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[Page 18]
Chapter 3
The Army Medical Corps
The success of our massive armies today is dependant to a vital degree upon the efficiency of the medical service in the same way that as it is upon the ability and foresight of its officers, the bravery of its men, and the successful organisation of its supplies.
The wretched conditions that existed at Gallipoli increased the difficulties two fold of the Army Medical Corps to a great extent. We owe many obligations to the stretcher bearers, orderlies, and medical officers at the front, and to the sisters and men who worked untiringly at the distant base hospitals in Egypt, Lemnos Island, Malta, or England for the most efficient and capable manner in which they handled all the cases entrusted to their care.
The stretcher bearers at the front were always vigilant, working unceasingly day and night, and they performed many heroic deeds of self sacrifice in the execution of their duty. Their arrival was always awaited with the most eager anxiety by those who lay wounded and forlorn on the battlefield, or by those who were longing to be transferred from their respective field dressing stations to the beautiful fresh white hospital ships at their moorings in full visibility from the trenches.
The stretcher bearers duty was always most strenuous and monotonous. It was invariably accompanied by great danger from shrapnel in the gullies, from rifle and