WW I American in French ambulance unit PRIVATE HELLER AND THE BANTAM BOYS

Description: I COMBINE SHIPPING $1.50 per book. FREE SHIPPING for orders over $60. Send books to your check-out cart. E-Bay will automatically adjust shipping costs.PACKAGING & SHIPPING RULES:1. Individual books Under $18.00 are shipped in padded poly envelopes. 2. Individual books Over $18.00 are shipped in a poly envelope inside a box. 3. Buy Three or more books and the order is shipped in a box.ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS LISTING: "Private Heller and the Bantam boys: An American Medic in WW I"This is about a Battle Creek Michigan man who joins a volunteer ambulance unit in June 1917. Soon after he joins another ambulance unit that was formed from college boys from Princeton, because he wants to escape KP duties and the Princeton unit was going overseas immediately. The unit is officially called the US Army Ambulance Corps (USAAC) The Bantam boys is a name the men gave themselves. By July 1917 they are overseas and endure a U-boat scare off the coast of England. The unit eventually is assigned to the French Army. I saw a decoration certificate which says they were in the 3rd French Army, 33rd French Corps. The title says the man was a medic, but this was not a formal military unit. He did not go through a formal training period so I'm not sure he was a medic as we understand. He did drive the ambulance and help the wounded. The unit he was in saw a lot of action. The soldier of this book was highly decorated He was awarded two French Croix de Guerres with bronze palm, US purple heart (Awarded after the war in 1932) a French citation for Valor. The Victory medal with four battle clasps and a citation signed by President Wilson. In time for the 100th anniversary of America's entry into the First World War, Private Heller and the Bantam Boys--based on Heller's long-hidden diary--tells the tale of a group of privileged yet na ve Princeton University students and their big, brawny Midwestern farm boy interloper, Ralph Heller. To them, war is a grand adventure not to be missed, and they enlist as medics and ambulance drivers (think Hemingway and dos Passos) to make sure they can get to France before the war ends. These college boys go about their training filled with idealism and bravado and, despite constant marching and drilling, absolutely no preparation for what they're about to face. When their transport ship comes under U-boat attack off the Welsh coast, the idea that they could get killed before they reach the front begins to sink in. Once in France, and with a seemingly unlimited supply of red wine (water is for crops and animals), and hormone-fueled high spirits, the Bantam Boys are ready for anything that comes their way. Or so they think. Devastation touches all, as they enter a hell of mud, rats, poison gas, flying lead, and rotting corpses where they're just as likely in the confusion of No Man's Land to end up heading toward the Germans rather than away from them. From the comic to the horrific, Private Heller and the Bantam Boys will touch readers of all ages.

Price: 18 USD

Location: Livonia, Michigan

End Time: 2024-11-10T12:43:09.000Z

Shipping Cost: 5.4 USD