THE YPRES TIMES
"7
successful care of the badly wounded did much to sustain the moral of our home
front," and that the Army Medical Service pulled its full weight in the national
effort? If the answer is in the affirmative, then the skilful, elaborate nursing of
bad cases was justified as an aid to victory.
Although during the war it was possible to pick from the ranks of the
R.A.M.C. nursing orderlies not merely as devoted but even as skilful as any
London general hospital sister, still there is no question but that on the whole
women make the better nurses. Nursing is one of the natural functions of their
sex, and men shattered by wounds and sickness look as a matter of course to women
for succour as well as for sympathy, and gain a brand of moral strength from
women's ministrations, which is not unrelated to the sense of chivalry.
As men, we abhor the idea of exposing women to physical danger; but there
is much in war which is abhorrent, yet has to be put up with. Those who doubt
the capacity of women's nerves to cope with the shocks of front-line hospital work
will gain knowledge on that point by reading what Sister Luard has to say about
her nursing staff, and particularly by reading between the lines. I suggest that
future A.Gs. and Q.M.Gs. should keep a copy of the book upon their shelves, for
reference on the eve of the next big war. And it is not only the salted old
hands who keep their nerve under fire. I remember spending a day at a casualty
clearing station at Poperinghe when that town was getting its first heavy dose of
shelling and there was talk of hasty evacuation. The nurses showed no more
concern than our own Field Ambulance orderlies after their months of duty in Ypres.
Nor is the nurse's training responsible for the calm behaviour of women under fire.
Examination of the bomb-casualty map of Calais of 1918 will show that that town
was quite an unhealthy spot, attracting more than a full share of bombing.
For example: March 20th, 1918, 70 bombs; May 15th, 144. I have just asked the
lady in charge of some dozens of canteen workers there, if many of them lost their
nerve. She replies that one of them showed signs of it, but on learning that she
could go home only on a medical certificate, decided to stick it out
Unknown Warriors is not the only book which exhibits the behaviour of
women in the shell zone, but, thanks to its composition on the spot and at the
moment, it conveys to the reader the picture of a small side-line of war with remark
able clarity. It is, moreover, quite free from pose, and the writer makes no
pretence of enjoying either mud, blood, or shell fire.
The book deserves to be, and I understand is being, very widely read. It is a
book to buy and not merely to borrow.
E. B. W.
By CAPTAIN H. A. TAYLOR. With a Foreword by Field-Marshal Viscount
Allenby, G.C.B., G.C.M.G. (Stanley Paul; 21s.)
Captain Taylor says that this book is of the class that writes itself, and proceeds
to explain how this came about. Finding that a holiday on the French coast failed
to charm, he strayed inland to visit the battlefields, but found, as others have found,
that there were no longer battlefields to visit. The country was still there, the
names of places were still to be found, but nature and man had combined to destroy
the traces of war. This visit was the first of a series of pilgrimages to each battle-
area in turn, and the result is given in this book, which describes the line from north
