 Chapter 7 of a Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front, 1914-1915 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Mary Ann Coleman-Hipkins, Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front, 1914-1915 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Mary Ann Coleman-Hipkins, Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front, 1914-1915 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Make we are so done doubly strong and lift on high our gaze. In staunch, we deep the hearts that weep and touch our lips with praise. Anon. 7. On Number, Ambulance Train 5. Winter on the train and in the trenches. January 7, 1915 to February 6, 1915. The Petite Vitessee siding. Uncomplainingness of Tommy. Painting the train. A painful convoy. The U-Lands watch. Officer dressed in bandages. Sateville. Versailles. The Palais Trianon. A walk at Rouen. The German view and the English view. Punch. When you return conqueror. K's new army. Thursday, January 7th. We moved out of Bologna about 4 a.m. and reached Merville with many long waits. At 2 p.m. loaded up there and fooled up at his Ebroque on way back. Many cases of influenza with high temperatures. Also rheumatism and bad feet. Very few wounded. When they got the kaki hankies they said, kaki? That's extra. 9.30 p.m. We have 318 on board this time. Including four enterics, four diphtherias and 18 convalescent scarlets. Who caught it from their billet. A quiet looking man has a very fine new German officer's helmet and sword. He gave it to me, he said. I had shot him through the lung. I did the wound up as best I could. And tried to save him, but he died. He was coming for me with his sword. Seems funny to first shoot a man and then try to mop it up. The Germans don't. They finish you off. An officer on the train told me how another officer and 25 men were told off to go and take a new trench, which had been dug in the night. Instead of the few they expected, they found it packed with Germans all asleep. It's not a pretty story, he said, but you can't go first and tell them you're coming when you are outnumbered 3 to 1. They had to bayonet every one of those sleeping Germans and killed every one without losing a man. All of my half of the train had khaki, hankies and sweets. They simply loved them. They are all except the infectious cases just out of the trenches and such things make them absurdly happy. You would hardly believe it. I am keeping the writing cases and bullseyes for the next lot. There were just enough mufflers to muffle the chilly necks those who hadn't already got them. The wet has outwitted itself all day. It must be a record flood everywhere. We shall not unload tonight, so I had better think about turning in as I have the third watch at 4 a.m. I found some lovely odour cologne and shampoo powders from R, among the mufflers, and a pet aluminium candlestick from G. Such things give a sister on an 80 absurd pleasure. You would hardly believe it. Friday, January 8th. Still pouring. We unloaded at 9 a.m. Got our mail in. My wardmaster was so drunk tonight that the QMS had to send to the OC, and he had just got his corporal stripe. He was a particular ally of mine and was in South Africa. We are in that foulest of all homes for lost trains today. The Petite Vitesse siding out of B station with the filth of all the aiders around, about and below us. You have to shut your windows to keep out the smell of burning garbage and other horrors. It is nearly three months since I sat in a chair, except at meals, and that is only a flap down-seat, or saw a fire except the powers of coke the Tommys have on the lines. I expect we shall be off again tonight somewhere. Saturday, January 9th. Did you see the HAC's story of the frozen Tommy who asked them to warm his hands? And then seeing they were on their way to his trench, hastily explained that he was all right, only a bit numb. One thing one notices about them is that they have an enormous tolerance for each other, and never seem to want to quarrel. They take infinite pains in the night, not to wake each other in moving over the heads of legs and arms spored everywhere, and will keep in cramped positions for hours, rather than risk touching someone else's painful feet or hand. If you want to improve matters, they say, I should be all right, sister, it might jog his foot. They never let you miss anyone out and giving things around, and always call your attention to anyone they think needs it, but not to themselves. It is very funny how they won't fuss about themselves, and in consequence, you often find things out too late. Last journey a man with asthma and bronchitis was, unfortunately, as it turned out, given a top bunk, as he was considered too bad to be a sitting-up case. At six a.m. I found him looking very tired and miserable, sitting on the edge. I can't lie down, he said, with this cough. When I put him up in a sitting-up corner below, he said, I could have slept all night like this. It never occurred to him to ask to be changed. They get so used to discomfort that they stay put and never utter. We had missed his distress in the 318 we had on board, and they were sleeping on the floors of the corridor, so the middle bunks were very difficult to get at. Any of them would have changed with him. This happened several times on every journey, but you can't get them to fuss. The Germans and the Sikhs begin to clamour for something directly. They are on the train and keep it up till they go off. Another typical instance, though not a pretty one, of Tommy's reluctance to complain occurred on the last journey. I came on one compartment full, busily engaged in collecting JJ's off one man in the middle, with a candle to see by. His blanket I found was swarming, and it was ours, not his. One of a lot taken on at Ruin is disinfected. For one ghastly moment I thought it might be the compartment where I'd spent a good half hour doing up their feet, but it wasn't. I had the blanket held out of the window, and they then slept, but they weren't going to complain about it. There was one jovial old boy of sixty with rows of ribbons. He had three sons in the army, and when they went he wasn't going to be left behind, so he re-enlisted. Sunday, January 10th. Woke up at Beheel. Sun shining for once, and everything, floods in all, looking lovely all the way down. Loaded up early and got down to Beheel by 4pm, to hear that we are to go on to Ruin. Another all night touch. We have put off fourteen of the worst cases at Beheel, and are now on our way to Ruin. This is the first time we have shipped Canadians. PPCLI. The only regiment as yet in the fighting line. They are oldish men who have nearly all seen service before, many in South Africa. Lots more wounded this time. Some SLI got badly caught in a wood. They've just come from India. When I took the Devon Shatofi around, a little doubtful whether the HACs would not be too grand for it, one of them started up. Oh, by George, not really? We have a boy on board with no wound and no disease, but quite mad. Poor boy. He has to have a special orderly on him. Monday morning, January 11th through in. The approach to Ruin at 6pm on a pitch dark, wet and starlit morning, with the lights twinkling on the hills and on the river, and in the old wet streets is a beautiful sight. My mad boy has been very quiet all night. Tuesday, January 12th. At yes or day, by some mistake it hasn't rained all day, so we took the opportunity to get on with painting the train. We worked all the morning and afternoon and got a lot done, and it looked very smart. Huge red crosses on white squares in the middle of each coach, and the number of the warden figures are foot-long at each end. This on both sides of the coaches. We have done not quite half the coaches and are praying that it won't rain before it dries. If it does, the result is pittable. The orderlies have been shining up the brass rows and paraffining the outside of the train, and have also played and won a football match against number one AT. Wednesday, January 13th. Woke up at Abbeville on the way to Bologna, where I hope we shall have time to get miles. 5pm. We went through Bologna without stopping and got no miles and consequence, or could we pick up P who has been on 96 hours leave? We have been on the move practically without stopping since 11pm last night, and are just getting to Bethune, the place where we went two days after Christmas, where we were quite near the guns, and went over the CLH, which had been shelled. Expected take winded up here. The country is wetter than ever. It looks one vast swamp. The rain has spoiled our lovely paint. Thursday, January 14th. We picked up a load in the dark and wet, with some very badly wounded, who kept us busy from 6pm to 4am without stopping. Some were caked with mud exactly to their necks. One told me he got hit, trying to drag out three of his section, who were half buried by an unexploded coal box. When he got hit, they were left and eventually got finished by our own guns. Another lot of 11 were buried likewise, and are there still, but were all cooled instantaneously. One man with part of his stomach blown away, and his right fire smashed, was trying to get a corporal of his regiment in, but the corporal died when he got there, and he got it as well. He was smiling and thanking all night, and saying how comfortable he was. Another we had to put off at Saint Amir, on the off chance of saving his life. He was made happy by two tangerine oranges. Many of the sitting-ups have no voice, and they cough all night. We unloaded this morning, got asleep this afternoon, and are now 5pm on our way up again. The clearing hospitals are overflowing as of old, and like the field ambulances, have more than they can cope with. We have to redress the septic things with H202, which keeps them going until they can be specially treated at the base. Some of the enterics are very bad. Tangerines are not ideal treatment for enteric hemorrhage, but it has to be done. Two of my orderlies are very good with them, and take great care of their mouths, and know how to feed them. It is a great anxiety when our great hulking, GDO, General Duty Orderly, not a nursing orderly, has to take his turn on night duty with the badly wounded. It is time the sun shone somewhere, but it surely will, later on. Friday, January 15th. We got to BEL, too late last night for loading, and went, thankfully, to bed instead. Now, 3.30pm, nearly back at B, but expect to be sent on to Ruin. Most sick this time, and bad feet. Not exactly frostbite, but swollen and discoloured from the wet. One of my enterics is a field ambulance boy with a temp of 105, and he only went sick yesterday. How awful he must have felt on duty, he says his body feels four sizes too big for him. It is a mild day, sunny in parts and not wet. Still Friday, January 15th. We unloaded at 6pm at B, but are set off again at 4.15am. Business is brisk just now. This last lot, only had mostly minor ailments besides the enterics and the wounded. The French Major has had a letter from his wife at last. They are with the Germans, but quite well. We drank their health tonight in special port in Champagne, and had Christmas pudding with sourced and fair as the lighted brandy was caught. We are going to be at Naut Yvres, I'm glad to tell you. The skying up by night and down by day is much the less tiring way, as we can undress and have a real night in bed. Later, he's a Brioche. We have been out, but couldn't get as far as number C-L-H, where I find tears as the RTO said we might be going on at 11.30. We came across an anti-aircraft gun pointing to the sky on a little hill. The gunner officer in charge of it seemed very pleased to see us, as he is alone all day. He walks up and down the road a certain distance, dropping stones out of his pocket at each turning and clears out the surrounding drain pipes to drain his bit of swamp as his amusements. He showed us his two kinds of 12-pound shells, high explosives and shrapnel. The high explosive frightens the enemy airplane away by its terrific bang, he says. Our own airmen say they don't mind the shrapnel. He says you can't distinguish between one kind of French airplane and the Germans, until they are close enough over you to see the colours underneath, and then it may be too late to fire. I'm terrified of bringing down a French airplane, he said. He was the most cheerful, ruddy, fit-looking boy. 9 p.m. Another train fall, in Nerimbalonia. A supply train full of minor cases came down just before us from the same place, where we've been three days running. The two clearing hospitals up there are working at awful high pressure, filling in from field ambulances and emptying into the trains. All cases now have to go through the clearing hospitals for classification and diagnosis and resins. But it is of a sketchy character, as you may imagine. They are all swarming with JJs, even the officers. One of the officers is wounded in the head, shoulder, stomach, both arms and both feet. A boy in my wards with a baby face showed me a beautiful silver enameled and engraved watch he got off a eulun. He was treasured in his belt to take home to mother. I asked him if the eulun was dead. Yes, he said, his face lighting up with glee. We shot him. He was like a pepperpot when we got to him. Isn't it horrible? And like the boy in punch, he'd never killed anybody before he went to France. I wonder what mother will say to his cheerful little story. I've been busy bursting a bad Quincy with inhalers and fermentations. After a few hours he could sing to Pereri and drink a bottle of stout. There are two volunteer shop boys from a London territorial regiment who call me Madam from Force of Habit. Sunday, January 17th. We didn't unload at Bologna last night and are still 11am, taking them on to Entree Art, a lovely place on the coast about 10 miles north of Athea. The hospital there is my old number ****** general hospital that I'm mobilised with, so it will be very jolly to see them all again. We are going through most lovely country on a clear sunny morning and none of the patients are causing any anxiety so it is an extremely pleasant journey and we shall have a good rest on the way back. 3pm, just as I was beginning to forget there were such things as trenches and shrapnel and snipers they told me a horrible story of two Camerons who got stuck in the mud and sucked down to their shoulders. They took an hour and a half getting one out and just as they said to the other alright jock we'll have you out in a minute he threw back his head and laughed and in doing so got sucked right under and is still there. They said there was no sort of possibility of getting him out it was like quicksand. One told me, not as such a very sensational fact that he went for 11 weeks without taking off his clothes or a wash and then he had a hot bath and a change of everything he remarked that he had to scrape himself with a knife. We have been travelling all day and shan't get to Etriart till about 7pm it is a mercy we got our bad cases off at Bologna Pneumonias, enterics, 2SFs and some badly wounded including the officer dressed in bandages all over he was such a nice boy when he was put into clean pajamas and had a clean hanky with odour cologne he said, by jove it's worth getting hit for this after the smells of dead horses dead men and dead everything he said no one could get into mecenines where there is only one house left standing because of the unburied dead line about he couldn't move his arms but he loved being fed with pigs of tangerine, orange and like so many he was chiefly concerned with giving so much trouble he looked awfully ill but seldom stopped smiling of such other kingdom of heaven later on the way to Ardfri these are all bound for home and have been in hospital some time they are clean, shaved, clothed, feared and convalescent most of the lowering downs are recovering from severe wounds of weeks back it is quite new even to see them at that stage instead of the condition we usually get them in some are the same ones we brought down from Bethune three weeks ago one man was in a dugout going about twenty feet back from the trench with sixteen others taking cover from our howitzers and also from the enemies the cultivated ground is so soft with the wet that it easily gives and the bursting of one of our shells close by drove the roof in and buried these seventeen four were killed and eleven injured by it but only two were got out alive and they were abandoned as dead however a rescue party of six faced the enemy shells above ground and tried to get them out and doing this two were killed and two wounded the other two went home with it my man and another man were pinned down by beans the other had his face clear but mine hadn't though he could hear the picks above him he gave up all hopes of getting out but the other man when rescued said he thought this one was still alive and then got him out unconscious when he came to he was in hospital in a chapel and it took him a long time to realise he was alive they generally take you into chapel before they bury you he said but I told him they'd done it the wrong way round with me that was the worst mess I ever got into in this war he finished up Wednesday January 20th Sotteville the others have all been out but I've been a bit lazy and stayed in washed my hair and mended my clothes this place is looking awfully pretty today because all the fields are flooded between us and the long line of high hill about a mile away and it looks like a huge lake with the trees reflected in it no orders to move as usual ambulance trains traveller specials in a march which means a gap in the timetable there are only about two marches in 24 hours and the RTOs have to fit the ATs into one or other of these marches when orders come that number AT is wanted we do not get final orders of where our destination is till we get to Hasebriok or Saint-Omer we have been six days without a mile now and have taken loads to Etriart and to Avray Thursday January 21st we were not a whole day in Sotteville for once moved out early this morning and are still travelling 9pm between Abbeyville and Bologna it has been a specially slow journey and a less we didn't go by army ends the only time we might have by daylight Beauvais has a fine cathedral from the outside I believe we are to go straight on from Bologna so we may not get our six days mile a less Friday January 22nd we didn't get in to Beter midnight too late to get miles and left early this morning at Calais it was discovered that the kitchen had been left behind and shunting a store wagon so we have been hung up all day waiting for it at Saint-Omer went for a walk it is a most interesting place to walk about in swarming with every kind of wall material and the grey towers of the two cathedrals looked lovely in a blue sky such a dazzling day we were able to get on with painting the train which is breaking out into the most marvellous labelling the orderlies competing with each other but when at 6pm it seemed the day would never end number A.T. steamed up with our kitchen tacked on and in the kitchen was the mailbag joy of joys we have just got to Bay Yeo 10.30pm a few guns banging we are wondering if we shall clear the CL hospitals tonight or wait till morning depends if they are expecting convoys in tonight and are full 11pm P&I fully rigged for night duty have just been glimmerly exploring the perfectly silent and empty station and street wondering when the motor ambulances will begin to roll up when B.B. held us from the train with 8 o'clock tomorrow morning you two sillies and the mages in bed so now we can turn in and load up happily by daylight and it's my turn for the laying down thank goodness or rather the liars as they are called Sunday January 23rd another blue sunny frosty morning loading up this morning was hard to attend to as a thrilling taupe chase was going on overhead the sky peppered with bursting shells and aeroplanes buzzing around didn't bring it down though the train is full of very painful feet like a form of a large burning chillblane all over the foot and you can't do anything for them poor lambs still Saturday January 23rd this is our first journey to Versailles my only acquaintance with it was on the way up from Le Mans to Thier Nouveau to join this train two kind sisters living in a sort of little ticket office in the middle of the line washed and fed to me at 6am in between two trains but I saw nothing of the glories of Versailles hope to tomorrow I don't think the men will get much sleep their feet are too bad but we are going to give them a good chance with drugs the last thing we shall do the night in three watches Sunday January 24th 5am Versailles they've had a pretty good night most of them if you see any compartment say six sitters and two top liars shown signs have been near the end of their tether with bad feet and long hours of the train you have only to say cheerfully how are you getting on in this dugout for every man to brighten visibly and there is a chorus of if our dugouts was like this I reckon we wouldn't want no relieven and a burst of wit and merriment follows you can try it all down the train it never fails they are all in first class coaches not thirds or seconds 9.30am they have only four MAs and the hospital is one and a half miles off so all our 366 limping muddy skier crows are not off yet there is a mist and a peasy north wind and lots of mud the ATs do so much bringing the British Army from the field that I hope some other trains are busy bringing the British Army to the field or there can't be many left in the field they told me another story of a man in the Royal Scots who was sunken mud up to his shoulders and the officer offered a cantina from and a sovereign to the first who could get him out for five hours 13 men were digging for him but it filled up always as they dug and when they got him out he died 6pm just getting to ruin properly to load for our fray they do keep us moving we just had time to go and see the Palais Trionon with the French sergeant who is nearly a gentleman and an artist is there anything else quite like it anywhere else it was defenced on tre so we only wandered around the grounds and looked in at the windows down the avenues around the ponds and hundreds of statues and went up the great Escalier Louis Catoce certainly did himself proud it was a long way to go and we were walking for hours till we got dark tired after the long load from Baille and after lunch we tired firmly onto our beds I don't think we should take patience on tonight Monday January 25th we've been at Sotothiel all day had time to read last week's Times an exceptionally interesting lot have just had orders to load up at Ruin for our fray tomorrow then I hope we shall go back to Bologna we have not stayed more than an hour or two in Bologna since January 9th that is for 17 days but we've managed to just pick up our mail every few days while unloading the bad cases we ought to get back there for a mail on Thursday we have taken down a good many Northamptons lately they seem an exceptionally seasoned and intelligent lot and have been through the thick of everything since Mons did I tell you that in one place I don't suppose it is the same all along the line they are doing 48 hours in the trenches followed by 48 hours back in billets, barns etc for six times and then 12 days rest when they get themselves and their rifles cleaned they have armour as shops for this they nearly all say that only the men who are quite certain they will never get back say they want to if any others say it well they're liars but for all that you do find one here and there who means it one Canadian asked how long he'd be sick with his feet I want to get back to the regiment he said they seemed rather out of it with the Tommies some of them just had a grand hot bath from a passing engine in exchange for chocolate we shall have a quiet night tonight Sateville is the quietest place we ever sleep in there is no squealing of whistles and shouting of French Royalmen as in all the big stations last night they were shunting and jigging us about all night between Rouen and Sateville slow bumping over hundreds of points is much worse to sleep in than fast travelling in either case you wake whenever you pull up or start off but we shall miss the train when we get into a dull hotel bedroom or ballet or perhaps a tent my month at Le Mans and Madame's beautiful French bed was the one luxury I've struck so far Tuesday 26th January a dazzling blue spring day as we were not going in to load at Rouen till 3pm we went for the most glorious walk in this country we crossed the ferry over the Sain to the foot of the steep high line of hills which eventually overlooks Rouen and climbed up to the top by a lovely winding woody path in the sun the boatman congratulated us on the sinking of the blue shoe as a naval man I suppose who said war said P while we were waiting on the shingle for the boat it did seem very remote at the top we got to the church of Le Bon Secours which is in a very fine position with a marvellous view we had some lovely cider in a very clean pub with a garden and then took the tram down a very steep track into Rouen I was standing in the front of the tram for the view over Rouen which was dazzling with the spires and the river and the bridges when we turned a sharp corner and smashed bang into a market cart coming up our track for a moment one thought the man and woman and the horse must be done for the horse disappeared under the train and there arose such a screaming that the three Tommies and I fell over each other trying to get out to the rescue when we did we found the man and woman had been luckily shot clear out of the tram except that the man's hand was torn and the old woman was frantically screaming Mancheval! Mancheval! Mancheval! at least a hundred times without stopping the others were out by this time and the two tram people and the French clack went on at its top speed while P and the Tommies and a very clever old woman out of the tram tried to cut the horse clear of the broken cart and I did up the man's hand with our hand keys the only one concerned least was the horse who kept quiet with its legs mixed up in the tram at last the tram succeeded in moving clear of the horse without hurting it and it was got up smiling after all the outside old woman went on picking up the fish in the harness etc. the man was taken off to have his hand bathed and the poor old woman of the cart stopped screaming Mancheval! Mancheval! and went off to have a drink and we walked on and found a train at Rouen that sort of thing is always happening in France I hope the overworked people at the heads of the various departments of the British Army realise how much the men appreciate what they try and do for them in the trenches if you ask what the billets are like they say Barnes and such like they do the best they can for us if you ask if the trench conditions are as bad for the Germans they say they are worse off they ain't looked after like what we are 9.30pm on the way to Avray I was just going to say that from the Sien to Le Avray there is nothing to report when I came across a young educated German in my wards with his left leg off from the hip and his right from below the knee and a bad shell wound in his arm all healed now done at his prayers on 24th October and I had an hour's much thrilling and heated conversation with him in German he was very down on the English sisters in hospital because he says they hated him and didn't treat him like the rest I said that was because they couldn't forget what his regiment Bavarians had done to the Belgian woman and children and old men and the French and he said he couldn't forget how the Belgian woman had put out the eyes of the German wounded at Lich and thrown boiling water on them I said they were driven to it I have since found that no sort of evidence was brought forward by the Germans to support this charge I was emphatically denied by the Belgium authorities I asked him a lot of straight questions about Germany and the war and he answered equally straight he said they had food in Germany for 10 years and that they had 10 million men and that all the present students would be in the army later on and that practically the supply could never stop and I said that however long they could go on in the end there would be no more Germany because she was up against five nations he said no man has any fear of a Russian soldier and that though they were slower over it they would get Paris but not London except by Zeflins he admitted that it would be to land troops in England and that our navy was the best but we had so few soldiers they hardly counted he got very excited over the Zeflins I asked why the Germans hated the English and he said in Berlin we do not speak of the English at all it is the French and the Russians we hate he said the Turks were no good and Austria not much better he was very down on Belgium for resisting in the first place and said the shield was with France and Russia they were very much astonished when England didn't remain neutral he had the cheek to say that three German soldiers were as good as twenty English so I assured him that five English could do for fifty Germans and went on explaining carefully to him how there could be no more Germany in the end because the right must win and he said so you say in England but we know otherwise in Deutschland and I am a German so as I am in English we had to agree to differ his faith in his vatterland nearly made him cry and must have given him a temperature I felt quite used up afterwards he is fast asleep now there is also an old soldier of sixty three who says General French and General Smith Dorian photographed him as the oldest soldier in the British army he has four sons in it one killed, two wounded he was with General Low in the Citrell expedition and is called Donald Macdonald of the KOSPS unfortunately I was reduced to the ranks for being drunk the other day he said gaily, but the captain he said don't lose art Macdonald you'll get it all back Wednesday January 27th they have found a way of forming our quarters when we have not an engine on I don't know what we should have done without it today it is icy cold nails tomorrow hooray going to turn in early Thursday January 28th got to Bologna this morning have been getting stores in and repairs done expect to be sent up any time sharp frost and cold wind Friday January 29th one of those difficult to bear days hung up all day at a place beyond Saint Amir listening to guns and doing nothing when there's so much to be done the line is probably too busy to let us up it happens to be a dazzling blue day which must be wiping off 50% of the horrors of the front the other 50% is what they are out for and see the meaning of we had to go in an hour's time destination unknown Saturday January 30th we got up to Merviel at one o'clock last night and loaded up only 45 and are now just going to load up again at a place on the way back we have been completely done out of the La Bacille business haven't been near it number B C L H that we saw on December the 27th where SC and two more of my number B G H friends were had to be evacuated in a hurry as several orderlies were killed in the shelling one of my badly wounded says the major whose servant he has been for four years asked him to make up the fire in his dugout while he went to the other end of the trench while he was doing the fire a shell burst over the dugout went through his left leg and touched his right if the major had been sitting in his chair where he was a minute before his head would have been blown off he said when the major came back and found me he drove everybody else away and stayed with me all day and made me cocoa and at night carried my stretcher himself and took me right to headquarters his eyes shine when he talks of the major and he seems so proud he got it instead when the city nups what was the matter with him too small he said another said too young he was aged 15 in the black watch a young monkey badly wounded in hand and throat lightiness agreed the shatter to his hand saved worst destruction to his throat though bad enough as it is afterwards settled him in fixed his eye on me and said are you going to be in here alone of us all the way yes I said that's a good job and he is taking good care to get his money's worth I can tell you some of them are roaring at the man in punch he made a gallant attempt to do justice to all his Christmas presents at once there is a sergeant major of the Royal Scots very indignant of having been made to go sick with bad feet any attempt to fuss over him is met with I need no tension whatsoever thank you sister I feel more like apologising for being in here only 5 weeks of active service he growled the latest franca-british idea is to arrest the boshes until they are gone Saturday January 31st we did go on to Rwanda B is full to the brim we have only unloaded at B three times since Christmas I'm beginning to think we waste a lot of sympathy on the poor wounded rocking in a train all night after being on it one of mine with a bullet still in his chest in some pneumonia who seemed very ill when he was put on at Merville said this morning he felt a lot better and had had the best night for five days and my fidgety boy with a wound in his throat made a terrible fuss had been put off at Bologna when he found he was the only one in his compartment to go and that I wasn't going with him I had the easy watch last night because of my cold and went to bed at 1am got a hot bath this morning and lay low all day till a stroll between the Sain and the floods after tea satay fell there are four trains waiting here and the C.S.S. have been skating on the floods we move on at one o'clock tonight number B.A.T. had a bomb dropped each side of their train at Bayeale but they didn't explode the French instruction books have come and I am going to start the French class for the men on the train they are very keen to learn chiefly I think to make a little more running with the French girls at the various stopping places two officers last night were awfully sick and not been taken off at B but I think they'll get home from Rouen one said he must get home if only for ten minutes to feel he was out of France Wednesday, February 3rd moved on last night and woke up at Bayeale some badly wounded on the train but not on my half on the other beat beyond Rouen the honeysuckle is in leaf the catkins are out and the woods are full of buds what a difference it will make when spring comes on this side it is all canals, bogs and pollards and the eternal mud we found pinned on a sock from a London school child who so ever receives this when you return conqueror, drop me a line and then her name and address Thursday, February 4th for once we unloaded at B and went to bed instead of taking them on all night to Rouen moved out of B at 5 a.m. breakfast at Saint-O where we nearly got left behind strolling on the line during a wait we are going to move Aale in the mining district where Aale is 3 p.m. we've just taken on about 70 Indians mostly sick some badly wounded they are much cleaner than they used to be they are being closed but not alas in habits airplanes are chasing a taube overhead but it has not been shelled guns are making a good noise all around we are waiting for a convoy of British now it is a lovely afternoon the guns were shaking the train just now one big bang made us all pop our heads out of the windows to look for the bomb but it wasn't a bomb a rosy faced white-haired colonel just came up to me and said you've brought us more firing this afternoon than we've heard in a long time we're filling up with British wounded now on the other half of the train it is getting late and we shan't unload tonight later we were hours loading up because all the motor drivers are down with flu and there were only two available the rest are all busy bringing wounded into the clearing hospital the spell of having the train full of slight medical cases and bad feet seems to be over and wounded are coming on again three of my sitting up Indians have temperatures of 104 so you can imagine what the line-downs are like they are very anxious cases to look after partly because they are another race and partly because they can't explain their wants and they seem to want to be let to die quietly in a corner rather than fall in with your notions of their comfort Abba Yeol on our last journey we took on a heavenly white puppy just old enough to lap quite wee and white and fat he cries when he wants to be nursed and barks in a lovely falsetto when he wants to play and waddles after our feet when we take him for a walk but he likes being carried best some Tommy's on a truck at railhead brought him up for us they adore his little mother and two brothers Friday, February 5th, Bologna we did get in late last night and got to bed at 1am we are unloading during the night again now and also loading up at night one boy last night lost his right hand his left arm and leg were wounded and both his eyes yes, I've got more than my share he said but I'll get over it alright I didn't happen to answer for a minute and in a changed voice he said shant I? shant I? of course I assured him that he'd get quite well and that he was ticketed to go straight to an ice specialist thank God for that he said as if the ice specialist had already cured him but it is doubtful if any ice specialist will save his eyes today has been a record day of brilliant sun blue sky and warm air and it has transformed the muddy, sloppy dingy Bologna of the last two months into something more like Cornwall we couldn't stop on the train there were no orders likely in spite of being tired but went into town in the morning and on the lawn stone pier in the afternoon and then to tea at the buffet at the Maritime where you have tea with real milk and fresh butter and jam not out of a tin and a tablecloth and a china cup luxuries beyond description on the pier there were gulls and a sunny sort of salt wind and big waves breaking and a glorious view of the steep little town piled up in layers above the harbour which is packed with shipping End of Chapter 7 Recording by Miriam Coleman-Hipkins www.thisvoiceforyou.com Chapter 8 of Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front 1914-1915 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front 1914-1915 by Anonymous Chapter 8 On-Number Ambulance Train 6 Rouen-Neuve-Chapelle-Sainte-Alois February 7, 1915 to March 31, 1915 Under the lee of the little wood I am sitting in the sun What will be done in Flanders before the day be done Above, beyond the larches the sky is very blue It's the smoke of hell in Flanders that leaves the sun for you by H.C.F. The Indians Saint-Omer the Victoria League Poparenge a bad load left behind Rouen-Again an off spell en route to Etreta Sotteville Neuve-Chapelle Saint-Alois the Indians Spring in Northwest France the Convalescent home Kitchener's Boys Sunday, February 7 This is a little out-of-the-way town in La Landec, rather in a hollow Number Ambulance train has been here before and the natives look at us as if we were Bosch There are 250 Royal Engineers inhabiting a long truck train here We have given them all our mufflers and mittens They had none and the officer has had our officers to tea with him Our men have played a football match with them Drawn We went for a splendid walk this morning uphill to a pine wood bordered by a moor with winds I've now got in my bunkie-hole It is not quite six feet square A polypod fern A plate of moss A pot of white hyacinths And also catkins, violets and mimosa I suppose we shall move on tonight if there is a march Many hundreds of French cavalry passed across the bridge in this cutting this morning They looked so jolly One of the staff who has been to Wooloch on leave says that Kitchener's new army there is extraordinarily promising and keen So far we have only heard good of those out here from the old hands who've come across them 9.45 p.m. We are just getting to the place where all the fighting is La Ba Se We Probably we shall load up with wounded tonight There's a great flare some way off that looks like the burning villages we used to see round Ypres It is a very dark night Monday morning, February 8 We stood by last night and are just going to load now All is quiet here Said to have been nothing happening the last few days 7 p.m. nearing Boulogne We've had a very muddly day taking on at four different places I have a coach full of Indians They have been teaching me some more Hindustani Some of them suddenly began to say their prayers at sunset They spread a small mat in front of them knelt down and became very busy knocking owls in the floor with their heads as the orderly describes it We have a lot of wounded from Saturday's fighting They took three German trenches and got in with a bayonet until they were treading on dead Germans The wounded sitting up are frightfully proud of it After their personal reminiscences you feel as if you'd been jabbing Germans yourself They say they lose their minds in the charge and couldn't do it if they stopped to think because they're feeling men same as us, one said A corporal on his way back to the front taking some people down to Saint-O under a guard saw one of his pals at the window in our train He leaped up and said I wish to God I could get chill-blanes and come down with you This to an indignant man with a shrapnel wound I've got five bad cases of measles with high temperatures and throats Tuesday, February 9th Again they unloaded us at Boulogne last night and we are now eleven a.m. on our way up again The Indians I had were a very interesting lot The race differences seem more striking the better you get to know them The Gurkhas seem to be more like tommys in temperament and expression and all the muscle-mans and the best of the Sikhs and the Jats might be princes and prime ministers in dignity, feature and manners When a Sikh refuses a cigarette and you are silly enough to offer him one he does it with a gesture that makes you feel like a house-mate who ought to have known better The beautiful muscle-mans smile and salam and say merboni however ill they are if you happen to hit upon something they like They all make a terrible fuss over their kit and their pugeries and their belongings and refuse to budge without them Sister M. found her orders to leave when we got in but she doesn't know where she is going so after this trip we shall be three again which is a blessing as there are not enough words for four and no one likes giving any up It also gives us a spare bunk to store our warehouses of parcels for men which entirely overflow our own dugouts As soon as you've given out one lot another bail arrives We have had every kind of infectious disease to nurse in this war except smallpox The infectious ward is one of mine and we've had enteric, scarlet fever, measles, mumps and diphtheria 7 p.m. we got to the new place where we wait for a march just at tea time and we had a grand walk up to the moor where you can see half over France each way There is a travelling wireless station up there Each pole has its receiver in a big grey motor lorry by the roadside where they live and sleep The road wound down to a little curly village with a beautiful old grey church On the top of the moor on the way back it was dark and the flash signals were morcing away to each other from the distant hills It reminded me of the big forts on the copiers round Pretoria I had my first French class this afternoon at Saint-Omer in the men's mess truck I'd got a small blackboard in Boulogne and they all had notebooks and the QMS had arranged it very nicely They were very keen and got on at a great pace They weren't a bit shy over trying to pronounce and will I think make good progress They have a great pull over men of their class in England by their opportunities of listening to French spoken by the French such a totally different language to French spoken by most English people My instruction book is Hugo's which is a lightning method compared to the usual school books They are doing exercises for me for next time Wednesday, February 10th, 9 p.m. We woke at Merville after a particularly rocky noisy night journey and loaded up there with wounded and sick also Indians but not in my wards for once My blessé kept me busy till the moment we unloaded this evening at Boulogne and I had not time to hear much about their doings One extraordinarily sporting boy had a wound right through his neck involving his swallowing It took about half an hour to give him a feed through a tube but he stuck it smiling all the time Another older man was shot in the stomach and looked as if he wouldn't get over it He told me he'd already been in hospital eight weeks shot in the head at the AIN I said, what hard luck to have to go through it again It's got to be done, he said I didn't give it a thought I think I shall get over this, he said but I don't want to go back a third time He has a wife and three children in Ireland We are to move up again at 4 a.m. Just had dinner Soup boiled beef Tough as cable and ration cheese and coffee and the Daily Mail Thursday, February 11 We have spent most of the day at Santo Mare and got a lovely walk-in this morning along the canal watching the big barges which take 2,000 tonnes of beet roots for sugar There is a scheme on foot for fitting up these big barges as transport for the sick This one came from Ferns as moving clothes from Ferns as moving clearing hospitals I have been over one in Rouen They are not yet in use but might be rather jolly in the summer It is the warmest spring day we've had I had my second French class this afternoon again at Santo Mare We are now moving on up to Bello I expect we shall take patience on this evening and have them all night Friday, February 12, 6 a.m. We did a record loading up in 50 minutes last night chiefly medical cases and took 8 hours to crawl to Bello Now we are on the way for Av but shall not get there till about 10 p.m. tonight so they will have a long day in the train A good many of the lying-downs are influenza with high temperatures and no voice It is a bore getting to Boulogne in the night as we miss our mails and the daily mail 7 p.m. This is an interminable journey Have not yet reached Rouen and shan't get to Av till perhaps 2 a.m. The patients are getting very weary especially the sitting-ups The wards of acute liars you can run like a hospital Some of the orderlies are now getting quite keen on having their wards clean and swept and the meals and feeds up to time and the washings done but it has taken weeks to bring them up to it When they do all that well I can get on with the diets, temperatures, treatments and dressings, etc. On the long journeys we take round at intervals smokes, chocolate, papers, hankies, etc. when we have them The Victoria League has done me well in bails of hankies They simply love the affectionate and admiring messages pinned on from New Zealand and one of them always volunteers to answer them We shall be up in shifts again tonight We are all hoping to have a day in Rouen on the way back for baths, hair-washing, shopping, seeing the paymaster and showing the new sister the sights For sheer beauty and interestingness in the most endearing town you don't know which you love best it's setting with the hills, river and bridge or its beautiful spires and towers and marvellous old streets and houses Saturday, February 13th, 2 a.m. still on the way to Avre and we load it up on Thursday This journey is another revelation of what the British soldier will stick without grumbling The sitting-ups are ate in a carriage some with painful feet, some with wounded arms and some with coughs, rheumatism, etc. but you don't hear a word of grousing It is only when things are prosperous and comfortable that Tommy grumbles and has grievances Some of the liars are too ill to know how long they've been on the train One charming Scotchman who enlisted for Kitchener's Army but was put into the regulars and, as a substitute, has just asked me to write my name and address in his little book so that he can write from England He also says that we must look after ourselves and study our health because there's a bad time coming and our country will need us He's done his share after an operation and will never be able to do any more Everything points to this service having to put out all it can both here and at home Many new hospitals are being organized and there are already hundreds We have a poor lunatic on board who keeps asking us to let his wife come in The train is crawling with JJs Saturday, 4.30 am just seen the last stretcher off now going to undress first time since Wednesday night and turn in Saturday, 13th February of It is four months today since I joined the train It seems much longer in some ways and yet the days go by very quickly even the off days and when the train is full the hours fly We went into the familiar streets this morning that we saw so much of in August waiting for orders and had a look at the sea The train moved off at tea time the prettiest part of the journey in a beautiful evening sunlight lighting up the woods and hills The palm is out and the others saw prim roses We have also seen some snow drops After a heavy journey with two nights out of bed you don't intend to do any letter writing or mending or French classes but look out of the window or sleep or read Dolly Dialogues You always get compensation for these journeys A longer journey back with probably a wait at Rouen or Sotheville and possibly another at Boulogne We have been going up and down again very briskly this last fortnight between Boulogne and the back of the front Sunday, 14th A dismal day at Sotheville pouring cats and dogs all day and the train cold Shrove Tuesday We were all day coming up yesterday Got to Boulogne in the middle of the night and went on again to Saint-Omer where we woke this morning so we missed our males again It will be a full week's males when we do get them Lovely blue sky today Had a walk with Sister B round the town and now this afternoon we are on the way to Pauperinge in a beaten country where we haven't been for three months French class do at 3 p.m. if we haven't got there by then We have just passed a graveyard absolutely packed with little wooden crosses Ash Wednesday, February 17th, 6 a.m. We took on a very bad load of wounded at Pauperinge more like what used to happen three months ago in the same place They were only wounded the night before and some the same day The clearing hospitals had to be cleared immediately We have just got to Boulogne and are going to unload here at 8.30 a.m. Must stop Hope to get a week's males today A brisk air battle between one British and one French and two Taubes was going on when we got there and a perfect sky for it Very high up A wounded major on the train was talking about the men It's not a case of our leading the men We have a job to keep up with them It was a pretty sad business getting them off the train this morning There were so many compound fractures and no amount of contriving seemed to come between them and the jolting of the train all night And to add to the difficulties it was pouring in torrents and icy cold and the railway people refused to move the train under cover so they went out of the warm train on to damp stretchers in an icy rain They were nearly all in thin pajamas as we'd had to cut off their soaking khaki They were practically straight from the trenches But once clear of trains, stretchers, and motor ambulances they will be warmed, washed, fed, vetted and their fractures set under an anesthetic One man had his arm blown to pieces on Monday afternoon had it amputated on Monday night and was put into one of our wards on Tuesday and admitted to base hospital on Wednesday But that is ticklish work One boy, a stretcher-bearer with both legs severely wounded very nearly bled to death He was pulled round somehow About midnight when he was packed up in wool and hot water bottles, et cetera when I asked him how he was feeling he said gaily, quite well, delightfully warm, thank you We got him taken to hospital directly the train got in at 4 a.m. the others were unloaded at 9 a.m. We are now 5 p.m. on our way to Etop probably to clear the general hospital there either tonight or tomorrow morning It hasn't stopped pouring all day It took me till lunch to read my enormous mail Major T. has heard today that the French railway people want his train back again for passenger traffic so the possibility of our all being suddenly disbanded and dispersed is hanging over us but I believe it has been threatened before Thursday, February 18th, in bed, 10 p.m. We have had a very heavy day with the wounded again from Bélo We unloaded again at Boulogne this evening and are to go up again sometime tonight There is a great deal going on in our front There was a boy from Suffolk of Kitchener's Army in my ward who has only been out three weeks He talked the most heavenly East Anglian I was again the barn and that fared to hit me All in the right sing-song A sergeant of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry had a fearful shell wound in his thigh which has gone wrong and as the trouble is too high for amputation they will have their work cut out to save his life They were getting out of the trench for a bayonet charge and he had just collected his men when he was hit so the officer shook hands with him and went on with the charge leaving him and another man wounded in the leg in the trench They stayed there several hours with no dressings on sinking into the mud Can you wonder it has gone wrong? Until another man turned up and helped them out Then they walked to the regimental aid post 200 yards away, helped by the sound man There they were dressed and had the anti-tetanus serum injection and were taken by stretcher-bearers to the next dressing station and then by horse-ambulance to the field ambulance and then by motor-ambulance to where we picked them up There are lots of French's regiment wounded Friday, February 19th We left Boulogne at 5 a.m. today and were delayed all the morning farther up by one of the usual French collisions A guard had left his end of a train and was on the engine so he never noticed that twelve empty trucks had come uncoupled and careered down a hill where they were run into and crumpled up by a passenger train The guard of that one was badly injured, fractured spine but the passengers only shaken At Saint-Omer, Miss M. and Major T. and I were being shown over the khaki train when ours moved off There was a wild stampede, the khaki train had all its doors locked and we had miles to go inside to get out There orderly shouted to ours to pull the communication cord the only way of appealing to the distant engine so it slowed down and we clambered breathlessly on We are sidetracked now at the jolly place of the moor and the wireless lorries probably move on in the night Saturday, February 20th, 9 p.m. we've had a very unsatisfactory day loading up at four different places and still on our way down I'm just going to lie down to be called at 2 a.m. Now we're four two go to bed for the whole night and the other two take the train for half the night when we have a light load as today If they are all bad cases we have two on and two off for the two watches We have some Indians on today but most British and not many blessé The other day a huge train of reinforcements got divided by mistake The engine went off with all the officers and the men had a joy ride to themselves invaded the cafes where they sometimes get half poisoned and in half an hour's time there was a big scrap among themselves with fifty casualties so the story runs A humane and fatherly orderly has just brought me a stone hot water bottle for my feet as I write this in the rather freezing dispensary coach in the middle of the train in between my rounds All the worst cases and the Indians were put off at Boulogne and the measles, mumps and diphtherias so there isn't much to do some are snoring like an aeroplane Monday, February 22nd we got a short walk yesterday evening after unloading at Rouen there was a glorious sunset over the bridge and the lights just lighting up and Rouen looked its beautifulest we slept at Sotteville and this morning sister and I walked down the line into Rouen and saw the paymaster and the cathedral and did some shopping and had a boiled egg and real butter and tea for lunch and came back in the tram Sister S is in bed with influenza The lengthening days and better weather are making a real difference to the gloom of things and though there is a universal undercurrent of feeling that enormous sacrifices will have to be made it seems to be shaping for a step farther on and an ultimate return to sanity and peace It is such a vast upheaval when you are in the middle of it that you sometimes actually wonder if everyone has gone mad or who has gone mad that all should be grimly working, toiling, slaving from the firing line to the base for more destruction and for more highly finished and uninterrupted destruction in order to get peace and the men who pay the cost in intimate personal and individual suffering and in death are not the men who made the war Wednesday February 24th we have been all day in Boulogne and move up at 8.15 this evening which means loading up after breakfast and perhaps unloading tomorrow evening it has given Sister S another day to recover from her attack of influenza have been busy one way and another all day but went for a walk after tea and saw over-number General Hospital at the casino a splendid place working like clockwork lots of bad cases but they all look clean and beautifully cared for and rigged up Thursday February 25th moved up to the place with the Moor during the night glorious clear sunny morning couldn't leave the train for a real walk as there were no orders this time last year the last thing one intended to do was go and travel about France for six months with occasional excursions into Belgium the times sometimes comes the next day now 9 p.m. the ways of French railways are impenetrable in spite of orders for Beilod before lunch we are still here and less than ever able to leave the train for a walk this is the fourth day with no patience on the longest off spell since before Christmas it shows there's not much doing or much medical leakage Friday February 26th we loaded up this morning with a not very bad lot mine all sitters except some enterics a measles and a diphtheria and are on our way down again I am already packed to get off at Boulogne if my leave is in Major M's office Saturday February 27th 9 p.m. hotel at Boulogne all the efforts to get my seven days leave have failed I thought they would Wednesday March 3rd Boulogne there is not a great deal to do or see here especially on a wet day Friday March 5th 5 p.m. on way down from Chowk mixed lot of wounded, medicals, Indians and Canadians I have a lad of 24 with both eyes destroyed by a bullet and there is a bad trachea nothing very much has been going on but the German shells sometimes plop into the middle of a trench and each one means a good many casualties 10 p.m. we've had a busy day and are not home yet my boy with the dressings on his head has not the slightest idea that he's got no eyes and who is going to tell him the pain is bad and he has to have a lot of morphia with a cigarette in between we shall probably not unload tonight and I am to be called at 2 a.m. the infectious ward is full of British entrance diphtherias and measles and Indian mumpies Saturday March 6th Boulogne instead of being called at 2 for duty was called at 1 to go to bed as they unloaded us at that hour last night we pulled up at Hasebrook alongside a troop train with men guns and horses just out from the Midlands two lads in a truck with their horses asked me for cigarettes luckily thanks to the train comforts funds last whack I had some one said solemnly that he had a cousin to avenge and now his chance had come they both had shining eyes and not a rollicking but an eager excitement as they asked when the train would get there and looked as if they could already see the shells and weren't afraid Sunday March 7th we are stuck in the jolly place close to GHQ but can't leave the train as there are no orders I've been having a French class with the wall of the truck for a blackboard and occasional bangs from a big gun somewhere tail end of Monday March 8th on way down to Etretat where number GHQ is which we shall reach tomorrow about tea time a load of woundeds this time very busy all day till now midnight and haven't had time to hear many of their adventures they seem to all come from a line of front where the Bosch are persistently hammering to break through and though they don't get any forwarder they cause a steady leakage we heard guns all the while we were loading a dressing station five miles away had just been shelled and a major Royal Army Medical Corps killed and two other R.A.M.C. officers wounded I have a man wounded in eight places including a fractured elbow and a fractured skull which has been trefined what is left of him that hasn't stopped bullets he's immensely proud of his bandages he was one of nineteen who were in a barn when a shell came through the roof and burst inside spitting shrapnel bullets all over them all wounded and one killed we have just put off an emergency case of gas gangrene temp 105 who came on as a sitter they so often say after a bad dressing I'm a lot of trouble to ye sister just time for a line before I do another round and then call my relief it is an awfully cold night Tuesday March 9th 12 noon we are passing through glorious country of wooded hills and valleys with a blue sky and shining sun and all the patients are enjoying it it is still very cold and there is a little snow about they call their goat skin coats teddy bears one very ill boy wounded in the lungs who was put off at Abethiel was wailing where's my merry box as his stretcher went out of the window we found it and he was happy Wednesday March 10th we got to Etretat at about three p.m. yesterday after a two days and one night load and had time to go up to the hospital where I saw S the matron was away we only saw it at night last time so it was jolly getting the afternoon there the sea was a thundery blue and the cliffs lit up yellow by the sun and with the gray shingle it made a glorious picture to take back to the train it had been a heavy journey with bad patients and we were rather tired so we didn't explore much we woke at Sotteville near Rouen this morning the day had a most fatiguing and much too exciting adventure over catching the train two of the sisters and I walked into Rouen about 10.30 and found number of ambulance trains marked up as still at Sotteville in the RTO's office and so concluded it would be there all day so we did our businesses of hair washing, cathedral, lunch, etc and then took the tram back to Sotteville the train had gone the Sotteville RTO about a mile off told us it was due to leave Rouen loaded up for Av at 2.36 it was then 2.15 and it was usually about three quarters of an hour's walk up the line we'd done it once this morning so we made a desperate dash for it sister M walks very slowly at her best so we decided that I should sprint on and stop the train and she and the other follow up the major met me near our engine and was very kind and concerned and went on to meet the other two the train moved out three minutes after they got on never again will stick on it all day rather than have such a narrow shave we are full of convalescence for Av to go straight on to the boat they are frightfully enthusiastic about the way the British Army looked after in this war there's not much they don't get for us they said there are crowds of primroses out on the banks our infant R.A.M.C. officer's mess cook a boy of about twenty who looks sixteen and cooks beautifully has just jumped off the train while it was going grabbed a handful of primroses and leapt on to the train again some coaches back he came back panting and rosy and said I've got some for you sister we happened not to be going fast but there was no question of stopping I got some lentlilies in Rouen and have some selendines growing in moss so it looks like spring in my bunk Thursday March 11th yesterday we took a long time getting to the ship from Rouen and unloaded at ten p.m. why we had no warning about the departure of the train and so nearly got left behind was because it was an emergency call suddenly to clear the hospitals at Rouen to make room for six hundred more expected from the front we are being rushed up again without being stopped at Rouen for the first time on record so I suppose there is a good deal doing there was at Nouve Chappelle it is a comfort to remember that the men themselves don't grudge or question what happens to them and the worse they're wounded the more they say I think I'm lucky my mate next to me got killed the birds are singing like anything now and the buds are coming out and the banks and woods are a mass of primroses Friday March 12th we came straight through Boulogne in the night stuck halfway to the front all day I don't know why Saturday March 13th we woke at the railhead for Béthune this morning and cleared there and at the next place mostly wounded and some Indians it was frightfully interesting up there today we saw the famous German prisoners taken at Nouve Chappelle being entrained and we could hear our great bombardment going on the biggest ever known in any war the feeling of advance is in the air already and even the wounded are exulting in it the Indians have bucked up like anything we are on our way down now and shall probably unload at Boulogne no time for more now 11pm we unloaded at Boulogne by 10pm and are now on our way up again shortest time we've ever waited one hour after the last patient is off ambulance trains have been tearing up empty and back full all day and are all being unloaded at Boulogne so that they can go quickly up again Boulogne has been empty before this began they were an awfully brave lot of badly wounded today but they always are just now they don't mind anything even getting hit by our artillery by mistake some of them who were near enough to see the effect of our bombardment on the enemy's trenches say they saw men, legs and arms shot into the air and the noise they gasped and telling you about it you could never believe it they say an officer told me exactly how many guns from 9.2's downwards we used all firing at once and poor fat Germans and thin Germans and big Germans and little Germans at the other end of it a man of mine with his head shattered and his hand shot through was trefined last night and his longitudinal sinus packed with gauze he was on the train at 9 this morning and actually improved during the day he came to in the afternoon enough to remark as if he were doing a French exercise you are a good nurse the next time he woke he said it again and later on with great difficulty he gave me the address of his girl to whom I am to write a postcard I do hope they'll pull him through Sunday March 14th 4 p.m. just bringing down another load I have 120 wounded alone the train is packed no time for more the JJ's are swarming we unloaded at Boulogne yesterday evening and were off again within an hour or two Monday March 15th 2.30 a.m. woke up just as we arrived at Bélo to hear most incessant cannonade going on I ever heard even at Ypres the sky is continually lit up with the flashes from the guns it is a pitch dark night and you can hear the roar of the howitzers above the thud thud of the others I think we are too far north for there to be any French 75s in it I had to wake sister D to see it as she had never seen anything like it before we are only a few miles away from it must try and sleep now as we shall have a heavy day today but it is no lullaby 4.30 p.m. just time for a scrawl the train is packed with wounded most of whom including the poor sitting up are now dead asleep from exhaustion the British army is fighting and marching all night now the clearing hospitals get 800 in at a time many with no dressings on we have 27 officers on this train alone I have a boy of 22 with both legs off he is dazed and white and wants shifting very often each time you fix him up he says that's champion 40 of them were shelled in their billets the Germans are said to be some of them fighting in civilian clothes till they get their uniforms the men say there are hundreds of young boys and old men among them they are making a desperate effort and bringing everything they've got into it now later we also have mumps measles scarlet fever and diphtheria in the infectious coach a baby lieutenant with measles showed me some marvelous sketch maps of German trenches and positions he'd made from observations through a periscope he also had the very latest thing in sectional war maps numbered in squares showing every tree, farm and puddle and trench a place with four crossroads was called confusion corner leading to a farm called rest and be thankful 10 p.m. just got them all off after a strenuous day and we are to go up again at 11 p.m. the two German divisions that reinforced are giving us a tremendous lot to do it is just as well that this department was prepared for this as it all goes like clockwork and an enormous amount of suffering is saved by their preparedness the amount that cannot be saved is grim enough must go to bed Tuesday, March 16 we loaded up very early this morning with 316 Indians and are just getting into Boulogne I expect we shall be sent up again this evening one of the Sikhs wailed before, during and after his hand was dressed a big muscleman stuffed his hanky between his teeth and bit on it and never uttered and it was a much worse one what was he to do with crying, he said it was right for it to be done may God bring blessings on my head whereas it was full of pain though now it was accha Wednesday, March 17 I didn't tell you that yesterday a kind IMS Colonel at the place where we took the Indians on showed us a huge pile of used shell cases near the station and we all had some I've got a 12 pounder and a 16 pounder like my pom-poms only huge next time he's going to get us some Gurkhas cookries on the way down a little Gurkha happened to get off the train for a minute and when he looked round the train had gone past him he ran after it and perched on one of the buffers till the next stop when he reappeared trembling with fright started with roars of amusement by the other Gurkhas we had some more today including 12 with mumps and one who insisted on coming with his mumpy friend though quite well himself we woke this morning at Merville one of the railheads for Neuf Chapelle and loaded up very early guns going as hard as ever mine were a very bad lot British except the 12 native mumpers including brave Canadians they kept me very busy till the moment of unloading which is a difficult and painful business with these bad ones but the orderlies are getting very gentle and clever with them I had among them eight Germans several mere boys one insisted on kissing my hand much to the orderlies amusement a truck full of pigs outside is making the most appalling noise 11 p.m. I am hiding in bed we generally move up about 11 30 p.m. every journey we hear thrilling accounts rumors and forecasts most of which turn out to be true we have had a lot of the Saint-Elois people there were several versions of a story of some women being found in a captured German trench one version said they were French captives another that they were German wives in one compartment were five Tommy's being awfully kind to one German and yet if he had a rifle and they had theirs he'd be a dead man the hospitals at Boulogne are so busy that no one goes off duty and they are operating all night we had time for a blow across the bridge after unloading and I happened to meet my friend S. who was at Avre she is on night duty and they are grappling with these awful cases all night as hard as they can go four were taken out of the motor ambulances dead this week the jolting is the last straw for the worst ones it can't possibly be helped but it seems a pity in all this rush we happen to have had nights in bed which makes all the difference the pigs still squeal but I must try and go to sleep we have had an off day today at the place of woods and commons which I hope and trust means that things are slackening off it doesn't do to look ahead at what must be coming now the ground is drying up before the job is finished but we can be thankful for the spells of rest that come for the poor army we had a heavenly ramble this morning and found blue no primroses lots of palm and gorse robins willow wrens and yellow hammers were singing the darlings much prettier music than guns and it is good to get away from the sound of motors and trains and whistles we also had homemade bread and butter today out of the village which caused more excitement than the russian successes we are having much nicer food since the french chef left and it costs us exactly half as much friday march 19 on the way down woke up at belol and loaded early wounded and sick not such severe cases among the wounded but several pneumonias and tricks etc besides measles diphtheria and scarlet very cold windy day with snow on the ground and showers of snow at intervals some of mine are from the santa warfighting last sunday and monday some of en's regiment were badly caught between two ruined houses each containing maxims and machine guns they had just been reinforced by some young recruits of kitchener's army who detrained that night to go straight into the charge they come on well them youngsters said an old soldier but they got much down we lost nine officers in a quarter of an hour it has been a very costly splash altogether one officer on the train has 14 wounds saturday march 20th boulogne the hospitals here have been pretty well emptied home now and are ready for the next lot here we have been standing by all day while a big committee a beautiful number ambulance train is to be handed back to the french railway and if so whether it will be replaced by inferior french carriages or whether one of the four new british trains that are coming will be handed over to us or whether all the personnel will be disbanded and dispersed i have a feeling that its day is over but perhaps things will turn out better than that i have been for five walks today including a basket in the sun on the sands and a bath at the club and a visit to the nice old rc church and the flower market tuesday march 23rd 9 p.m. waiting all day at ghq things are unusually quiet one train has been through with only 90 and another with 100 we went for a walk along the canal this morning with the lobby and this afternoon saw over the famous jute factory convalescent home where they have a thousand beds under one roof it is like a town divided into long wards dining rooms, recreation rooms dressing stations, chirapatist tailor shop, etc by shoulder high canvas or sail cloth screens they have outside a kitchen a boiler, a disinfecter for clothes and any amount of baths they have a concert every saturday night the men look so absolutely happy and contented with cooked instead of trench food and baths and games and piano and books and writing, etc they stay usually 10 days and are by the 10th day supposed to be fit enough for the trenches again it often saves them a permanent breakdown from general causes and is a more comical way of treating small disablements than sending them to the base hospitals last week they had 500 wounded to treat and two of the mo's had to take a supply train of 700 slightly wounded down to Rouen with only two orderlies they had a bad journey I had a french class after tea we are now expecting today's London papers which are do here 9pm have got some Hindustani to learn for my next lesson from sister B so we'll stop this wednesday march 24th moved on at 11pm and woke up at Shok a few smallish guns going loaded up there very early and at two other places and are now nearly back to Boulogne mostly wounded and a few Indians some of them are badly damaged by bombs the men in the Neuf Chapelle touch were awfully disappointed that they weren't allowed to push on to Lille the older men say wonderful things of Kitchener's boys the only thought we have to find Wim is that they expose their selves too much keep your heads down we have to say all the time all they wants is to charge according to the men we shall be busy again at the end of this week midnight on way to coast near Av where number General Hospital is put all worst cases off at Boulogne the rest mostly sleeping peacefully passed a place on coast not far south of Boulogne where 600 British workmen are working from 7am to 10pm building hospital huts for 12,000 beds a huge encampment ready for future business have seen cow slips and violets on wayside lovely moonlight night train running very smoothly Thursday March 25th there is a great deal of very neat and elaborate glass market gardening going on round Rouen it looks from the train an unbroken success thousands of fat little plants with their glass hats off and thousands more with them on very little labour that can be seen but the vegetables we buy for our mess are not particularly cheap 9pm Rouen there are three trains waiting here or rather at Saulteville which means a blessed lull for the people in the firing line there was a day or two after Nouve Chapelle when the number of wounded overflowed the possibilities of collection the stretcher bearers were all hit and the stretchers were all used and there were not enough medical officers to cope with the numbers extra ones were hurried up from the base hospitals very quickly and if you wanted to live you had to walk or crawl or stay behind and die we had a Canadian on who told me last night that he should never forget the stream of wounded dragging themselves along that road from Nouve Chapelle to Estaire who couldn't be found room for motor ambulances two trains picked them up there and there were many deaths on the trains and in the motor ambulances the evacuation was very thorough and rapid to the bases and to the ships but in any great battle involving enormous casualties on both sides there must be some gaps you can't provide for Friday, March 26 at Saulteville all day Saturday, March 27 ditto piercing cold winds and no heating for a month passed Sunday, March 28 ditto Monday, March 29 ditto Tuesday, March 30 ditto this cold wind has dried up the mud everywhere and until today there's been a bright sun with it the men clean the train and play football and the MOs take the puppy out and everybody swears a great deal at a fate which no one can alter and we are all craving for our weak old males Wednesday, March 31 we actually acquired an engine and got a move on at four o'clock this morning and are now well away north just got out where we stopped by a fascinating winding river and got some brave Marsh Marigolds 5 p.m. just getting into Bologna End of Chapter 8