The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1917-10-25
sch0oL BOY
Ines WOUNDED
cd Lad Driving Ambulance
I for French Army,
EsCRIBes COMMANDMENT
Shells Give No Warning, He
Tells Former Teacher

Oklahoma City high school boys have
been fighting in France since 1915. |.
w Turner instructor in the history de
partment OF the high school has re
Gently received letter from one ot
these boys. Byron Harris. graduate
Of 1911. He volunteered for service in
the French army in l9l6 and is now
second lieutenant in hospital corps
4 The letter reads
II have intended writing you for a
long while, but our time can scarcely
Be called our own over here, not any
considerable percentage OF Il anyway.
Exciting Time
Il have certainly had most interest
ing, instructive, and at times exciting.
time since ] have been over here. !
have worked in three different sectors,
I travelled most OF France in an automo-
bile and have been intimately connected
with the wonderful French army The
work has been hard often, but never
dull.
There have been so many articles in
American periodicals on ambulance
work. that J suppose you are familiar
with il. We are definitely attached TO a
certain division OF the French army,
going wherever they go and always ca
rying their wounded OF course, we
often carry others as in the attack OF
August ~, in which instance whole
army corps was in the sector, but our
division occupied central position, and
as We are by this time tried Neteran',
we had the whole job turned over Ia
us, worked for sixty hours with stops
only for gas, OIL water and cup OF
coffee and sandwich now and then,
through some Of the nastiest shell fire
] ever saw.
q, Back OF Lines,
Z "We arc quartcred considerably back
of the lines, about ten kilometers but
most decidedly not out OF the range OF
the 'bochc,' for they give us little at
tention here daily. We run from here
ap 10 front line post. kilometer
behind and await calls there. Some OF
the 'blesses' are carried into this post,
while for others We run out TO the
trench dressing stations, rather nasty
places during an attack, for the machine
gun bullets whine about quite freely,
From here we run back to the first
hospitals, about eight kilometers, as
from this point they are evacuated as
soon as cared for to base twenty-five
oe thirty kilometers behind the lines.
Several Of our cars have been in
jured from she'll fire, IN fact not car
in the section but has received a pune
ture or two, spoke Knocked from the
wheel etc, but none OF us has been
hurt.
Next TO the tack. tack, tack Of a ma
chine gun the nastiest sound In the
world Is the shrek of she'll A shell
gong pvcr Is low pulsating hum that
you Qdp', mpd. but one coming for one
spos 10 your immediate vicinity can't
he heard until about two seconds before
h lands. then it lets out one vicious
<cfezm, like the sigh OF the exhaust
hsskes OF a stopping train, only thou
sand times louder. Then il bursts with
4 roar II Il is high explosive contact
shell il showers the ground for hun
died yards around with dirt rocks and
wicked Jagged pieces OF steel called
'celst' A shrapncl she'll is timed and
cxplodes in the air, but 'boche' shrap.
nel is very ineffective
To Join Army.
"All Of us in Section II are leaving
the service when our time is up, TO join
the army, We came over here before
America declared war. you know, and
feel now that we should get into more
active branch This service offers an
excellent opportunity Tor man turned
down by the army on account OF bad
eyes, to show that he wants TO do some
hing and do il. But healthy man
ought TO get out. have been accepted
IN the aviation and will begin training
the day after ! leave this service, The
school is here in France.
Il am very much interested in the
flying game and have been up a number
OF times with French aviators and en-
ioyed it hugely, Watching air battles
s very interesting and at any hour OF
the day we can watch the anti-aircraft
tuns popping at 'boche' somewhere
n the blue As for the much -talked-of
Zeppelps, have seen none. and | do
not think they are such success as
they are cracked IN TO be.
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The Pail. lei. f,...,. Conn.,. -