"Over the Top," by an American Soldier Who Went: Together with Tommy's Dictionary of the TrenchesEmpey, Arthur Guy
History
"Over the Top," by an American Soldier Who Went: Together with Tommy's Dictionary of the Trenches
Empey, Arthur Guy
English language -- Slang -- Dictionaries; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
The next day after my return, Dr. Frost stopped at my bed and said:
"Well, Empey, if you want me to try and see what I can do with that
scar, I'll do it, but you are taking an awful chance."
I answered: "Well, Doctor, Steve Brodie took a chance; he hails from
New York and so do I."
Two days after the undertaker squad carried me to the operating room
or "pictures," as we called them because of the funny films we see
under ether, and the operation was performed. It was a wonderful piece
of surgery, and a marvelous success. From now on that doctor can have
my shirt.
More than once some poor soldier has been brought into the ward in a
dying condition, resulting from loss of blood and exhaustion caused by
his long journey from the trenches. After an examination the doctor
announces that the only thing that will save him is a transfusion of
blood. Where is the blood to come from? He does not have to wait long
for an answer,--several Tommies immediately volunteer their blood
for their mate. Three or four are accepted; a blood test is made, and
next day the transfusion takes place and there is another pale face in
the ward.
Whenever bone is needed for some special operation, there are always
men willing to give some,--a leg if necessary to save some mangled
mate from being crippled for life. More than one man will go through
life with another man's blood running through his veins, or a piece of
his rib or his shinbone in his own anatomy. Sometimes he never even
knows the name of his benefactor.
The spirit of sacrifice is wonderful.
For all the suffering caused this war is a blessing to England--it
has made new men of her sons; has welded all classes into one glorious
whole.
And I can't help saying that the doctors, sisters, and nurses in the
English hospitals, are angels on earth. I love them all and can never
repay the care and kindness shown to me. For the rest of my life the
Red Cross will be to me the symbol of Faith, Hope, and Charity.
After four months in the hospital, I went before an examining board
and was discharged from the service of his Britannic Majesty as
"physically unfit for further war service."
After my discharge I engaged passage on the American liner, New York,
and after a stormy trip across the Atlantic, one momentous day, in the
haze of early dawn I saw the Statue of Liberty looming over the port
rail, and I wondered if ever again I would go "over the top with the
best of luck and give them hell."
And even then, though it may seem strange, I was really sorry not to
be back in the trenches with my mates. War is not a pink tea but in a
worthwhile cause like ours, mud, rats, cooties, shells, wounds, or
death itself, are far outweighed by the deep sense of satisfaction
felt by the man who does his bit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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