Introduction

By 1917, only propagandists on either side believed a victory was possible through one final and decisive battle. The worst fears of the earlier visionaries had become manifest. Even commanding generals divulged privately a vision of war that involved all a nation’s citizens—men, women, and children—civilian as well as military. This war would destroy entire economies and would not end until the combatants were utterly exhausted.

The grand strategy of a decisive breach of the enemy trench lines, subscribed to by both sides, fell victim on any number of occasions to an inability to exploit significant breakthroughs once they occurred. While the commanders could move men on an unprecedented scale, they lacked the technology to move the requisite food and ammunition to support the offensive. Here we see another instance of theorizing that it would be possible “to punch through the lines, roll up both sides, and end the war.” The first part was accomplished on many occasions; the second, never. Having belatedly grasped the tactical advantage of the machine gun and massed artillery, the generals never met the attendant logistical demands.

In the summer of 1917, the line of battle on the Western Front arced north from Switzerland to the English Channel, having changed little from September 1914, the second month of the war. The “war of attrition” went on. Royce Wolfe’s ambulance unit was assigned to the French Second Infantry Division (2 DI), which occupied a segment of the front just northwest of the Verdun Salient.

At the beginning of the First World War, the American Ambulance Service operated one hospital in Paris.^3. To house future operations, an expansion was begun on the Lycée Pasteur, a French High School under construction at the time. By 1915, an Inspector General had been appointed to the hospital and the American Field Service was created. In the spring of that year, volunteer American ambulance personnel units were formed in cooperation with the French. By 1916, many such units were operating along the Western Front. By the time of the federalization of the ambulance services in 1917, 30 ambulance units were in existence, and over 2,500 ambulances and other vehicles were turned over to the French and American armies. The men of these units had also redesigned the structure and features of the ambulances to be used in future service. The Ford truck was the preferred vehicle, as it was reliable and maintenance was straightforward.