Evacuation of injured soldier - Gallipoli

[manicminer]

I have located the Casualty Form (Army Form B103) for my grandfather. He was injured (shrapnel) in Suvla on 21 October 1915 and was on-board the HS Devenha hospital ship to Alexadria on 23 October being then admitted to Hospital on 26 October 1915. Whilst clearly I am pleased he was evacuated, and so quickly, but can anyone tell me if such a quick response for injured soldiers was normal?

TIA

Phil

[horatio2]

From early in the campaign four days seems to have been the minimum transit time between wounding on the Peninsula and hospital admission in Egypt, so your grandfather's experience was not exceptional.

Edited 22 June , 2023 by horatio2

[seaJane]

2 hours ago, manicminer said:

Devenha

Polite NB, correct spelling Devanha. Using this, you may be able to find forum posts concerning the ship's personnel, etc.

[michaeldr]

 

20 hours ago, manicminer said:

can anyone tell me if such a quick response for injured soldiers was normal?

see the Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Society, Vol.II,

page 2: “Two months' work in the Hospital Ship 'Rewa',” by Fleet Surgeon Frederick J. A. Dalton RN, Senior Medical Officer

quote:-

We have now had the opportunity of working more than once at each of the three Beaches from which wounded are brought off, and the difference in the condition of the patients from each Beach is most marked.

 

1. Helles Beach provides by far the most septic type of case. The average time between the men being wounded and received on board is from twenty-two to twenty-four hours, some being as long as three days. The reason for this apparently is that the front line trenches are further from the Beach and patients have to be brought back along the trenches and cross communicating trenches, owing to the hill and plateau being commanded by the enemy's fire. It is surprising the number of men from this Beach that are found to have defæcated in their trousers. When it is remembered that severe diarrhæa is very prevalent and, as can be seen by a glance at the list of operations in this paper, that compound comminuted fractures of the thigh are also prevalent, it is not difficult to imagine that one is fighting for good end results under very adverse conditions. The flies are also far more numerous on this Beach than on the other two; every patient is hoisted on board black with flies, and very soon after the first load or two has been received the decks and wards are also black with flies. Many wounds are found on arrival to be already swarming with maggots. Also this is the only Beach from which we got cases of gas gangrene.

2. Anzac Beach is by far the best from our point of view, the front line of trenches being only a short distance from the sea, the average time taken to put men on board after they have been wounded being five to six hours. There are fewer flies, and the Australian and New Zealanders who occupy this Beach are very fine men physically. The results obtained from exactly similar wounds under exactly similar treatment are far better in cases from this Beach than from the other two.

3. Suvla Beach comes between Helles and Anzac as to the septicity of the cases. The average time taken to put a wounded man on board the ship after being wounded is between nine and ten hours. We have had no gas gangrene cases from this Beach, but we have had wounds with maggots already crawling about then.

It will be seen from the above description of the three Beaches that results depend much more on what Beach is worked than on what particular antiseptics are favoured, or, in other words, on how soon we get our patient after he is wounded. 

From https://archive.org/details/JRNMSVOL2Images/page/n9/mode/2up

[manicminer]

Thanks to all for an interesting response.

Phil