menu_book Chapter 6

CHAPTER VI. DIARY OF A NURSING SISTER ON THE WESTERN FRONT. CHAPTER VI. DIARY OF A NURSING SISTER ON THE WESTERN FRONT. 1914-1915 by Anonymous. Chapter 6. On Number Ambulance Train. 4. Christmas and New Year on the Train. December 18, 1914 to January 3, 1915. Judge of the passionate hearts of men, God of the wintry wind and snow,

take back the blood-stained year again give us the christmas that we know f g scott chaplain with the canadians the army and the king mufflers christmas eve christmas on the train princess mary's present the trenches in winter a typical example new year's eve at rouen the young officers friday december eighteenth ten thirty a m we've had an all-night journey to rouen and have almost got there one of my sitting-ups was one hundred six degrees this morning but it was only malaria first typical one i have met since south africa a man who saw the king when he was here said they wouldn't let him come near the trenches if a shell had come and hit him i think the army would have gone mad there'd be no keeping him in the trenches after that this place before rouen is darnetal a beautiful spiry town in a valley pronounced by the staff of number ambulance train darn it all

six p m we unloaded by twelve and had just had time to go out and get a bath at the best baths in france shipped a big cargo of jack johnson's this journey but luckily made no personal captures got to sleep this afternoon as i was on duty all yesterday and up to two a m this morning pouring cats and dogs as usual no time to see the cathedrals we had this time a good many old seasoned experienced men of the regular army who had been through all the four months came out in august they are very strong on the point of mixing territorials and kitchener's army where it is not composed of old service men and indians well in with men like themselves one company of royal engineers lost all its officers in one day in a charge a highland light infantryman gave a chuckling account of how they got to fighting the prussian guard with their fists at wipers because they were at too close quarters to get in with their bayonets they really enjoyed it and the germans didn't

saturday nineteenth we are dry docked to-day at sauteville outside rouen zee and i half walked and half trammed into rouen this morning it is lovely to get out of the train this afternoon number played a football match against the khaki train and got well beaten they've only been in the country six weeks and only do about one journey every eight days so they are in better training than ours but it will do them a lot of good we looked on sunday twentieth six p m at last we are on our way back to boulogne and mails and the news of the war at home and abroad at rouen or rather the desert four miles outside it we only see the paper of the day before and we miss our mails and have no work since unloading on friday this morning was almost a summer day warm still clear and sunny we went for a walk and then got on with painting the red crosses on the train which can only be done on fine days of which we've had few the men were paraded and then sent route marching which they much enjoyed

it was possible as word was sent that the train was not going out till one-thirty it did however move at twelve which shows how little you can depend on it even when a time is given they had a mouth-organ and sang all the way monday december twenty first got to boulogne early this morning after an exceptionally rackety journey all one's goods and chattels dropping on one's head at intervals during the night engine-driver rather ivray i should think off again at ten thirty a m mail in weather appallingly cold and no chauffage on way up to shok where we shall take up indians again how utterly miserable indians must be in this eternal wet and cold the fields and land generally are all half under water again we missed the last two days papers and so have heard nothing of the war at home except that the casualties are over sixty thousand five mufflers went this afternoon to five men on a little isolated station on the way here when i said to the first boy have you got a muffler he thought i wanted one for some one on the train well it's not a real muffler it's my sleeping cap he said beginning to pull it off his neck

but you're welcome to it if it's any use what do you think of that he got pink with pleasure over a real muffler and some cigarettes you start with two men when you come back in a minute with the mufflers the two have increased to five silent expectant faces wednesday twenty third we loaded up at lille late on monday night with one of the worst loads we've ever taken all wounded half indians and half british you will see by tuesday's french communiques that some of our trenches had been lost and these had been retaken by the highland light infantry manchesters and seventh dragoon guards it was a dark wet night and the loading people were half-way up to their knees in black mud and we didn't finish loading till two a m and were hard at it trying to stop hemorrhage etc till we got them off the train at eleven yesterday morning the j j s were swarming but a large khaki pinny tying over my collar and with elastic wristbands saved me this time one little gurkha with his arm just amputated and a wounded leg could only be pacified by having acid drops put into his mouth and being allowed to hug the tin

another was sent on as a sitting-up case half-way through the night i found him gasping with double pneumonia it was no joke nursing him with seven others in the compartment he only just lived to go off the train another one i found dead about five thirty a m we were to have been sent on to rouen but the officer commanding train reported too many serious cases and so they were taken off at boulogne it was a particularly bad engine-driver too i got some bath-water from a friendly engine and went to bed at twelve next day we were off again the same evening and got to boulogne this morning train full but not such bad cases and are on our way back again now expect to be sent on to rouen now we are three instead of four sisters it makes the night work heavier but we can manage all right in the day in the last journey some of the worst cases got put into the top bunks in the darkness and rush and one only had candles to do the dressings by one of the color sergeants was on leave but has come back now all the trains just then had bad loads the clearing hospitals were overflowing the christmas cards have come and i am going to risk keeping them till friday in case we have patients on the train if not i shall take them to a sister i know at one of the boulogne hospitals

we have got some honourable artillery company on this time who try to stand up when you come in as if you were coming into their drawing-room the tommies in the same carriage are quite embarrassed one boy said just now we had a appy christmas last year where i said at ome long a mother he said beaming christmas eve nineteen fourteen and no fire and no chauffage and cotton frocks funny life isn't it and the men are crouching in a foot of water in the trenches and thinking of ome long a mother british germans french and russians we are just up at shouk going to load up with indians again had more journeys this week than for a long time you just get time to get what sleep the engine driver and the cold will allow you on the way up eight p m just nearing boulogne with another bad load half indian half british had it in daylight for the most part thank goodness railhead to-day was one station further back than last time as the headquarters had to be evacuated after the germans got through on sunday

the two regiments coldstream guards and camerons who drove them back lost heavily and tell a tragic story there are two men only one is a boy on the train who got wounded on monday night both compound fracture of the thigh and were only taken out of the trench this morning thursday to a dressing station and then straight on to our train we heard the guns this morning why they are alive i don't know but i'm afraid they won't live long they are sunken and gray-faced and just strong enough to say anyway i'm out of the trench now they had drinks of water now and then in the field but no dressings and lay in the slush stretcher bearers are shot down immediately with or without the wounded by the german snipers and this is christmas and the world is supposed to be civilized they came in from the trenches to-day with blue faces and chattering teeth and it was all one could do to get them warm and fed by this evening they were most of them revived enough to enjoy christmas cards there was such a nice lot that they were able to choose them to send to mother and my young lady and the missus and the children and have one for themselves

the indians each had one and salaamed and said god save you and i will pray to god for you and god win your enemies and god kill many germans and the indian men too cold kill more germans if not too cold one with a south africa ribbon spotted mine and said africa same like you midnight just unloaded going to turn in we are to go off again at five a m to-morrow so there'll be no going to church mail in but not parcels there's a big block of parcels down at the base and we may get them by easter with superhuman self-control i have not opened my mail to-night so as to have it to-morrow morning christmas day eleven a m on way up to bethune where we have not been before about ten miles beyond where we were yesterday a place i've always hoped to see sharp white frost fog becoming denser as we get nearer belgium a howling mob of reinforcements stormed the train for smokes we threw out every cigarette pipe pair of socks mitts hankies pencils we had left

it was like feeding chickens but of course we hadn't nearly enough everyone on the train has had a card from the king and queen in a special envelope with the royal arms in red on it and this is the message in right hand with our best wishes for christmas nineteen fourteen may god protect you and bring you home safe mary r george r i that is something to keep isn't it an officer has just told me that those men haven't had a cigarette since they left southampton hard luck i wish we'd had enough for them it is the smokes and the rum ration that has helped the british army to stick it more than anything after the conviction that they've each one got that the germans have got to be done in in the end a sergeant of the colt's dream guards told me a cheering thing yesterday he said he had a draft of young soldiers of only four months service in this week's business talk of old soldiers he said you'd have thought these had had years of it when they were ordered to advance there was no stopping them after all we are not going to bethune but to merville again this is a very slow journey up with long indefinite stops

we all got bad headaches by lunch time from the intense cold and a short night following a heavy day at lunch we had hot bricks for our feet and hot food inside which improved matters and i think by the time we get the patients on there will be the orderlies are to have their christmas dinner to-morrow but i believe ours is to be to-night if the patients are settled up in time do not think from these details that we are at all miserable we say for king and country at intervals and have many jokes over it all and there is the never-failing game of going over what we'll all do and avoid doing after the war seven p m loaded up at merville and now on the way back not many badly wounded but a great many minor medicals crocked up nothing much to be done for them we may have to fill up at hasabrook which will interrupt the very festive christmas dinner the french staff are getting ready for us it takes a man french or british to take decorating really seriously the orderlies have done wonders with theirs aeroplanes done in cotton wool on brown blankets is one feature

this lot of patients had christmas dinner in their clearing hospitals to-day and the king's christmas card and they will get princess mary's present here they finished up duke's christmas cards and had oranges and bananas and hot chicken broth directly they got in twelve midnight still on the road we had a very festive christmas dinner going to the wards which were in charge of nursing orderlies between the courses soup turkey peas mince-pie plum-pudding chocolate champagne absinthe and coffee absinthe is delicious like we had many toasts in french and english the king the president absent friends soldiers and sailors and i had the bless and the we got up and clinked glasses with the french staff at every toast and finally the little chef came in and sang to us in a very sweet musical tenor

our great anxiety is to get as many orderlies and n c o s as possible through the day without being run in for drunk but it is an up-hill job i don't know where they get it we are wondering what the chances are of getting to bed to-night four a m very late getting into boulogne not unloading till morning just going to turn in now till breakfast time end of christmas day saturday december twenty sixth saw my lambs off the train before breakfast one man in the warwick's had twelve years service a wife and two children but when kitchener wanted more men he rejoined this week he got an explosive bullet through his arm smashing it up to rags above the elbow he told me he got a man to tie the torn muscles up and then started to crawl out dragging his arm behind him after some hours he came upon one of his own officers wounded who said good god sonny you'll be bleeding to death if we don't get you out of this catch hold of me and the chaplain so e cuddled me and i cuddled the chaplain and we got as far as the doctor

at the clearing hospital his arm was taken off through the shoulder joint but i'm afraid it is too late he is now a pallid wreck dying of gangrene but he would discuss the war and when it would end and ask when he'd be strong enough to sit up and write to that officer and apologized for wanting drinks so often he is one of the most top-class gallant gentlemen it's ever been my jolly good luck to meet and there are hundreds of them we had princess mary's nice brass box this morning the voluntary aid detachment here brought a present to every man on the train this morning and to the orderlies they had twenty-five thousand to distribute cigarette cases writing cases books pouches etc the men were frightfully pleased it was so unexpected the processions of hobbling doubled-up silent muddy sitting-up cases who pour out of the trains want something to cheer them up as well as the lying downs it is hard to believe they are the fighting men now they've handed their rifles and bandoliers in

it is snowing fast we have to go and drink the men's health at their spread at one o'clock then i hope a spell of sleep we have chauffage on to-day to thaw the froidage the pipes are frozen six p m we all processed to the orderlies mess truck and the o c made a speech and the quartermaster sergeant dished out drinks for us to toast with and we had the king and all of ourselves with great enthusiasm mr t had to propose the sisters and after a few trembling solemn words about we all know the good work they do he suddenly giggled hopelessly and it ended in a healthy splodge all round orders just come to be at st omer by ten p m if that means loading up further on about one a m i think we shall all die too noisy here to sleep this afternoon and the men are just now so merry with tipperary and dressing up that they will surely drop the patients off the stretchers but will hope for the best sunday december twenty seventh had a grand night last night woke up at bethune went out after breakfast and saw over number

clearing hospital which has only been there forty-eight hours in a huge girls college partly smashed by big shell-holes an awful mess but the whole parts are being turned into a splendid hospital several houses shelled and big guns shaking the trains this morning the medical officers went to the orderlies concert last night when we went to bed it was excellent and nobody was drunk we are taking on a full load of lying down straight from three field ambulances so we shall be very busy not arrived yet six p m nearing boulogne i have one little badly wounded gurka who keeps ejaculating jurman and all the rest british some very badly frost-bitten the trenches are in a frightful state one man said there's almost as many men drowned as killed when they're wounded they fall into the water of three officers one of whom is on the train and tells the story in a deep-water trench for two days one was drowned the other had to have his clothes cut off him stuck fast to the mud and be pulled out naked and the other is invalided with rheumatism two men were telling me how they caught a sniper established in a tree with a thousand rounds of ammunition and provisions

he asked for mercy but he didn't get it they said he had just shot two stretcher bearers monday december twenty eighth this trip to rouen will give us a longer journey up and therefore some more time and we shall get another bath the following story is a typical example of what the infantry often have to endure it was told to me by the sergeant three men of the south-west borderers and five of the welsh regiment on advancing to occupy a trench found themselves cut off with a second lieutenant he advanced alone to reconnoitre and was probably shot they said they never saw him again so the sergeant of the welsh regiment aged twenty-two took command and led them for safety still under fire to a ditch with one foot of water in it this was on the monday night before christmas they stayed in it all tuesday and tuesday night when it was snowing before daylight he skirmished them to a trench he knew of two hundred yards in advance where he had seen one of his regiment the day before this was in water above their knees he showed me the mud line on his trousers this turned out to be one of the german communication trenches they stayed in that all wednesday wednesday night and thursday living on some biscuit one man had some bits of chocolate

and drinking the dirty trench water in which was a dead german dressed as a gurkha we was praying all the time said one of them then one ventured out to get water and was shot on christmas eve night it froze hard and they were so weak and starved and numb that the sergeant decided they couldn't stick it any longer so they cast their equipment and made a dash for a camp-fire they could see one of them is an old gray-haired reservist with seven children by good luck they struck a road which led them to some coldstream's billet a house there they were fed with tea bread bacon and jam and stayed an hour but didn't get dried then these coldstream guards had to go into action and the sergeant took them on to some grenadier guards billet by this time he and one other had to be carried by the others there they stayed the night christmas day and saw the m o s of a field ambulance who sent them all into hospital at bethune whence we took them on this train to rouen all severely frost-bitten weak and rheumatic

an infant boy of nineteen was telling me how he killed a german of six feet three inches bill i says there's one of them big devils only i called him worse than that he said politely to me and we all three emptied our rifles into him and he never moved again nine p m at sotteville off rouen we got unloaded at one p m and then made a dash for the best baths in france tuesday december twenty ninth we've had a quite useful day off to-day still at sotteville had a walk this morning also got through arrears of mending and letter-writing they played another football match this afternoon and did much better than last time but still got beaten wednesday december thirtieth still at sotteville one of our coaches is off being repaired here and goodness knows how long we shall be stuck had a walk this morning along the line the train puffed past me on its way to rouen for water i tried to make the engine-driver stop by spreading myself out in front of the engine but he shooed me out of the way and after some deliberation i seized a brass rail and leapt on to the footboard about half-way down the train it wasn't at all difficult after all

we had seymour hicks's lot tacked on behind us they are doing performances for the hospitals and rest camps in rouen to-day but unfortunately we are too far out to go in thursday december thirty first new year's eve still at sotteville and clemmed with cold there was no paraffin on the train this morning so we couldn't even have the passage lamps lit this afternoon i went with major and the french major and the little fat french caporal who is the same class as the french major or better into rouen and they trotted us round sight-seeing the little caporal showed us all the points of the cathedrals and the twelfth-century stone pictures on the north porch and on the towers and also the church of st maucleus with the wonderful ossoir cloisters now a college for we had tea in the town and trammed back this evening new year's eve the french staff had decorated the restaurant with chinese lanterns and we had a festive new year's eve dinner with chicken and christmas pudding on fire and sauterne and champagne and crackers

the putting on of caps amused every one infiniment and we had more speeches and toasts i forgot to tell you that the french major's home is broken up by les allemands and he doesn't know where his wife and three children are on christmas night during toasts he suddenly got up and said in a broken voice ah mes petits enfants et ma femme the coach is mended and back from la talire and we may go off at any moment i hope we shall wake up on the way to boulogne and mails new year's day nineteen fifteen rouen a happy new year to us all we are not off yet and several other trains are doing nothing here we came into rouen this afternoon and heard that we are to clear the hospitals here to-morrow and take them down to havre thank goodness we are to move at last went for a walk in the town after tea and after dinner the o c and sister b and one of the civil surgeons and the french major and i went to the cinema it was excellent or we thought it so after the months of train and nothing else saturday january second twelve noon

just loading up for havre with many of the same men we brought down from bethune on sunday it seems as if we might just as well have taken them straight down to havre they look clean now and have lost the trench look have been asked to say how extra excellent the christmas cake was we finished it yesterday ditto the tip-tree jam it is a week on monday since we had any mails there is a major of ours on the train getting a lift to havre who is specialist in pathology and he has been investigating the bacillus of malignant edema and of spreading gangrene they are hunting anaerobes sir almroth write at boulogne and a big french professor in paris for a vaccine against this which has been persistently fatal this man knew of two cases who were as he puts it good cases for dying and therefore good cases for trying his theory on both got well began to recover within eight hours and one of them was my reenlisted warripshire man with the arm amputated who was got out by the wounded officer and the padre

january third a sergeant we took down to havre yesterday told me of his battalion's very heavy losses he said out of the fourteen hundred of all ranks he came out with there are now only five sergeants one officer and seventy-two men left he said the young officers won't take cover they get too excited and won't listen to people who've had a little experience one would keep putting his head out of the trench because he hadn't seen a german i kept tellin of em said the sergeant but of course he got it chapter six