French Officers Associated with the Service

 

AMONG the happy recollections of Field Service days none has left a deeper impression than the courtesy and kindness shown to us by French officers. In the sections at the front, although we were privates and directly under their orders, our peculiar situation as volunteers permitted them to invite us to their messes, and even when on duty to treat us with friendly familiarity. Médecin Divisionnaires and Médecin Chefs took personal interest in our quarters, our health, our games and fêtes, and other activities, and the regimental officers in general knew by name most of the men in the section serving them. This relationship helped, not only in making our lives pleasant and rich in companionship, but in obtaining without delay or friction the things for which we were dependent on the French, thus adding to the efficiency of a section in its work with its division.

This was an important factor, but much more important was the specific interest shown by certain officers at the French Army Headquarters, who swiftly recognized the possibilities of the Service, and opened the way to its free development. Most of these officers necessarily belonged to the Automobile Service of the French Army under whose direct command we were, and although in all our contact with those who were directing us we found interest and help, circumstances brought a close affiliation with particular ones. In recounting these affiliations I can best show how much the direct influence and friendship of these men were interwoven with the history of the Service.

The first name which naturally presents itself is that of Commandant de Montravel, who later in letters to Mr. Andrew liked to designate himself as the "père des sections américaines." He well merited this name, for it was his personal decision which gave our sections a place at the front. We must go back for a moment to the little squads of American ambulances serving with the British and the French in the north, early in 1915,to see the importance of his action. These squads were only adjuncts to hospitals in a region where, owing to the concentration of the British as well as the French, and the natural consequence of the advance and retreat and confusion of the early days, there were sufficient regularly organized sections to do the work. In fact some of these American units were accomplishing nothing, and those in charge of them despaired of their ever accomplishing anything. Mr. Andrew, cognizant of this state of affairs, conceived the plan of attaching them directly to the French Army divisions, and with this idea in view, went to the Eastern Armies in March, 1915, and found at Vittel Commandant de Montravel, Inspecteur des Automobiles de la Region de l'Est. Commandant de Montravel welcomed Mr. Andrew's plan, not only with courtesy, but with warm-hearted enthusiasm, said that ambulance sections were greatly needed in the armies subject to his supervision, and he pledged his influence and his friendship to the project of trying out an American section with an army division. It was on this understanding that the section ultimately known as Section Three was tentatively organized and sent to Vittel as a trial section in April, 1915 . As chance would have it, its arrival, after a three days' convoy, coincided with the arrival of a heavy train of wounded. The Section was instantly put to work, and the eagerness and promptness shown in carrying out his orders determined Commandant de Montravel to give it a place at the front without further observation. He immediately asked that the section be built up to the standard size of a regular French army section, and he sent it down into the very appealing, and at that time, fairly active sector of Alsace Reconquise. Thereupon he asked for another section, and thus Section Two in the same month gained its place on the eastern front at Pont-à-Mousson. Upon his recommendation the French General Headquarters formulated an agreement for the utilization and control of these and future sections (which is printed elsewhere in this History), and requested that the squad in Flanders be increased to the standard sectional proportions, assigning it also to work in the advanced zone.

Commandant de Montravel passed from one position to another in the French Army, but he never lost his paternal interest in the young Americans and the Service which he had befriended in the early days of the Great War. Writing to Mr. Andrew after the Armistice, he said:

Je ne puis oublier, moi, que dès le début de 1915 une phalange de vos meilleurs jeunes hommes est venue nous apporter une aide aussi généreuse que spontanée. A moi qui a été un des premiers à apprécier leur sublime enthousiasme, il appartient de vous dire aujourd'hui combien j'ai été fier d'accueillir ces vaillants précurseurs de toute votre Grande Patrie, et de vous exprimer toute la reconnaissance que nous leur avons vouée.

Comme Chef de Service Automobile dans plusieurs armées, je les ai vus à l'œuvre (et depuis bientôt quatre ans!): toujours prêts, toujours dévoués et infatigables; des héros sublimes et modestes chaque fois que l'occasion s'en est présentée. Permettez-moi de leur rendre ici l'hommage qu'ils ont si vaillament mérité. Tous ceux qu'ils ont secourus, tous ceux qui les ont connus, ne pourront jamais les oublier.

In eastern France the Service had another faithful friend in Commandant Arboux, D.S.A. of the Seventh Army from the beginning to the end of the War. Section Three first came under his orders early in 1915 and continued there until the following January. Section Nine came into his region in the summer of 1916 and remained there until December, and when it was removed, he urgently requested that another Field Service formation be sent to take its place, a request which the French G.H.Q. endorsed, and which resulted in the sending, in December, 1916, of the so-called Vosges Detachment. Most of the men who came in contact with him will remember him as a very strict disciplinarian, for he personally travelled throughout his sector to see that his orders were being properly and promptly executed. Section Sixty-Four in their very earliest days learned what promptness meant, when Commandant Arboux, having sent an order for a very early morning start, arrived at the Section a few moments before the time set for their departure from his army, and watch in hand and with rather caustic comment, inspected their departure. His interest in the men may not have always been apparent to them, but Mr. Andrew and I never received a warmer welcome anywhere than when we stopped to see him at Remiremont on our inspection trips. When the business of the moment was over, he would instantly launch on the exploits of his old Field Service sections, recounting anecdotes about individual men, whose names he never forgot, and enquiring as to what had become of them. He always liked to point to a chart hanging on the wall behind his desk on which he had had painted the names of the Field Service men who had been cited in his army, and he never failed to make it evident that he took an especial personal interest in his American sections.

The severe fighting all through the years of 1916 and 1917 in the Verdun region naturally brought the largest concentration of our sections there. Commandant Pruvost was stationed at Bar-le-Duc or Souilly as D.S.A. of the Second Army throughout that time, and it was due to his appreciation of and interest in the Service that so many sections received important assignments in that army. It was true that a section would naturally follow its division into line, but the D.S.A. not only had the power, but used it constantly, of changing the sanitary sections whenever he thought best, either from one division to another or to the reserve. Also new sections were sent directly to an army reserve, and must wait there until the D.S.A. saw fit to attach them to a division. It was Commandant Pruvost's custom to welcome our new sections and not allow them to wait long for an assignment. The result of his friendly attitude was that the G.Q.G. nearly always sent newly formed Field Service sections to his army. Sections Twelve, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty-Six, Twenty-Nine, Thirty, Thirty-One, and Thirty-Three reported directly to him on formation: a very high percentage, when we leave out the first four pioneer sections, Section Ten which departed to the Orient, and the sections on French cars, which of course simply replaced the French drivers wherever those sections happened to be at the moment. I remember seeing Commandant Pruvost for the last time in 1918 when he was stationed at the French G.Q.G. in Provins, and he took pride in telling me that new sections of our Service had always been sent to him for training and that none of them had ever failed in their work.

The Field Service contact with the French Army was a direct one with the Director of the Automobile Service at French General Headquarters, or his representatives. This contact need only have been a matter of military routine for, from the point of view of the G.Q.G., an American sanitary section was used and administered as if it were a French section, the differences of supply, volunteer enlistment, etc., being merely detail matters, which, however complicated for us, were only of concern to a subordinate department of the French G.Q.G. That Mr. Andrew obtained not only the friendship, but the interest and confidence of the heads of this Service, made many seemingly impossible obstacles easily surmountable.

Commandant, later Colonel, Girard was the D.S.A. -- the Director of the Automobile Service --- of all the French armies until 1916, when he was promoted to the Ministry and Commandant Doumenc succeeded him. Mr. Andrew's first meeting with Commandant Girard is of interest, as on his being able to establish a relationship necessarily depended the success of the Service. On the return from his visit to Commandant de Montravel, with the latter's assurance of willingness to give Section Three a trial in Alsace, Mr. Andrew's problem was to get the order from the G.Q.G. He was unable to get a pass to Chantilly, the orders at that time being very strictly enforced in regard to its sanctity from outsiders, but the necessity of obtaining this interview demanded heroic measures. A pass was obtained for a near-by town and it was easy to bluff the sentry. A fortunate occurrence now made everything easy, for Mr. Andrew met in Chantilly on his arrival Captain Puaux, an old school friend, then serving on General Joffre's staff. An introduction to Commandant Girard suddenly became a simple matter. Section Three was sent to Alsace, and contact with French Headquarters established.

Soon thereafter Lieutenant Duboin was appointed by Commandant Girard as liaison officer between our Service and his headquarters, and his constant visits afforded opportunity to discuss all service questions with complete understanding. Lieutenant Duboin did not confine his interest to headquarters, but sometimes accompanied Mr. Andrew to the front, thus becoming familiar with the actual problems which foreign sections faced within their divisions.

With the growth of allied and neutral participation in the French Automobile Service at the front and in the rear, a special bureau known as the O.S.E. (Office des Sections Étrangères) was opened in Paris to deal with the various foreign organizations. Among these organizations were the Norton-Harjes unit, several English ambulance units serving with the French Army, one or two Russian sections at the front, and the Paris evacuation service of the Neuilly Hospital as well as various American automobiles attached to other relief and hospital centres in the rear. Captain Aujay was placed in charge of this bureau, and naturally his contact with our Service was constant. Throughout the three years we found in him a steadfast friend. His task was no easy one, for one of his responsibilities was to see that the orders of the armies were followed to the letter in regard to the matriculation of cars and volunteers sent into the army zone, and the registration of all movements to and from that zone. Strict adherence to all details of army regulations is always harassing to the evenest of dispositions. I feel sure that Captain Aujay must have often in private given vent to his exasperation at the difficulties in trying to make Americans realize that "fiches" and "matriculation books" could be made as easily to conform to regulations as to their ideas of what was proper. But if he did so, he never showed it, and when emergency required, he personally attended to the minutest detail in order to expedite matters. His friendship was not only to the Service, but to the men themselves. He enjoyed coming to the farewell dinners given to departing sections at rue Raynouard. He always found there friends among the older volunteers and made new ones with the outgoing sections. No section ever left for the front without his hearty word of God-speed in which was reflected all the warmth and cheerfulness of his big heart.

Writing to Mr. Andrew at the end of the War, Captain Aujay recalled his appreciative memories of the Field Service in the following terms:

Soyez assuré que je garde de votre si longue collaboration le plus précieux souvenir. Quelle chose vivante, variée, souple, et toujours allante que l'American Field Service! Que de bons offices n'a-t-il pas rendus à notre cher Pays! Et si complète fut votre organization que lorsque l'Armée officielle vint ---non pas vous relever --- mais vous doubler, elle n'eut qu'à calquer les mesures prises par les volontaires pour être a l'hauteur de sa tâche! C'est une de mes grandes fiertés d'avoir pu vous aider dans votre tâche, et je tiens à vous le répéter une fois ne plus.

Captain Aujay had many subordinates, and so many of them were closely associated with us that we hardly think of them in any way other than as part of the Field Service: Lieutenant Thillard, his faithful adjoint, the genial Duc de Clermont-Tonnerre, who generally accompanied Mr. Andrew upon his tours of inspection, M. Perrin, Maréchal des Logis Bouchet, and many others, all of whom seemed to make it their particular purpose to help in every possible way.

It was, of course, necessary that the sections, being each an independent unit, be commanded by a French officer. The French G.Q.G. took pains to choose these lieutenants, not only from among those who spoke English, but with a regard to their ability to cope with the problem of commanding neutral volunteers whose discipline must conform to that of the French soldiers, and yet which could not be enforced by the same methods. That these officers won the complete loyalty of the men is enough evidence of their qualifications, but long association with many of them brought more than loyalty, for out of their leadership grew the respect and affection for the French officer which makes us ever happy to recall those days. The influence of many of them spread beyond their own sections, and the names of Lieutenants de Kersauson, both Rodocanachis, de Rode, de Turckheim, Reymond, Bollaert, Fabre, Baudouy, d'Halloy, Marshall, Rey, Pruvost, Goujon, Ravisse, and Gibilly, are known to most of the men of the Service.

Lieutenant de Kersauson commanded Section One in its earliest days. He had lived in the United States for some years, answering his country's call at the outbreak of war. It became his especial pride to convince his fellow officers that his American section was not only the best sanitary section in the armies, but that its discipline could conform to that of the regular army. His own enthusiasm was transmitted throughout his section in such a way that, although the personnel was constantly changing, the traditions of the Section remained throughout its service. It was a tradition which later gained for it the fourragère. Lieutenant de Kersauson remained with Section One for two years, and then, much against his will, was withdrawn to take charge of the instruction of Field Service men at the French officers' school at Meaux. In conjunction with this duty he was appointed to oversee the training of the new men at the camp at May-en-Multien. It was a fitting tribute to his previous success that he was called for this larger work in connection with the Field Service relationship with the French Army.

Lieutenant Reymond succeeded Lieutenant de Kersauson as French officer of Section One, and in him the men found a new friend and leader, in whom they placed their utmost confidence and loyalty.

One never hears Section Two referred to without some mention of Lieutenant Rodocanachi. Many firm friendships have resulted from the associations of men in sections, but none firmer than that of those who have served in Section Two with their French Lieutenant. Lieutenant Rodocanachi came to the Section when it was unattached to a division, and when most of its men were hardly optimistic in their vision of a winter in the Meuse playing the part of an evacuation section. Even at the front a Meusian winter wears down the stoutest heart, but just behind the front there is nothing to bring relief from the cold, foggy drizzle which penetrates deeper than the two feet of mud. Lieutenant Rodocanachi never spared himself in those early days to keep the morale of his men high, and he tried every method and trick his ingenuity could devise to obtain for them a division. His effort was well rewarded, for Section Two finally took up its rightful place again at the front. Throughout the next two years his active leadership obtained for the Section the most difficult work, and his own personality helped forge the strong unity of Section Two.

Section Three's personality was already formed by the leadership of its American commander before Lieutenant de Rode came to it. In him, however, the members of the Section found an added coöperation of leadership and friendship which helped to weld the unity of purpose of the Section, not only in the critical moments on the French front, but on the difficult expedition to the Balkans. Recollections of the very dangerous poste at Bras in 1916 would bring Lieutenant de Rode's name to the lips of every member of Section Three, for he remained there night after night until dawn looking after the men and the work. His action in choosing to remain with the Section on its transfer to the Orient, although he was offered the chance to stay in France, enhanced the esteem and respect in which he was already held.

As was fitting, the next oldest section could vie with its older brethren in its French personnel, and in Lieutenant de Turckheim its members found a quiet, firm leadership and a highly cultured and valued friend. It seemed quite in keeping with its leader that the Section always went about its business in unfailing regularity with little or no fuss, but always accomplishing its work.

One could go on indefinitely pointing out the influence which the French officers exerted upon the sections, how closely identified with, how much a part of the sections they became, how much their example and advice helped all of us in those days and, above all, what good companions and friends they were. Two of those friends we lost during the War. We looked upon Lieutenant Bollaert and Lieutenant Baudouy as comrades. The former was killed outright by a shell while in command of old Section Eight, and the latter, commander of Section Fourteen, died in service. Section Thirteen also suffered a serious loss in leadership when Lieutenant Rodocanachi was grievously wounded while commanding them during the Champagne offensive of April, 1917.

I have touched earlier in this article on our direct relationship with the French G.H.Q. established by Mr. Andrew with Colonel Girard. When Commandant Doumenc succeeded the latter, this relationship drew closer and closer. Commandant Doumenc and one of his aides, Captain Loriot, appeared to lay stress on the continual development of the Field Service. They wanted always more and more sections of ambulances for the French front; they wanted first one, then two, sections for the French army in the Balkans; they wanted as many transport sections as we could enlist. It was evident that Commandant Doumenc appreciated early the possibility of reënforcing his service by American volunteers. In its realization he knew that the task assigned to them must be important and useful, not occasional and auxiliary, and in his willingness to carry out this principle he encouraged in every way the Field Service development. I think every man in the Service feels that he was permitted to accomplish the work he had come over to do, as he would have wished, that is, with all the opportunities as well as with all the hardships of the French soldier of his service. Commandant Doumenc sent American sections to the best French divisions, and when war was declared asked for more of them for the purpose of incorporating them in his crack T.M. group, the Réserve Mallet. If it were only for his action in placing his confidence in the Service from the start, and thus giving it full opportunity, we should owe him an immeasurable debt. But he went far beyond this in his personal interest. He never failed to send a message of sympathy for the loss of an American volunteer. He frequently took several hours of his precious time to personally decorate a wounded American volunteer in a hospital, and he acceded to practically every suggestion made by Mr. Andrew for the welfare of the men, this often necessitating his own supervision. When one remembers that Commandant Doumenc was not only in complete charge of the whole Automobile Service of all the French armies, but also entrusted with the regulation of all the road movements of these armies, one can appreciate what such constant personal interest in our Service on his part meant, and how gratifying, as well as helpful, that interest was. That the more far-reaching aspects of the Service did not escape Commandant Doumenc's attention is shown in a letter addressed by him to Mr. Andrew shortly after the United States entered the war.

Je dois reconnaître [he said] que cette œuvre importante, que vous avez su mener à bien, s'est toujours montrée à nos yeux, non seulement comme une aide effective pour nos blessés, mais encore comme un trait d'union entre la Nation Française et la Nation Américaine, avant qu'elles fussent alliées dans la même juste cause.

And he added:

Je voudrais que vous soyez mon interprète auprès de tous les membres de l'American Field Service, pour leur témoigner, de ma part, combien j'ai été heureux de les avoir pour collaborateurs. je puis dire que je les ai toujours trouvés les premiers dans le chemin de dévouement et de l'honneur.

No enumeration, however brief, of the friends of the Field Service in the French Army would be adequate or just which did not include the officers connected with the transport branch --- the T.M. (Transport Materiel) --- especially Lieutenants Gilette and Vincent, who so patiently and zealously looked after the training of the men in the camps at Dommiers and Chavigny, and Captain Genin, who commanded the first group of sections at Jouaignes. Who, of that groupe will ever forget the cordial interest of Captain Genin in his "boise" or the great out-door banquets that he arranged for them on improvised tables in the dusty yard at Jouaignes, when the long summer evenings were made gay with songs and stories and warm-hearted speeches, or the great celebration of the first Fourth of July which he arranged for several hundred men, with bands and entertainers from neighboring French regiments, and ingeniously contrived sports and "stunts," and abundant supplies of the wine of France which he himself provided!

Above all, must tribute be paid to Captain (later Commandant) Mallet, the officer in command of the Réserve which included all of the American sections, and by whose name that Réserve will ever be known. It was not an easy task to command a thousand American youths, who had come to France as volunteers, utterly unaccustomed to military discipline, and who had only time for two or three weeks' training, before being thrown into a hard service very different from their preconceptions. Such command required the exercise of an unusual amount of tact and friendly comprehension, both of which Captain Mallet fortunately possessed. With what thoughtfulness he assembled the men from time to time and expressed appreciation of their faithful service! Read this passage from his address on the evening of October 6, 1917, as an example:

Volunteers of the American Field Service!

The American Field Service has existed for almost three years, and had been doing wonderful work on our front for months when practically no American believed that his own country might ever be involved in this war. The whole organization has proved a great benefit to the French Army, and its promoters would be justified in recalling their work with pride. Hundreds of motor ambulances have been busy in the hottest sectors of our front. Thousands and thousands of wounded have been brought back from the fiercest battles that the world's history has ever recorded to find proper care and get back their health.

By entering the Camion Service you awarded France a still greater help in allowing us to send hundreds of our oldest drivers back to their fields which must be tilled if they are to yield bread to our people.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Be assured that I and all the Frenchmen who know something of the work you have done will always think gratefully of you and of the American Field Service which brought you to this country!

In a personal letter to Mr. Andrew written more than a year later, after the Armistice, and after his separation from the Réserve, Commandant Mallet testified again to his enduring gratitude to the volunteers of 1917:

I feel every day more deeply [he wrote] now that the victory is won, that your boys were the first pioneers of their country in this war, and I shall strive all my life to make France attentive to this fact and grateful for their work.

Assuredly then, we, who worked with them, shall think always gratefully of the hearty friendship and constant helpfulness shown us by those French officers who were so appreciative, and whose hands were always so eager to further every effort that we made.

STEPHEN GALATTI (SSU 3 & HQ) in History of the American Field Service in France, "Friends of France," 1914-1917, Told by its Members. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1920. Volume II.