DARTMOUTH MEN IN THE WAR
Writing of the services rendered by the men in the American Ambulance Service in France, Mr. A. Piatt Andrew encloses a citation recently awarded to the section with which the Dartmouth car is working, for service rendered in the great battle of Verdun. The citation is as follows:
EXTRAIT D'ORDRE NO. 80
En exécution des prescriptions réglementaires le Directeur du Service de Santé du 6e Corps d'Armee cite a l'ordre du Service de Sante du 6e Corps d'Armée:
La Section Sanitaire Automobile Américaine No. 8, pour le motif suivant:
"Sous la direction du Lieutenant Paroissien, Robert Charles, et du Commandant-Adjoint Américain Mason, Austin Blake, la Section Sanitaire Américain No. 8, composee entièrement de volontaires, a assuré remarquablement de service quotidien des évacuations en allant chercher le plus loin possible les blessés, malgré un bombardment parfois violent: S'est particulierement distinguée le 23 Juin en traversant à plusieurs reprises la , nappe de gaz toxiques sous un feu intense, sans aucun repit, pendant plusieurs heures, pour emmener au plus vite aux ambulances les intoxiqués."
Q. G. le 4 Août 1916, P. O. le Directeur du Service de Santé
The supreme sacrifice made by Richard Hall '15 is still vivid in the minds of his comrades. The following is quoted from the diary of an ambulance driver appearing in the Harvard Graduates' Magazine:
"The morning after Christmas I sat in a crowded street car reading a daily paper. Suddenly a familiar name in the headlines caught my eye. 'Cross of War for American who Died for France, Decoration Pinned on the Flag Covering the Body of Richard Hall.' My surroundings seemed to vanish. I no longer saw the printed page or the happy faces of clerks returning to their work. I stood again on the slopes of Hartmannsweilerkopf. The sound of the guns was in my ears. I saw again the winding road above the embattled Alsatian valley, the lonely turn, and in the snow the body of a friend.
"The sacrifice that Richard Hall gave to the cause of mercy, the modest bravery and devotion of his comrades in the bleak winter battle last Christmas, the constant courage of others who have filled posts beneath the almost daily fire of the German guns, must have endeared to all Americans the service of the American Ambulance.
"I can see them now waving goodbye from the platform of the village station. We have settled down again to the comforts of ordinary life, they have faced the hardships of winter on those bleak embattled mountains. Knights of the Cross, they have risked their lives for the cause of mercy and one has given his 'last full measure of devotion'."
The fourth contingent of the Harvard Surgical Unit in France contained two Dartmouth graduates, and in writing of the work, in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Dr. Hugh Cabot, the chief surgeon of the contingent, characterizes their services as follows:
John W. Hammond, Jr., A.B. (Dartmouth) '07, M.D. Harvard '12, taken as a bacteriologist, contributed very largely to the accuracy of our work and to the possibilities of future scientific contributions. Quite as important, however, was his inexhaustible fund of humor, which was at its best under conditions which tended to shorten the temper of the mere surgeon.
Benjamin P. Burpee, A.B. (Dartmouth) '09, M.D. Harvard '14, who had come over with a previous contingent, was of great value on the medical service. Even under the greatest pressure he did his work smoothly, easily and quietly, without display, but with a high degree of efficiency.
