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The Motor in Warfare 195
of any of the other armies in the field.
Although a continental war had been quite
unexpected in England, a large equipment
of motor-ambulances was provided at the
first outbreak, and urgent measures were
taken to augment the supply from week to
week. Not only were ambulances required,
of course, at the front, but large
"last word in comfort," and I know that
many were not only specially built as regards
the bodies, including six to the order
of the American Women's War Relief Fund,
but were attached to chassis of the most
expensive type. A volunteer corps was
also raised in England, pledged to work on
the firing-line itself and rescue wounded
From a photograph, copyright by Underwood & Underwood.
Motor-'buses with the French army which were formerly used on the streets of Paris.
numbers were provided for conveying British
who might otherwise have been left to die
and Belgian wounded to hospitals on upon the field of battle.
arrival in England. When it was supposed
It is impossible to speak too highly of
that the service was complete, there
came the news that the French troops were
insufficiently supplied, despite the generous
the invaluable work rendered by the motorambulances
and the brave men and women
of the Red Cross service, for never before
help of the American community, and have they had to work under similar con­
further ambulances were despatched to ditions. There is overwhelming evidence
Paris, to meet the pressing need of conveying
of the fact that not only have the Ger­
wounded from the field-hospitals mans never scrupled to fire upon the
to the more elaborate establishments in wounded, and upon doctors and nurses
the French capital itself. Great suffering actually engaged in succor—a whole ambulance
had been endured, meanwhile, by wounded
men lying on the floors of vans, condemned
to many weary hours of jolting in trains on
company was blown to pieces
while crossing the Aisne—but they have
even abused the Red Cross to the extent
congested lines; in fact, it was said that of arming their own ambulance corps, killing
wounded men, and disguising officers
the trains took from ten to twenty hours
to do journeys which could be done in two as doctors with the object of obtaining
or three by motor-cars. According to a access to the enemy's lines and carrying
correspondent, however, of a Paris daily, back useful information to their own.
the British ambulances represented the
So far we have considered the forms