The Palatka news and advertiser., 1915-08-20
A FORMER PALATKAN
ACTIVE IN WAR ZONE
Edwin Wilson son of late
Henry S. Wilson is Seeing
Active Service.

Most Palatkans will have a pleas
ant recollection of bright and win
some lad who grew to young manhood
in this city, then the home of his pa
rents, the late Henry S. Wilson and
Mrs. Wilson, now Mrs. VIM. Crispin
Quick. They do not all know, howev-
er, that early in the war he left his
home in Detroit, Michigan, and vol
unteered as a driver of motor am
bulance for the Red Cross in the Eu-
ropean war zone.
1t will interest Mr.. Wilson's old
friends in Palatka to read the follow
ing letter, detailing his experiences,
which was received by his mother
last month"; The letter was published
in Detroit Saturday Night, the lead
ing society paper of that city and is
as follows:
"We have been playing very i'm
portant role for the last few days. In
the ceaseless attacking and counter
attacking at Hebuterne, we have been
the only motor ambulance serving the
French, and we have worked as | nev-
er hope to work again-at least fol
a few days. Last night was my first
night in bed for five days, and the only
one without some call during the
night in heaven knows how long. Oul
| work has been not only that of Rec
| Cross and American ambulance, bu
we have been taking the place of {
regular trench unit, our work wa!
that of enlisted men between the frs
and second trenches and under shel
/ fire for days at a time. One day
wait with my ambulance on a broat
little plain, while the helpers bring
the wounded from mud dug-out, be
side a communicating trench running
to the first line, packed with an end
less line of dirty blue troops movin,
up to hold the taken position. A bat
terry of four SoiXante-Quinze fiel,
guns are roaring some fifty yards be
Iyond me. Just in the rear 155 mn
gun is firing. With no warning at al
shising whistle-and a German
shrapnel breaks directly over tn
front battery, silencing the gun an
killing four men. Throughout tina
day we served that position. Thel
is something fearful to me in this sud
den hearlding of the approach fror
our unseen, unknown enemy of de
struction. 1t is heard for five sec
onds, sibilant Kissing shrek an
then the air is shattered, not as on
sharp explosion, but as of an enor
nous ripping of some tightly strun
substance. The clouds resulting fror
the bursting shells are beautiful an
hold their shapes for minutes. | hav
seen from the top of a hill, over
crest, a quarter of a mile away
twenty deep, clustering little cloud
| like hornets nests, white, grey, blac
and yellow
81 want to emphasize the kindl
: treatment given the Germans by tn
: French. The wounded are cared fo
absolutely in the same manner as tn
French wounded. The surgeons an
assistants are wonderfully gentle wit
them and demonstrate each day tn
lack Of personal hatred between tn
two races. | have never seen a pris
oner insulted nor struck | am lead
ing a truly dramatic life. | may b
called in the dead of night by tn
bringing in of wounded, which ar
tended by the tired surgeon by tn
light of dripping candle in a dirt
little room, then l drive them som
l. eight or ten kilometers in the ambu
lance to temporary hospital, cha
teau, barn or church. The road run
along in darkness (head lights ma
: not be used) past slowly moving mu
milton trains or small bodies of troop.
occasionally battery will be hidde
by the roadside, and the flame wi
leap ten feet beyond the gun muzzlC
and as quickly disappear. Behint
the fields are lighted momentarily b
greenish rockets, thrown up by bot
lines like the head of some giganti
body, suddenly rearing itself"