The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-11-03
American Boy Ambulance
Driver in France De-
scribes War Scenes.
HUNTS FOR WOUNDED
Makes Trip to Front Amid
Bursting Shells on Err
rand of Mercy.

Just how Ii feels to drive an ambu-
lance to the point where shells are
bursting and then walk on through
the firing line looking for wounded is
told graphically by n young man at
the front in a letter home.
France, Aug. t.. 1917. Dear Mr..
We reached here on Saturday,
the nth. and the French started an
attack. worked for ffty-six hours
without a wink of sleep and hardly
left my car.
AT midnight we were all called out.
The Germans bomharded the hills and
woods with a new kind OF gas, and
hundreds of soldiers and horses were
gassed. Five of ny were sent to IN
advance 'poste de secours near the
front. We struck the gas about one
half way up the Hill and had to put
on our gas masks. and from then on
we were almost blind.
I'VE came to n point where we were
TO turn off IN valley just before q
short hill. Here we found = terrible
ENHANCEMENT of artillery catssons,
dead horses. mules. drivers, all piled
up ahead of MS. Tho road was blocked
and the gas was thick. so We decided
to turn back and wait for wounded
at poste No. 4. further back.
Nearly Hit BY Shells.
we had no sooner decided when
two shells burst behind us and wrecked
three cannons. There we were, like
rats in a trap. with no chance Of es
Gaping SO we started to hunt for an
abri To telephone the medicine chief
to have the road clear, but when we
fell into the abri. after 20 minutes OF
agony trying to find one, we found the
wires were broken and they could
get no poste on the wire. This abri
presented most terrible spectacle. |
never saw men so absolutely broken,
so resigned to their impending fate.
Men were gassed and suffered agony,
vomiting, and one man beside me had
been wounded and died. His horrible
body stiffened and sank to the floor.
God knows, we all expected the
same fate. This was after two hours
with the masks on. and in the midst
OF il ! tried to find q handkerchief.
and my hand fen on a little cruciflx
that Miss Hall had passed into my
hand the day | sailed, and I took II
and uttered the most sincerely fervent
prayer Of my life. ] prayed for all
orr boys out that night and for this
poor devils unsheltered on the road.
Ni1si i'ah az i'"i
badly smashed but could still run. We
,,so found -bs 1agl, rnod had been
cleared and Fi Mueller, a brave lad
from California, and myself started
back on foot with stretchers for
wounded. Here We met the most trag-
ic moments Of our lives. A shell burst
very close to us and we fell flat, COW
cred with mud and stones. one rock
hit me in the shoulder, causing pam
We no sooner got mp when another
shell came. swapping tree % feet
ahead OF us.
We climbed through this ana zen
into an officers abr, aud when VIC
told the colonel that we mad riilnoe'
through the woods Tor Weaha'a III
looked at us and shook ms h'dh.
know he was wondering now we eve
got there alive because 'ha} point "''
absolutely swept by German flfe' ~
the bunk was a captain "ouln'n
named Julian and the colonel asked /
we would take nm TO our car too'
nm ana had 10 III hliii over w.
horses and debris, ana had To hnf