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IN THE REAR OF THE FOURTH ARMY 153
In the morning five doctors and twenty men of the Army
Medical Corps arrived. A dreadful sight met their eyes in
these overcrowded rooms, foul with the stench of purulent
wounds and excrements. But they set to work at once and
soon received assistance from a field hospital. They were
then thirty all told. They worked day and night. But new
hosts of wounded kept on arriving. It seemed utterly hope-
less ! The wounded stretched out their hands to the surgeon
as soon as they caught sight of him and cried :
" Help us !
Help us !
" Extra motor-cars were procured to carry away
those who could bear removal. Many of the wounded even
crept down to the bottom of the steps to find a place in some
ambulance wagon—to get away from this inferno. But in the
end, the superhuman energy of the medical staff triumphed.
A kitchen was fitted up, cattle were slaughtered and meat-
broth was made. Soldiers who had been starving for days
could at last stay their hunger. All dressings were changed,
—
those of the graver cases first, the others afterwards. In a few
days the medical staff were masters of the situation. But if
such is the state of things on the lines of communication of an
army which has only fallen back momentarily for some
distance, what must happen after a crushing defeat ? Of
one thing I am certain, none but an army permeated with
boundless confidence in its leaders and its chief command,
can stand the strain of such phases of war without going
to pieces.
In the foregoing I have often stopped to speak of the
wounded and shall do so again. It might therefore be oppor-
tune to give a brief outline of the system and the organisation
which prevails in the hospital service in the field. All is
arranged beforehand so as to be ready when war breaks out.
Of course the hospital service assumes a different aspect
according to the distance from the actual fighting line. At
the front they have Medical Service Corps and establishments
to meet the first needs of the wounded. There we find surgeons
with military training But all these dressing stations and
field hospitals are cleared as speedily as possible to make room
for fresh wounded. They pass their patients on, step by step,
along the lines of communication, on which their further care,
or transport to the home base, is provided for. Here most of
the medical staff are not on the normal war establishment, but
civilian medical men liable to military service or who have
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