THE STORY OF A FIELD AMBULANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 March 1916, Page 3

THE STORY OF A FIELD AMBULANCE.

TORN' BY SHOT AND SHELL. HOW THE ANZAC DOCTORS WORKED. OPERATIONS UNDER FIRE. (From Malcolm Ross, Official War Correspondent with the N.Z. Forces). "Dressing stations should be established out of the fire zone, beside a road, and near a good water supply."— The Book. "By Jove, that was a beauty—right into the dressing station!'' The speaker was one of the "oldest inhabitants" of Anzac. He had been 'in the landing." Being "in the landing" meant that the hall-nark of all the military virtues had been stamped upon you. Tt was as if an American cousin had said, "My people came over in the Mayflower." It also meant that you were by. this time—it was towards the end of June—somewhat of a connoisseur in the matter of the arriving shell. Yon knew when it was advisable to duck for cover, also when it was not worth while ducking. You knew this by the music of the different shells that came screeching at you or over yon Irom north and south and east. "Startling Annie" and "Beachy Bill," firing high explosive or shrapnel, generally arrived ahead of the music they made in the air, and if you were wise you would get into your dug-out and stay there as long as they were busy. But there is a fascination in watching the shells dropping into a crowd of bathers, many ot whom go on bathing; or into the ordnance stores and the dug-outs along the waterfront, where the bees in the Anzac hive as a rule clustered thickly. On this particular occasion we were standing on the terrace, watching "Beachy Bill" at his deadly work. Blankets and boots had been flying in the air; a bather had got it literally "in the neck." and blood was streaming down over his chest as he staggered shore-wards to where the plucky stretcher-bearers were already waiting for him. A cook in his dug-out had been killed instantaneously. Then "Beachy" had lengthened his range a little, and the hospital got it. It was the great burst of sand and smoke and bits of tarpaulin tlfat had called forth the remark of admiration from "the oldest inhabitant." But one might as well begin at the beginning and not anticipate. Now that Anzac has become for us but a memory, there can be no harm in telling the full story. The N'.Z. Field Ambulance, which landed on a shrapnel-sweut beach on the afternoon of April 2n, 1!>13, and promptly opened a small dressing-station, was the first medical unit of the Dominion that ever went into action. It arrived off the beach at 10 o'clock in the morning while the, bombardment by the ships on the one hand and the enemy's guns on the other was at its height. " Almost immediately four barges filled with Wounded arrived alongside the transport, and the military officer in charge insisted upon sending them on board with the troops that had not yet landed. The saloon was at once converted into an operating room. ;>ml awnings were fixed up on deck to shelter these first victims of shot and shell. All day the doctors worked under these disadvantageous circumstances, not sparing themselves for one moment.

Durinjr the afternoon the hearer subdivision wont ashore and climbed tlio shrapnel and bullet-swept liilU in search of tlio wounded. The country was rough, precipitous, scrub-covered and devoid of roads, so transport could not be n-ed. Snipers, well bidden in the ilex-clothed hills and dales, were everywhere active. Often—as stated by the colonel in charge in an article publisked in the British Medical Journal—the only way to pet a wounded man in was t« wait for a short lull in the firing, then run out and pull him by the feet into such scanty cover as was available. Some of the wounded lay in inaccessible places. The stretchers could not he got to them. In tlicsc cases the only thins' to do was to roll them down a slope after first aid had been given, trusting to luck that thev might safely reach the bottom. To leave a wounded man out in the open meant certain death from shrapnel or from a slrav bullet. The risk of increasing a man's injury had to be taken, and it was taken. The uncomplaining fortitude of those Xew Zealand and .Australian wounded under such circumstances was a feature of the landing (hat should be treasured in the annals of the British race. The stretcher-bearers earned immortal glory. The tremendous amount of physical energy displayed by tlic=e men was reallv phenomenal. During the first three d.ivs - fighting many of them made each day twenty journeys up and down the hill. A journey frequently meant a. two-mile walk over trackless, scrub-covered hills, and tliose colonial soldiers,in the pink of condifon whom they had' to carry were no lightweights. They would average pretty well twelve stone. During the first two davs the rush of casualties was so great that the doctors in the hurriedly-devised dressing-sta-tion liiM no tiive to keep a record of (hem. The wounded were qnieklv dressed, and the patients hurried down to the barges and shipped away. Many of the wounded were hit again while being diessed. and others were wounded once more in the barges. The arrangements made by the Xavy for getting them off were more than praiseworthy, junior officers and seamen doing heroic work. Owing to their splendid co-operation | with the units ashore all the wounded brought down each day wo,"o cleared by nightfall. The nights were bitterly cold hut fortunately six bugs of coal had been taken on shore, and the medical men were able to keep a lire burning in the dressing-tent and to give such as came in later hot drinks of cocoa and meat extract. By 1 o'clock on the Sunday morning al! tiie wounded who were behind our advanced line had been got oft The tows wei,. coming in with troops and going hack with wounded. That was a wonderful performance. There were oulv two hospital ships—a number quite inadequate to meet the unforeseen requirements of the battle. At that time, luckily, most of the shrapnel wounds were slight. The Turkish gunners were j bursting their shrapnel too high. On the fioslar, an old Herman tramp, there were 100 wounded. Pome of the X.Z. Field Ambulance stayed on board looking after them till (he Tuesday morning. One section of the N 7.. Field Ambulance was taken in a destroyer in the dark within 400 yards of the beach, and then rowed ashore in boats. It was bitterly cold and raining, and in the darkness and the confusion it was difficult to find anybody and anything. Eventually a small corner of the beach was found with nobody on it, the equipment was piled up in a square, a tortoise tent spread over It, and a five lit.

Wounded were at once g»t in and given hot drinks. T-keir injuries were seen to under a fire of dropping bullets and shrapnel. When dawn came, these plucky ambulance men dug in as well as they could, and on that spot, which they had found in the dark, they remained for three months, During that time the accommodation was gradually improved, and Anally it was possible to accommodate, in a shrap-nel-proof dug-out, between BO and 70 cases. A great difficulty at Kr*t was the absence of sandbags and timber. The work therefore had to be done in a tc-nt, which in time, became riddled with shrapnel. For the first fortnight it was ii case of working night and day. During that period between -4000 and 5600 wounds were attended to—all the time under shrapnel fire. This work was done by four doctors, Slight cases, attended to by the battalion doctors in the field, were not touched until the wounded were .sot on to the ships. One section of the Field Ambulance was out on Walker's Ridge, one section was at the foot of Pope's Hill, and the third was in Mouash Gully, the headquarters section being on the beach. The lastmentioned had to act as a casualty clearing station as well as a dressing station. Splendid work was <lone by the ser-geant-major who was in charge of the actual embarkation of the wounded, he and those with him being day after day under shrapnel fire. Quite a number of the wounded were hit while being taken from the clearing station to the boats, and also while being conveyed in the boats to the ships. Men were wounded and wounded again, and even killed.

On May 7 forty-six bullets came into the dressing-station through the canvas roof. At this time the Anzac beach was very crowded, and after about a fortnight there were more casualties on the beach than there were in the trenches. Men were shot just outside the dressing station, some inside it. In May the flies came, and it was iinpo*. ■sible to do operation*. On May S a Bearer Subdivision was sent to Cape Helles with the New Zealand Infantry Brigade, and did very fine work there. On May 11 the Headquarters Section got some sandbags iand built a big sandbag wall on the exposed side, of the dressing station. An incident, that occurred on May 12 is worth recording. A man with 18 bullets came in. and Colonel Begg and Major O'Neill, who -were resting in a little shelter, went to see him. No sooner had they left their shelter than a high-explosive shell burst in it and wrecked the whole I place. I The stretcher-bearers had captured a number of donkeys that had strayed away from the Turkish lines, and thev used these for taking in many of the wounded. It was no uncommon sight to see a wounded man ride into the tent and dismount right on to the operating table. The wounded were always cheerful, and both New Zealanders and Australians thought it great fun to ride in on these donkeys. Men with smashed arms or shattered legs would ride down the gullies shouting and cooeing on these little animals as if they were just coming in from a picnic. About this time a man who was carrying water to the firing-line on Walker's Ridge was hit through both legs with shrapnel, and one of the bullets made a bole in the water tin. The wounded man was found lying down with his fingers stopping the hole in the tin, while at the same time he was shouting loudly for someone to bring another tin to save the water. Water was very scarce. At this time shell cases, and especially shrapnel and other bullets taken by the doctors out of wounds, had become a medium of ex-j change, and the men of the Field Ambulance bought bread and other; luxuries from the sailors with them. On May 14 two fuses from Turkish shell that burst quite close came through the dressing hut. One great trouble the medical men had to put up with was the continuous noise of the liring of the warships' guns. The muzzles of the 12-inch guns were often pointing directly over the dressin;; station, and when a shot was fired the concussion invariably put out the acetylene lamps. Towards the middle of June the shelling became worse, for, in addition to "Beachy Hill" and ".Startling Annie," a. howitzer began to drop shells o\er Plugge's Plateau. The operating tent became untenable. Two shells landed in it, wounding some of the orderlies. A start was then made to dig an underground operating-room. On June 2li it was ready, and had been made fly-proof . Heavy baulks of timber and from three to four feet of earth were used for the roof. The colonel was so pleased with it that he thought he would sleep in it. Next morning at ."> o'clock two shells bit the roof and' brought down a considerable quantity of the clay. A third landed just outside the door and wrecked the fly-proof arrangement. Immediately' afterwards a fourth shell came through nine feet of solid earth at the side and burst in the interior, completely wrecking the dugout. No patient was ever treated in that operating-room. The colonel was temporarily laid out with the gas. One fragment of shell had come through an 8 by 8-iucli beam right over iiis 'lead. Afterwards four hundred shrapnel bullets were gathered from the operating room as the result of the bursting of the first two shells. The shell that wrecked the place was a 4.7-inch high explosive. After this the dressing station wa; shifted to the seaward side of Walker's Ridge, just beyond a gully where tiis mules were kept. Here the station was in comparative safety, the shells going over the tent and. bursting some fifty yards away. This spot was one of the safest, for us on the whole peninsula, and in six weeks only two men connected with the dressing station were wounded. On one occasion two S-ineli shell cases fell into the tent, but did nr. damage. The station remained there till the big advance in August, when it was moved further up the coast. By this time some British field ambulances had arrived, and these relieved the two New Zealand and Australian ambulances of the great stiv.in that had been put upon them during the first stages of the fighting. Up to this time the two colonial field ambulances had dealt with some 10.000 cases. They continued to do excellent work under fire, right up to the time of the evacuation. All arrangements had been made to leave behind some sections of these ambulances to attend to the wounded during the evacuation, our people having absolute confidence that they would be well tieated when they fell into the hands of the Turks. Fortunately, owing to the marvellous success of the operation, their services were not needed, and they . were got off with the rest of the troops, leaving only their tents behind them.