Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front, 1914-1915Anonymous
History
Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front, 1914-1915
Anonymous
World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals, charities, etc.; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
_Tuesday, September 8th._--Orders came last night to each Matron to
provide three or five Sisters who can talk French for duty up country
with a Stationary Hospital, so M. and I are put down with two Regulars
and another Reserve. It is probably too much luck and won't come off.
The duties will be "very strenuous," both for night and day duty, and we
are to carry very little kit. The wire may come at any time. So this
morning M. and I and Miss J----, our Senior Regular, and very nice
indeed, got into the train for St Nazaire to see about our baggage, and
had an adventurous morning. The place was swarming with troops of all
sorts. The 6th Division was being sent up to the Front to-day, and no
medical units could get hold of any transport for storing all their
thousands of tons of stuff. One of the minor errors has been sending the
600 Sisters out with 600 trunks, 600 holdalls, and 600 kit-bags!! The
Sisters' baggage is a byword now, and we could have done with only one
of the three things or 1-1/2. We have been out nearly a month now and
have not been near our boxes; some other hospitals have lost all
theirs, or had them smashed up. We at last traced our No.-- people and
found them encamped on the wharf among the stuff,[1] trying to get it
stored with only one motor transport lent them by the Flying Corps. They
were very nice to us, offered us lunch on packing-cases, and Major
---- cleaned my skirt with petrol for me!
[Footnote 1: Each hospital contains 78 tons of tents, furniture, stores,
&c.]
They sorted out the five kit-bags and boxes for us from the rest, as we
have to go in to-morrow and repack for duty,--only sleeping kit and
uniform to be taken, and a change of underclothing. They said we'd have
to make our own transport arrangements, as the 6th Division had taken up
everything. So in the town we saw an empty dray outside a public-house,
and after investigating inside two pubs we unearthed a fat man, who took
us to a wine merchant's yard, and he produced a huge dray, which he
handed over to us! We lent it to the Matron of No.--, and we have
commandeered the brewer for No.--'s to-morrow. Then we met a large
French motor ambulance without a French owner, with "Havre" on it, which
we knew, and sent Miss ---- in it to the _Asturias_ to try and collar it
for us to-morrow. She did.
There were a lot of Cavalry already mounted just starting, and Welsh
Fusiliers, and Argyll and Sutherlands, and swarms more. We had another
invitation to a packing-case lunch from three other M.O.'s at another
wharf, but couldn't stop.
We saw three German officers led through the crowd at the wharf. The
French crowd booed and groaned and yelled "Les Assassins" at them. The
Tommies were quite quiet. They looked white and bored. We also saw 86
men (German prisoners) in a shed on the wharf. Some one who'd been
talking to the German officers told us they were quite cheerful and
absolutely certain Germany is going to win!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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