THE KHAKI TRAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15884, 3 April 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE KHAKI TRAIN.

BT KVELTN ISITT. An ambulance train is the most elusive thing in the world. I had many a hunt for the finest of them all, the proud affair known officially as No. 12 ambulance train, familiarly as the khaki train." aucl described by the Times correspondent as " the most perfect hospital train in the world." Finally I found it at Rouen, and jumped on board just as it was starting for Sotteville. a distant suburban station. It was rather eerie. The lights were turned low except in those carriages where the orderlies were busily scrubbing the floors after the trampling stretcher-bearers who had unloaded the wounded an hour' before, and as I made my way through i endless wards to find the commanding officer's room, the 300 yards of shining | corridor, twisted and wriggled like a snake ' as tho train curved and straightened along the line. A little army sister came out of j one of the comfortable little cabins where I the nurs-.*s live—two in each compartment , —and together we sought the doctor in • chargo who agreeo—there was indeed no ' < hoice—to my remaining on board till we reached the labyrinths of Sotteville, and who introduced mo to the wonders of the ambulance train do. luxe. To appreciate No. 12 fully, one must recall the lamentable tales told earlier in tho war of the way our wounded men had | Io be brought from the front, of the ordinary trains where they lay in little shutoff compartment carriages only to be reached by the doctors when they stopped at stations, those carriages still heavily upholstered and calculated to retain ovary p groin which escaped from horribly septic j wounds. Worse still wore the other trains' composed only of cattle trucks, lined with straw and crowded with the wounded, rucks that they told me it, was unpleasant to approach too closely—say to within ten yards. In these trains men spent anything up to nine days on their way to the hospitals in France "dodging the Germans." There .vere no hospital trains, nor could they have been used if provided, for the few lines remaining open were needed for the hasty heavy traffic, of troops and munitions. We are told that the Germans for all thei' vaunted preparations, have not yet got beyond the stage of cattle trucks for their wounded, but the English and French have been improving their arrangements with each month. All th-.wo trains are composed of French rolling stock, but the khaki train, with the exception of the carriages where the 45 ord'-rii'.vs live, is purely English, composed half of Great Eastern and half of London and North Western carriages, beautiful carriages, steam heated throughout. There is a clear passage down the train's entire length, and were it not for a silly little projecting storeroom in one car there would be a clear view of the 300 yards, and a wonderful sight it would bo when the luxurious wards were packed with men lying in a double row down each side. There are three doctors on board comfortably housed with a separate compartment for each, and a fourth compartment for a messroom. llifre are four army nurses, who have their own messroom next their cabins, and 45 orderlies. The train has accommodation for 330 sittingup cases, or 220 lying down, but usually it has a mixed company, and several of tho upper berths have to be let down to make room for the men who lounee comfortably on the lower seats. There is also, of course, an officers' ward. Up at the railhead, or the hospital base station, the stretcher-bearers pack the train carefully, taking care that a man's injured side is next to the corridor, so that his wound may be easily reached. If his injuries are severe, he is not lifted from his stretcher, but stretcher and all placed on the wide berth. Tho loading is done as quickly as possible, but even on the "knaki train." with the aid of its 45 orderlies, it takes over an hour to settle the men. The first thing to do is to feed tho patients with cenca and bread and jam. This cheers them up wonderfully. Then they are washed, and their wounds dressed again if necessary; sometimes, of course, they have come from a base hospital, but 'often they are straight from the trenches, and revel in the luxury of their train Their eyes nearly pop out of their heads when dinner time conies, and they find they are to have a good square meal, tinned meats, a first-class Irish stew—the specialty of this trainpiping hot from one of the two kitchens do luxe, or other good things. They become very lively, chaffing each other as the medical officer goes down the wards, questioning the men or poking fun at them. The whole ward listens to what is said, and roars with laughter at every joke. "This is a train and no mistake," they sav as they gaze along the wards, whose connecting doors are all open ; and "My, that's the best meal I've ad since I left 'omc." They arc amazingly brave and jolly, even' though the agony of their frost bitten feet brings tears to their eyes. Fiom their berths they get a clear view of the countryside, and when they want to write here is an elegant little bed-rest ready for their use, while by means of a pulley arrangement they can raise them selves in bed. There'are two kitchens ecu this train, a water tank holding more '< thousands of gallons than 1 can remember. | a large storeroom, a pharmacy, andit ! is the only train with such a thing—an | operating theatre, though this is really ; very little used, because the run is now j usually a short one. There is also .a ! Red Cross room filled with knitted things '■ and other garments for the men who are , often brought on board in the most ragged j condition, or with clothes that have been : .-naked in mud for weeks. It is part of the nurses' work to distribute these stores. The train, electric lighted throughout. ' generates its own electricity. ! It is an odd life that the staff of an I ambulance train lives. Sometimes they I are running between hospital towns far 1 I from the front, at others they are piling- ' ing about in the districts threatened by 1 I aeroplanes. It is no uncommon expert- ' I erne for them In arrive at a station on ; I which bombs have just been dropped; I thev are frequently within sound of the ' j gun's, and most of them have a lied Cross ■ painted mi each carriage roof in the pious ' hope that it may be some protection. And 1 I often they are hard at work all night, for ' < it i.- a favourite plan to load them in the ' ; evening, or they may be travelling all day : and only discharge their patients towards ' I midnight. ''■ I should have liked to watch the tin.hading of the khaki train, for it does ' ' not unload through the windows as the 1 : others are compelled to do, but has wide ; j doors in the centre of each carriage, which ; I of course, makes the work infinitely more ' j expeditious. 1 I It is very interesting to watch the un- ' loading of any of the trains; the speed, ' j precision, and quietness with which the , work is carried out are marvellous. At f | one station it was all done by St. John I Ambulance men from North of England I I collieries, men with muscles like steel. J They would come swinging along in perfect - | silence past the platform where we stood, - I two men to each stretcher, and would dis- • appear within one of the carriages. Pre- - | sentlv. the loaded stretcher would appeal ?j at the window, and wolild be slowly i shoved out, to be seized by a stretthei • | company standing outside with their arms • raised to the fullest extent, and then very slowly and without the least jai ; lowered to tho level of their down- ; swung hands, and back two men would ' come with their burden. A Salvation 1 Army man told me that once he had taken - one of his old officers, a man trained tc '' grim work, down to the station to see the I men unloaded, and that in a few minutes ! the old irlan bad turned away with the ) tears rolling down his cheeks, saying he i could not bear to look on at so much i misery and honfor. That was in the i earliest days. Now everything is done I with such perfect care and order that the onlooker gets do guch painful impression..