Brewster 'A Glimpse of War through a Private's Eyes', a retrospective account of experiences in World War I, 1915-1917 / John James Brewster - Page 187
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[Page 187]
periscope & the man spoken to was also wounded in the right hand.
Turning to the sentry, the man blurted out Look here! That was your [dash] fault! The sentry replied. Why you ought to thank me, & you will yet, for getting to England with a bit of a scratch like that. Thinking then of his arm he said as if to himself. What had I better do!
One of the men sitting near who was able to see the blood accummulating in the Sleeve of the sentrys tunic said You had better go to the Dressing Station & take my tip "Run your hardest!
In putting down the periscope near the dug out door, the blood spurted out from the wounded arm like water from a tap & the sentry could then see the value of the advice given & away he went to the Dressing Station at the double. A spurt of about 50 yards along the duck boards at the back of the dug outs brought him to the Firing Line Dressing Station.
What a sight he saw then! A very large dug out, had been roughly prepared as a Hospital but the whole of it was packed as closely as possible with wounded men on stretchers. Another dug opposite had also been brought into use, while outside lying on the ground were hundreds of stretcher cases still waiting to be dressed. It gave a first indication of the huge total that the Casualties for that nights work would amount to. These were men unable to walk (stretcher cases). The Dead & walking cases could only be estimated. And this only of half a battalion of men (500) whereas the Division in this action would muster about 12000.
Under such circumstances the prospect of being dressed was small, & almost at the moment, when the wounded sentry was about to fall from faintness through the continual loss of blood, a sergeant from one of the "bays" rushed out, caught the sentry & after some trouble bound up the arm as as well as possible to stop the flow of blood. After making a fairly good job, he found that there was another hole underneath which had escaped attention, so his "good job"