TENDING THE WOUNDED.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1916, Page 6

TENDING THE WOUNDED.

THE MILITARY CROSS. HOW REV. C. HOUCHEN WON IT. Chaplain-Captain C. Houchen. vicar 01 Te Kuiti, and formerly home missioner for North Taranaki with headquarters at Inglewood, who was awarded the Military cross for gallantry and devotion to duty in tending wounded under almost continuous heavy shell Are during the Sommc advance Dn September 15 and 10, -has given an account of his experiences jn a letter to relatives in Auckland. "There have been stirring times lately," he writes on September 27. "We are in the big push, and you will be glad to hear that the Rifle Brigade is very well spokin of. The 15th was the day of (lie advance, and although our men did splendidly and are heroes' one and all, there was a very heavy casualty Jjst. I fear there will be sad news for many homes in New Zealand, and yet not so bad after all, as the result of our attackis spoken of as a splendid victory. Bogft, our medical officer, filled his collecting station well up, and I assisted him with, the dressing of wounds. They began to come in in numbers, and soon thei'e were so many that after looking at a few of my dressings, he let me alone altogether, and we went hard for 50 hours, with snatches of sleep and a bite now and then. It was very difficult to get the poor chaps away, .and \vc had as many as 150 men lying around, besides men who l could walk back from the firing zone. I set two legs, one a Bosche. and though the thing was most interesting, etc.. the hard part came when we could not get them back to the Advance Dressing Station. Then the nights are so cold that some of thein died from exposure and loss of blood in spite of the fact that I found nearly 100 Bosche overcoats and blankets in the dugouts which they had just left. Some of our wounded were being hit a second time. I had just dressed one man's leg and stood him up, and was starting on'another, when the first failed out, "Padre, they have got me again." A piece of shrapnel had cut his facial artery, "and the blood was spurting from his cheekN I left my man and fixed him up with a field dressing before proceeding. Suddenly the M.0.. Bogle, was hit. and died suddenly. Next day, after I had lunch (sandwiches) in a hole witli Major Martin. I carried Bogle out to the baclc, and just after I left Martin was hit, and though he was hurried back as far as Amienes he collapsed from two ' wounds. For myself, .-I"ain as fit as r. fiddle and, thank God, unacratched. Nov we are back a little way in a trench an" waiting for further orders; we may gc up again or we may go out. The battalion, in fact the brigade, is a very differ . ent thing now from what it was wl'e we came in. I have a list of 'next .i! kin' that will take me some week: c months to get through " ] Writing on October '27, a month lf<e. lie refers'to the hearty congratrlal 1; given him by the officers and r:?:i oi'.ii.-. battalion upon receiving the 'iei«; '.'.at he had been awarded the Jlilitai".' f s and to the genuine pleasure th l ranks seemed to feel on hearing I! their cadre had "putted it off."