United States Navy Masters-at-Arms (shore patrolmen), R. Rapp on the left, pose in front of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy. The two stand on the steps of the rightmost of three flagpoles in front of the cathedral. The main entry and arch would be immediately to the left, outside of the photograph. The Master-at-Arms is the equivalent of the Army's Military Police.
R. Rapp.
"July 21 [1918].Dear Folks—:I supposed Brummy has written you all about my getting bunged up. So there isnt anything for me to say. I hope that the cable didnt worry you very much but Capt. Bates thought it was best that you hear from me first rather than the newspapers. You see I'm the first American wounded in Italy and I suppose the papers say something about it.There is a peach of a hospital here and there are about 18 American nurses to take care of 4 patients. Everything is fine and I'm very comfortable and one of the best surgeons in Milan is looking after my wounds. There are a couple of pieces still in."
Ernest Hemingway writing to his parents on July 21, 1918. An ambulance driver, Hemingway wrote one of the great novels of the war, A Farewell to Arms, in which an American ambulance driver is wounded on the Italian front, and falls in love with an English nurse at the hospital where he recovers. The driver is later caught up in the Italian retreat of the Battle of Caporetto. After the Caporetto disaster, the Italians held on the Piave River, defeating the Austro-Hungarians in the latter's last offensive of the war, the Battle of the Piave. Later in his letter, Heminway writes, 'It was a great victory and showed the world what wonderful fighters the Italians.'
World War I and America by A. Scott Berg, page 504, copyright © 2017 by Literary Classics of the United States, publisher: The Library of America, publication date: 2017
1918-07-21, 1918, July, wounded, nurse, hospital, shore patrol in Venice
