Page:Fred Arthur McKenzie - Americans at the Front (1917).djvu/26

 will not soon be forgotten. The two main groups are the American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps and the American Ambulance Field Service, the latter much the larger. The American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps owes its existence to a group of wealthy young Americans, headed by Mr. Richard Norton, who came over to France at the beginning of the war to offer their services. There were many difficulties in their way. The need of ambulances was tremendous, for the military cars then available were few, and anything but modern. For a time the Americans worked with a British group. Then for better organization the two worked separately. To-day the American Motor Ambulance Corps consists of three convoys, each of twenty-five cars. Its staff numbers about 150 Americans, all of them volunteers, most unpaid and many helping to support with their money the work they are doing. It has been in every "big push." It has been twice cited before the Corps d'Armée—a very great honour indeed; it has been repeatedly cited before Brigades; honours of every kind have been earned by its workers, and it has never failed to respond to the call for its service. A number of members of this Corps have volunteered for active service, both in the British and French Armies, and