East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1918-09-19

I lines TO lew oil the many hospitals that
lie in the zone between tue front and
Paris. This post at the hospital at CT
Ch--- was an easy post for we only
stayed there ON twenty honr shifts
and. as il was wei behind the lines, we
4 did not have great deal TO worry about,
for Fritzie only sent shells over there
snce in a while
Our post at Fr-- was an interesting
and exciting one, for we never knew
when Fritzie wonld take the trouble to
drop half a dozen big -hells into the
place just for instance or just for the
sake Of keeping his guns from getting
cold. We were allotted the two ground
floor rooms Of a four room house, and
here, in place that had been evacuated
at the beginning Of the war, we placed
our cots and blankets In the front room
we ate as well as slept, aud in front of
the building we placed a couple of an
cient and decrepit chairs in which we
sat while waiting for Little Memo" to
come with the bad news"
Little Memo" was the French bran
cardier (stretcber bearer) who came from
the Poste de Seeours and called the an
balances to 90 to the front posts Little
Memo" became a well known character
to us even before we had all had an op-
portunity to work on the post at Fr-,
for the men who came in from duty
at that place gave us all the particulars
about him. "Nemo'sH job was to walk
from the post to our two room apartment
and call out "Une petite vOiture." or
"Une grande voiture," as the case might
be. A petite voiture" meant a Ford
and a ''grande voiture" meant a Fla.
The section was composed Of fourteen
Flats and six fivvers, and Memo" would |
call out the Fords whenever there were
only three or four men to be carried |
When orders came In to evacuate more |
than four 'blesses," or wounded, tho |
Flats took the call
Haunted BY Little Memo"
So Little Memo" became a ghost that
visited rs at all hours of the day and
night with the fatefnl words 'Une petite
voiture," (I had Ford and so it seemed
as II he only knew how to say the word
petite and had forgotten the adjective
grande")
The first night on post every one tried
to convince every one else that the pleas
IRE Of taking the call was ones own and
that the other fellow was trying to hog
the trips, The second time at this post
zach man sought the corner of the room
iurthest away from the entrance Of
Memo" and argued with every one else
hat the other fellow was the man sup
posed to take the call Although the
,ars took the trips in turn. It usually hap
Dened that every one liked TO believe that
le had just taken the previous call and
therefore was not due to go out on the
run that Memo" Mt the mo-
nent was announcing.
From our Poste de Secours at Fr- we
rad nine or ten dressing stations to
Two Of these, numbered ''242"
ind "2T2," were on a road that was in
,lain sight Of the Germans. and for this
'eason II was forbidden BY military Law
o pass over the road in daylight. As a
'esult the ambulances had TO run back and ,
orth TO these two posts during the night
md had to plan each trip so that the cars I
would not be cnught up there at dawn. 2
Two more posts were on a road that (
Na AA0ou1 Boih w q
This road was always heavy with traffic. I
md Fritzie. realiEing this, kept his gun h
iers busy dropping shells on this particu- /
ar section Of the map. Between the v
raffic and the shells the two men on each "a
ar were kept busy. ID
Several other posts were reached by v
Dads that ran through towns that the o
3oches seemed to take peculiar delight In
hellinE. The roads were filled with shell c
oles that had been hastily repaired BY d
aerely filling them In with stones and ID
irt collected from the side Of the road v
{ was while evacuating 4 post that was v
cached BY just such road that Harmon il
'raig, the boy from Brookline, was struck Ia
y a shell and later died after an opera a
lon that was performed m hopeless at Ii
ampt TO save his life. IL was In just Il
nch a country as this that 30 many Of g
ls ambulance drivers were killed and q