The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-06
FACING DEATH, UNARMED
William Allen Whites Tribute to the Splendid Work
of the American Ambulance Service in France


mally take charge before Saturday,
the 22nd. of the work heretofore
done by the American Field Service
under Mr.. A. Piatt Andrews and the
work done by the American Ambu-
lance Corps under the leadership of
Richard Norton. The American Field
service has enlisted about 500 men
and is, well advertised in America, but
the American Ambulance Corps, winch
comprises about 500 men, carefully
avoided publicity and is not so well
known in America. The men in each
division of the service have done
splendid work. 1t was, of course, en-
tirely volunteer work and without pay
excepting the five cents day al
| lowed by the French government to
the Poilus-yet the men who have
done this service for nearly three
years of the war were the only or
gained Americans who were doing
Americas bit at the battle front in the
great conflict. They carried our flag
to glory while we were making mon
ey, and the mastering out of these
volunteers marks the close of brave
chapter in American history
Because the service of the Amer
lean Ambulance Corps is less known
than is that of its sister service, some
record should be made here of what
the American Ambulance Corps has
done during its three fighting years
L
its records show that the corps has
carried from the firing zone to base or
to field hospitals 1915 wounded, as
we'll as medicines and dressings from
the hospitals to the front to dress
these wounded. Figures mean so lit
tie. 1t is necessary to understand
how these wounded are gathered FOR
/ one to realize how fine and coura-
geous the service is. To tell this story of
the transfer of the wounded from the.
field one must first present some ac-
count of the battlefields in which
these American boys worked. Rough
! ly speaking they covered country
| from Arras to Verdun-a hilly, wood
ed country in which the French and
the Germans fought in but few plains
1t has been fight mainly for this
hill or that woods, and in spite OF the
| fact that first line trenches frequently,
perhaps generally, lie in the open, the
concealed artillery in woods or on
hills offered points of equal danger
with the trenches. Infantry, artillery
and doctors lost more men in proper
ton to their numbers even than the
airmen, and the youth of the ambu-
lance corps were daily associates of
! these three classes of soldiers.
How the Corps Operates.
| The ambulance corps receives its
wounded from the sIretcher bearers
and doctors usually on the hill or IN
the woods where the artillery was
planted. These first posts of Succor
were as far forward as ambulances
| could be driVen-alWays over SheIled
roads, sometimes over roads IN plain
view of the enemy guns. The wound
| ed are borne by Stretcher bearers to
dugouts in side hills or woods where
wounded man is quickly and roughly
! bound up. These first aid posts gen
! orally are from quarter OF a mile
| to three-quarterS of a mile from the
| trenches, but always among the guns
! md
| trenches, the Germans are trying to
destroy by shell fire. For days at a
! time there may be no trench flrlns,
| but always the Germans heavy guns
are hunting for the French or British
artillery; always the boys bringing
| in the wounded are in danger In a
recent activity at Verdun, for instance,
! in one day 500 men were killed or
| wounded in one small sector in the
| woods back of the trenches; and no
casualty came out of the trenches and
every man in the ambulance corps
was under fire every hour he was on
! duty One section of the corps had
| twenty-four ambulances. Twenty am
| balances showed shell-fire scars in
| that Verdun activity, and Shell-fire is
| the smallest of the dangers the boys
| face Gas is the terror of the men of
| the ambulance corps, for the enemy
always is Smelling the woods and hills
| behind the lines with gas. man
]
himself, but driving a car over rough
roads at night with no lights what
| ever in the car, makes a gas mask
almost an impossible piece of bag
gage for driver. Yet, no man
| in the American ambulance corps
ever has died from gas poison. In
deed, so we'll have these boys been
: trained, and SO carefully have they
! been recruited from among cautious,
] intelligent men, that in all their three
killed and not one ever deserted his
/ car: ambulance corps men have been
! gravely wounded, have lost legs or
arms or hands or feet, but death never
! has overtaken one of them. The rec
ord has been duplicated by no other
| service.
After the wounded are put into an
ambulance. the two members of the
i American ambulance corps who are
| in charge OF the car take it to the
first field hospital, which usually is
from three to ten miles of the first aid
post. The road these men traverse
with their wounded runs generally
through at least a mile, sometimes for
three or four miles, through shel1-fire
/ area On the same road come ali the
/ food, reserves, ammunition and sup
plies to the men in the trenches, and
the German airmen and spies have
I given the German gunners the exact
/ location of these roads The woods
] ABOUT IneHl are SHdNleTeu ana
Great shell holes peck the borders of
! the road and gangs of men in steel
| helmets to shed shrapnel, work up and
down the road filling up the shell
holes, clearing away dead horses
either gassed or bombed-removing
the debris of shattered trucks and
making the way as clear as possible
for the never ending stream of wag-
| ons and cars bearing food for the can
| non and for the men beyond who also
feed the cannon with their flesh and
bones and slack its feverish thirst
with their blood
Ambulance Has Right of Way.
! Down these roads from He'll the
ambulance drivers take their wound
4 ed. They have the right of way over
everything - except ammunition--for