The Best Gallipoli Yarns and Forgotten Stories by Jim Haynes

Author:Jim Haynes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2015-05-27T04:00:00+00:00

SHRAPNEL AVENUE

JOSEPH BEESTON

Our bearers continued doing splendid work after the May offensive and right through to the August offensive. As I said, it was a long and dangerous carry from the firing line to the ‘Shrapnel Avenue’ ambulance station or Casualty Clearing Station on the beach and a lot of them were wounded themselves.

The miserable part of the affair was that the Casualty Clearing Station on the beach broke down and could not evacuate our wounded. This caused a blockage, and we had numbers of wounded on our hands. A blockage of a few hours can be dealt with, but when it is impossible to get cases away for forty hours the condition of the men is very miserable.

The cooks got going, and had plenty of bovril and Oxo, which we boiled up with biscuits broken small. It made a very sustaining meal, but caused thirst, which was troublesome, as it was particularly difficult to obtain water.

Shelter from the sun, too, was hard to get; the day was exceedingly hot, and there were only a few trees about. As many as could be got into the shade were put there, but we had to keep moving them round to avoid the sun. Many of the cases were desperate, but they uttered not a word of complaint. They all seemed to understand that it was not our fault that they were kept here.

As the cases were treated by us, they were taken down towards the beach and kept under cover as much as possible. At one time we had nearly 400 waiting for removal to the ship. Then came a message asking for more stretchers to be sent to the firing line, and none were to be obtained; so we just had to remove the wounded from those we had, lay them on the ground, and send the stretchers up. Thank goodness, we had plenty of morphia, and the hypodermic syringe relieved many who would otherwise have suffered great agony.

Going through the cases, I found one man who had his arm shattered and a large wound in his chest. Amputation at the shoulder-joint was the only way of saving his life. Major Clayton gave the anaesthetic, and we got him through.

Quite a number of Ghurkas and Sikhs were amongst the wounded, and they all seemed to think that it was part of the game; patience loomed large among their virtues. Turkish wounded were also on our hands, and, though they could not speak our language, still they expressed gratitude with their eyes.

One of the Turks was interrogated, first by the Turkish interpreter with no result; the Frenchman then had a go at him, and still nothing could be got out of him. After these two had finished, Captain Jefferies went over to the man and said in plain English, ‘Would you like a drink of water?’ ‘Yes, please,’ was the reply.

During one afternoon a battalion crossed the ground between us and the beach. This brought the Turkish guns into action immediately, and we got the time of our lives.

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