University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Honors Program in History (Senior Honors Theses) Department of History April 2008 Departing for the Ends of the Earth to do My Humble Part: The Life of William A. Rich, Volunteer Ambulance Driver for the American Field Service, 1942-1945- A Study of War Letters Alice S. Hickey University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/hist_honors Hickey, Alice S., "Departing for the Ends of the Earth to do My Humble Part: The Life of William A. Rich, Volunteer Ambulance Driver for the American Field Service, 1942-1945- A Study of War Letters" (2008). Honors Program in History (Senior Honors Theses). 12. https://repository.upenn.edu/hist_honors/12 A Senior Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Honors in History. Faculty Advisor: Jonathan Steinberg This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/hist_honors/12 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Departing for the Ends of the Earth to do My Humble Part: The Life of William A. Rich, Volunteer Ambulance Driver for the American Field Service, 1942-1945- A Study of War Letters Abstract From the years 1942 to 1945, William A. Rich, a volunteer ambulance driver with the American Field Service, wrote a vast collection of letters home; he served in the Middle East, North Africa, Italy, France, Germany and India. Rich corresponded with his family and girlfriend biweekly about his experiences and opinions, resulting in a collection of more than 300 letters. From these letters, supplemented by additional archival sources, a fascinating narrative emerges. Rich's story explains the complexity of life on the frontlines as a non-combatant of a total war. From the fall of Tunis to the horrors of the relief of Belsen Concentration Camp, the letters provide an unmediated perspective on World War Two through the eyes of a twenty-year old. My thesis seeks to examine whether these letters, and whether war letters in general, are valuable historical documents. Keywords American Field Service, war letters, ambulance drivers, volunteers Comments A Senior Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Honors in History. Faculty Advisor: Jonathan Steinberg This thesis or dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/hist_honors/12 University of Pennsylvania "Departing for the Ends of the Earth to do My Humble Part: The Life of William A. Rich, Volunteer Ambulance Driver for the American Field Service, 1942-1945- A Study of War Letters" By Alice Stewart Hickey March 25, 2008 Faculty Advisor: Professor Jonathan Steinberg Thesis Director: Professor Kristin Stromberg-Childers “Who shall nerve heroic boys To hazard all in Freedom's fight,— Break sharply off their jolly games, Forsake their comrades gay And quit proud homes and youthful dames For famine, toil and fray… When Duty whispers low, Thou Must The Youth replies, I can.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson To my grandfather, who left me an amazing story to tell i Table of Contents Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………iv List of Abbreviations Used………………………………………………………...v Maps………………………………………………………………………………...vi Chapter 1: “That Freedom and Mercy Shall Not Perish From This Earth.” The Origins of This Thesis and Introductory Information……..…………….1 Chapter 2: A Note on Methodology- War Letters as Historical Documents…...24 Chapter 3: “Departing for the Ends of the Earth to do my Humble Part.” October 1942- May 1943…………………………………………………………….35 Chapter 4: “The Next Afternoon My Section Started Up Towards Termoli.” June 1943- May 1944…………………………………………………………….69 Chapter 5: “God, I Hope This War Doesn’t Take too Damned Much Longer.” July 1944- March 1945…………………………………………………………..110 Chapter 6: “Are You To Blame Every German?” March 1945-November 1945………………………………………………………………………….146 Epilogue......................................................................................................................165 Appendix A: A.F.S. Bulletin ‘Are You Happy in the Service or How to Find Your Own Sewing Circle’………………………………………………………...167 Appendix B: A.F.S. Bulletin ‘Letter Requesting’………………………………...171 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………...173 ii Acknowledgements To thank everyone who has helped me would be impossible, since I have needed support and constructive criticisms during every step of my thesis project. To begin at the beginning, a special thanks goes to Professor Robert Sayre who found my family and gave to us half of the letters I now have. I also would not have been able to write what I did without Eleanora Golobic, archivist for the American Field Service in New York City. At Penn, Professor Stromberg-Childers has been much more than a thesis director for me. She always had a warm smile to alleviate my angst and an easy manner that made our thesis section into a group of supportive peers. As for Professor Steinberg, he has been my guiding star- I would not have been confident enough to finish this project without his investment of time, interest and assistance. He gave insightful comments for every draft I turned in and wise words when I was most in need of them. Also, thanks is due to Rachel Ormansky, my peer editor, who has been constantly encouraging and always helped me choose the right place to put my commas. Lastly, I would be remiss to not thank my parents who taught me diligent efforts and intellectual curiosity never go unrewarded. iii List of Abbreviations ‘60 Beaver Street:’ American Field Service Headquarters in New York City ACC: Ambulance Car Company Ack-Ack: anti-aircraft artillery ADS; Advanced Dressing Station A.F.S.: American Field Service APO: Army Post Office BLA: British Liberation Army CCS: Causality Clearing Station Cov.: Company (British Form) DDMS: (British) Deputy Director of Medical Services GH: General Hospital GHQ: General Head Quarters HQ: Head Quarters LFA: Light Field Ambulance MCO: Medical Command Officer MDS: Main Dressing Station NCO: Non-Commissioned Officer NZEF: New Zealand Expeditionary Force (usually referred to as 2NZEF) RA: (British) Royal Army RAMC: (British) Royal Army Medical Corps RASC: (British) Royal Army Service Corps RAP: Regimental Aid Post Recee: Reconnaissance Vol.: Volunteer iv Maps: North African Campaign Map of the North African Campaign. The top map shows General Erwin Rommel’s early successes. The middle is the movements of the Eighth Army but does not show the battle of Tunisia, in which Rich was involved. The bottom map shows the movements of the American-led Operation Torch in Western Africa. [Folloy, Martin H. The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of the Second World War. London: Palgrave McMillan, 2004. Map 23 “The War in North Africa 1942.’] v Maps: North African Campaign Map of the places the A.F.S. served in North Africa. Note the detail of the Middle East, showing the places in which A.F.S. men trained before they joined the British 8th to fight Rommel, specifically Baalbek and Haiffa. In the top left hand corner the map also shows the ribbon that each A.F.S. driver was awarded and the Eighth Army ‘patch’ which became a status symbol within the A.F.S. [Rock, George. The Official History of the American Field Service: 1920-1955. New York: The Platen Press, 1956. Inside of front cover, left-hand side.] vi Maps: Italian Campaign Map of the Entire Italian Campaign, showing both American and British Movements. [Folloy, Martin H. The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of the Second World War. Map 26 ‘The Italian Campaign 1943-45’ vii Maps: Italian Campaign Map of A.F.S. positions within Italy, again showing the patches and ribbons awarded to A.F.S. drivers for their service in this theatre. [Rock, George. The Official History of the American Field Service: 1920-1955. Inside of back cover, right-hand side.] viii Maps: Italian Campaign This map is useful not only because it gives the viewer a sense of the topography of Cassino, which is characteristic of much of Italy, but also an idea of what an evacuation route looked like. The route Rich drove ran from where the 78 Polish Division was located to Venafro on the other side of the hill. The red divisions marked are German and the Blue shows Allied positions. [Blumenson, Martin. United States Army in World War Two: The Mediterranean Theatre of Operations: Salerno to Cassino. Washington: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1993. ‘Stalemate, Spring 1944’ Map from included ‘Map File.’] ix Maps: French Convoy Route, Belgium, Germany The A.F.S. traveled up from Marseilles to Brussels via the Rhône Valley, through Lyon and Dijon. ‘D’ Platoon was sent from there to a small town, called Bergen, near the city of Celle where Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was located. [Rock, George. The Official History of the American Field Service: 1920-1955. Inside of front cover, right-hand side.] x Chapter One: “That Freedom and Mercy Shall Not Perish From This Earth” The Origins of This Thesis and Introductory Information Within the historiography of the 20th Century, war letters are some of the more remarkable documents available. In the study of World War Two, they are especially valuable because the sheer number that have survived give historians a vast range of experiences from which to draw conclusions. Written in the face of uncertain and daunting odds, they illuminate human voices in a war that could be easily reduced to a series of campaigns and grim statistics. The letters give a tiny glimpse into the experience that defined a generation around the world. Over sixteen million American men were drafted during World War Two and, for the most part, handwritten letters were their only form of communication with loved ones on the homefront. For some families, they were all that was left of their sons, brothers, fathers and uncles in September 1945 when the war ended. In many families, war letters were carefully preserved; my family is no exception.