In which of the following countries did Ernest Hemingway serve as an ambulance driver during WWI?

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was working as a reporter for the Kansas City Star when war broke out in Europe in 1914. Near the end of the war, in February 1918, the American Red Cross announced it was seeking volunteers to join the ambulance service in Italy; Hemingway signed up. After two weeks of training in New York, and crossing the Atlantic, young Ernest arrived in Milan, Italy in June of that year. As an ambulance driver, his job would be to ferry troops and supplies to and from the battlefield.

On the night of July 8, 1918, Hemingway was struck by an Austrian mortar shell while handing out chocolate to Italian soldiers in a dugout. The blow was so powerful that it knocked him out and buried him under the dirt of the dugout. Fragments of shell entered his right foot and knee, as well as striking his thighs, scalp and hand.

Two Italian soldiers standing between Hemingway and the shell’s point of impact were killed, and a third was badly wounded. Ernest, after regaining consciousness, picked up the surviving soldier, put the man on his back, and carried him to the first aid dugout. Hemingway later said that he did not remember what happened or how he even got to first aid, much less the fact that he had carried the other man. He was awarded an Italian medal of valor, the Croce de Guerra, for his service.

His experiences during the war formed the literary foundation of his novel, ‘A Farewell to Arms’, which was published in 1929.