New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-01-13
Whole Section
Cited for Bravery

"That was the true everywhere. but
repetition made it especially emphatic
at Verdun. That is why whole sec
ton were cited by the French in their
orders of the day to the army.
"My own experience while we were
trate Verdun. | was stationed at a
little village with the warning that a
call might come at any time of the
night to go close to the lines for
wounded. I could see the lines, both
the French and German, on opposite
sides Of wide road.
"Surc enough, before midnight, the
call came. | started the Ford and
went out with French strctcher
bearer to help me. We got very close.
no more than 400 yards from the Ger
mans, when the brancardier told me
to stop the car. | stopped it. When
he went for the wounded man
thought it would be best to get the
car turned around so we could make
a dash for it with our man.
II got out and crankcd her. No
sooner did the motor start purring.
than another, sharper but rhythmic
sound came upon me. The Germans
had turned their machine guns on the
ambulance.
"My brancardier had not arrived. I
lay down fiat on the side of the hill
and listened to the rattle Of the
gun piff-piff -piff, the bullets
came tearing through the top Of that
Ford, regularly, viciously. For full
half hour the bullets flew about, and
all the while the motor kept hum
ming.
81 guess the Boche heard that motor
defying him, for he never stopped
pouring bullets into the top of the
hO toi, bn J., RI ot
us. When he quit we got our wounded
man and fled. l may add frankly that
I did not enjoy the machine gun at
all. Under shell fire you have q
chance always to get to a shelter be-
cause they arc trying to pick you out
from a distance of miles, but the ma
chine gun is your personal enemy, and
means you every time"
1t was at Verdun, too, that an Ameri-
can ambulance driver charged a Ger
man trench. The tale is told with
many romantic furnishings. Some say
the auto came back full Of German
prisoners who had cried "Kamerad":
others declare the "attack" of the
Ford opened a breach in the enemy
lines. The truth is that the ambulance
driver lost his way, which was not
an uncommon occurrence. AT any rate,
he drove right over the French line
ana lIllO mo MAN , 1dliu, where J. FllZ,
who had not vet made the acquant
ancc of tank spent mysterious
half hour How the driver got past
the sentry who guarded the road
which ended abruptly in the line of
trenches. and how he pulled through
the barbed wire, have never been ex-
planned, but the Nerdun men all know
that one of their number. if he cares
20 admit it, can boast of driving right
into the battlefield.
? Az Verdun in 1916 the American
: Field Service had ten ambulance sec
tons and the Norton Harjes almost an
, equal number The sections were
shifted frequently, relieving British
? ambulances or in turn being relieved
by French. Section No. of the A. F
5. was stationed in 1915 at Hartmanns-
| wellerAopf and carried all the wound
1 ed IN the guerrilla warfare that lasted
: for Il long time in reconquered Alsace
!, Hall Was First
American to Fall
=, 1t was here that the first American
was killed in the European war. He
! was Richard Hall. and he died or
= Christmas Eve, 1915. He went out
alone on the slopes of the mountain
\ and came back with wounded poilus
=, On his second trip, a two-hour jour.
ney through snowflled path swept
by enemy fire, a stray she'll hit thu
! ambulance and killed him. The next