At
the beginning of the First World War there was much sympathy in America
for the French, British and Russians against the Germans, Austrians and
Turks. But the United States Neutralization Act made it a felony for
citizens to support either the Allies or the Huns except for
humanitarian assistance to either side. To avoid the proscriptions of
the Neutralization Act many wealthy, prominent Americans bought
ambulances for the French Army and recruited college students from the
nation's top colleges and prep schools to man them. Jack and Alan
Nichols lived at home with their parents Walter Hammond Nichols and
Eleanor C. Nichols in the small town of Palo Alto, California, and were
students at Stanford just across the then street. Both were avid pro
"Allies". Alan, a Junior at Stanford, was older and left for France
first while Jack, a Freshman, followed some months later. For two small
town young teenage boys who had never left Palo Alto, crossing the
country for a ship to France was in itself an extraordinary adventure.
They both joined the French Army Ambulance Corps at first. Once they
were in France with the French Army the American Neutralization Act no
longer applied nor its prohibition of participation on either side of
the conflict. Alan later transferred to the French Army Air Corps and,
after the U.S. joined the fight on the Allies side, Jack to the American
Tank Corps. Both brothers functioned as "junior journalists." Alan wrote
long letters from France to his father about his experiences which were
then published by the Palo Alto Times from its "foreign corespondent."
They were then collected, edited and appeared as Letters Home: From the
Lafayette Flying Corps. Jack wrote his own book Two Years: World War I
Experiences in France. This book is now combined with a selection of
Alan's letters and the collaborative effort titled Brothers At War. It
is the story of their war lives serving, each in his own different way,
the French army, but with shockingly different endings.
