True Stories of the Great War, Volume 1 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
History
True Stories of the Great War, Volume 1 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
The second train came up about eleven, and by that time a fierce rifle
encounter was going on. From the hospital window we could see the
Russian troops firing from the trenches near the railway. Soon there
was a violent explosion that shook the place; this was the Russians
blowing up the railway bridge on the western side of the station.
The second train went off, and there were very few patients left now,
though some were still being brought in at intervals by the Red Cross
carts. Our automobiles had started off to Warsaw with some wounded
officers, but the rest of the column had orders to go to Zyradow by the
last train to leave Skiernevice.
The sanitars now began to pack up the hospital; we did not mean to
leave anything behind for the enemy if we could help it. The few
bedsteads were taken to pieces and tied up, the stretchers put together
and the blankets tied up in bundles. When the last ambulance train came
up about 2 P.M. the patients were first put in, and then every
portable object that could be removed was packed into the train too.
At the last moment, when the train was just about to start, one of the
sanitars ran back and triumphantly brought out a pile of dirty soup
plates to add to the collection. Nothing was left in the hospital but
two dead men we had not time to bury.
The wounded were all going to Warsaw and the other Russian Sisters went
on in the train with them. But our destination was Zyradow, only the
next station but one down the line.
IV--ADVENTURES OF A PRINCESS IN POLAND
When we arrived at Zyradow about three o'clock we were looking forward
to a bath and tea and bed, as we had been up all night and were very
tired; but the train most unkindly dropped us about a quarter of a
mile from the station, and we had to get out all our equipment and
heavy cases of dressings, and put them at the side of the line, while
Julian, the Prince's soldier servant, went off to try and find a man
and a cart for the things. There was a steady downpour of rain, and
we were soaked by the time he came back saying that there was nothing
to be had at all. The station was all in crumbling ruins, so we could
not leave the things there, and our precious dressings were beginning
to get wet. Finally we got permission to put them in a closed cinema
theater near the station, but it was dark by that time, and we were
wet and cold and began once more to center our thoughts on baths and
tea. We were a small party--only six of us--Princess, we two Sisters,
Colonel S., a Russian dresser, and Julian. We caught a local Red
Crosser. "Where is the hotel?" "There is no hotel here." "Where can we
lodge for to-night?" "I don't know where you could lodge." "Where is
the Red Cross Bureau?" asked Princess, in desperation. "About a quarter
of an hour's walk. I will show you the way."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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