At the War

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 9, 5 December 1916, Page 3

At the War

NO. I.—EVACUATION. (By C.S.K.) 1 got a crook leg. It seems ages ami ages (as, I believe, the girls put it) since I wrote anything for the "Stratford Evening Post," and just to chronicle the fact that my leg got heat does not seem to justify me in breaking out; but, of course, the real fact is that I am not looking out merely for the purpose of stating the fact that my leg feels white, but that the groggy state of my leg gives me the necessary leisure to break out on oilier matters more or less interesting and material. / 1 have been evacuated—sent from the front to the back. By laborious stages I was rolled up from the back to the front and now I have gone through the various stages of being rolled from the front to the back. This, of course, is not nfy first evacuation, having been sent oil' the Peninsula, but the evacuation was not in one piece, from Monasch Gully to Pout do Koubbeh—-it was done in three short stages with long intervals between. In the present case, I was evacuated along a line, the trip taking about a week, though with a slight wound and all circumstances favorable, I believe one could lie in England thirty-six hours after being wounded. Of course, quick trips like that are not for chaps with bent legs.

The first stage was by stretcher to the: battalion dressing station. This \ya.4 ,ijoUn.iit)',v<'rl;iJi<l—over the opal) grohnd ■ and not tho communication trench.'"-This is the only place where, T have •scon: such general work overland. By day or night men and parties walked about in the open as i! thei-0 was not a German within miles. The position, I believe, was that the Germans were below a crest and not able to see us moving behind our trenches. At the time of "writing our line is far ahead of this point, and by the Lime you read it goodness knows how far away it will be. At this first station practically nothing was done to me, there being nothing which could .w-ell be done, but I believe its duty is to make sure that the bandage put on by the stretcher-bearers are sufficient. The station assured itself that my legs were well and truly tied together (with a ( valise-strap) and I was passed on, the stretcher being mounted on a carriage with a couple of bicycle: wheels. The next step was at another field station. All these stations have names—l can remember names,, but forgot what stations .thoy belong, to. Here again my leg was viewed, and after it had been put in splints, 1 went forward again in a motor car to a very big casualty clearing station. (I knew the name of this place, because it lay between a plate where we had camped and a stream in which we had a swirs ),. There was another survey here (somewhere about midnight—l was hit at 7 p.m.), and after being made as comfortable as possible on the stretcher on which I was originally placed, 1 was held over till the morning. I cannot lie sure, but 1 think that it was at this point that the M.O. said: "Give him 500 grains A.T.S." I took this to mean anti-tetanus serum. 1 got good measure. It was a syringe smaller

1 than a fountain pen, but I thought i about two barrels of A.'l'.S. was going into me. Beyond this feeling, there was no effects hard to bear. 'Jo-day. ;at ten days' distance, I. can feel the I spot itching a little. Well, on the j night 1 was wounded, there I was ' somewhere under ten miles behind the I trenches. My turn in the operating theatre came on well on in the morning. I took the anaesthetic, and woke up in a train in a nice ' bunk, my leg comfortable in a metal .splint, but my head and stomach uot j too good. I cannot say when we set | off, but it was verging on midnight j when 1 detrained at Rouen and proceeded by motor to an Australian General Hospital—Xo. 1, 1 think. Here 1 was put to bed. In the morning (Friday) the leg had to be dressed, necessitating more anaesthetic, but 1 took so unkindly to the gas that thereafter the dressing was done without it. 1 stayed in Rouen iiwr Friday and SaturdayAjbut at noon on Sunday entrained for Havre, arriving bofore night-fall and boarding the hospital ship Asturias. Monday we lay at the wharf, completing the "cargo," later arrivals, including details of the Guards, whose advance was one of the big things of these days. At 0 p.m.

on Monday we set out. lor Southampton, arriving there before dawn on Tuesday, got on a train during the forenoon, and by 2.30 p.m., I was cosily ensconced in the No. 1 New Zealand General .Hospital at BrockonlnirsL, a village about an hour's tram run from Southampton. So that's how I became evacuated. It took from 7 p.m. September It (seeing that, a man in Platoon 13 was hit on September 13, it is a wo.ider lip was not hit in thirteen places) till '_'.;<() p.m. on Septemher"l9th, To sa\ that it was like a .Sunday-school picnic, with all up-to-date comforts and conveniences, would be to exaggerate; to say that 1 bore it, with patiences would be an over-statement; but this I can and do say, that 1 have got. to the far end of it without retaining any disagreeable impression of the voyage- - there was no period which was so uncomfortable that 1 shall p. rmanciitlv remember it, as one of the really miserable of my life. On the voyage everything which apparatus, medicine ami human sympathy can deal with is done, but even then there is room for the patient to suffer severely. Therefore, 1 think 1 am lucky in being abb to view my evacuation without disagreeable memories.

RESERVE ENERGY. I have novci' been under n heavy bombardment, and 1 cannot say as to what it fools like Ouv Carman friends, however, have roeently tod us that the gun-fire we give'them is not bearjihle by a human being. But, if, after homhardment, a man is called to action, I believe it will lie found that he will use reserve stocks of energy wh.oh only the groat strain could set loose. In an advance under lire I am convinced that men use up reserve energy, otherwise some of the things I hear of could never be. Take for,instance the ease of one Costley„a Canulitn, who lay near me in hospital in Rouen. He got into a German trench and bayoneted a German. Then German' bonus came at him from round the cor'ier. One hit him behind the left shoulder, the next burst behind Ins right knee and a third wasted its sweetness on

the desert air. (Mem: One of the German bombs is a queer article. It appears to consist of explosive in a jam tin lashed to the end of a porridge stick, ami seems to do no mora damage than would be done by the mere bursting of the explosive. If Costiey had been hit by British bombs where he was hit by the German bombs, his reserve energy would not have carried him his own length. As it was, tile wounds were quite severe enough in the circumstances.) After stopping the two bombs Costiey decided to retire to ibe rear and got out ol lite trench and started to crawl towards the dressing station. Twice on the voyage big shells landed close to hi.a and buried him, but he pulled hiniscll free, and finally got to his destination. This, of course, is by no means an extreme case--one hears tales ol superhuman endurance. But in all eases I find that when the pinch come., during

an action, men use up their reserve energy, enabling them to endure strange and severe pains and long sustained fatigue. Ol' course, after the action the man feels a vacuum where his reserve energy was and has to go slow while building up tic reserve again ; but it is a line tiling to .hmk that a man has such a reserve ituul which, can lie called on in untoward circumstances, and which enables one to pull through conditions which, ordinarily, would seem to justify one in throwing up the sponge. I heard of a case slightly aproposonly slightly. A man bad got badly burnt about the lace, chest and bands. :I nd after rough dressing he was placed on a stretcher for rein oval to the dressing station (or whatever it is called) about "two miles away. But the pain was sever'-: The, patient could stand it, but could not lake it lying down. He begged to be put down after he had been carried a short distance; and then, without warning, sprang to his feet and set oil' at a round pace I'm' the dressing station. 'lhe stretcherbearers followed at a good p.ice, hoping to catch up with the patient later on 1 ; but they got to the dressing station without seeing him again. ->ae.l

the bearers: "Have you seen anything of a chap with Ins lace, chest aiei hands smothered in cotton wool said the dressing-station folk: "He'd alright ! We've fixed him up, and he's been asleep for ten minutes."