The only thing to do was to put me on the ground again. Here I was
expecting another shell every minute, but Providence evidently thought
I had received my share, as I was free from any more shells, though
they were bursting close at hand continually.
About 2 A.M. our battalion stretcher-bearers managed to reach the
position where many more, with myself, were lying. The shelling had
then subsided to a great extent, making it possible to continue the
work of carrying out the wounded.
I knew one of the three men who came alongside of me with a perfectly
good-looking stretcher. Though the way was long and very rocky, we
finally arrived at the first aid dressing station. After resting here
for probably an hour, I was conveyed in one of the "London Scottish"
ambulances about five miles to a field hospital. I saw many of the boys
here. Most of them appeared to be walking cases. The next thing I knew,
I was placed on the operating table, where I smelled ether for the
first time. I remember the doctor saying: "Be perfectly still, now, and
breathe naturally." After that I knew no more till the job of inserting
numerous rubber tubes through the leg was finished. Having to spend two
nights on ambulances and trains, I arrived at a British base hospital
in Boulogne. I remember the people cheering as our train pulled in, but
I wasn't in the mood for caring what they did.
The treatment was of the best in this hospital, though I only remained
in it fourteen days. In the bed next to mine there was a Scotchman who
kept yelling continually. His leg had been amputated so I couldn't see
what he had to kick about. Nevertheless, it made it quite impossible
to get any rest at all.
On the morning of June 3rd, the doctor marked me "out," which meant
that I was going to "Blighty." I hardly realized what it meant then.
Again I was on the table--this time to cut an abscess and to put a
cumbersome iron splint on me. I think they called it a Hodgson's
splint, one of those affairs that extended down two sides of the body
to the feet. It took up a lot of room--so much so that I had to have
a Ford ambulance all to myself; consequently at the boat's side I was
taken for an officer and treated as one. This I didn't object to in the
least.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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