Front Line Girl-Friends
OMEN’S war work in Russia does not consist of behind-the-line duties. On all sections of the front women are equally teady to fight and to save lives. In the past, stretcher-bearers went out after an action was over to pick up the wounded. Now the policy is that the patient must be attended to as soon as possible, Instead of the clumsy stretcherbearer teams, targets for enemy fire, orderlies crawl out singly into the fields while the battle is still going on. The Russian: orderlies are mostly women, and they bring.in the wounded on their backs. The soldiers call these orderly girls frontoviye podrugi-(front line girlfriends). Many of them are killed, but. large numbers of soldiers’ lives are
saved. A girl who brings in 40 casualties from the battlefield is awarded the Order of the Red Banner, provided that she also brings in their rifles and machine-guns. If she carries in 80 men and their weapons she gets the Order of Lenin. A recent report tells of one 23-year-old girl who shouldered and hauled in 100 men in a single day, "I was frightened," she said, "and afterwards I was tired." Transfusions on the Spot Sometimes these "Red" nurses have to treat their patients on the spot before carrying them away. Therefore, they carry round an ampule of blood of the "universal" type with a_ sterilised rubber tube and needle and filter, so that blood transfusions can be given to the wounded on the spot before they are shouldered and carried off to the front line dressing-stations. From these they are carried back to base hospitals in air ambulances, again piloted mainly by women. The greatest danger to the wounded soldier, as our own medical officers have also reported from the Middle East, is not so much the wound itself as the triple risks of shock, infection, and delay, each of which once killed more men than bullets or shrapnel. Blood transfusions have reduced the effects of shock; sulfa drugs and tetanus serum have reduced the risk of infection; and quick transport does the rest.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19430226.2.32
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 192, 26 February 1943, Page 17
Word count
Tapeke kupu
348Front Line Girl-Friends New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 192, 26 February 1943, Page 17
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in