World War, 1914-1918 -- Australia; World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Palestine
Then there were the Engineers (no attempt is made to place these
services in order of merit—a hopeless task), who found us water at will,
as with a magician’s wand, beneath the blistering sands of Sinai; who
bridged the Jordan under heavy fire for the crossing to Moab, and who,
so often, blew enemy railroads, bridges and viaducts heavenward. Working
over every kind of country from the desert to the mountains, they won
through because of their indomitable spirit, and their boundless gift
for improvization.
THE M.O.
[Illustration]
In the whole war there has not been a campaign which depended so much
for its success upon the native wit of the individual. Conditions
changed with dramatic suddenness from battle to battle. What served
to-day, was useless to-morrow. As an example of this, take the superb
work of our Medical Services. The Medical Officer was, all the way, a
man of many inventions. In the desert the wounded were habitually
carried on sledges made of sheets of galvanized iron, and, later, upon
an improvement of this device; as the campaign progressed, they were
borne on camels; and once, at least, in the mountains east of Jordan,
they were carried lying flat on rough beds made of greatcoats on the
backs of horses; and as the road improved, they were carried in
two-wheeled sand-carts, in ordinary G.S. wagons and every kind of motor.
The Light Horse galloped, and those who would serve them must gallop
too. The almost miraculous rapidity and efficiency with which the
Medical Units would establish their various stations and communications,
at the very heels of a fight, distant perhaps a hundred swiftly-covered
miles from railhead, made them worthy peers of the sparkling horsemen.
And, thanks to the establishment of the mobile operating theatre—a
veritable galloping machine, like the rest of the force—under a gifted
surgeon, it was possible for the most intricate skull and abdominal
operations to be carried out at the edge of the zone of fire. All honour
to our doctors and their devoted staffs! And especially dear in the
memory of Light Horsemen will always be the mounted stretcher-bearers.
No wounded man was beyond their gallant reach.
Of the Light Horseman’s debt to the Nursing Sisters this narrative will
not dare an estimate. As long as memory lasts, every officer and man
will think with deep gratitude of the sustained, self-sacrificing
devotion of these noble Australian women. Fighting in this alien and
uncivilized land, thousands of young Australians for years never spoke
to a British woman, except when in hospital. What the ever-ready
sympathy and helpful friendship of the Sisters meant to them only these
lonely soldiers could tell.
THE A.S.C.
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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