Our Despatches from the Front (No. 151), Exciting Work with French Ambulances in the Vosges.
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IN TI1E VOS(iES.
I have just come back from a very exciting five days at one of our mountain outposts, 4000 ft. odd • above sea level, in the midst of aromatic pine forests. In spite of these natural advantages, it is decidedly not, a healthy resort, as the Boche gunners opposite sent over 5.9's regularly for the five days I was there.
My adventures started with an urgent telephone order to go imme diately to R , down at the foot of the mountain, and there wait for orders. As the ambulance put . up was being relieved that morning, and the relief had left Some two hours before, it was pretty evident that something had happened or was about to happen.
Arriving at R , news met us that the two vehicles, the departing ambulance and the relief car, had both been destroyed by shelf fire. Ordets came through to continue up to C—, and the long climb on second gear up the winding mountain road eventually brought us alongside a smouldering heap of wreckage of what had once been two 20 h.p. Austin ambulances.
The two vehicles had been standing close together when a 5.9 h.e. shell pitched full on the frame of one car, right amidships.
Austin Ambulances Ablaze.
. The petrol tank had been holed in two places and the petrol at once caught fire. In a matter. of s..conds only both cars were a blaze from end to end, each had some 120 odd litres of petrol on board. Luckily it was not the first Shell of the bombardment, and the drivers were safely under cover in a. dng-out.
Such damage to an ambulance I have, not seen before in two years out here ; the frame was practically cut in two, one side member being blown to pieces. The cardan-shaft and torque stay were blown away,as wvil as most of the gearbox and sub-frame, whilst the change-speed was found twisted and bent some yards away. The engine was hanging in the frame by two small bolts, and most. of the aluminium and brass parts had melted.
The second vehicle, which was practically untouched by the shell, had 'perhaps suffered Worse. The frame was hopelessly bent and tangled, the gearbox and crankcase were mere lumps of aluminium, with gear wheels, connecting rods, etc., exposed to the open air, and the carburetter had melted. Whether the shell was meant for the cars or for a battery a little farther away, I cannot say ; it was not the first time the semi-dug-out whieln is used as a garage had been hit; though, and.a visit. I paid to the
battery that afternoon further convinced me that the correct range of -the battery was –perfectly well known to the rival German battery" Five Days in a Dug-out.
. I managed to run my ambulance di the road at a spot a hundred" yards or so' away from. the still smoking wreckage, and then installed myself in the dug-out re.-. served for our use. Here I was to be' stuck for five days without any hint whatsoever of our movements; . the call ha a been tdo urgent to spend time in hunting for a hint. The weather was lovely, and we were left in peace to enjoy the perfectly wonderful view until just after the evening meal. Then the Boche gunners opened up again and got the evening hate safely delivered, safely from our point of view—it did no harm.
The night was rather, disturbed by rats and our own batteries, and when the delivery of I3oche 5.9's began again at 7 a,m. I am afraid we were rather short-tempered, especially when one landed a. few
feet in front of ,our " ,Every,thing comes to an end, however, and'after an hour of it they left us quiet for the day. A couple of Peugeot camio.ns and a, breakdown gang aRrived in the afternoon for the debris of the two wrecked ambulances, and then I was out taking Wounded down to the bare hospitals.