"I was determined to do something for my country in the fighting field,
something that the Germans would remember--something more than soothing
the fevered brow," said Mlle. Duclos, describing her exploits. "My
great-grandfather was a captain of grenadiers under Napoleon, and the
blood of generations of soldiers runs in my veins.
"My first ambition was to enlist in the fighting automobile service.
I had been used to running all kinds of cars since my childhood, and
was as fit for this work as any human being could be. But I found the
authorities obdurate. They simply would not let a woman into the
combatant services. I tried disguising myself as a man, but the rigid
physical examination made this attempt useless.
"Finally it seemed to me that the only way of reaching the front was
to join a volunteer motor ambulance corps, as several other women had
done. I transformed a 60-horsepower, eight-seated touring car into a
motor ambulance for four badly wounded men or eight slightly wounded
ones. I qualified for the service and was authorized to proceed to the
front in Alsace, accompanied by a mechanician.
"While performing my ambulance duties I had a good opportunity to watch
the armored automobiles, and realized that their work was the most
exciting and perhaps the most decisive of the war."
One day Mlle. Duclos, having taken some wounded men to the field
hospital, was returning once more to the fighting line. Eager for
adventure she drove her car up a mountain road, which was not included
in the trench zone, and entered a wild, mountainous country, from
which the French were desperately trying to drive the Germans by flank
attacks, surprises, air raids and other stratagems.
Soon the rattle of rifle bullets and machine gun fire close at hand
caught her attention. A turn in the road brought her in sight of a big
armored French car that stood disabled in the middle of the road. The
engine had been smashed by a shell. The Germans were firing at it from
cover some distance away. The French soldiers were firing away from the
protection of the armor with their machine guns and their rifles, but
they were handicapped by the immobility of the car, and the Germans
were gradually encircling them. Three of the eight Frenchmen forming
the crew of the car lay dead in the road, killed while they had exposed
themselves in an attempt to repair the engine.
Mlle. Duclos saw three German soldiers rise from cover and advance in
an effort to rush the car. They were shot down, but she saw that in a
few more minutes the Frenchmen must be overwhelmed.
Taking in the situation at a glance, the experienced motorist sped up
to the injured car and backed up her machine before she stopped.
"Get in," she cried to the French soldiers, "or you will be taken in
another minute."
The five Frenchmen jumped into Mlle. Duclos's car with their rifles.
Under a rain of bullets she sped back by the way she had come. Luckily
they all escaped, and a turn in the zigzag road soon put them out of
danger.
The Germans must have taken possession of the car in a leisurely manner
after the escape of the French. It was precious booty to them. Probably
they tried to repair it, and, finding that impossible, started to tow
it back.
The Frenchmen were not satisfied to escape with their lives and leave
their car behind. Mlle. Duclos had noted carefully the direction of the
surrounding roads. After running back a short distance she found a road
that would lead them to the one that the Germans would follow on their
way back.
The French officer in charge of the party insisted on taking the
steering wheel of the car, but Mlle. Duclos demonstrated that she was
the only one who could get the best speed out of her car. Thus she
forced them to let her stay in the place of danger.
Behind a pile of rocks that marked the meeting of the roads they lay in
wait for the returning Germans.
Up the road came the Germans tugging at a rope that drew the great
disabled French armored car. There were about forty of them,
practically half a company, minus the men who had already fallen in the
fight.
It was impossible for the five Frenchmen to cope with them in any
ordinary fight. Only surprise and stratagem could hope to meet the
situation.