Ambulance n° 10. A driver's letters from the French front

Résumé

Leslie Buswell failed his military medical but determined to serve in the 'Great War' made his way to France, serving in the American Field Ambulance Service driving Car No 10. His letters home to the USA depict a true hero, albeit sickened by the futility of war and the horrors of trench warfare. "The horror of the whole war is growing on me day by day, and sometimes when I have got into my bed or am trying to get a few hours' sleep on a stretcher (every other night I am on duty and so cannot undress), the horrors of blood: broken arms, mutilated trunks, and ripped-open faces etc. haunt me, and I feel I can hardly go through another day of it. But all that is soon forgotten when a call comes, and you see those bandaged soldiers waiting to be taken to hospital. I almost love my old car (it was in the battle of the Marne) and I often find myself talking to it as I pick my way in pitch darkness past carriage guns or reinforcements. If one does not quickly become an expert driver, one would have no car to drive, for it is almost impossible to see five yards ahead ..."