With
am
Imdiam Field Amibiilamee
im Flanders
io6
THE YPRES TIMES
This article was published in The Guy's Hospital Gazette when the war was barely six months
old, and it has struck me that it might be re-printed, with the veil of censorship raised, and be of
interest to readers of The Ypres Times. It has not been altered in any particular, and the only
additions have been names entered in italics. It is interesting to recall that we walked in the streets
of Ypres in the last weeks of October, 1914, before a single stone had been displaced in that beautiful
city.C. H. Reinhold, M.C., Lieut.-Colonel, I.M.S., Chief Medical Officer, Delhi.
iiiTH INDIAN FIELD AMBULANCE, 3RD LAHORE DIVISION, I.E.F.A.
CIRCUMSTANCES over which I have practically no control having tied me
by the leg for a short space, I have thought that some account of one's
experiences with an Indian Field Ambulance in Flanders may interest.
The details of our progress till we reached the front would be wearisome; how
we left India not knowing our destination; how Europe became possible at Aden,
and probable at Port Tewfik (Suez), and certain at Alexandria; how we landed at
Marseilles and found the inhabitants had eyes for none but the brown men; how we
journeyed through the vine country to the plaudits of the crowd and cries of Vive
les Hindus (for only later did they appreciate that there are also Mahommedans
in India and vary their welcome accordingly to the more comprehensive "Vive les
Indien how we tarried in the city of Joan of Arc Orleansto equip for a winter
campaign; and how, at the last, we really started for Flanders on October 17th.
Needless to say, we did not know our destination then, as, to the best of our
belief, the British Expeditionary Force was still on the Aisne.
Our first trek with our own transport to the station from the camp was not
without incident, as there were not enough A.S.C. drivers to go round, and the
mild Hindu did not prove a success at driving Clydesdales, so, en route, two of our
five I.M.S. officers handled the ribbons.
We entrained at midnight, and, as accommodation was scant, two of us slept
in an ambulance waggon on an open truck, which was not uncomfortable, but the
getting there and back somewhat exciting. Our toilet, too, on the tail of the
waggon amused the natives, and, personally, when my towel was wet and dirty, I
exchanged it for a fresh one with an amiable lady who lived in a cottage by the
railway.
The journey occupied 48 hours. We passed through Versailles in the early
morning, skirted Paris, got a glimpse of the Channel at Calais, and even thought
we saw the cliffs of Dover. You may imagine with what pride we pointed out the
Old Country to our Aryan brothers, and the thrill which we ourselves felt who had
not been home for a number of yearsWe crawled to Boulogne, passing a wrecked
Belgian refugee train, and then on to our concentration area Abbevillepassing
trains-loads of wounded hot from the trenches, and felt at last that we were really
for it, and that the use of Indian troops in the fighting line in Europe was no
longer an idle dream.
We only stopped two nights in billets, and could hear the distant boom of guns
and saw aeroplanes at work, not merely manoeuvring as we had seen before, and
then we marched as a division towards the sounds of battle.
The hospitals march behind the ammunition column and before the heavy
baggage train, but, in our inexperience, we got inextricably mixed up with the latter
