RED CROSS WORK.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 87, 12 August 1915, Page 2

RED CROSS WORK.

A l-ETTER FROM FRANCE. Mr J. H. -Stanley, of the Jfritish Red Cross and St. John Ambulance Association, brother to Mr A, D. Stanley, of Stratford, writes from France on the work of the Red Cross Brigade. The letter is dated May 17, and is ns follows:

For the past eight days one of the vastest and most sanguinary battles that has taken place in the history of the world has raged along onr lino. Of course we were all warned when the attack would begin, and preparations were made on a huge scale. I was appointed to a flying column of ambulance cars —that is, I had command of them, and we were pushed right to the front. Two motor cyclists were attached to my staff, and as I wanted more cars, I -sent off messages to the rear, where we had a convoy in reserve. I also commandeered fourteen great motor lorries, put in straw beds, and Used them to carry slightly wounded cases, each lorry holding twenty-five, and this enabled me to keep the ambulance cars for the stretcher cases. The night before one only slept in snatches. Day dawned at 3.30 —a perfect Sunday morning. Birds sang, the summer trees and flowers coming out into leaf and bloom. I hurriedly dressed, and at 4-30 a.m. precisefy the first great gun rowed out its message of death, and then followed » perfect inferno from hundreds of iron throats. At 6.30 a.m. cannonade ended and the general advsmce began, and by 7.30 the wounded, who could walk, came streaming out of the trenches to the ambulances. For 41 hours I never closed my eyes. We hardly ate food. The plan was for us to attack at two points and the French to throw thousands of troops on the right of us. We met with unforeseen difficulties, and our men were forced to fall back, but we held the enemy for the French, who fought with magnificent dash and bravery. Of course our own men were superb, and so were the Indians, who were also cut up badly. This went on for three days, and then both sides rested from sheer exhaustion, but the struggle'began again in 12 hours, and it has gone - on ever since. For the past 24 hours there has been a fearful bombardment on both sides without a moment’s interval.

I am billeted in a small French farm house, where ! am now writing, waiting for orders to move, and the windows keep up a constant rattle, while the house shakes like to fall down. The losses, of course, for us and for the enemy are very heavy, but I am not allowed to give any details. Our poor general was shot early in the dav leading on his men. He died hard, for every now and again when we thought life extinct, he opened his eyes and asked how the fight went. Very beautiful it was to see the two chaplains—one Church of England, the other Roman Catholic, kneeling beside first one and then another, hour after hour, giving their words of comfort and hope. Before the battle, hundreds atfended Holy Communion and i Mass. Out of one regiment over 30fT were earnest communicants, and out . of that regiment of over 1000 men, j only 200 came back. Later.—Word has | just come in that we have captured three lines of trenches. The enemy, j in falling back, are trying to dig themselves into cover, and we are pounding away with our big guns to prevent ] them doing so, until our reserves come up and enable another rush to be carried out.

We are fighting for a verv important position, which commands a railhead and a number of roads. I have been out all dav after wounded, and it has been raining heavilv. Just now there is a lull in the rain, but not in the shells. One can hear them screeching through the air, and falling with loud explosions. I am - glad to say the cold weather has passed away. How our poor men suffered during the winter, the bitterest and coldest on record in these parts.