THE YPRES TIMES
waggons doing great work under less safe conditions tlian ourselves. But our
Indian subordinate personnel played up well, the sub-assistant surgeons and ward
orderlies (dressers) were kept busy with the dressings, the cooks were flying to and
fro with hot teas and chupattis, and the pack-store havildars full of work issuing
fresh clothes and stacking rifles and equipment. So, though some of our patients
were only with us two hours, they all got food and dry clothes before moving on,
and those who needed it had their dressings changed. We had some hopeless cases
in these bad days; one was brought in dead/and four others died in our hospital.
The most distressing case that I can recall was that of a man shot by a rifle
THE INDIAN MEMORIAL AT NEUVE CHAPELLE.
through the outer rim of the bony orbit on the right sidethe bullet gouged out his
right eye, passed behind the nose, without apparently interfering with nasal bridge,
and exploded the left globe in its exitand he never looked like dyingAfter
clearing our hospital we retired into billets on the 23rd, and enjoyed Christmas and
the New Year well away from the trenches Hingesand the Indian Corpssadly
battered and depletedwas given a well-earned rest until far into January.
The professional work in a field ambulance is, of necessity, limited, since it is a
mobile unit and is not intended to provide the refinements of a hospital. Moreover,
the advantages of rapidly removing all wounded and the seriously sick from the
fighting area far outweigh any disadvantage resultant from the journey. Of
course, dangerous cases, such as abdominal and chest wounds, are not so removed,
unless there is the most urgent necessity, such as danger to the hospital buildings
from shell fire, or the possibility of a retirement.
