The Red Cross Ford, used to transport wounded men and supplies. (MSS 97 Item 56, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware. , Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.)
On October 20, with the Bulgarian Army approaching, Osborn was asked by a group of Bulgarian citizens of Skoplje to join them in a Bulgarian City Committee, which hoped to prevent violence during the transitional period. Osborn joined the committee with two goals in mind: first, to secure protection for the Lady Paget Hospital—to which all international agencies in Skoplje had been moved—when the Bulgarians arrived, and second prevent general shelling of the city. The Bulgarian City Committee including Osborn was anxious to meet the Bulgarian Commanders before real harm could come to the city. Lady Paget’s staff had only hours after the retreat of the Serbian army to prepare for the Bulgarian takeover. Reflecting on that day she wrote, “only those familiar with warfare in the Balkans can imagine the rapidity of the Bulgarian advance upon Skoplje.”[1] As he gathered supplies one day after the Serbian retreat, Osborn learned of the Bulgarian advance. He collected two other Americans from the Lady Paget Hospital and several men from the Bulgarian City Committee, and in three Ford automobiles adorned with the American and Red Cross Flags made by Austrian prisoners, they set out for the advancing Bulgarian line. In their haste to meet the Bulgarian Army, they failed to notice that a Serbian division still occupied the trenches around the city. As Osborn as his team stopped to meet the Bulgaria Commander, the Serbians opened fire. Later that day, Osborn wrote:
“Bullets were now plumping in the mud all around and as I lay, I counted six shrapnel exploding directly over the three Fords, back of which we lay and could hear the bullets hitting the metal pats on the autos and then go whining off with a peculiar noise, characteristic of deflected bullets. One of the bullets went thru the water tank of the car that I had been driving and all cars were more or less scratched up. We remained in the ditch for about three hours, trying all the time to reach a decent ditch of sufficient depth to shield us from the Serb bullets, but in vain.”
When the Bulgarians advanced and drove the last Serbians from Skoplje, Osborn and his team rose, unhurt to look at their shrapnel-damaged Fords. For Osborn, this was a moment of clarity about his situation in Serbia. His primary concern was no longer avoiding typhus; for the first time, he was aware that he was in a war zone and that there was danger beyond the dreaded louse.
Both Serbian and Bulgarian wounded had been pouring into the Lady Paget Hospital weeks before the first Bulgarian divisions occupied Skoplje. Upon entering the city, Bulgarian commanders met with Lady Paget, her staff, and the American Red Cross, guaranteeing them safety.When she met with Bulgarian Command, she made a request to go home, “I said we were willing to give help to the wounded Bulgarians until they could make their own medical arrangements, but that I formally demanded, as soon as it was practicable, to be sent home with my entire staff. This they promised should be done.” Quickly upon the heels of the Bulgarians came rumors of advancing allied forces. Many of the relief workers felt certain that their gamble would pay off, and they would soon be in the hands of friendly forces. However, in the meantime, the Lady Paget Hospital staff was under no imminent threat. Bulgaria’s guarantee of safety came with no apparent restrictions.
Doctors Beyond Borders: Serbian Relief in 1915 
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