New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-06
FIRST ARTICLE.

The French are massed at Verdun in the
decisive battle Of the war SO are the
Americans. Our little group OF ambulance
drivers have been called from the other
points of the 350-mile line, and five sections
of the American Ambulance Field Service
are working from ten up to twenty hours OF
the day bringing in their comrades, the
French wounded. One hundred and twenty
Of our cars and 100 of our boys in the field
service are in the sector, under constant
shell fire. One was grievously wounded on
June %. Several have been touched. A
dozen of the cars are shot up with shrapnel
and slivers of explosive she'll
Will Irwip and I went up with Piatt
Andrew, head of the field service, to see the
Young Americans at work. We left Paris on
July 1 in a motor car driven by French
duke. Up through thousands of transports
thousands of horses and tens Of thousands
of men. we steered our course to Lowering
Hills section of the American field service
There on the hillside, to the west OF
Verdun. were the boys and their cars. IL
was daytime, so they were resting. All work
is night work. They were muddy, unshaved'
weary A couple of baseball gloves were
living around. One Of the boys was repairing
car that had collided with a tree. There
was mud on all the cars, and blood on the
inner side of one car. For ten nights they
have been making one of the hottest ambu-
lance runs Of the war.
II was on that run that William Motley
Il Obfo shot through
the back. The shell fragment tore long,
Jagged rent in his khaki army coat, with a
c;rcIe If blood around the rip, entered the
hack and lay against the lung and stomach.
The car was shattered. The next man found
him. The wrecked car still stands on the
road with dead man in IL, the wounded
soldier whom nc was bringing back. We saw
Barber at the field hospital. He had been
onerated on for the second time. He showed
ma the quarter inch OF metal which the
surgeon had just taken out, the second piece
n be removed He has won the Aedaille
Mlitaire.
This section needed no initiation. They
had long served at Hartmanns Weilerkopf
in the Alsace fighting, and of their number
Hall was killed. This experience at Verdun
"a , continuation of the dangerous, brilliant
work they have carried on for sixteen
months. Their men are veterans in service
though youngsters in years. BY their
shredded cars and the blood they have
smiled they have earned the right to be
ranked next to soldiers OF the line.
They gave me the impression Of having
been through one of the great experiences
Of life. There was a tired but victorious
sense they carried, of men that had done
honest service.
As we sat on the grass and looked out
on a sky full of observation balloons and
aeroplanes, a very good looking young man
walked up. Only one thing about his make
up was married, and that was his nose-a
streak Of red ran across the bridge.
"Shrapnel," he said, he saw me looking.
And it seems a pity, too. | spent 5000 on
that nose. just before | came over here.
They burned il, cauterized it. wired it, knitted
it. and pronounced il thorough job And
as soon as II was cleaned up, IL came over
here into powder and dust and got messed
up by shrapneI. Now the big 5000 Job will