Temporary record

Ernest Appleyard, of Methuen, Mass., answered the call for service in Europe before the rest of his countrymen, joining the 10th Red Cross Ambulance Corps in France in February, 1917. In mid-1918, he entered the war as a combatant, enlisting in the 7th Battery, 10th Artillery Regiment of the French Army. During the summer and early Fall, he served in Alsace seeing some action, and, when the war ended, his regiment was transferred across the Rhine into Germany to form part of the occupation force. Almost immediately after the Armistice was signed, Appleyard began to work for his discharge from the French Army, succeeding in June, 1919.

The Appleyard Papers begin in November, 1916, shortly after his arrival in France, and consist primarily of letters written to his family in Methuen, Mass. His letters are long and interesting, and those written while in the ambulance corps, in particular, include interesting details of life in war-time France. Of almost equal interest are the letters written after the war, during the return to normalcy, in which Appleyard, unusually acculturated for an American citizen, was making efforts to return to his home.

M-2737.4

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