20th Division Lake Doiran

[LinaMoffitt]

Assume this is a typo, that 20th Dvn wasnt at Lake Doiran? If so I wonder which dvn he was with?

The Sydney Morning Herald 3^rd June 1916:

SALONICA FORCES, EARLY FIGHTING, WOUNDED ON LAKE DOIRAN

Some of the difficulties of the retirement of the British and French troops from Southern Servia to their present position at Salonika were described yesterday by Dr N L Prichard, who arrived in Sydney by the Niagara. Dr Prichard left Melbourne over a year ago and offered his services to the War Office authorities. He was attached to the 20^th division, which he almost immediately afterwards accompanied to Servia.

Where the Allies began to fall back towards Salonika there was a great deal of fighting going on and the work of the Army Medical Corps was heavy and continuous. The medical difficulties became acute during the last week of the retirement, for then it became necessary to abandon the transportation and ambulance wagons. Seeing that they could not use the roads the men of the medical service very ingeniously arranged a service of boats. The line of retreat was along the shores of Lake Doiran and the principal craft on the lake are the small boats used by fisherman.

This proved to be a successful expedient. Altogether about 30 boats were used and the Servian fisherman who worked them performed wonders. The stretcher-bearers did splendid service in bringing the incapacitated men to the lakeside and then they were taken over by the fisherman, one patient to each small boat and transported rapidly from station to station. The wounded men were 48 hours in reaching hospital but the service was the best that could be devised under the circumstances.

Dr Prichard praised the British, Canadian and New Zealand hospitals at Salonika, all of which he had inspected. The English and Canadian establishments were splendidly fitted out but the New Zealand institution would have been better that either had it not been that its equipment was lost when the Marquette was torpedoed. The articles lost included an x-ray installation and a very wide range of modern instruments and appliances. When Dr Prichard left Salonika arrangements had been completed for making good the New Zealanders’ loss.

Dr Prichard also spent a little time on various hospital ships in the Mediterranean and was stationed for a while at Malta and Egypt.

SALONICA FORCES. (1916, June 3). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 18. Retrieved April 11, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15665327