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Page 8
INCIDENTS AND YARNS
One never ceased admiring our men, and their cheeriness under these
circumstances and their droll remarks caused us many a laugh. One man,
just blown up by a shell, informed us that it was a ---- of a
place--'no place to take a lady.' Another told of the mishap to his
"cobber," who picked up a bomb and blew on it to make it light; "all
at once it blew his ---- head off--Gorblime! you would have laughed!"
For lurid and perfervid language commend me to the Australian Tommy.
Profanity oozes from him like music from a barrel organ. At the same
time, he will give you his idea of the situation, almost without
exception in an optimistic strain, generally concluding his
observation with the intimation that "We gave them hell." I have seen
scores of them lying wounded and yet chatting one to another while
waiting their turn to be dressed. The stretcher-bearers were a fine
body of men. Prior to this campaign, the Army Medical Corps was always
looked upon as a soft job. In peacetime we had to submit to all sorts
of flippant remarks, and were called Linseed Lancers, Body-snatchers,
and other cheery and jovial names; but, thanks to Abdul and the
cordiality of his reception, the A.A.M.C. can hold up their heads with
any of the fighting troops. It was a common thing to hear men say:
"This beach is a hell of a place! The trenches are better than this."
The praises of the stretcher-bearers were in all the men's mouths;
enough could not be said in their favour. Owing to the impossibility
of landing the transport, all the wounded had to be carried; often for
a distance of a mile and a half, in a blazing sun, and through
shrapnel and machine-gun fire. But there was never a flinch; through
it all they went, and performed their duty. Of our Ambulance 185 men
and officers landed, and when I relinquished command, 43 remained. At
one time we were losing so many bearers, that carrying during the
day-time was abandoned, and orders were given that it should only be
undertaken after night-fall. On one occasion a man was being sent off
to the hospital ship from our tent in the gully. He was not very bad,
but he felt like being carried down. As the party went along the
beach, Beachy Bill became active; one of the bearers lost his leg, the
other was wounded, but the man who was being carried down got up and
ran! All the remarks I have made regarding the intrepidity and valour
of the stretcher-bearers apply also to the regimental bearers. These
are made up from the bandsmen. Very few people think, when they see
the band leading the battalion in parade through the streets, what
happens to them on active service. Here bands are not thought of; the
instruments are left at the base, and the men become bearers, and
carry the wounded out of the front line for the Ambulance men to care
for. Many a stretcher-bearer has deserved the V.C.
One of ours told me they had reached a man severely wounded in the
leg, in close proximity to his dug-out. After he had been placed on
the stretcher and made comfortable, he was asked whether there was
anything he would like to take with him. He pondered a bit, and then
said: "Oh! you might give me my diary--I would like to make a note of
this before I forget it!"
It can be readily understood that in dealing with large bodies of men,
such as ours, a considerable degree of organization is necessary, in
order to keep an account, not only of the man, but of the nature of
his injury (or illness, as the case may be) and of his destination.
Without method chaos would soon reign. As each casualty came in he was
examined, and dressed or operated upon as the necessity arose.
Sergeant Baxter then got orders from the officer as to where the case
was to be sent. A ticket was made out, containing the man's name, his
regimental number, the nature of his complaint, whether morphia had
been administered and the quantity, and finally his destination. All
this was also recorded in our books, and returns made weekly, both to
headquarters and to the base. Cases likely to recover in a fortnight's
time were sent by fleet-sweeper to Mudros; the others were embarked on
the hospital ship. They were placed in barges, and towed out by a
pinnace to a trawler, and by that to the hospital ship, where the
cases were sorted out. When once they had left the beach, our
knowledge of them ceased, and of course our responsibility. One man
arriving at the hospital ship was describing, with the usual
picturesque invective, how the bullet had got into his shoulder. One
of the officers, who apparently was unacquainted with the Australian
vocabulary, said: "What was that you said, my man?" The reply came, "A
blightah ovah theah put a bullet in heah."
At a later period a new gun had come into action on our left, which
the men christened "Windy Annie." Beachy Bill occupied the olive
grove, and was on our right. Annie was getting the range of our
dressing station pretty accurately, and requisition on the Engineers
evoked the information that sandbags were not available. However, the
Army Service came to our rescue with some old friends, the
"forty-niners." Three tiers of these in their boxes defied the shells
just as they defied our teeth.
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