A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is the story of an American lieutenant, Frederic Henry, serving in the Italian army during the early years of World War I. He drives an ambulance, and also supervises the rest of the drivers. Henry is serving in the Italian army because the United States has not yet entered the war. While stationed on the front, Henry meets a British nurse named Catherine Barkley, and they fall in love. Lieutenant Henry is out one night during a battle and an Austrian bombardment badly wounds his knee. He is sent to an American hospital in Milan and Catherine transfers there soon after. The two share an intimate relationship together over the summer while Frederic recuperates from his operation. When Lieutenant Henry is ordered back to the front, Catherine tells him she is three months pregnant. With his mind now on his commitments to the love of his life and his child, Henry reconsiders his commitment to the Italian army. On the retreat from Caporetto, Lieutenant Henry and his fellow ambulance drivers get stuck in the mud, and try to reach safety on foot. One officer is shot and the other flees to surrender to the Germans, so Lieutenant Henry jumps into Tagliamento River. He goes to find Catherine and the two flee by boat to Switzerland so that Frederic is not arrested for desertion. They are arrested but only briefly detained once they arrive in Switzerland. They stay in Switzerland and go to a hospital in Lausanne when it comes time for the baby to be born. After a painfully agonizing day at the hospital, the baby is delivered by a Caesarean operation. The baby is born stillborn and a few hours later, Catherine Barkley dies of multiple hemorrhages. .
The story of Ernest Hemingway's life is thought to have been the basis and inspiration for A Farewell to Arms. In 1918, when Hemingway was eighteen, he served in World War I in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps.