Page:Fred Arthur McKenzie - Americans at the Front (1917).djvu/36



Le Général Commandant le Groupement cité à l'ordre du Corps d'Armée.

La Section Sanitaire Automobile Américaine No. 7 sous les ordres de son chef M. Norton.

''A fait depuis plus de 20 mois constamment preuvre de l'esprit de sacrifice le plus complet. A rendu les plus grands services à la Division à laquelle elle est attachée en assurant la relève des blessés dans les meilleurs conditions. Il n'est pas un seul de ses membres qui ne soit un modèle de sang froid et d'abnégation. Plusieurs d'entre eux ont été blessés.''

The Norton Ambulance was back again at the front for the famous French advance of December 14th. Its headquarters were in Verdun, and it had posts beyond the town. The spot was a little unhealthy. On one occasion, one of their ambulances was waiting outside the post previously described the "Sappe de Belfort," when a shell struck it and made it into little better than a mass of scrap iron. The Sappe itself had its roof dented and its front door smashed. The workers had fortunately just left the car, but one of them was knocked over, bruised and shaken. "Am dead tired," wrote Norton during the heavy fighting. "Since the attack began it has been night and day for me. It is now just of 39 hours I have been on my feet."