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A fter training for five months at the armory at 32nd Street and Lancaster Avenue, as well as in Philadelphia-area hospitals, Bert Bell and fellow members of Base Hospital Unit No. 20 arrived in France on May 2, 1918. Their unit was located in several hotels in Châtel Guyon, one of the nation ’s famous health resorts. (“I think that place was named after that Indian at Georgia Tech,” Bert quipped.) Bell’s unit consisted of 22 medical officers, two dentists, a chaplain, 65 nurses, and 153 enlisted men. It included a number of his Penn football teammates, like Lou Little, Lud Wray, and Heinie Miller. No sooner had the Pennsylvanians arrived in the war zone than they discovered that they were terribly shorthanded. Equipped to handle a hospital of 250 patients, they watched U.S. Army authorities deliver trainloads filled with 450 soldiers. By the time their tour was over, seven months later, their facilities had been expanded to 33 buildings with a capacity of 2,500 beds. They eventually cared for some 9,000 patients, of which only 65 were lost. Most of their patients were American soldiers, but they also handled a substantial number of wounded French soldiers and German prisoners. The unit achieved a remarkable record in the prevention of the influenza epidemic and did not lose a single patient to the disease. Bell’s unit, which was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John B. Carnett , another former Penn football standout, was one of the first to come under fire at the battlefront. It endured four days of heavy shelling from the Germans. Its duties were mainly at field and evacuation hospitals close to the battle lines. Within months, Bert was cited for bravery for aiding numerous wounded soldiers under fire. “We were operating for seven hours while the Germans were shelling the hospital,” wrote Bell in a letter to his father. “Finally they got our range and dropped two high explosives in the sick ward and killed some of the patients. We stopped operating and carried the sick and wounded to 3. A War Hero Tastes the French Nightlife A War Hero Tastes the French Nightlife • 13 the dugouts and as I was going over with the stretcher, a shell dropped and killed one of my buddies not over seven yards away. This continued until our airplanes found the Boche guns and put them out of order long enough to get the patients out.” Lt. Col. Carnett later explained that Bell volunteered for this dangerous work, although the former Penn captain was too modest to tell anyone . In a letter to a friend, Carnett wrote, “I wonder if Bert wrote that at the hospital where we were located on July 11 (the one from which the Huns shelled us) he had volunteered to remain behind with the patients and did so until all were removed. The military commander asked for an officer, a Sergeant, and five men as volunteers, and Bert was one of the first to step forward.” The Philadelphia Bulletin described the scene: “At 12:59 a.m. on July 14, Bell was playing poker with some bunk-mates in a hurriedly erected hospital building near the front when a gas alarm broke up the game. Soon the Boche began dropping shells loaded with mustard and phosgene gas on the hospital. The place was ordered evacuated, but some of the wounded were too sick to move. Volunteers were called for to remain behind and face almost certain capture or death. Bert was the first to step out of [the] line.” “I guess I got ahead of my interference,” Bert recalled. “But I was so darned anxious.” Even though American intelligence forces learned that the Germans planned to extend their position 30 kilometers to the west the following day, Bell remained at his post. Fortunately, the enemy’s expected advance never materialized. Exactly 24 hours to the minute after the bombardment started, it stopped. The next morning, the work of carrying back the wounded began. Bert and another fellow were bearing a stretcher when a stray shell dropped near them. Bert’s companion was killed instantly, but Bert and the wounded man escaped unscratched.“I played poker with him the night before,” Bell said, referring to his fatally wounded comrade. “Never know the name of men we play poker with.” When General John J. Pershing learned of the heroic action of Bell and the other volunteers, he had his chief of staff send...

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