Harold I. Magoun, who attended
A.T. Still University in Kirksville, Missouri, wrote a twelve page memoir regarding his time as an ambulance driver in the U.S. Army during World War I. Magoun was part of the Ambulance Service #544 and served as part of a detachment of the French Army in 1918. Magoun received both the Croix de Guerre and a Purple Heart for his actions during the Second Battle of the Marne in July of 1918.
Magoun’s lively and detailed narrative spans the majority of his service and includes stories about his training, traveling across the Atlantic to Europe, daily life on the Western front, and driving an ambulance during the Second Battle of the Marne. Below are excerpts from his memoir, which is scheduled to be digitized in full by
Missouri Over There. Enjoy!
Magoun, who refers to himself as "Maggie", on his voyage to Europe:
"Our ship was [RMS Carmania] of the Cunard Line, converted into a troop carrier with three tiered bunks down in the stearage. The heat, foul air and crowding was hardly conducive to sleep. But it was very cold on deck as we watched the lights of Long Island fade away. Morning saw us in Halifax Harbor...Maggie drew guard duty on the top deck where the frigid wind was worst. He did his best to keep his blood circulating by all sorts of gyrations. He needed to with the harbor water freezing over from the cold. But one of the "60-day wonders", who was Officer of the Day, bawled him out unmercifully and made him stand at attention and recite the Articles of War including the phrase: "To walk my post in a military manner", etc. Before this was over Maggie was so hot under the collar that the cold did not matter. When he was relieved he decided on a hot shower, not knowing that it was salt water, which requires a special type of soap. So he really had a nice mess to get out of his hair. And then there were maggots in the food. Setting-up exercises on the pitching deck after we sailed called for ballet dancing technic. If he did a squat as the ship rose it was like walking up hill. When he straightened up as the boat went down again he just about took off."
Regarding Magoun's time on the front lines:
"On the way to the front near Reims we stopped for the night at Meaux. a quiet little village where the tide of the German drive on Paris was stopped by General [Joseph] Joffre's Territorials, rushed to the front by taxicab. We had hardly settled for the night when a stream of soldier laden trucks poured by for hours. We later learned that the collapse of Russia enabled Germany to stage an attack "to end the war", creating a gap between the British and French troops. Three French divisions were rushed up and held against the Germans. Being "at the front" meant having our sleeping quarters when not on duty in a deserted village a little way back and taking turns at three-day shifts at the Poste de Secours or First Aid Station back of the trenches to which the wounded were brought on stretchers. From this, night or day we evacuated the wounded to the Field Hospital. Other members of our group"
"then took the seriously wounded to Surgical Field Hospitals further in the rear. The Germans were well ensconced on a hill, Nogent L’Abbesse, with captive balloons and an observer to report any vehicles crossing the broad plain we had to travel. It made no difference that our ambulances were well marked with red crosses. We were “fair game” for a battery of “77’s”. They would guess our speed and plant three shells along the road, trying to make a hit. But we altered our speed, slowing up and then spurting, so that it almost got to be a game. And we won, most of the time. Zed was called the luckiest man in the section because his ambulance was pierced with 97 pieces of shrapnel and three tires were ruined but he was unharmed. In the night it was very different. That was when the raids for prisoners occurred with a deafening roar of artillery and machine guns, shells landing along our route as we tried to find our way in the darkness without headlights, over impossible roads and carrying mortally wounded men who cried out in agony. We became accustomed to the danger but never to the screams of pain."
Magoun describes his experience at the Second Battle of the Marne:
"Quite a few members of SSU 544 were decorated with the Croix de Guerre for bravery in evacuating the wounded under fire. They had no thought but to do their best, night or day. Many suffered from eye and throat irritation from the poison gas. Horace’s car was ditched by a shell and he barely escaped with his life. Charlie the same. Making eighteen to twenty trips in twenty four hours and carrying out about a hundred wounded or gassed soldiers during that time was routine. We sometimes went three weeks without taking off our clothes because of the urgency of the times and the necessity of snatching an hour’s sleep here and there, while still being ready for instant duty. And the darned cooties loved that!"
"...We were waiting for the barrage to lift in an underground shelter, knowing that some of us who went out might not come back alive. And then the most profane and seemingly atheistic guy in the outfit spoke up and said: “Maggie would you say a prayer for us?” We needed it. The First Aid Station was crowded with wounded. The retreating Germans had the exact range on the corner where the road turned back towards Reims. They were firing a shell at that corner every three minutes. We had to load an ambulance and be ready a short distance away, dash to the corner and get around it between shots. More then one wounded man crawled back out of the ambulance when it was loaded. They had had enough. One of our group, who had been with us only a month, died with a shell fragment through his head. Along with all the high explosives there was chlorine, phosgene, mustard and tear gas coming our way. With fogged gas masks we could not see to drive so we had to take them off. Quite a number of the section were affected, seven seriously. Maggie was blind and could not speak above a whisper for nearly six weeks but stayed with the outfit because the hospitals were choked with worse cases. Condensed milk was all he could swallow."
Sources:
All images are courtesy of
the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine. The Museum also holds Magoun’s bugle, lapel pins, Croix de Guerre Medal and Purple Heart. For more information regarding the collection please contact the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine.
