Sidney Towner Phelan letter to mother - June 10, 1917
Transcript
June 10, 1917 Dearest Mother, Our plan has gone through without a hitch. We are now signed up for six months with the American Ambulance. We are living at present at the American Ambulance Hospital at Neuilly. We will have our unit at the front constantly. That is about 22 cars and 45 men. We drive big cars not Fords and have two men to a car. Every month 15 men will come back to Paris
Transcript
and 15 others will go to the front. That means I will spend about half my time at the front and about half in Paris. Those who can't drive 3 speed cars will be taught so don't worry about that. I don't know whether I will be among the first to leave or not. Yesterday I got my uniform. It's a peach! This morning I had my first call. Every man and ambulance in the place were called out to meet an incoming train. That was at 4:45 AM and I was busy carrying wounded from the trains to the cars until 10:00 AM. I never saw so many maimed men in my life.We did that without any food except coffee. Then when the last blessé was carried away we went to a nearby cafe
Transcript
and had a real feast omelet, steak, bread and butter, cherries, chocolat and coffee. I drank two cups of cocoa and two cups of coffee and ate proportionately. I surely was hungry. This Paris squad gets that almost every night. They had an earlier call at 1:00 AM but I didn't go on that. We don’t have an awful lot of work in the day time. We carried nearly 200 blesses on the 4:45 call this morning. Some of the cases looked pretty bad minus two or three limbs or a jaw or something like that. I have to go now as Rex is waiting. We
Transcript
are going over to Miss Birkhead's. Lots of love, Towner PS Jack Carter and Tom Wagner are among those who stuck to the Field Service. They go to Meaux tomorrow to train. They expect to get ambulances and probably will but I am glad I am not with them as I don't trust Mr. Andrews.
Details
| Title | Sidney Towner Phelan letter to mother - June 10, 1917 |
| Creator | Phelan, Sidney Towner |
| Source | Phelan, Sidney Towner. Letter to mother. 10 June 1917. Sidney Towner Phelan Papers, 1899-1960. A1209. Missouri History Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri. |
| Description | Sidney Towner Phelan, a St. Louis, Missouri native, wrote this letter to his Mother while serving as a volunteer ambulance driver in France during World War I. In this letter, Phelan provided a detailed description of his new unit. |
| Subject LCSH | World War, 1914-1918--France; World War, 1914-1918--Medical Care; Ambulance driving |
| Subject Local | WWI; World War I |
| Site Accession Number | A1209 |
| Contributing Institution | Missouri History Museum |
| Copy Request | Transmission or reproduction of items on these pages beyond those allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the Missouri History Museum: 314-746-4510 |
| Rights | The text and images contained in this collection are intended for research and educational use only. Duplication of any of these images for commercial use without express written consent is expressly prohibited. Contact the Missouri History Museum's Permissions Office at 314-746-4511 to obtain written consent. |
| Date Original | June 10, 1917 |
| Language | English |