Crittenden record-press., 1917-11-15
AMERICANS tell
VERDuN HORRORS
College Students Who Drove Am.
balances Won Honors Before
Enlisted Men Came.
BATTERED VETERANS RETURN
One Volunteer Describes Havoc
Wrought by Shell Dropped Among
Stretcher Bearers.-Two Hit
While Helping Wounded.


New York.-Some Of the American
college boys who went over TO france
last May as ambulance drivers for inc
excitement Of thu, work behind the mr.
Ing lines are returning home oecause
the ambulance work has been taken
over by the United StateS-ar.iy ana
will be done by regular enlisted aieii-
The following is an extract from let
tcr written ~ a Williams .Loy 'No
weeks ago, who went over with MS COL
Icce urj. 70 Give an ambulance ut the
'front.'
The last six weeks we have been
serving in the Verdun sector with our
base at Blercourt, which Is eight mi'es
from the town of Verdun. There are
two front posts for the ambulances-
Mort Homme hill and Hill 3O4, which
have figured in the news of the new
battle of verdun. For two weeks tile
French were preparing for the attack,
md the roads were only passable Ut
night. The communication trenches
were awful to get through, and were
made worse by the heavy rains. ohe
night last week two Of the boys got
lost I'm the darkness and could not hnd
their way with their ambulance to the
post. Finally they sighted two Dark
objects, which resembled f'reneh SOL
diers walking along with their big
oyercoats on. After jabbering their
peculiar brand Of French for 10 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.
"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 gas attack ana BAR
rage fire. Two Of them-each ambu-
lance has two drivers-had no une to
get masks and were very sick after
II 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 stin
leg all his life from the effects Of his
wounds. They have both got the War
Cross and military medals.
"The worst experience Of On hap
pened to two Of our college boys-Jim
Alexander, and Taffy Young. While
they were driving along a road lined
with batteries, which the Germans
were trying to locate. with q wounded
man lying In the ambulance, q shell
burst right beside them.
"Just before that the wounded man
sat up and asked for 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 n leg, and II Taffy had
ducked he would have been badly
wounded. The ambulance was shot to
pieces by the shell, apd 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 1874 hours, which was a
fair average for oil the ambulance
drivers In our sector. During the Ger
man air raids one shell burst wffailn
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 fcasted our unit
with champagne, cakes and cigars, ant
: has given us seats for all the shows
t gotten up by the French soldiers.
$ Volunteer Spirit Gone.
"Scveral colonels and majors Of thu
e American Red Cross have visited us t
4. see what we are going to do now
, They all admitted that. we conld d'
, more for our country by enlis,lng Ii
the regular army In Paris. This Is
J. for all the nble.bodied men In the am
bulance service. We were asked Il
enlist, II we preferred, In the ambu
lance service for The duration Of tn,
war, but II wonld not be the same
!. Most Of the boys declined, and we ar
going to Paris TO Join up, including my
= self. The old volunteer spirit In Tn
m ambulance corps has gone forever--s
~ now for the United States artillery .
y air s,rvIce In search of adventure"