibes. Through the courtesy of a young Red Cross woman
who was housed there for a time as a patient I am able to present a
picture of the life there--a picture which seems to have been fairly
typical of all those immensely valuable homes.
* * * * *
"It is a quiet place," she writes, "truly peace after war--and there the
tired nurses and workers find the rest they need. Those who want to be
really gay must go to Nice, Cannes, or Monte Carlo. In the morning
nearly every one goes out on the rocks with a rug and a book for a sun
bath. But if you had as fascinating a perch as my favorite one it would
have to be an absorbing tale that could hold your attention. For, from
the warm wave-worn rock that made a comfortable seat, I could look out
across a broad sweep of blue water to a ragged range of dark-blue
mountains against the paler blue sky. To the left is a little point of
rocks where some one had built a villa in the shape of a Moslem mosque,
which raised crescent-tipped domes and towers from among a grove of
dark-green firs and gray-green cactus. To the right, where the mountain
peninsula joins the mainland, the coast sweeps toward me in long, tawny
curves. Villas make tiny dots among the green of the hills and along the
shore, while at a distance, but I know that near by one finds in them a
variety of shades of cream and buff, yellow and pink, and above the last
bit of coast to the extreme right rise snow-capped Alps.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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