"Back From Hell - free ebook by Samuel Cranston Benson

"Back From Hell"

BY SAMUEL CRANSTON BENSON Illustrated CHICAGO A. C. MCCLURG &amp; CO. 1918 Copyright A. C. McClurg &amp; Co. 1918 Published September, 1918 Copyrighted in Great Britain W. F. HALL PRINTING COMPANY, CHICAGO Dedicated to My Wife...

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CHAPTER I A FORMER PACIFIST

When the old Chicago cut loose from her moorings in an Atlantic port it was a red letter day for me. She was a good sized craft, of the French Line, and was to carry a lot of other Americans, besides myself, from the United States to France. We were all in a spirit of expectancy, mingled perhaps with sadness, for we were going over to see and have a hand in the most stupendous event of history, the Great War. Although many different motives actuated us, our destination was the same, and all of u

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CHAPTER II RED TAPE IN TRAVELING

As we bumped into the dock at Havre I was given my first scare. I was taken in charge by a French soldier who wore a red and blue cap, a huge overcoat with the corners buttoned back, and red trousers with the lower parts stuck in his boots. These things, however, did not have any particular interest for me; not that I was an indifferent onlooker by any means, but the thing I was interested in was on the end of his rifle; the big shining steel bayonet, which to me had a most vicious aspect. It wa

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CHAPTER III HOW I GOT INTO THE SERVICE

My first formal call when I got to Paris was upon Ambassador Sharp. This, however, was not until I had been in the city several days. I had become acquainted on the ship with a party of Serbians who had been mining up in Alaska and were now going back to fight the Austrians. They had some difficulty and delay in arranging their passports, so I remained with them until they got away. When at last I called on Mr. Sharp and told him I wanted to go to Belgium, he asked me why I didn't stay and do re

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CHAPTER IV A UNIT IN ITS INFANCY

The story of the American Ambulance Service has been written by abler pens than mine and so I will give but a brief account of it. When the war first began the idea of serving France through ambulance work was conceived by a few large-visioned Americans. The plant of the fine new boys' school called the "Lycée Pasteur" was turned over to these men for the ambulance headquarters. The beginnings had been small, Henry Ford having donated in 1914 ten ambulances with which the movement started. Early

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CHAPTER V THE NORTHWEST FRONT—MUD!

The section which had been at Dunkirk and in Flanders had some interesting experiences. The larger part of the time the boys were put up in stables and slept on straw or in the ambulances. They had gone out in the early spring and were detailed to work around Dunkirk carrying the blessés from the freight depot to the several hospitals as the French authorities directed. Working in mud under air raids and long range bombardments was not unusual to them. The history of the northwest front is a his

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CHAPTER VI A WEIRD NIGHT

One midnight after a certain engagement "somewhere in France" in which many men fell, I learned of an experience which burned its way into my soul, and I believe will stay there till the Judgment Day. I have read in history of individuals such as the one I am telling of, but never in my life have I had actual knowledge of any but this one, and I hope that I shall hereafter forever be delivered from such. This particular night the firing for some reason had suddenly ceased. A man named Valke was

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CHAPTER VII THE RED CROSS

Caring for men, not only those who are wounded, but for those who are sick or in trouble as well, the Red Cross is without a doubt the greatest relief organization in the world today. It is so far-reaching in its scope that it does not stop with the soldiers, but includes also in its ministrations indirect victims of war—the widows, the fatherless, the aged left desolate, the homeless, and the refugees of every age and condition of life. Heretofore some people have had a wrong impression of this

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CHAPTER VIII WHEN FRANCE WAS FIRST "GASSED"

At the stations these days we found numbers of poilus who were "done in" by the German explosive bullets, many of them breathing their last. Poor devils, writhing in pain and agony! It was bad enough to have their flesh penetrated by the capsule of lead and steel, but to have added to it the excruciating torture of having the bullet explode or expand after it got inside, was fiendish. But such was the German's idea of "military necessity." They had thrust aside every consideration of humanity, a

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CHAPTER IX WHEN JACQUES "WENT WEST"

One of the most pathetic of the personal experiences which I had while I was in the service was in my association with a young poilu of about nineteen. I had become well acquainted with the lad and we had many an interesting talk together, he speaking in his inimitable French manner and I responding in my butchered-up attempt at that language. One day, however, after we had been speaking of how we were going to get the Germans, Jacques must have become a little careless, and when he went up to h

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CHAPTER X "TRENCH NIGHTMARE"

Often in the long, long hours of the midnight during that period I brooded over the situation. Frequently the wheels of my thought would turn swiftly, and cause me to reflect upon that life in the terrible trenches; in those uncanny and frightful sewers, dug in the ground, cut there in No Man's Land, and, it sometimes seemed, in no God's land, where the guns bark, and the red fire leaps, and the shrapnel hisses, and the howitzers rip and snort in the daytime, and where glassy-eyed rats and vermi

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CHAPTER XI CALM BEFORE A STORM

Section "Y," to which I had been attached, was about this time transferred to a point much farther east and south. They were a jolly bunch of good fellows and always had a sociable time together. As a rule the best of feeling existed between all of the members but I remember one occasion on which the tranquillity of the party came perilously near being upset, temporarily at least. One of the boys was of a rather argumentative turn of mind and would often deny the statements of the other boys app

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CHAPTER XII IF AN AMBULANCE COULD SPEAK

In silent moments of rest between trips I occasionally would reflect, "If an ambulance could only talk, what tales it would tell!" No doubt, sometimes it would tell of the pleasant occasions and of merry conversation, and then again it would turn to the tragic and the sad. Now it would be of victorious moments, and again it would be of defeat and discouragement. Occasionally it would be gay and glad, and speak of heroism if some slightly wounded man was riding in it and talk joyfully of the hope

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CHAPTER XIII A TICKLISH ATTACK

At one time I was called upon to go to the city of A—— on a particular errand. While there I had a unique experience. I had gotten a permit allowing me to remain there over night, which, speaking accurately, allowed me to leave next day. You have very little difficulty "staying" in a place as long as you stay, but if you do not have a permit you will have your troubles when you try to "leave" next day. All permits in Europe today read "allowed to leave" such and such a place on such and such a d

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CHAPTER XIV THE DEATH OF A COMRADE

On a certain Friday afternoon at M—— the day had been ominously quiet. Several of the boys had gone out for a little stroll and lunch before retiring, and a few were hanging around the cars. The sun was sinking low in the west and appeared to be loath to drop out of sight. An orderly from the hospital came rushing over out of breath and told us to come quickly. Two boys went with me immediately and as we entered a darkened room we saw our old friend, Gaston, apparently "passing out." Some of us

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CHAPTER XV ON AN OLD BATTLE GROUND

In a certain section of the country one could see from a prominent hill across some cities and onward to the edge of the German lines. The region has been much fought over and in fact is an old battle ground. One terribly drizzly day it became necessary to go over to a nearby village to evacuate a hospital. Wild tales had come in about the "strafing" which the town was being subjected to and we were immediately ordered to hurry to the spot. It was said that the Germans were shelling the place wi

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CHAPTER XVI THE VERDUN ATTACK—LIFE AND DEATH

Multitudes of people without doubt would like to know what an attack is like, consequently I will try to describe one in the region of Verdun. After serving six hours' notice on the city the Germans' big guns opened up, with large caliber shells at short intervals. Frightened by the fearful bombardment the civil population in multitudes swarmed out of the town and took to the country roads. Thousands of trucks and numbers of guns and soldiers advancing towards the enemy passed these fleeing peop

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CHAPTER XVII BARRAGE, OR CURTAIN FIRE

At this juncture let me run over the development of barrage fire as military critics look upon and explain it. Petain, the great French general, has given expression to one of the outstanding facts of the present war. He says, "The artillery conquers, the infantry occupies." This, in a few words, is the explanation of that new method of attack by "barrage" or, as the English call it, "curtain fire." This system of attacking the enemy is a new one and has proven most effective for the Allies. In

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CHAPTER XVIII THE RAGPICKER

The salvage from a modern battle is a thing which I suppose few people ever stop to think about. Where hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of men have been engaged in shooting iron and steel as fast as they can fire it, the amount of these metals which lies about is something almost beyond conception. And the amount too, which buries itself beneath the surface of the earth is enormous. The money value and military worth of these vast quantities of metal is also a thing which must be taken into c

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CHAPTER XIX CAMOUFLAGE

The system of camouflage which the French have worked out in this war, is something new also. The word has come to mean in America "dodging," "deception," "bunk," or anything that is not out in the open and above board; and that is just what camouflage means in the war in France. It is a method by which things are made to appear to be what they are not, for the purpose of fooling the enemy. It makes an artificial thing seem to be a natural thing so that it will not excite suspicion and draw his

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CHAPTER XX THE HEROISM OF THE WOUNDED

One poor fellow whose feet were bare, attracted my attention. When I looked at him more carefully I noticed that he had no shirt and I asked him what had happened to him and what had become of his clothes. At first he did not want to tell me, but when I inquired again, with a kind of embarrassed and self-conscious look upon his face Louis related this tale to me. His old acquaintance and fellow-townsman, Paul, was in the same company with him. Back in the little home town before the war they had

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CHAPTER XXI THE TREACHEROUS "GERMAN SOUVENIR"

The word "souvenir" means a remembrance. The Huns have certainly left a number of things which will be remembrances of them for a long time to come. At one of the battles near S—— after a successful charge in which the French had succeeded in capturing the first and second line German trenches, the boys found some of these souvenirs. One of them, a lad of twenty-two, picked up a fountain pen which had apparently been dropped by some soldier in the hasty retreat. The young poilu started to examin

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CHAPTER XXII THE NIGGER'S NOSE

The surgeons in France are doing most wonderful things and it must not be forgotten, that along with all the awful phases of the war, with all the pathos and the horror, there are many brighter incidents and many humorous episodes. For remember, the war today is just a national life. The whole existence of these countries is thrown into the war and for the time being, that is the natural course of life. So they live for war, the same as another nation lives its existence for money, art, or anyth

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CHAPTER XXIII GETTING BY THE CONSULS

From the very beginning I had had an overwhelming desire to go to Belgium. Somehow that country has gripped the imagination of the world and mine as well. Neither did I think of any of the drawbacks, but simply said, "I'm going to Belgium for relief work." I had not been successful in being assigned to any unit before I left the States, so I started for France en route for Belgium on my own initiative. Mr. Bryan gave me a passport, but when I arrived in France Ambassador Sharp urged me to remain

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CHAPTER XXIV A CLOSE SHAVE

On my way to Brussels I had to pass through Antwerp. My pass allowed me to go to Brussels—and nowhere else. But as the train stopped at six o'clock in the evening at Antwerp, and I learned that it would be there about three hours, I got off and asked the Germans who guarded the gate if I might stay in Antwerp over night. They told me that I had plenty of time and I might go down to the Kommandantur of the city and make my request. I did so. "Herr Kommandantur" was a big, bull-necked, red-faced f

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CHAPTER XXV MEETING BRAND WHITLOCK

A diplomatic officer is a peculiar individual. I wish I were one—sometimes. I wouldn't have liked to be Brand Whitlock, however, when this war broke out. He had been living a quiet, peaceful existence in that wonderful city of Brussels, no doubt having a good time in general, when suddenly and without warning the country was invaded by hordes of hostile Germans, who bombarded the cities, burned the hamlets, and slaughtered the people in large numbers, driving others by thousands from their homes

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CHAPTER XXVI MY MAPS OF BELGIUM

On leaving Mr. Whitlock I went down town and engaged a room at a little private hotel for the duration of my stay in Brussels. One day shortly afterwards, while I was sitting in a café of the little hotel, a neighbor of the proprietor came in and I was introduced to him. He was a very likable fellow, and we had a half hour's pleasant chat, at least it was pleasant for me. I am not so sure it was as pleasant for him, for I was certainly an artist at butchering up the King's French. As he arose to

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CHAPTER XXVII THE "CAT AND MOUSE" GAME

At length I went to the German Pass office in Brussels. It was called the " Pass-Zentrale ," up in the Rue Royale, only a block from the King's palace. I there applied for a pass to Liége. I was told by the sentry to come back in the afternoon, at three o'clock. The office is only open from nine till twelve and from three to six. I went back at three. A young "smart aleck" of the name of Klenkum took my American passport from me and told me to come back the next morning between ten and eleven, g

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CHAPTER XXVIII SHADOWED AT LIÉGE

At Liége I felt the German espionage system. This city became world famous in a week's time when the Hun was pounding at the gates. It was the first the world knew of the war. The place was fearfully "strafed." It was Sunday afternoon when I arrived. Before I could get off the train, or rather out of the depot, I had to let the German soldiers search me, and they went through my clothes with a marvelous thoroughness. When I went to a hotel and was eating my supper I found there two Germans in th

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CHAPTER XXIX RESULTS OF "FRIGHTFULNESS"

When Viellaur had given me my passport to Liége he had told me orally to come back by the same route I went. But it did not say so in the paper itself, and I ignored his instructions. I took an extended trip south in Belgium and I learned on this instructive but sad journey, just how the Germans hound the Belgian people and make life miserable for them. If the Belgians show any resentment whatever, they are arrested as seditious persons and usually deported to Germany to work in the fields or am

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CHAPTER XXX MY MENTAL PROCESSES

Of course I did not know what was ahead of me, but I knew from the experiences which were back of me how I felt toward the Germans. I had gotten so that every time a German soldier passed me on the street with his arrogant and hardened attitude, I muttered the words, "The scourge," under my breath. I had seen the invariable results of his Kultur and they had in every case been sordid and degrading. Henceforth I could not look upon him with anything else than contempt and hatred. The vandalism wh

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CHAPTER XXXI A NIGHT IN LOUVAIN

In Paris I had met and talked with Arno Dosch Fleuro, an American reporter who had been with Richard Harding Davis at Louvain while it was burning. He had told me that when he was there the party was locked in a railroad car but that they could see the blazing buildings from the car window and hear and see the ungodly things which were taking place in the station square. The German soldiers were heavily intoxicated and were bringing lots of Belgians from all quarters of the city and executing th

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CHAPTER XXXII RUIN AND DEATH

In the course of my travels I happened to run across two Belgians, one of whom had a brother at Andenne. Upon learning that I was an American he became very friendly and confidential and requested that I call upon his brother, giving me a card to him and assuring me that I would find a cordial reception. He said Andenne presented one of the saddest spectacles of the entire district and his brother had passed through the whole ordeal. At the time he told me this I was on my way from Liége to Namu

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CHAPTER XXXIII IN THE PALACE OF THE KING

While I was in Brussels I stayed all the time at the same hotel, that of Madame Baily-Moremans, No. 26, Rue de Vieux Marché au Grains, down near the Bourse. Her maiden name had been Moremans but over there when a woman is married her name often comes last instead of the man's. Here it would be Madame Moremans-Baily. White sitting in the café one day, she introduced me to a wounded French soldier from Paris who was a prisoner of war. He had had one leg shot off but was about on his wooden leg and

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CHAPTER XXXIV THE KAISER'S ENVY

Two thousand years ago an invading monarch, Julius Caesar, in his Commentaries said that the Belgians were the best fighting men that he had met; and the reason was that they inhabited the best country he had visited. Part of the ground is mountainous and in some places it rises sheer in the air for a thousand feet in solid rock and makes a formidable position for a stronghold or fortress. In other places it rolls away from the eye for miles in beautiful valleys and fertile plains. The view remi

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CHAPTER XXXV CAUGHT BY THE HUNS AND TRIED AS A SPY

When I returned to Brussels I applied at the German office for a pass to Holland. I was told to come back "Next Tuesday," which was five days hence! Meanwhile the Germans kept my American passport. I was angry again. But I decided it was no use to worry Mr. Whitlock, as he could have no influence with these German officials anyway. His heart was willing but his power was weak with them. He had frankly said so. But I was not going to lose those intervening days, so I went without my passport to M

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CHAPTER XXXVI THREATENED WITH CRUCIFIXION

When it was apparent to the Germans that they were able to get no satisfaction from me and could not intimidate me into admitting that I was paid by the British Government, they tried more effective measures. I am frank to admit that during the whole of the proceeding I was frightened. I will go even further than that and confess I was scared nearly to death. Physically I was intimidated and terrorized and at times I could realize and even see that my knees were shaking, and trembling from frigh

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CHAPTER XXXVII MY ESCAPE AND RETURN TO GOOD OLD FRANCE

Consequently while I started back toward Brussels, that night under cover of darkness I soon wheeled around and made for the Holland border—alone—on foot. Part of the way I crept on all fours. Sometimes I was compelled because of the barbed-wire entanglement, to crawl on my stomach. I went through mud and water and clambered over stones. Suddenly I heard two German sentries apparently arguing. Finally one let loose with an automatic and winged me in the leg. Although I twitched I never whimpered

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CHAPTER XXXVIII NO MAN'S LAND

In the French Army, now, I had a different standing than at first. Our unit in its entirety was taken over and we became brancardiers , or stretcher bearers, in the Second Army of France. Accordingly we were quartered in the army barracks. For some time after I got back from Belgium there were days of blood and thunder as a fearful offensive had been launched by the Germans. An entire change of heart had now come over me. I who had been a kind of peaceful milk and water ecclesiastical pacifist t

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CHAPTER XXXIX JEAN AND "FRENCHIE"

That rest was to come ere long—but not immediately. I had seen the tragedy and horror of modern warfare but I was still to undergo another heart-tearing ordeal. The boys of a certain company were as handsome a lot as ever donned a uniform. But some of the best of them were marked men. Two of these fellows whom I had come to consider as pals, got theirs a few days later. The name of one was Jean, and I couldn't pronounce the other, so I used to call him "Frenchie." They were both fine, strapping

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CHAPTER XL THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FRANCE

I had a sort of habit, when I had time off from the work, or was "on my own," of sometimes going to the railroad stations of the different towns and more especially those of Paris. A railroad station is an interesting place at any time. It is an educational institution, for there you find all classes of humanity coming and going, just as they are. It is where the ebb and flow of the human tide of life is. But I think in this time of war, especially, there is no place which so well shows up the p

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CHAPTER XLI THE CONTAGIOUS SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE

Out there on the Western front a marvelous spirit seems to have possession of the people. I doubt if the world ever saw such a close and intimate communion of millions upon millions of men banded together for one mighty purpose, namely, the preservation of Liberty on the earth. Men endure suffering and women undergo hardships such as they never dreamed to be possible. In every age Liberty has had its champions and morality its martyrs, but there never was a time when such hosts of crusaders from

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CHAPTER XLII THE HERITAGE OF HATE

The blackest aspect of the sin which Germany has committed in this war is not to be found in the ruined churches and the devastated homes. The vandalistic crime which asserted itself in destroying school-houses and libraries and works of art, in desolating the fields and laying low the country, sinks into the background when compared with the wickedness of sowing that heritage of hate in untold millions of hearts—a hate which will endure and bear fruit against her long after the present conflict

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CHAPTER XLIII "BACK FROM HELL"

My fists are now clinched! I am fighting now. My experience as I have here given it, drives me to this inevitable conclusion. Germany, as she now is organized, cannot be tolerated in a modern world. She must be vanquished! Bloodshed is not the worst thing in life. The slaughter of the men who are enslaving and killing millions is today a Christian duty, so help me God! To me has come the Great Awakening. I have surrendered myself to Him. America, the strongest democracy of history, has undertake

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