12 UNIVERSITY MEN REWARDED

A report just received from the American Ambulance Field Service headquarters in Paris, announces additional awards of the Croix de Guerre to Americans. From the beginning of the war up to September 15, 1916, 39 Americans connected with this service have received the Croix de Guerre. Of these, the following twelve are graduates or undergraduates of the University: A. G. Carey '13, L. C. Doyle '04, S. Galatti '10, H. D. Hale '14, L. Hill '10, P. C. Lewis '17, W. Lovell '07, J. B. Mellen '17, W. Pierce '07, T. J. Putnam '15, H. M. Suckley '10, and W. H. Wheeler '18. L. Hill '10 has received three citations, the last one being to the Order of the Army. W. Lovell '07 has left the ambulance service to enter the French Aviation Corps.

The University has been well represented in the enlistments this summer, the following 19 having joined the field service since June: C. Baird '11, M. H. Birckhead '02, J. Boit '12, W. de F. Bigelow '00, G. R. Cogswell '18, L. B. Cummings '03, B. C. Curtis '15, C. H. Fiske, 3d, '19, W. C. Harrington '16, G. H. Lyman '16, J. C. B. Moore '18, J. K. Munroe '13, W. B. Parsons, Jr., '10, H. B. Palmer '10, P. N. Rhinelander '18, H. Seton '17, G. F. Talbot '16, R. T. Twitchell '16 and R. W. Wood, Jr., '16.

Lewis Tells of Experiences Abroad.

P. C. Lewis '17, who has just returned from ambulance driving in France, where he has been since mid-years, has written the following account of his experiences especially for the CRIMSON:

"Section No. 1 of the American Ambulance Field Service, which I joined last March, was unusually fortunate in seeing service in the two historic regions of France, the valley of the Somme and Verdun. We were stationed in the Somme valley for nearly four months, when we were suddenly sent to Verdun, where we worked close to the city for three weeks and then back about 25 miles from the front for another three weeks.

"A more intensely interesting region than Picardy for the three months before the present offensive could scarcely be found. For that entire period we saw day by day, step by step, the preparations made on a greater scale than ever before. Our headquarters were some 20 miles from Amiens, on the national highway leading to Peronne, directly behind the sector of lines where the French troops have brought the heaviest pressure to bear.

The Offensive of a Great Army.

"When we first came to this region the French had barely began their preparations. There were no reserve trenches worthy of the name, practically no rail communications within 15 miles of the front, no guns or ammunition to speak of. Then there were unfolded before us the methods of a great army preparing for a great offensive. Five miles back of the lines there was made a wonderfully constructed set of reserve trenches, protected by far-reaching mazes of barbed wire. Still farther back was a repetition of this first reserve set, not so complete in detail, but still ready for any emergency. And the same was true even farther back. From a region handicapped by the lack of transportation facilities, it grew to a district interwoven with miniature railway lines. There was not a part of the lines that was not in direct touch with the supply bases in the rear. And then there were the endless columns of motor trucks, guns, troops and more trucks. This branch of the French automobile service has been developed to a remarkable degree of efficiency.

"Every ravine, every grove of trees, every secluded spot was packed to the limit with guns and shells, covered with canvas painted in the queer brown, green and black futurist style to avoid detection. Even white horses had to succumb to the brush of this futurist artist. Aeroplane hangars went up with astounding rapidity and French machines multiplied just as rapidly. The French control of the air during the last and vital month of preparation was one of the outstanding features of the whole thing. French planes hovered over the supply trains and bases, French planes swept across the lines into the enemy's territory, but not one German plane was visible during the month of June. It was due to their airmen that the French did that last month's tremendous work so successfully. At one point, where an important road ran for a mile in the sight of the Germans, the French constructed a barrier some twenty feet high, made of branches and leaves woven through a wire screen, thus effectually shutting off all view for the entire mile.

Preparations Made for a Drive.

"That was the situation, everything practically ready for the 'big push' which began July 1, when we were given orders to go to Verdun, on June 23. There followed a three-day trip across France, stopping the first night in the outskirts of Paris, traveling through the beautiful and historic Marne valley, camping on the banks of the river the second night and then on to Bar-le-Duc, through town after town in complete ruins as a result of the first onrush of the Germans in 1914.

"Not for three or four days were we sent to our headquarters four miles from the town of Verdun. At that time five sections of our Field Service were working in different parts of the Verdun sector and their work has been admirably described by Mr. Irwin in the Saturday Evening Post of September 2. Our runs carried us through the outskirts of Verdun on to le Cabaret, our chief post, and occasionally to Ft. de Tavannes. This road seemed to be a centre of French batteries and consequently at times, for German shells, a distinctly undesirable situation, to say the least. We never took any stock in one of the Frenchmen who said: 'It isn't the shell you can hear you want to duck for, it's the one you can't hear that will cause the trouble.' When one sees Frenchmen of two years' experience dropping and ducking on hearing the whistle of a shell, one has no compunctions at all in following suit.

German Prisoners Appeared Healthy.

"Verdun itself is absolutely deserted save for a few important looking gendarmes. Some streets and sections are completely laid waste, others alongside are untouched. As for German prisoners I saw about 50 or 75 in all. It was great sport to see the French soldiers surrounding a German prisoner or two, drawing their knives and slashing off buttons, shoulder straps, insignia--anything for a souvenir. We could look in vain for a hungry or weak looking German to best out stories of hardships. But they looked healthy, and, above all, greatly pleased that they were headed away from the lines and were about to escape from it all.