Illustrated with a number of photographs from the French Front Lines in and around Verdun. Also Includes The Americans in the First World War Illustration Pack - 57 photos/illustrations and 10 maps. Henry Beston Sheahan was a noted American novelist and naturist who wrote many well-known books, including the Cape Cod classic The Outermost House; he volunteered for service in the French Army during the First World War. In volunteer Poilu he recounts his experiences in the American Ambulance Service in the evacuating casualties in and around Verdun during 1916. In the midst of the bloodiest prolonged siege in the world at that time the number of wounded French soldiers were prodigious; the Ambulance services needed every able body even if they did come from the neutral United States. In spite of the huge workload that Sheahan undertook he managed to scribble notes of scenes and anecdotes of the great battle and the soldiers of the French Army. A rare and movingly written memoir from the Great Battle of Verdun.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

Originally published in 1916. Personal narrative. World War I.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Contains 17 illustrations that the author took whilst in France. William Yorke Stevenson was one of a hardy bunch of American volunteers who joined the French army as an ambulance driver and was, indeed, a driving force behind American aid for the many wounded soldiers. As he was initially posted to the Verdun sector he would see the effects of some of the worst fighting on the entire Western Front which he recounted in his first book “At the Front in a Flivver”. His experiences continue in this volume which carries the action into 1917 and the further bloody battles that the French undertook to retake the ground lost to the Germans in 1916. Needless to say the casualties were horrific and Stevenson and his unit would show great courage in ferrying the injured from the frontlines to the hospitals in the rear. With the entrance of the United States into the lists on the Allied side, Stevenson and his men found themselves part of the official American effort, and passed from being a “Poilu” (a traditional name for a French infantryman - literally “hairy one”) to a “Yank”. A vivid and well-written account of service in the American Ambulance Corps with the French during the First World War.

Illustrated with 45 pictures and vignettes many in colour. Herbert Ward was a patriotic and passionate Englishman at an unfortunate juncture in his life during the First World War, he was over 40 and would not be allowed to enlist in the British Army for service in the fields of Flanders under ordinary circumstances. However this was a minor issue when the Kaiser’s German hordes advanced to within artillery range of his home in France; he at once gave over his large estate to the Red Cross and argued and created so much fuss that he was finally allowed to join the famous No. 3 Convoy of the British Ambulance Committee. He worked with at a furious rate and his work with the units, which was attached to the French army at the time, surely saved many lives of the “Poilus” that he so admired. Despite the huge burdens that work placed him under he set about recording the admirable bravery and courage of the Allied French soldiers fighting the common German foe.