On July 8, 1918, American Red Cross driver Ernest Hemingway is wounded in World War

Author’s wartime experiences helped shape his famous early novel ‘A Farewell to Arms’

On this date in history, July 8, 1918, the iconic novelist Ernest Hemingway, then an 18-year-old ambulance driver for the American Red Cross, was struck by a mortar shell while serving on the Italian front, along the Piave delta, in World War I, noted History.com.

A native of Oak Park, Illinois, Hemingway was employed as a reporter for The Kansas City Star when war broke out in Europe in 1914, noted the same source.

Hemingway worked as a volunteer for the Red Cross in France before the American entry into the war in April 1917; he was subsequently transferred to the Italian front.

On the evening of July 8, 1918, Hemingway was struck by a mortar shell while handing out chocolate to Italian soldiers.

The incident knocked him unconscious; fragments of shell entered his right foot and his knee and struck his thighs, scalp and hand, according to History.com.

“Two Italian soldiers standing between Hemingway and the shell’s point of impact were not so lucky, however. One was killed instantly and another had both his legs blown off and died soon afterward,” the same source indicated.

Hemingway worked to secure the safety of his fellow soldiers, getting them out of harm’s way, according to The Ernest Hemingway Collection.

The Italian government awarded him the Silver Medal of Military Valor for his heroic actions, said the same source.

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