RED CROSS WORK UNDER FIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 October 1915, Page 8

RED CROSS WORK UNDER FIRE.

A STRANGE INCIDENT. WOUNDED MAN JUMPS FROM STRETCHER, j An account of the heroic work of the Ambulance Corps on Gollipoli (Peninsula iis given in a Napier coy's letter to his relatives. Just after midnight on May 3, he says they were ordered to go up the "Valley of Death," a, big attack being made at Quinn's Post at the top. The mud up this gully was up to one's knees in places. Through all this they had to carry wounded right down the gully, a distance of from two to three miles, to the Australian Dressing Station on the beach. (They were under shrapnel fire all the way. In several places they had to go more than ordinarily quickly, as the snipers were potting at them. Quite a number of the Australian Ambulance men were hit, but not one New Zealander, although several had very narrow escapes. They were very lucky. About six o'clock in the morning volunteers were called for to get a sergeantmajor out of a hole right in the zone of fire. The writer and five others volunteered, and took a stretcher up, under cover the whole way. They had an awful job getting the man out of tne hole, on to the stretcher, and then up the hill on to a track, and back to the aid post. All the way they were under fire, but the Turks managed to miss them all, although one bullet nicked a hole in the stretcher. They would not do that trip again—not for a thousand pounds. There was a tremendous number of wounded that night, and the surgeons were working continuously on the beach, but even then they could not manage to handle all the cases. A jetty had been made at tile shore landing place, and up to this steam pinnaces were steaming fussily all the time, taking away the wounded to the hospital ships as quickly as they could. The two hospital ships were quickly filled, and then the warships and transports had to be hastily fixed up to accommodate the wounded. One man, although lie had four bullet wounds, actually walked down to the dressing station, and await, ed his turn. Contrast this with another case. A man was being brought down on a stretcher when a shrapnel buret behind them. As quick as a tla.sh he that was wounded jumped oil' the stretcher and ran to cover, whilst two of tlie bearers were hit.