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Show HOW AMERICAN YOUTH GOT THE FRENCH MEDAL Wounded Driving Ambulance He Is Given Highest Military Honor. ARE DOING A GREAT WOSjC American Ambulance Drivers' Remarkable Remark-able Experiences Shown in Extracts From Letters to Friends and Relatives in This Country. New York. About 250 young Americans Amer-icans are engaged in driving In the different services of the Americnn Ambulance Am-bulance hospital In Paris. Some idea of the great work they are performing is contained in extracts from letters sent to relatives und friends In this country. The latest of these communications commu-nications Is from William M. Barber, twenty-one-year-old son of J. A. Barber, Bar-ber, lawyer of Toledo, and one-time Judge in the Ohio courts. i'oung Barber is now recovering from a serious wound received In the performance of his duty at Verdun, where he displayed such exceptional bravery that he was decorated by the French authorities with the Medallle ' Milltaire, the highest medal for military mili-tary valor in France. Young Barber started from this port on May 0 and was wounded on June 20. His captain, Lovering Hill, in reporting re-porting his case to the Ambulance hospital, hos-pital, said the boy was driving his am-bulnnce am-bulnnce with three wounded soldiers nt midnight along one of the most dangerous roads at Verdun. He was forced to stop by shells bursting ahead of him. During a lull In the firing he started again, when a shell burst a few yards away. Many small fragments struck him, one penetrating a lung and another his side. Notwithstanding Not-withstanding his wounds he went on until he fell, showing, as his enptain said, the most splendid pluck, doing dangerous work with enthusiasm and coolness. Recovering from the effects ef-fects of his wounds, Mr. Barber wrote i from his cot in the American Ambulance Ambu-lance hospital the following letter on June 30 to his parents : Tore Side and Legs. "Dear Folks At Home, Abroad and Grandma : "Four nights ago 1 had a pretty narrow nar-row escape. I can mention no names here, but this is the gist of the story: "I was driving my car, with three wounded soldiers in It, along a rood that was being shelled. Well, I got in the midst of a pretty hot shower, so I stopped my car and got under It. A few minutes later I supposed It was blowing over, so I got out. I had no sooner got out when I henrd one of those big obuses coming, the loudest I had ever heard. I ran to the front of my car, crouching down In front of the radiator. When It burst It struck my car. "I was only hurt a little. I wns not disfigured In any way. It tore my side and legs a little. "The French treated me wonderfully. wonder-fully. I succeeded in getting the next American ambulance driven by Wheeler Wheel-er (a great boy), who took me to the dty of , where our post is. Here I was given lirst aid, and the medical chief personally conducted me In nn American ambulance, in the middle of the night, to a very good hospital. They Bay 1 have the best doctor In France In Paris. "Well, I woke up the next day in a bed, and have been recuperating ever since. Everyone is wonderful to me. General Petnin, second to Joffre, has stopped in to shake hands with me, and many are my congratulations, con-gratulations, too, for, above my bed hangs the Mednille Milltaire, the greatest honor the French can give anyone. Really, I am proud, although I don't deserve it any more than the tsst. Please excuse my egotism. J uoi m Good aa New. Ia JJJjree or four days I go to the hospital at Neuilly, where I can have every comfort. "Of course you won't worry about me. I will be just as good us new soon, and really this Is true. "The Germans peppered the life out of my car. fs'o one goes over the road in daylight, but the fellows brought me back the next day a handful of bullets taken from It, and said they could get me a bushel more if I desired de-sired them. "For three days I wns not allowed to eat or drink, and could hardly move in bed. My spirits were high, too. I will try to write better and take more pains. Goodliy. WILLIAM. "Neuilly-sur-Selne, July 10, 1916." Later he wrote : "Dear Folks: "Well, I am here and fine. This is a wonderful hospital, and they surely treat you great. I nm just getting back to normal and have no temperature. The doctors here are the best In the world and surely know their business. . . . "When my wounds henl up, which they are fast doing, I will be just as good as new, no scars at all. I am very happy here and hope every day that you are as happy and never worry about me. I think I have done a small part of a great work, and my mednille shows what the French think of my services. It is given for discipline dis-cipline and valor, and by the way, what amuses me, there is an annual pension of lOOf. I have been treated treat-ed wonderfully since I have It given to me. "I am the only ambulance boy who has been given a Mednille, and I am told "hat Mr. Bnlsley, an American avW.jr, is the only other American wl.o has it. WILLIAM." Driving Under Fire. Another letter vividly describing the experiences of nmbulance drivers at the front, was sent by the young American who volunteered to take charge of the first ambulance provided by members of the New York stock exchange. ex-change. In that letter to his parents the writer says: "Well, I'm still alive and kicking, but the Lord only knows why. I finally started work at Verdun on the 21st of June. I quit the 7th of July. I hope never to put in a reign of terror like that again. ' The first night we started we were greeted with a gas attack and had to wear our masks for about three hours. Luckily they were the weeping kind, that is, It makes you cry like the devil. If you breathe enough of it, it makes you very sick, but it wasn't the asphyxiating kind. We went from Verdun to a poste de se-cours, se-cours, just behind the first line trenches, about 500 yards awny from the Boches. It was In the cellar of what remained of a house; the rest of the place WaS nothing but piles of bricks, etc. There wns another post half way between, and another a little farther to the left "The road out was under continual shell fire all the time, and the second night they shelled the poste de secours very heavily. I came up the road, and just at the entrance to the little town met Waldo, who said that they were shelling the place and to be careful. I started on, and then whistle and boom Just ahead of me at the side of the rond a shower of stones, etc., no damage. 1 went on, got into a bunch of soup kitchens which were blocking the road and stalled my motor. mo-tor. I got out to crank it, just got it going, when the next one arrived something hit me on the ankle and knocked me over. I got up, found my leg all wet and no feeling In It, so I concluded I wns wounded. "I got in the car and started back to Verdun to get It fixed. I got about three hundred yards away and then began to feel things In It, so I felt (t again. It seemed all right, and my hands weren't red, so I concluded I wasn't wounded, and It must have been a piece of brick that hit me, so I turned around and went back again, and some more shells arrived. Found Dawson, and we took to a shell hole, and lay there about fifteen minutes. "Barber and Johnson were lying under un-der their cars Just in front of us. It lat up for a while and we went on to the poste. Found another man changing chang-ing a tire- In front of the poste, with part of the front of his car gone. He Invited me to aid him. I couldn't refuse, re-fuse, but I never felt so like killing a person in my life. The crazy idiot, s-ilting there changing a shoe, with shrapnel bursting al around! Evorj time lie heard a whlstls he'd (live under un-der his car. A Narrow Escape. "Two brancardlers were killed right alongside of him and he wasn't scratched. Well, -ft'e got the tire on in a Jiffy, and he went off. Just as he got to the end of the town one lit behind him and wounded the three blesses' who were Inside, but didn't touch him at all. That was the worst night we had. really. "Our French lieutenant found two shrapnel balls in his clothes, but he wasn't touched. Waldo had put his pocketbook In his left hand breast pocket for the first time fn his life that night a shrapnel ball went clear through It and all the clothes, but he wasn't touched. Two men were killed right beside him. "The night of the 2Gth poor Barber got wounded a piece in his lung, one in his stomach, and a large chunk, us big as your list, out of his back. However, How-ever, he Is getting on very well and is very happy, as he had the distinction distinc-tion of being '.he only American um-bulance um-bulance driver to have ever received the -Mednille Militalre. The whole section sec-tion Is also very proud and happy proud that one of us got it and happy because he Is all right and is getting well. "1 'rolled' all day the 27th, covering 180 kilometers and carrying eighteen 'couches' and six 'assis' nil night, so I had twenty-six hours of rolling. Of course, 1 stopped for a bite of lunch and supper. Then I 'rolled' every night until we iu:t. "We are now back on 'repos,' and we're all dead tired. Everybody's car has holes or mudguards or something smashed. Mine was very lucky, and is whole and intact with the exception excep-tion of a section of the rear mudguard about a foot long, which was beat up by an artillery wagon. Half the section sec-tion went Into Paris yesterday for forty-eight hours, permission granted for the good work we had done, etc. The French lieutenant gave the other half of us n dinner last night, which was very good fun, nt which he announced an-nounced that Mr. Hill had been cited again. That, being his third citation, will give him a palm leaf, and that Jackson, Clark, and I know you'll be very pleased, I also would receive the Croix de Guerre. "When he called out my name 1 was so darned surprised that I must have looked at him very queerly, because be-cause he said, 'Yes, you.' I asked Hill why 1 got it later, and what he said meant a great deal more to me than receiving the C. G. However, I know you'll be pleased. Reign of Terror Over. "The reign of terror is over and It all seemed like a bad dream. I've still got a black and blue spot on my leg where the brick hit me, but that's all, thank the Lord. I hope we don't strike anything like that again. "I can't explain my feelings about it, except that I was terrified absolutely, abso-lutely, and how I managed to go out night after night, and on an average of three trips a night, I don't know. The psychology of the thing Is extraordinary. extraor-dinary. There were certain spots in the road where you felt perfectly safe, and others where I just had to make myself go through. Verdun, though under un-der continual shell fire, was always a blessed relief. In fact, I 6lept like a bnby there one night from nine until un-til twelve before I started. Everybody says the same thing. You can't imagine imag-ine the strain you're under. Everybody Every-body was snapping at each othef all the time about nothing, just from want of sleep. I've slept from about ten until five during the day, at least I always did. Some of the boys used to get up for lunch, but I slept Instead, In-stead, and wns glad of It, because 1 lasted much better at night that way. "TOM." |
