Luther C. Warner - WWI Letters Home
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SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE
Luther C. Warner, 2d, of East Berne with American Ambulance Field Service in France, Writes Two Interesting Letters
The following are extracts from letters written by Luther C. Warner, 2d, of East Berne, from France to members of his family:
In France, Sept. 15, 1917
U. S. officers are now busy federalizing the American Field Service. One group of men at the training camp were the first signed, but they have not come to this section at the front. Many men who have been in the service for a long time are not signing up for the duration of the war, as the officers told them to do. The service wasn’t so much different than it is now – except perhaps more discipline; $33 per month and equipment furnished. We ???? have absolutely no discipline in camp and our captain put the fellows upon their honor not to do things out of the ordinary. Consequently, all we do is answer calls that come for ambulances, and at the present time these number about one a day. Also we must keep our cars in running condition and ready to start on a fifty or sixty mile drive immediately. There is an expert mechanic for each section and he takes care of such matters as broken axles, etc. Most of our cars have recently been overhauled and are now in good condition for movement.
Our section, before we came to it, had been quite busy, but now we are attached to an evacuation hospital, and as the work there is nearly done, we are nearly on what the Frenchmen call “repose” – a rest. Our section has a very good reputation and many of the men have honorary military medals, one of which is the “Croix de guerre.” Perhaps the reason for such ????? may be found in the kitchen. Our food is certainly fine and we have the ???? cook in the French army. Only a few nights ago we had roast duck and lobster salad. Larke steaks are very common with us, as well as plates?? Of French fried potatoes.
Just now stopped to mail and found a letter from home, mailed August 27 and received this date. Yours is the first letter I’ve had since sending the cablegram. Must apologize for cabling only so little, as I had to pay for the address, which from here is ???? lengthy one. The cable charge is ???? francs or 32 cents per word.
I bought a vest pocket Kodak camera in Paris for 55 francs. There are so many interesting things that I could hardly do without it, although they are prohibited in the war zone. My pictures will be mostly of an agricultural nature.
We were just called from our tent by the office and told to get ready for inspection, which consist of lining up our cars and cleaning the tent. During the preparation our captain told us of an order of movement within a ?????? period than a week and attachment to a division. This means duty at ??? de Secours within any distance from a stone’s throw to two miles from the German trenches, depending of ???? on the topography of the country. ??? the trenches should run along the ???? of a hill, as they frequently do as ??? outs, we would be just the ???? ???? that hill. This would be an ideal position for an ambulance post. When this division is doing a heavy offensive, we may work driving from 24 to 48 hours. I don’t think it will be ???? a bit after the rest and good times we’ve had. About the only danger is from shrapnel or some such shells when driving along the road or receiving the wounded. When a shell once dropped on a certain spot it is very seldom that another is dropped there very soon afterward – as accurate are the Berlin(?) gunners. If they fire on our ambulances as the pass an exposed road, they know that sooner or later an equal number of their ambulances will be shelled by the French. I am very ???? to get up to the front, as I know it will be very interesting and exciting.
The French franc which as a unit of exchange corresponds to our dollar, in peace time worth 19.83 cents, or about 20 cents. When I had my money exchanged it was very much ????French, the latter being 5.27 francs for the dollar of about 17 cents to the franc. This difference on any amount of money would amount to great deal ???? English money was about $4.75 to the pound. I don’t exactly remember the decimals. In peace time the pound is $4.8665, so I gained so my English money, looking at it from ??? point of view. They say that in time of peace French money goes a long way here; this being especially noticeable with the taxicabs of Paris, which are the universal mode of transportation in that duty. These are two-cylinder cars built on the style of a cab. They have a taximeter attached and ring up 10 centimes about every one-tenth of a mile (two sous or two cents.)
When we change out Post my address will remain the same; as 21 Rue Raynouard is the main headquarters and there they have a list of all the fellows in different sections and the section number is simply marked on it. Perhaps you don’t know the formation of a section. There are w0 ambulances in a section, one staff car, one camion, one camionette and a reserve supply car; one man for each ambulance. Mine is car 491. One American leader and one French Lieutenant, a couple of orderlies, a sergeant and cock, and mechanics, and a few more helpers are also included in a section.
This was originally a California unit and there are still quite a number of those men in it. Two fellows came across with me (they are from California – Leland Stanford University of Palo Alto) and we have gone around together in England and a week in London, also in Paris. One of the fellows has been through Europe before, and he knows the main places to visit. Sept 23, 1917 There is absolutely no trouble with mail getting through, as we thought there might. I didn't hear from home in three or four weeks and then I thought perhaps there was trouble. You see, there are sailings from New York city every week and the mails reach this country a while later, but all finally come. All the news one can get from the States is very much enjoyed here, not only by the one receiving the letter, but by others reading it or having it read to them.
Since leaving our last place at ________, where we were really on "repose" (rest) we drove in "convois" (convoy) to where we are at present in active service. The roads over which we came were very good. All the roads in France are good, and there is no trouble in traveling.
My real duty commenced night before last, and it certainly was a great experience. If I don't get any more work of the sort I think I've been paid for coming ever by what I got the other night, a little of which I shall relate. It would take a book to tell all.
At 7 p. m. it commences to get dark here, and then three machines are sent out to relieve the three men at the Post. These men stay here at night until 7 a. m. the next day. There are certain roads to travel, and we are supposed to keep on them, if we don't get lost. The three men are stationed at the main post with a French lieutenant and several stretcher bearers. When a phone call comes from the posts
the man whose turn it is, drives his car to the post named. These calls come at night as well as day, and imagine driving on a dark rainy night without light on a strange road in a strange country and with the French and German shells whizzing overhead.
A night like the one I have described was my first one on post duty. My first call was about a quarter to eleven at night, just after I had gotten asleep. It's not a pleasant sensation to be awakened and have a Frenchman jabber for five minutes, and you only understand the name of the post and guess the rest. They sent a broncardier (stretcher bearer) with me and we had no trouble. I found an assis (one who can walk or just sit up) walking and I put him in the ear and went to the hospital. About two o'clock I had another call, but it was to a different post with a different broncardier and under different conditions.
The stars were then just peering from the clouds and the roads were a little lighter. I knew the way to this post fairly well, having been shown over it in the say time, and I supposed the broncardier whom I took knew the way and I placed confidence in him. The road that I knew was full of shell holes (about four to six feet across and one to three feet deep). In the day time they can be avoided, but at night are dangerous. Well, we went about halfway there and we both agreed on the right road. Then he told me to go to the right and I thought we should go straight ahead (we were a long level plain intercepted now and then by trenches, barb-wire, sticks, etc) Naturally thinking him familiar with the country and perhaps trying to avoid the holes, I followed his direction to the right. We went over trenches, in and out of holes, through woods, and over plains and railroad tracks, and I don't know where else, untiI stopped
the car and refused to go farther as I knew we had passed the place. Then my guide gave up, entirely Iost control of himself and said he was lost. He wanted to come back and have the car in plain sight of the German lights, which are very strong for a little while. Then there would be no telling what would become of the car, but I can imagine.
Knowing that my duty was to get that car back to where we started, I grabbed my man by the arm lest he should get away, and set out to find some living object to help us back. My man could speak a little English, which was in my favor. After wandering a while I found a hole with a ______ gun and men stationed there. They were locked in, but my knocking brought a man to the door and he knew a little
English. From him I found we were five minutes' run by auto to the post for which we had set out. As I continued with the car straddling rail road tracks, I met men in the trenches and they set me right, so we were ??? there. But to be with a car only a few hundred yards from the trenches and with shells whizzing overhead, having lost your way and with the enemy lights directed on your car, it is no altogether a pleasing sensation.
When not on duty, that is, running our machines to the post, we stay in an “arbre” – a place which is shaped like a sphere cut in half. The upper part is covered with corrugated iron and sand backs piled on top of that. This furnishes ample protection from any bursting shells or pieces of ??? These "arbres" may also be built under the ground and held up with post and boards. There are regular bunks in these where the men on duty sleep. These posts are as a rule between the front line and the batteries of artillery. At the time I was on duty cannon were continually firing and the Germans were not able to locate the guns, as our shells dropped over the crest of a hill on the other aide of which is the front line of German trenches; so that, in order to locate our positions, they must use aeroplanes and very few of them are allowed to stay in the air when one seen by our anti-aircraft gunners. This also is the occasion from many air battles between planes. They are equipped with guns and fire at one another just as on land. The French airmen are very skillful and they form some ???? in the air.
This afternoon five of us took a "hike" over to a village near the front from which the Boche had once been driven. Such a mess of ruins no one can imagine. Not a building in the place has four whole sides, and the roofs of all were gone. If the houses were wood they would have been burned long ago, but being stone or brick, only holes five to seven feet across are made. When these 155 or 300 millimeter guns or whatever they may be, land on the ground they make holes large enough to plant a fair-sized tree. I have several souvenirs and pictures of the place. My Kodak comes in very handy. I am going to try to develop for myself. Since being in France I've seen about five Frenchmen who were out in uniform. Their blue uniforms and fatigue caps look very fine when new, but eight days of trench work take off the polish and often the clothes themselves.
Every Frenchman is very much interested when the Americans are to go into the trenches. They are tired and worn out and are needed on the land, which is tilled entirely by women and young boys, and by men on permission from the front. The big crop where we are at present is grapes—the white and blue ones. Each family has its vineyard and press where they make champagne and all grades of wine. The water here is not good. In Very many places one sees signs posted reading "L'eau mauvara," Where families are not able to make wine they sell the grapes for $200 per ton—1,000 francs.
LUTHER C .WARNER, 2d.
Address;
21 Rue Raynouard,
Paris, Frames.
Am. Amb. Fd. Service.
- Altamont Enterprise - November 16, 1917
Letter from France
Luther C. Warner, 2d, who is with Ambulance Field Service in France, writes interesting letter to his sister, telling of conditions near the firing line
Friends of Luther C. Warner, 2d, of East Berne, who is with the American Ambulance Field Service in France, will read with interest the following letter sent by him to his sister, Miss Ella Warner. Mr. Warner enlisted last year and has been in the war zone sine July. The letter follows:
Convois Automibiles,
Par. B. C. M, S. S. U. 682
Paris, France, April 18, 1918
Dear Ella,
Your letter of March 18 came on the 16th of April, and I was glad to hear that everything was O. K. Yes, I received your pictures, the rain caps and and box containing cocoa and other stuff. All the letters and packages you sent I'm sure have come, but I am not sure that all my letters have reached you.
The report is that a regiment of Americans is to be stationed with our division of French troops. If this is no? we will probably be evacuating Americans soon. The order has come through the French division for the soldiers to treat the Americans with the greatest courtesy. We are still in the same section, having been here since January. Your post cars also came yesterday.
It is very quiet here to-day. No German shells have come into this town all day.. Wish I could send you a picture of the town, for it is the most destroyed place I have ever seen of ever expect to see with the the possible exception of Verdun, which I have never seen. Soldiers do not dare to live in the remaining stone house but are in abris some ten or twenty feet underground. One abri in a trench near our Post de Secours is 39 feet below the surface of the ground. Needless to say no shell ever breaks through this place and injures any one in it. This abri I am in, though quite solid enough, is not under the ground. It is built of corrugated iron moulded in a half circle. This sets on the ground, bu there is a few feet of cement on top. On top of this there is five feet of sand bags, then covering this are big logs and camouflage to hide it from the view of German Avions. There are no windows, but light comes through a large door. A small stove gives us enough fire on rainy days. A small engine nearer the line furnishes electricity for our light here and other abris in the town. All this could not have been done if the lines had not remained exactly the same since last April, when the French pushed the Germans over the range of mountains ahead of us.
We eat our dinned about 4:30 when on duty so will close for the afternoon.
Again I am on Post Duty for 24 hours, this time as extra man. Since the government has taken full charge of the Service, they require two men on each car. This method makes the Service more efficient especially on dark nights, when the extra man can find the road and help steer around shell holes or barbed wire.
It will be a year next Monday since I left Ithaca and went out to Buffalo. I spent a birthday there last year, and this year will probably spend on in France; the exact place I don't know; we may not move in twelve days.
We have heard nothing more about moving up to the Somme, and now unless something else starts we probably will not go. The German offensive in the main seems to have been stopped and our future destination depends on what actions go on there in the next few weeks.
Sincerely,
Luther
- Altamont Enterprise - Friday, May 17, 1918
Luther C. Warner - Letter from France - Altamont Enterprise - November 16, 1917 
Luther C. Warner - Letter from France - Altamont Enterprise - November 16, 1917 
Luther C. Warner - Letter from France - Altamont Enterprise - May 17, 1918
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