The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1917-12-13
College Students Who Drove Am
balances Won Honors Before
Enlisted Men Came.
BATTERED VETERANS RETURN
One Volunteer Essseribes Havoc
Wrought by Shell Dropped Among
Stretcher Bearcrs.-Two Hit
While Helping Wounded.

| New York.-Some of the American
| college boys who went over to France
last May as ambulance drivers for the
| excitement of the work behind the f1r-
ing lines are returning home because
! the ambulance work has been taken
over by the United States army and
will be done by regular enlisted men.
The following is an extract from a let
| ter written by Williams boy two
weeks ago, who went over with his col
! lege unit to drive an ambulance at the
front:
The last six weeks we have been
serving in the Verdun sector with our
base at Blercourt, which Is eight miles
from the town of verdun. There are
two front posts for the ambulances-
Mort Homme hill and Hill 304, which
| have figured in the news of the new
battle of verdun. For two weeks the
French were preparing for the attack,
and the roads were only passable at
night. The communication trenches
were awful to get through, and were
made worse by the heavy rains. One
night last week two OF the boys got
lost I'm the darkness and could not find
their way with their ambulance to the
post. Finally they sighted two dark
objects. which resembled French SOL
diers walking along with their big
overcoats on. After jabbering their
peculiar brand of French for Is min
utes without receiving any reply the
! lost ambulance drivers discovered that
the dark moving objects were two
| American army mules, unable to
speak or understand word Of French.
Hit While Helping Wounded.
1.-TWO of our chaps were badly
wounded at one of the first-aid stations
while helping to load wounded men
| into the ambulance. One was blown
right through the door of the shelter
hut and was discovered lying uncon-
scious beside three dead French sol
diers. The boys who got them out had
| to go through q gas attack and a bar
rage fire. Two of them-each ambu-
lance has two drivers-had no time to
get masks and were very sick after
it was over, but they were going so
fast that there were no fatal results
from the gas.
"Mac,' one of our fraternity, has
been wounded in eight places. He
lost his right leg and two fingers, while
his companion, Vet will have a stiff
leg all his life from the effects of his
wounds. They have both got the War
Cross and military medals.
''The worst experience of all hap
pened to two Of our college boys-Jim
| Alexander and Taffy Young. While
they were driving along road lined
with batteries, which the Germans
were trying to locate, with wounded
man lying in the ambulance, a shell
burst right beside them.
"Just before that the wounded man
sat up and asked for a cigarette, and
the shrapnel passed through the car
where his head had been resting few
seconds before and struck the stretch
er bearer, who was looking out to see
where we were. He died that after
noon. Had Jim not ducked he would
have lost a leg, and If Taffy had
ducked he would have been badly
| wounded The ambulance was shot to
| pieces by the shell, and they had to
hold up the dying man for three hours
until assistance came. During the at
tack we had about twenty-four hours
sleep out of 1S4 hours, which was a
fair average for all the ambulance
drivers In our sector. During the Ger
| oip ro{dc ShnIl rpfthfp
twenty-five feet Of our camp at Bier
court at midnight. The roads are near
ly impossible now for automobiles. We
have been treated very nicely by the
French colonel In command Of the
branch depot, who feasted our unit
with champagne, cakes and cigars, and
has given us seats for all the shows
gotten up by the French soldiers.
Volunteer Spirit Gone.
Several colonels and majors Of the
American Red Cross have visited us to
see what we are going to do now.
They all admitted that we could do
more for our country by enlisting In
the regular army in Paris. This is,
for all the able-bodied men In the am
bulance service. We were asked to
enlist, IL we preferred, In the ambu-
lance service for the duration of the
war, but 1t would not be the same.
Most Of the boys declined, and we are
going to Paris to join up, including my
self. The old volunteer spirit in the
ambulance corps has gone forever-so
now for the United States artillery or
II air service In search Of adventure"