Series 01 Part 02: Hughes family correspondence, 3 April 1917-22 September 1918 - Page 30
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[Page 30]
2.
the number of the C.C.S. In my diary I have written 36 C.C.S. but a letter I have from Joe D'Apice at Headquarters says that it was 31 C.C.S. I can scarcely believe that I made a mistake but I will find out definitely. I know there were two Clearings stations next to one another, one was 36 and the other 31.
You ask me exactly what I think about the medical attention dear old Roger received, so I will tell you. Of course we feel that nothing that could ever have been done to save him would have been too much and I can quite understand that it seems to you that he may not have had every care. But honestly I feel that everything that was possible was done. The difficulties of attending to the wounded in a great advance are enormous, but every means that ingenuity can devise are used to attend to them as well as possible. Exactly what happened is this. Dear old Roger's wounds were dressed immediately by the A.M.C. [Australian Medical Corps] men in his aid post – that is as soon as the others had been attended to which he insisted on. This was in the little aid post way up in front of Longeval [Longueval]. The country round here was all taken from the Germans and the awful artillery fire had left nothing of roads or railways. So he had to be carried by the bearers some miles back to a point where he could be put on to a small guage tramway on cars pushed by hand and taken to the point where the ambulances were. It was impossible for the ambulances to go right up as the roads if they existed were at all were absolutely impassable. The ambulances then took him to a field ambulance where