Norwich bulletin., 1916-12-19
STORIES OF THE WAR
Taking Wounded Over Shell Swept
 Roads.


 Alden Davison of New York, who was one of the first three Americans serving with the American Ambulance Corps in France to receive the CroX de Guerre for gallantry under fire. has been keeping his mother informed in a series of letters, of his experi- ences at Verdun and other hotly con- tested points on the French battle line. Mrs. Davisan has consented to the publication of excerpts from her sons diary, for that is what the let ters really are.
 "The country out here" writes MT. Davison in one of bis letters, is most you will pardon very slight but ob- vioust observation, except rats ard f1eas and birds There is not single tree, hardly a blade of grass between our outermost post and the French first line, and I suppose for some dis tance still beyond the German lines"
 Referring to<the hail of shrapnel over the trenches and behind the bat tie lines. Mir. Davison says that the science of getting out of the way has developed to such a point that, as one put it aptly the other day, the chance here is just about the same as it is of being hit by a golf ball on the links at home"
 Here is reference to" famous French infantry regiment, the Sixty seventh:
 Yesterday we went to sec a re- view of the regiment, 5000 men. The occasion was the review of the troops and the presentation of the officers to a new general. It was a wonderful sight-preSentation of the flag and al tpat. It was no chocolate soldier af- Sair, either as the Sixty seventh >has been the hardest hit of all the French regiments. Thirty thousand nave S16 fhro1 IcrH KJ.f, way that means only one thing"
 Another letter describes the work of brlpging in the wounded from the VeTdun front:
 Way up there were two aerial en- agreements. Half as high again counted seventeen tsaucissols' or ob- servation balloons. Next came the hills which surround this city and on which there are some thirty forts. As we were on the highest of the nils, ve had a perfect view of the most furi- ous bombardment imaginable. (Say, can't write this stuff. It's how 12:3 A. M., and I'm in charge of the bureau till 3, when I go to the fort for "blesses.' They're raising general merry hell, and there will be more dead men on the hills tonight) I can assure you we are getting He'd Cross work here, with accent on the rcd Last night I worked till without
 
 aginable, full of shell holes allG past huge conveys of ammunition that simply won't draw out.
 My last ride especially was 3 night mare. had three severely wounded men, one of whom wass choking ali the time in his own blood fioIil torn lungs. got through the woods all right, though not without taxing some most soul-rending plunges III which could just see my poor victims being bounced against the ceiling, only to get on his frightfully long nil and have both brakes give out. To add to my general discomfort battery of 'soixantequinzes' let loose just by the side of the road and pulled over my head. They make the most deafcning rending noise, and a large battery, such as this one, shoots about ten to the second. I swear every eoncussion lifted my little car off the ground, and one low direction would have lifted it to Berlin. I forgot to state that going up this same hill with six orancard- iers inside my car caught on fire and l had to crawl under and throw dirt on it after getting the men out.
 'SThe wood I mentioned just this side of the fort is like the pictures in The Times, only more so. Wagons, automobiles, trees, shell iIoles all mixed up together, and the whole pre- sided over by the overpowering es- sence of dead horses, whose bodies lie about the road"
 Are the Senegalese good fighters !? MT. Davison answers that question, and this is what he has to say on the subject:
 "As regards the Senegaicso, who have been largely responsible for the retaSing of Fleury and Thiauluont in the last two days, they are demons at hand-to-hand fighting, but whether because the sight of blood mauoens them, or the old racial instinctlve ha- tired between black and white crops out, they kill any one who gets in the way, be he French or German. They carry regular meat axes for hand-to- hand work
 Speaking of this, did I ever men, tion that every company has several men detailed as 'nettoyers de trench ers'? Bill and I came upon this as- founding fact over bottle 3e beer that we were splitting with a lnost Iovable, almost spiritual little Lhap- to whom we had been attracted after hearing him sing in a beautiful tenor voice. He produced a huge clasp knife, such as we had often seen. but never connected with any sinister purpose. As we asked him about his work it transpired that this lovely fellows work in an attack was to stay in newly taken trench or abr1, and clean it out with knife and revcl- yer. This is very necessary work, though, for it keeps wounded and hiden Germans from shooting the French in the back as they scramble out of one trench and on to the next. .