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290 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
would still be in possession of its full collective strength. As
yet everything was running smoothly and easily, as if it had
been merely a matter of some well-prepared, gigantic autumn
manoeuvre.
As we were sitting there chatting, a petty officer from the
Naval Brigade entered and announced to Dr. Schönfelder
that fresh transports of wounded had just arrived from the
vicinity of the Yser Canal. They had been accommodated
temporarily in restaurants and public-houses and any other
vacant houses that were available. The two doctors at once
rose and said good night. To my question whether I might
join them they said " by all means." So we threw our rain-
coats over us, for it was pouring in torrents, and marched out
into the pitch-black night accompanied by the petty officer.
At first he took us to a moderately lighted low-class eating
house. The doctors threw off their tunics and put on their
white operating coats. A couple of assistants from the naval
hospital section were there to help them and had brought
dressings, instruments and drugs in bags and cases. A table
was brought out into the middle of the floor under the lights
with a cushion covered with a towel for a pillow. " Bring in
the first man," ordered Dr. Schönfelder. A little, fair-haired,
sturdily built man was carried in and placed on the table.
" Name ?
"—" Korte." " Regiment ?
"—" Eighth company
of 35th Infantry Reserve." " Where is your wound ?
"
—
" In the left calf." His breeches, fitting tight over his leg, were
slit open. The first dressing, saturated with pus and clotted
blood and stiffened into a solid lump, was removed with
scissors and knife. The wound looked very unpleasant, the
flesh hung in shreds, the skin had been torn away and a nasty
smell issued from the open sore. " Please look away," said
the Doctor as the soldier tried to look at his wound, and I
did my best to attract his attention. Powder of iodoform was
sprinkled upon the wound, a few little plugs of gauze were
pressed in with pincers in order to keep the wound open for
the escape of the pus and to induce the growth of fresh skin.
Shreds of dead tissue were removed and a fresh dressing was
applied. The man had been wounded four days previously at
a new bridge over the Yser Canal. It was a splinter from a
shrapnel shell that had hit him.
" Next man !
" He came in limping, supported by two
ambulance men. His bullet had caught him in the head, his
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