AMONGST THE WOUNDED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15807, 2 January 1915, Page 6

AMONGST THE WOUNDED

SCENES IN A CHURCH, BRAVERY OF DOCTORS. Bertran Court lies some six miles from the firing line, and is situated in a fold of the ground. As is common in this part of the country, writes Alfred Stead in the London Express, the village is surrounded by large trees. From tse road these woods completely hide the villages, and make it much more difficult!*) know hidden dangers. Here the first field ambulance of the 20th Corps was established in one of the churches and also with . a tortoise tent. Wounded soldiers surrounded our car clamouring for newspapers, villagers came up and tried to buy them. There had been no news for days. There were not many wounded in the church, the majority having been removed to Amions. The smell of blood was heaw in the church, the incense of the world to if- i?° of War — sickening smell which affects even the surgeons more than the most horrible wounds. The humble church, its altar still untouched, had been cleared of its benches, and the wounded lay in double rows. Shocking Sights. In the space before the altar were the worst cases. When I went in there were four dying in agony, the cries, despite injections of morphia, being frightful, and the writhing limbs and convulsed features unforgettable. They ail died in the night. In one corner lay a dead soldier on a stretcher. In the central aisle was the operating table, lit at night by acetylene lamps, and seldom unoccupied. The holywater basin was filled with the cartridges emptied from the wounded men's porches. It' was difficult to think oneself m a. church, but, as the Bishop of Nancy, who is with the 20th Corps as Roman Catholic chaplain, said, "It is now doubly consecrated."

There were in this little village - three charged with the care of the souls of the army, the Roman Catholic bishop, the Protestant pastor, and a rabbi, all livinom perfect harmony, sharing rooms and meals, and devoted equally to easing the wounded and comforting the dying. They have their adventures, too, these chaplains. One stayed behind talking to a village cure, and had to cycle after the column. Approaching a wood he saw a Uhlan. Thinking him the first of a patrol and sure that flight meant death, the chaplain pedalled on. Finding the Uhlan alone, he called on him to surrender, and later drove the prisoner before him into the French camp. la the Dark.

Motor-cars cannot be used near the front, since they make too much noise. As it is, the gathering and transporting of the wounded have to be carried en in the dark. Qualified doctors in civil life are ipso facto sub-lieutenants in the reserve, hospital assistants are adjutants, students become sergeants, and the stretcher-bearers, as a rule, are the musicians of the regiments. All operations, from trepanning to sewing.up a superficial wound, are done with- i out fuss. It must be a splendid training ! for a surgeon, since he gets many chances i for complicated operations, and can and must take risks which must lead to important discoveries. Hospital, stores seemed plentiful, and I heard no complaint of any shortage. Germans are treated as are the French— no distinctions are made. The doctor told me that very few amputations are done, even gangrene being conquered by injection—incidentally, the German wounded seem much more prone to gangrene wounds than the French. What has struck all the surgeons is the -wonderful bravery of the French soldier in the matter of bearing pain. He submits to operations without flinching, and there is rarely a graon to be heard in the hospitals.

All Manner .of Wounds. - The wounded" feel their" wounds more some time after the event; but are all equally brave in showing no sren. Oi.e man struck by a bullet in the hand had all the veins and muscles bunched up. Looking, at it,, he said calmly : 4, It is certainly necessary to cut it off After coming out of the anaesthetic he only said; "Done already?" and shortly afterwards was able to walk away to his stretcher., There are all manner of wounds— without the bottom of their faces, men who have lost _ noses, eyes, and earsare many in the feet, generally from shellsand shrapnel. Sometimes operations have to be done under fire. N In one place, in the midst of. a critical operation, a shell came through the roof, covering all tie wounded with plaster and smoke; two men were killed, chaos reigned. But the surgeons went ahead, and finished the operation while the wounded were being removed, then went into the cellars. •'; ;, The medical officer, who. had gone round the whole of- the regimental posts and superintended the collection of the wounded, a brilliant member of a Paris hospital staff, slept sitting on a bench from * the church. Only a quarter of an hour, and' then up again, because the majority of the ambulance and stretcher-bearers were moving up further to the front. And so they work—little rest, much movement, arduous and dangerous toil, to save the lives sof fellow-countrymen and enemies alikefor humanity has no nationality.