World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian
We talk to the man with the honor-bar. We ask him how he was treated in the
hospital. He may be doing the dirtiest fatigue duty round trench or camp,
he may be smoking or writing a letter, but the minute be hears the word
"hospital" he drops everything. If he be a Cockney soldier he will repeat
the word: "'Orspital, mate--lor' luv ye, wish I wuz back!"
That is the feeling. Talk to a thousand men after this war; ask them their
experiences and they will tell you a thousand different stories. Ask them
how they were treated in the hospital and there is but one reply: "Treated
in hospital? Excellent!"
There is only one word. The great Red Cross--Royal Army Medical Corps--is
practically one hundred per cent. efficient. The veterans will tell the
youngsters, "If you're wounded and have to lie out--then, lie out--don't be
foolish enough to die while you are lying out--because you can't die once
they find you."
YOU CAN'T DIE.
We remember that. We remember facts, too, that we hear from time to time.
We remember that out of all the casualties on the western front, only two
and a half per cent. have died of wounds. We remember that we have a
ninety-seven and a half fighting chance out of a hundred, and we are
willing to take it. Some of us have read of other wars and we know, for
instance, that in the American Civil War, from the best available
statistics, over twenty-two per cent. died of wounds--and the reason? No
efficient medical corps--no Red Cross--no neutral flag of red on white.
I was taken over to London as soon as I could be moved. I was in the Royal
Herbert Hospital at Woolwich. It is not possible to describe in detail the
treatment. The doctors were untiring. Hour after hour and day after day
they worked without ceasing. The nurses were unremitting. No eight-hour day
for them!
And here again I saw the treatment of the German wounded. They were in
wards as gay with flowers, as cool, as clean, as delightful as ours. They
had German newspapers to read, and certain days of the week brought a
German band, drawn from among fit prisoners, to play German airs for the
benefit of the sick prisoners. We think of this, and then we meet a British
or French soldier who has been exchanged or who has escaped from a German
hospital prison! It is hard to think of it calmly. The first impulse is to
follow the law, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But that is
not the way to-day of the square fighter.
At this hospital I was operated on and it was shown that it was an
explosive bullet that hit me. Several pieces were taken out of me, and
these I keep as grim souvenirs. Several other pieces are still in my body,
and not infrequently by certain twinges I am made aware of their presence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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