Field service pocket book, 1914 / General Staff, War Office.

Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Field service pocket book, 1914 / General Staff, War Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    369/372 page 299
    August, ,9,5.] 3^ BARTHOLOMEW’S HOSPITAL JOURNAL. «53 dnL ^d'ly imagined. Olien tlie men had had to Thniif less injured comrades, for ^ some rough dressing station, and were anH r 1 back to the landing boats and lighters on the shore. Then the transference tlrrough shallow water to the boat, ‘nd r'T®, ” “’7®“ O' w O'O' '0 side of all who could not walk. ‘ Fortunately the sea hjis been calm or the work could scarcely have been done at all. Wounded Officer being slung over Side of Ship. Then the hurried dressings on board and the disposal of hundreds of wounded in every available space—on the decks and throughout the ship. -if At Ale.\andria information of probable date of arrival ot each ship, with approximate numbers carried, was in most cases received shortly in advance, and hospital trains motor ambulances were generally in waiting on the as the ships drew in. An embarkation medical ofihcer boarded the ships and received nominal rolls (when t ere had been time to prepare them) and arranged foi the is posal of the cases. The most dangerously injured were usually removed first to the hospital established m Alex- andria, and the rest sent to Cairo, Alexandria, or elsewhere, by motor ambulances and trains. Four Red Crescent trains were in use, each capable of taking about 200, though not more than three were gener- ally got off in a day. A fleet of about forty motor ambu- lances disposed of the rest, and the work proceeded in most instafices smoothly and expeditiously, though when, owing to thi:; construction of a ship, all lying-down cases had to be slung over the side, the disembarkation took much longer than in the case of the regular hospital ships. One of my photos show’s an officer (who had seven wounds and a fracture) being low'ered over the side and narrowly escaping being tilted off the stretcher owin^ to slipp ng oT tire ropes. Op one day as many as five ships were alongside at on<'< —al full of wounded—including the one with its 1618 caset and a French hospital ship. About 3000 cases could not be accommodated in Fgypt at aU during the rush, and the ships had to be turned back, after removal of the worst cases, and sent on to Malta. I need not describe the subsequent disposal of wounded, still less give any details of some of the extraordinary cases dealt with, since all this w’ork must be familiar to so many Barb’s men throughout the country. Nor need I describe the four Red Crescent trains in use, as an account I sent has been already published in the March number of the JoujiNAL. 'I'hc work is extremely interesting throughout, and the sights seen off Gallipoli, especially during the early opera- tion;, when the hospital ships lay sometimes for days close in t(^ the shore, between great battleships firing broadsides at tl)e Turkish positions on the shore, and in full view of the [landing and other operations, can be w’ell imagined from the accounts that are appearing elsewhere. Occasionally hostile aeroplanes drop bombs over the fleet, or shore batteries send shells even on board the Red Cro$s ships, sometimes killing a few' of the wounded. I am writing this on board one of seven additional hospital transports, which were wired for urgently, and hurriedly fitted out in Alexandria. We are now sailing amidst the isles of Greece, a long w’ay out of the direct course, and occasionally zigzagging about to baffle sub- marines. We are to go to Lemnos for orders, and this must await posting till one returns with wounded to Alex- andria. When the medical history of the war comes to be written there will probably be no chapter more interesting than that dealing with the Dardanelles. It is work in which more general experience can be gained in a fortnight than in any average year elsewhere. J Tliere’s a deadly disease called Potassium. I know it—of course—what an ass I am. It is fatal to life For lo [my wife] Why—you know—Iodide of Potassium.
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