Field Ambulance Stations

[SOMMESOLDIER]

Hi There,

This maybe a unanswerable question, but I was wondering as to how soon generally casualties were moved on from Field Ambulance Stations.

In sort, what I would like to know is, if a man died at one of these stations how long after he was wounded is it likely he died ?

Sorry if this seems a stupid question to those in the know, but I am a complete novice on the subject of casualty care.

Cheers

Tim.

[jhill]

There are too many aspects to this issue to give a definite answer, but here are a few points. They come mostly from my study of the Passchendaele operations in Oct-Nov 1917. This followed the general scheme, but there were always variations at other times and circumstances.

1. One of the three Field Ambulances of each division cleared casualties from the regimental aid posts back to the main dressing stations. They operated one or more advanced dressing stations near a roadway and possibly a number of transfer stations or loading points between the RAPs and the ADS. At all of these places casualties were held only long enough to send them off down the line (I believe there were some experiments in performing surgical operations at ADSs). Very occaisionally casualties would be stuck there for want of transport. I suspect most fatalities there would have been casualties who died on the journey.

2. Another of the Field Ambulances ran one of the main dressing stations, usually for the Corps. Here the casualties would often be cleaned up and their wounds re-dressed, but almost always sent on to the Casualty Clearing Stations by the first car or train. The MDS was not intended to keep cases overnight.

3. In addition to these, other Field Ambulances operated other facilities. For example, the Corps would probably have a hospital for sick cases, a rest camp for slightly wounded and shock cases, and, later, a station for gas cases. At these, cases were often kept for a week or more, but mortality was low.

There are probably details here that I have got wrong, but the general rule was that battle casualties were moved by the Fields Ambulances to the CCSs as quickly as possible, and not kept for any length of time.

[SOMMESOLDIER]

Hi There,

I'm really sorry that it has taken so long to thank you for your excellent reply. I completely missed it !!

Thanks once again it is of great interest.

Cheers

Tim.

[Canadawwi]

I posted this on the CEF Forum - and it may be applicable for this question as well. As pointed out in an earlier post - it all depends on the engagement / circumstances and everyone has a different personal experience. As the war went on, the process was usually faster as a result of experience and pre-planning.

I wrote this for something I'm working on. It is rough and not finalized. The situation was especially complex at the 2nd battle of Ypres (April 1915) as the aid stations were continually relocated.

* * * * *

The Transportation Route of a Wounded Soldier

The system for the evacuation of a wounded soldier was quickly established after the experience of the battles early in the war. After trial and error, a strict pattern emerged for the collection, evacuation and care of the wounded.

The wounded soldier was transported in stages to receive full treatment. The number of “stations” that he passed through depended upon the extent of his injuries. The table below outlines the general route for a Canadian soldier. If the soldier’s wound was not very serious he could be treated at the first few stations and returned to the front. The possibility of recovery based on current medical knowledge was another factor that affected the amount of treatment received. If the soldier’s condition appeared to have little hope of recovery, he would not be chosen to complete the final step of transport across the water to an English hospital, or by train to a French or Belgian hospital. He may have only made it to the first few stations, or to the Casualty Clearing Station (a very basic hospital). On the other hand, in some cases the clearing stations and hospitals were simply running out of space and beds, so everyone was moved on to the next station after basic treatment to make room for the next wave of casualties.

The following would be the path followed by a soldier with serious wounds, but who could withstand a trip to England for treatment. Soldiers with lesser wounds would go as far along this path as appropriate to their situation.

BATTLEFIELD

Transport by stretcher-bearer to

REGIMENTAL AID POST

Transport by ambulance to

ADVANCED DRESSING STATION

Transport by ambulance to

CASUALTY CLEARING STATION

Transport by ambulance to

HOSPITAL TRAIN

Transporting to

HOSPITAL SHIP (or BARGE)

Transporting by ambulance to

HOSPITAL

* * * * *

The Wounded Situation at the 2nd battle of Ypres (April 1915)

The situation was critical in terms of evacuating the wounded for care from the battlefields near Ypres. The medical system had been completely disorganized before the gas attack by the very heavy bombardment that had destroyed or caused the evacuation of many posts and dressing stations. This, in combination with the hurried arrangements to deal with the mass wounded, placed an enormous strain on medical personnel. (1)

By Friday April 23rd the situation in the Salient was chaotic. The roads were choked with people, horses and transport of all descriptions. Many were heading out of the Salient, but many others were moving in: infantry reinforcements, artillery and supplies. (2)

As would be the case during the entire battle, it was impossible to evacuate the wounded until after dark as movement in daylight was extremely dangerous. Injured men were given first-aid in the regimental aid posts in the front lines, but more sophisticated treatment was available only far to the rear. The walking wounded and stretcher cases were funnelled through the advanced dressing strations at Wieltje and Mouse Trap Farm, the main dressing stations in Ypres and Vlamertinghe, and all the way to the casualty clearing stations in Poperinghe, Hazebrouck, and Bailleul. Early in the fighting, the Canadian Division faced a critical shortage of stretchers, which the chief Medical Officer, Col. G. L. Foster, blamed on the French, who were not returning borrowed stretchers. (3)

1 Graves, p. 191.

2 Dancocks, pp. 136-137.

3 Dancocks, p. 137.

* * * * *

The Wounded Situation at Ypres (continued)

By the evening of Saturday April 24th there was a steady stream of walking wounded and stretcher-bearers making their way to the rear. Each injured man was taken first to his regimental aid post, where his battalion’s medical officer sorted out the wounded and administered first aid. Then the soldier was sent on to dressing stations located in and around Ypres. The most serious cases were passed along to the casualty clearing stations father back still, and to hospitals in centres such as Boulogne on the French coast. (1)

By Saturday casualty clearing stations were full of wounded and gassed men. In a schoolhouse at Vlamertinghe, the 3rd Canadian Field Ambulance had established its main dressing station, but were desperately short of stretchers and blankets as most of its equipment had been lost at Ypres. Ambulances delivered wounded to this station in a continual stream and by midnight the schoolhouse was overflowing with casualties. The wounded began to fill the village church where Canon Scott was on hand to give Communion to the dying. (2) The 3rd Canadian Field Ambulance treated 5,200 injured men in the course of the battle. Pte. Bert Goose wrote in his diary that 1,800 men were put through inside 24 hours. (3)

On April 23rd, as a stretcher bearer, Pte. Walker was a witness to the situation at Vlamertinghe. The wounded were pouring in - those who could walk arrived on foot. Others crawled in. The roads were blocked by ambulance cars. Wounded men lay in stretchers outside the dressing station, along the road, in fields and on the doorsteps of houses. Doctors and orderlies were working as quickly as possible, but the lines of waiting wounded were growing steadily longer and more unmanageable. By April 24th, the Germans were shelling Poperinghe and Vlamertinghe. The civilians had all left. (4)

William Boyd, with the 3rd Canadian Field Ambulance at Vlamertinghe, updated his diary on April 24th. The situation was confusing, even for those in the centre of it all. There were rumours “…of retreat and advance, defeat and victory…” Boyd heard that the Germans broke through the French line at Langemarck, and that Ypres was soon to be lost to the enemy. He knew that Poperinghe, which was full of hospitals, had been thoroughly shelled by the Germans. All the hospitals had to be cleared out, as well as the mobile laboratory stationed there. It was known that Ypres was on fire. (5)

1 Dancocks, pp. 200-201.

2 Graves, p. 195.

3 Dancocks, p. 137.

4 Pte. F. Walker, p. 67.

5 Wm. Boyd p. 61 (diary entry written on April 24th, 1915).

* * * * *

The Wounded Situation at Ypres (continued)

Boyd reported that the wounded began to flood in “whole motor convoys” on the evening of April 23rd. Boyd received a “confused account” of the ongoing events from the arrivals. The traffic was heavy through the streets of Bailleul, both ammunition carts going in and ambulances bringing in the wounded to the clearing hospitals. (1)

By April 25th, Boyd wrote that the tense situation had worsened. Fighting was desperate and the numbers of wounded pouring in was high. Boyd spent nine hours working in one of the dressing stations. (2)

William Boyd wrote:

"If any one is in the slightest degree responsible for this war he ought to be made to spend a few hours in a dressing-station where cases come straight in from the firing line, some of whom have been lying out in the fields for several days. Remember that a piece of shrapnel is sometimes bigger than a hen’s egg, and jagged at that, and you will realize that when it hits a man in the face it is apt to make a mess. The result of a similar bit which has torn open the abdomen and exposed the bowels is also not a pleasant sight. It is as if some great brute had trampled on the men, in Browning’s words, “pashing their life out, with a brute’s intents.” That is what they are; they are pashed. Under such circumstances all the talk about the glory and glamour of war is rather apt to stick in one’s throat."

"I am too tired to write any more." (3)

William Boyd’s diary entry for April __, 1915. Boyd was with the 3rd Canadian Field Ambulance at Vlamertinghe.

1 Wm. Boyd p. 62 (diary entry written on April 24th, 1915).

2 Wm. Boyd p. 63 (diary entry written on April 25th, 1915).

3 Wm. Boyd pp. 63-64 (diary entry written on April 25th, 1915).

Transportation Route of a Wounded Canadian

The care of casualties on the field was well-organized. A man who was wounded would make his way, or be carried, to the Regimental Aid Post, virtually in the line. From there, after his wound had been dressed, he would be taken further back to a field dressing station, where he was given an anti-tetanus injection and where there usually were ambulances to take him back further to the Casualty Clearing Station (8 - 10 miles behind the line). There he would be kept until he was fit to be sent by hospital train to a base hospital, where he would either be treated until he was well enough to return to his unit, or sent to England.

The system broke down when Casualty Clearing Stations in commandeered buildings such as convents and colleges at a “safe” distance” from the line were still well within reach of heavy shells, or were swamped with more wounded and sick than they could possibly have anticipated or could handle. Even the base hospitals overflowed with casualties after key battles.

Regimental Aid Post (RAP)

Each Battalion had one RAP. Four stretcher bearers per company would deliver wounded to the RAP. Each division had 3 field ambulance units to collect sick and wounded from the RAP and take them, by stages, to full medical care. (1) The fate of a wounded man was determined by arbitrary selection known as triage. Stretcher bearers made the first choice in determining if the man’s prospects of survival merited the long and often dangerous trip to the RAP. In the case of mass casualties, it became necessary to favour those who would survive. At that time, two-thirds of stomach wounds and more than half of all chest wounds were likely to be fatal. Because triage eliminated most cases that would not survive, the per cent that survived once reaching care was fairly high. Only 7% of wounded men died at a RAP. (2)

1 D. Morton, p. 186.

2 D. Morton, p. 190.

* * * * *

Advanced Dressing Station (ADS)

Teams from the bearer section of the field ambulance collected casualties from the battalion and carried them to their ADS where wounds were checked, dressings fixed, and morphine administered. The ADS had to be located where an ambulance could collect the sick and wounded and deliver them to the division’s clearing hospital (CCS).

Trucks and wagons that delivered ammunition and rations would also carry wounded back to 600-bed general hospitals or smaller 200-bed stationary hospitals. (1) The ambulance trip as often very painful as the bumpy roads and delays due to mud were very hard on the soldier with bone fractures, or clogged drainage tubes irrigating infected wounds. The station was generally around 2,000 yards from the front line.

Casualty Clearing Station (CCS)

This was the clearing hospital and the centre for all urgent battlefield surgery. It was located approx. 2.5 miles from the front. The concept of triage was again applied at the CCS, formally separating both minor and hopeless cases, leaving the latter to be sedated and nursed until their deaths. In quiet times, everyone could be treated, but when hundreds fell, most wounded could wait days for treatment. (2)

Pte. Goldwin Pirie, after a 4 day delay when he was left wounded on the battlefield (April 23-26), was eventually picked up and taken to a RAP and then moved on to an ADS (or possibly straight to the ADS). It is not known exactly when he reached the CCS, but the entire process took almost 3 weeks until he reached Netley hospital in England. There is a notation dated April 29 & 30 in Goldwin Pirie’s military file referring to the fact that he “Reported to Base” as wounded. This is even later than the 4 days - either the paper work was not done immediately due to a large volume of casualties, or there was an error in the paperwork. One interpretation could be that he was at the RAP, but the document was not filled out until he reached the CCS, but there are many possible versions of this chain of events.

It is known that the gas casualties at Ypres were treated at the CCS at Bailleul.

(1) D. Morton, p. 186.

(2) Ibid. p. 191.

* * * * *

Goldwin Pirie at Boulogne Hospital

Goldwin Pirie was initially transported with other Ypres casualties to a hospital in Boulogne, 100 km. west of Ypres on the English Channel Coast. It is not known which hospital took him in, but it may have been No. 5 Base Hospital - a casino prior to the war. A hospital train ran directly from the casualty clearing stations to this hospital.

There is no note of this in his military file, however, a letter (see below) he wrote from Boulogne to his guardian, Mrs. Ada Murdoch, was published in the Dundas Star. G. Pirie mentions Shorncliffe in his letter. If a soldier was able to recover enough to return to the front, he was sent on to Shorncliffe for a “final sorting”. The fit were placed with newly arrived recruits and went through training before returning to the front. The remainder were placed in the Casualty Company and were sub-divided into those fit for light staff work in England or Canada, and those disabled and ready for discharge. (1)

The Dundas Star, May 20th, 1915:

FOUR DAYS BEFORE PICKED UP

But Goldie Pirie is Now Doing Well

Mrs. A. L. Murdoch, Park street, has received a letter from her nephew, Goldie Pirie, who was wounded at Langemarck. The letter was written at Boulogne, May 1st, and though very brief contains the information that he was wounded on the 21st, two days previous to the counter attack made by the first battalion. (2) He got a bullet in the groin and three in the left arm, causing a fracture, but he says he is doing splendidly and feels fine and it won’t be long before he goes to Shorncliffe.

He says: “I don’t know a thing about the rest of the fellows as I got mixed up with another battalion. I was lying out four days before being picked up and have frozen feet as well.”

“I am O.K. and on the rapid road to recovery”.

(1) Macleans, May 1916. (Article from a Canadian patient at Netley Hospital)

(2) Reporting of the war news at that time was often confused and researchers should double check all details (dates, numbers, etc.). Later historical analysis, such as historian Dancocks, and eyewitness reports from other 1st Battalion soldiers, show that G. Pirie was wounded during the charge on Mauser Ridge on the morning of Friday April 23rd, 1915. The 1st Battalion was in not in the line on April 21st, 1915.

Pte. G. M. Pirie was not "on the rapid road to recovery" as he thought and died at Netley Hospital on July 1st, 1915.

[SOMMESOLDIER]

Hi There,

I am very grateful for your very detailed reply. It is of the greatest interest to me !!

Very many thanks

Tim.

[eskimo]

Hi There,

I am very grateful for your very detailed reply. It is of the greatest interest to me !!

Very many thanks

Tim.

I will second that.

Gave an excellent insite into what happened to my uncle who was wounded (both arms and one leg) and died 13 days later in AUG 1918.

Question: Would the hospital at Boulogne have kept some sort of war diary/record.

Regards eskimo

[jhill]

Question: Would the hospital at Boulogne have kept some sort of war diary/record.

Regards eskimo

There were many hospitals in the Boulogne area, including those at the large Etaples camp not far away.

Alas! As we have often complained on many threads, it is almost impossible to find references to individual casualties from the records of the various medical units, even if those records exist!

As an example of what a hospital's War Diary looks like, you can browse through that of the 3rd Canadian General Hospital, which was at Boulogne in August of 1918. This is available at the admirable Canadian Archives site here .

(Ignore the reference to Basingstoke; They were there for a while.)

This unit kept a rather detailed diary, but as you can see, there are few, if any, references to individual casualties. You will note, however, that although it was a Canadian hospital, the vast majority of admissions in August, 1918 were British (i.e. not Canadian). I am not certain what records for other (i.e. British) hospitals might be available.

Still, you may find it interesting!

[SOMMESOLDIER]

Many thanks for the excellent info.

The link is excellent. As you say a real shame that there is such a lack of information regarding individuals, but still a fantastic insight !!

Cheers

Tim.

[eskimo]

Hi jhill

Thanks for your quick response, i will checking out the site you recommeded.

Regards eskimo

[Canadawwi]

Regarding Boulogne hospital, I agree with the above post that they probably only kept general records and not reports on specific wounded soldiers.

The original question was about understanding the time frame a soldier might spend from aid post and on to the next care station. I don't think there will be a formal report, unless it is mentioned in an official war diary, or personal diary. The file attached below is about the best one can hope for.

Soldiers who served with the Canadian forces have access today to medical and casualty forms through the National Archives where the original files (40-80 pages) are stored. In this way I have probably the best reports available. I am attaching the report that goes with the situation I described above. As you can see (my notes are in red) - this does not break down the chronology to when he may have been at a regimental aid post, casualty clearing station. In fact, the time spent at Boulogne is not recorded on these forms. The only way I knew about that was because his letter home from Boulogne was printed in the local newspaper.

Even this report does not necessarily tell the whole story. There are at least 4 other similar forms in the file, and each has dates and events which contradict some of the other forms.

So my sense of the situation is that during a heavy assault, there was little time or manpower for paper work, although some was prepared after the fact as can be seen in this document, but it was not necessarily 100% accurate.

However, what I can say is that from the date of being wounded on April 23, 1915 - it took until May 12th to get onto a Hospital Ship to get to England. I may further like to add that he would have lived today because he ultimately died from a lack of antibiotics. Although on the surface there seemed to be hope for recovery, soldiers with infected wounds died when over time the infection was attacking the arterial walls. These ultimately broke down causing repeated hemmoraghing and eventual death.

The Carrel Dakin solution to clean up the wound was not in general use till a bit later in 1915, and even that method was only effective if applied early, and not for soldiers who had been lying in the field for hours/days waiting to be picked up.

As far as Netley Hospital, nearly all medical records for men in Canadian units are now in our National Archives. These records are highly detailed and Netley nurses recorded the temperatures twice a day, the amount of morphine, date and time, the operations to stop hemmoraghing, and the pulse.

A recent book on Netley Hospital indicated that nearly all records were lost or destroyed and there is little left in terms of patient care sheets to let us know what actually went on there. In fact, much of these for 1914-18 at least are now in military files in Canada.

Marika

[SOMMESOLDIER]

Hi Marika,

Your information just gets better and better. I had no idea this type of information existed !!

It is such a shame that so much of it is now lost, but at least as you show there is some of it left.

Very many thanks for this information and the time and effort you have given to post it !

Cheers

Tim.

[Canadawwi]

I am glad to hear that the information is of use.

The very detailed information all of us would have wanted about the wounded soldiers we are researching is most likely only in a report such as the one attached. It seems likely that reports at this level of detail would likely only have been prepared at a stationary hospital.

As you can see from this Medical Case Sheet, the details are all laid out (except the April 21 day is wrong). At this point I really have most of all that I need to know, however, the next avenue of research might be to look at the name of the RAMC Lieutenant that signed this report. If I could decipher it, which I can't, then I would proceed to look into his war career.

The last thing I have is a letter from a visitor to the hospital to visit my great uncle. This gives more background to the harsh medical facts posted below. This I only found a year ago. Only because of persistently bringing up the subject at family reunions, someone suddenly mentioned that they had a letter. Here it is - hospital visit

That somewhat finishes up what it is possible to determine with respect to a soldier's death, although there are always, as we all know, new avenues for us to follow up on.

[chris.wight]

Tim, you might find this Field Medical Card of interest. This one accompanied Pte. James Mahood, #132086, 42nd Battalion, C.E.F. who unfortunately died of his wounds. I believe his wounds were incurred when a shell exploded in the midst of a group of men near Valenciennes on November 10, 1918.

[chris.wight]

Inner part of the card.

[SOMMESOLDIER]

Hi Canada and Chris,

Really excellent stuff. The detail is far more than I ever expected. I cannot thank you enough !!

Cheers

Tim.

[n cherry]

Tim,

As an ex RAMC soldier cna I say that on top of all the marvellous info already posted, the role of a Field Ambulance is basically to assess a patient's condition treat where necessary and ship on!

If you can get hold of back issues of Stand To! there is an article in issue 64 (I think) on the casualty evacuation chain.

Regretfully records of the base hospitals except one as representing them all were destroyed after the war and the one set left is at the PRO/NA. I once found a statistic which said that between 1914 and 1918 over 2 million casualties were shipped across the channel with blighty ones. How many men went through the doors of the base hospitals is of course many more than the 2 million shipped to the UK. I've never seen a statistic of how many were in-patients-anyone any idea-just at the coastal hosptials???

[Canadawwi]

After I had pulled together the above information, I discovered an excellent source of information on 1914-15 Medical Services. Link below. Please be warned that you could be reading for hours!

This book is available in a full online edition and provides specific information on casualty clearing stations, stationary and general hospitals, including floor maps, etc., as well as situations encountered during specific engagements.,

War Story of the Canadian Army Medical Corps (link to online edition)

BY

J. GEORGE ADAMI, M.D., F.R.S.,

(Temporary Colonel C.A.M.C.)

A.D.M.S. in Charge of Records, Office of Director-General, Medical Services, O.M.F.C.

Volume I. THE FIRST CONTINGENT – (to the Autumn of 1915) –

PUBLISHED FOR THE CANADIAN WAR RECORDS OFFICE

BY COLOUR LTD., 53. VICTORIA STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. AND

THE ROLLS HOUSE PUBLISHING CO. LTD. BREAM'S BUILDINGS, FETTER LANE, E.C.

August 1918

[Canadawwi]

For the purposes of this thread, the following description from the above cited reference, is from Chapter IV. This chapter goes through the composition and duties of each stage in the journey of a wounded soldier. This is the first stage:

J. George Adami - the War Story of the CAMC (1918):

The Regimental Medical Officer accompanies his men into the trenches, and, as against an attack upon those trenches, his duty is to select behind the line some spot well protected from shell fire, and as far as possible equi-distant from each of the companies at the front, there to establish his Regimental Aid Post (R.A.P.). For prompt evacuation of the wounded this should not be too far back. The approaches to it, also, should be screened from shell fire and snipers. He is provided with sixteen well-trained stretcher-bearers whose duty, as their name implies, is to convey the wounded back to the R.A.P. As a matter of fact, and as was discovered at Ypres, they are of greater service remaining in the trenches and affording first aid to the wounded, and as a body they develop into extraordinarily capable and expert dressers. In consequence, it is becoming more and more the habit during any heavy action to retain these men for the more urgent work of dressing the wounded, and to employ other men detailed from the platoons to act as stretcher-bearers. If the R.A.P. is unduly distant from the front line, the return of the wounded is delayed by the length of the carry. The R.A.P. is, in short, the regimental collecting post to which all wounded, whether walking or stretcher cases, make their way. During an action, the duty of the Regimental M.O. is not to be in the trenches, but at the R.A.P. There, with his N.C.O. and one or two orderlies, he attends to the wounded as they walk in or are brought back by the stretcher-bearers, and sees that each is given a tag, attached to a button of his tunic, giving his name, number, nature of wound, etc., prior to departure as a walking case, or removal by the bearers of the Field Ambulance.

1. In an action the first object is to remove out of the fire zone all who are no longer of service, and this as rapidly as possible. Thus the R.A.P. is not a surgery: it is at most a casualty ward. First-aid dressings are given, wounds are bandaged temporarily; splints, when urgently needed, are provided for fractured limbs; bleeding is arrested; morphia injected where injuries are painful, or strychnine where there is collapse.

2. From the R.A.P. those of the wounded who can walk make their way on foot to the Advanced Dressing Station (A.D.S.) of a Field Ambulance, which is situated within the fire zone at some roadside point up to which, if not always during the day-time, certainly at night the ambulances (usually horse ambulances) can be brought. The more seriously wounded are removed on stretchers from the R.A.P. to the A.D.S. by men of the bearer section of a Field Ambulance. In the course of a heavy action this duty also can only be undertaken in the dark.

[SOMMESOLDIER]

Hi All,

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone again, for what have been really fantastic replies. I really am very grateful to all of you. My understanding has been much improved.

Cheers

Tim.

[Canadawwi]

Thanks for bringing this thread back. I thought I'd add to the information above by looking at the casualty situation at one of the engagements at Passchendaele. The situation I described above for 1915 was still evolving in terms of speed.

The following information comes from Legacy of Valour / The Canadians at Passchendaele by Daniel G. Dancocks, 1986, pp. 137-139.

CASUALTIES (Canadian)

Losses for October 26-28 = 2,481.

MEDICAL SITUATION

Between 6 AM October 26 through to 6 AM October 27 - the Canadian Corps medical service treated 1,207 wounded Canadians and 55 wounded Germans. The whole Corps front was cleared of wounded in 12 hours; a considerable feat for the stretcher bearers because of the shell fire, mud and light rain.

The 8th Canadian Field Ambulance operated a dressing station at Vlamertinghe Mill until November 2nd. They treated 3,270 wounded soldiers during this time frame. The drill, according to Lt.-Col. J. N. Gunn was as follows:

"...each [man] being attended to according to his particular needs, most of them being stripped of their muddy and blood-stained clothing and made warm and comfortable in pyjamas, many of them needing the most delicate handling in relieving and protecting fractured limbs, every solitary man (excepting where the peculiar seriousness of his wound prohibited this) receiving his hot coffee or cocoa with cake or biscuits, not forgetting that greatest of boons of the wounded soldier - a cigarette".

Clerical work was attended to in an orderly manner. - "...every man had fixed to him, before leaving, his official medical card, showing his full particulars, giving an exact description of his wounds, and stating any special treatment that had been administered." These records were kept at the dressing station, with reports also going to headquarters and to each man's unit.