New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-06-27
The Street of the Boml
An American Ambulancier Dod,.
Gas Shells and Shrapnel

Inc iou0vtn9 letter Ucs Uut,eH home 81 No
Lee On eighteen -year-old Americon bon. o..
been driving american Red Cross ambyL,..I
FrGrce for the lest nine months. Ne Ia, ,.,,
a,ccrdcd the Croiz dc Gucrre by the French 'N
p,cnt. The letter ras forirorded b. Elio, -
Director OF the HaTJes-Nor,on Ambnla,,,, =
France.
Dear Papa:
It's a. nj have just returned fro.
trip and it's a good time 20 write. WI,
attempt this two men are busily enc,,.Is'
piling up trench torpedocs just OUTSIDE -
"dugout." ! call b, a dugout IN reality ~
only cellar but it serves its purpo..
keeps the "eclats" from hitting Won,
course, a direct hit would be a diFeren, III
The Boches dropped few gas shells ov'.
about midnight Have you ever heard 80,
tlesnake2 Well gas she'll has the s,...
effect. No one has 10 tell you VIVA, /, Is y,n
knou. It just goes put" and let's on,
.reenish yapor. That's enough down IN a..
9dugout"- put on your masks and wal, ur,s
the Boches are finished. But It's cb,,,lr
scene. one candle burning, and every one 81.
ting around with masks on-the cat hugs =.
ire while James. the medicine dog. Ia, -,
mask on. too it's a special one-ans :.
knows enough not to paw it of He's,r e,,
war dog.
During these sessions there is alvsv, a,
official "snifer' appointed who has 10 ,,t.
off his mask every once i'm a while. 20 70 the
door and see II the stuff is still around II.
-
cat out. She came back so quickly tina, no
one had any doubt that II still was Their.
Oh, it bothers me. the gas more than II.
-hels It's pretty rotten way to make war
A Boche avion came over the town We STAY
in the other night and dropped four bombs,
One lit on the house next the one the Chief
was sleeping in, the rest a few hundred fee,
from our tents. No one was hurt. We called
il the Luck of Section Seven. Strange to say
the name of the street all the bombs fell On
is Rue de la Bombe.'
had an interesting experience few dsys
ago: in fact at the time n was too interest.
ING. If | remember rightly closed my
last letter up in order to get a little sleep
while | had the chance. Well, hadn't been
asleep more than an hour when / was awsk.
ened by the noise Of "a rIyees" not shells,
but shrapnel. There was battery not far
from us and the Boches were trying TO silence
it by making the gunners take to cover. hence
the shrapne might remark that the en-.
trance of our dugout. having once been Ger.
man. now faced the wrong way said entrance
being covered by blanket Each shot KEEP.
coming nearer, and you can't imagine
werder sound than the whine of bursting
shrapnel. Pretty soon it came so near tina,
you could hear pieces hitting the top of the
dugout. The last one burst the nearest
right in front of the door. Zowe ling!
patter, hit, bang, They ripped through tina.
blanket like clown going through paper
ring at n circus. / held my breath and lay
still. Fortunately none Of US got HIT bu, in
the morning we picked pieces out Of all the
walls The blanket resemblod a huge piece
of Swiss cheese. The gunners came down in
the morning to look us over and told US the
Boches hadn't succeeded in driving them
from their guns for moment. We all
agreed with the Brancardier. who remarked
"Sale Boche."
The same weather continues. RAIN hail
snow and mud inches deep. ThinF Of the
poor wounded in it ALL But we do help them
With love to all,