Harry Crosby - World War I

World War I

Crosby tired of the rigidity of everyday life in Boston. He said he wanted to escape "the horrors of Boston and particularly of Boston virgins." Like many young men of upper-crust American society, he volunteered to serve in World War I with the American Field Service in France. A number of writers whose works he would later publish also served in the ambulance corps, including Ernest Hemingway, Malcolm Cowley, and Hart Crane.

When America officially entered the War, the American Field Service ambulance corp was integrated into the U. S. Army Ambulance Corps and Harry enlisted. During the Battle of Verdun he was a driver in the dangerous ambulance service. On November 22, 1917, as Crosby transported several wounded soldiers, including his best friend, Way "Spud" Spaulding, to a medical aid station, his ambulance was hit by an artillery shell that landed 10 feet (3.0 m) away, sending shrapnel ripping through his ambulance. Miraculously, Crosby was unhurt, and was able to save Spud's life. Harry declared later that that was the night he changed from a boy to a man. From that moment on he never feared death.

During a battle near Orme, his section (Section Sanitaire 641, attached to the 120th French Division) carried more than 2000 wounded and was cited for bravery in the field. Crosby became in 1919 one of the youngest Americans to be awarded the Croix de guerre.