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Show Rescuing and Attending the Wounded Under Fire Is No Easy Task, Yet This Is Being Done Daily By Members of the Field Ambulance Corps and Physicians Who Are Serving At the Front Copyright, 1917, by The International Syndicate. Iff N1 FORMER WARS tho surgeon jjj '-, ; H and his stretcher bearer" wore rc- ". M earded as neutrals, whoso duty it I " was to care for tho wounded of I '' both ccmbatants and guns wero never I f' . trained on tho dressing stations or hos- I ".. Pitals. Today, however, all Is changed I Jt-- for tho German treats the surgeon as I though "his scalpel wero a sword and S ' - h'3 tourniquet a trigger," and recent E ' v-ar statistics show that more than 1 0,000 physicians have lost thoir lives UP to the present tlmo In tho great j European war. Most of tho physicians i have been "killed In action," whllo attending the wounded who havo boon j J.draffBod Into tho trenches from "No i !Sr uan's Land," by the stretcher boarers, ; Y who have many times been deljberate- i ly fired on by tho Germans, whllo carrying out this act of mercy. I AmbuJniicc Units Suffer, i In this tho men of the field ambu- j Innco unit are the sufferers and the Percentage of deaths in this branch h of the service is tho third highest, tho Hp infantry and tho artillery bolng tho ffi-p flrst and second. Much of the work IP!; j "J done at night when thc men creep V i out on "No Man's Land" 'between the to&lcci ! : inches and drag the wounded along rtflfl': Rro'Jnc3 so as not to draw fire from rato " " ' ' ttl0 Gormans- In many cases this Js '' rturo to tho suffering soldier, but It r I k the only hopo ho has of being res cued. Occasionally the Germans send up a flare and If they discover moving objects the guns aro at once trained on the spot and tho rescuers are frequently fre-quently killed while trying to bring in their -ounded comrades. Ono particularly par-ticularly atrocious caso of this kind Is vouched for by a member of the Amerlc. n Ambulanco, that bravo sot of young Americans who aro doing such vallnnt scrvico on the French front As tho story goes, two soldiers members of a French regiment occupying oc-cupying a nearby trench wero sent out ono night to repair somo of tho barricades. While they were at work thero was a noise In the German trenches not far away and It Is presumed pre-sumed that tho Frenchmen cropt a few yards nearer to listen. They wero discovered and llred on. Both were wounded and unable to move. When tho French Captain learned of It he orderod three of tho men to go out and bring them in. Tho Germans were evidently expecting this and when the rescuers had almost reached tholr comrade-, thero was another flare from the Gorman trenches followed by shots and now flvo men woro lying helpless on the ground olther deid or wounded. Whon no other rescuers were sent from the French trenchon to tholr aid tho wounded men began to call to tholr comrades entreating I Pr h::fSm ' S-yf & tk jtrja Vt them to help them back to the trenches. At first tho captain declared that ho could spare no more men, but two soldiers begged to be allowed to go to the men and he finally consented. consent-ed. No sooner had they reached tholr comrades than they too woro llred on by tho Germans, and only ono escaped and succeeded In getting back. After that roscuo wan Impossible and the next morning all six of the soldiers could be seen lying dead only a few yards fron. their own trenches.. Physicians Under Fire Hundreds of physicians havo been killed by the dolibcrato bombing of dressing stations. "The Rod Cross means nothing to tho German ofneor," said a surgeon, "and ho fires on tho flag as quickly as ho does on a tronch." Tho divisional hospitals aro usually several miles back and when tho wounded riRjMler reaches this point ho Is usuallfejPi a haven of safety, but not until e reaches the base hospital Is ho out of tho range of guns. Wild Scenes Along Tho Road. The stories told by the ambulanco drivers of their wild rides ovor shell torn roads without Ught3 and under fire carrying bleeding soldiers seem liko tho .story of a bad dream, yet night aftor night theso awful scenes go on. Tho mud bespatterod ambulances ambu-lances rush up to tho dressing stations, sta-tions, known to tho French a3 postes do secours, to carry tho men to the divisional hospitals. Theso places arc near tho front and tho wounded aro carried thero first, thoso who aro ablo to do so cither walk or crawl. In ono lnstanco a well known surgeon had his log fractured by a sholl whllo attending at-tending a woundod man In a tronch. Ho managed to crawl two miles to tho nearest dressing station stopping to aid woundod men whllo on the way. Ho finally lost consciousness and was picked up by an ambulance man and rushed to tho hospital with others. Ho recovered later and although minus a leg he Is serving at ono of tho baso hospitals. Dressing Stations. Only tho very worst cases are attended at-tended at the drosslng : '.utions, Somo of the men who aro enly slightly wounded aro ablo to dress their own wounds by tho uso of the llttlo first aid packet, which every soldier carries. car-ries. It consists of a bottle of iodine crystal, a small bottle of alcohol and a strip of antiseptic gauze Sometlmos after a battle tho wounded aro brought in faster than they can be attended, so ono physician goes ovor tho men and tags them according to tholr needs. Tho men marked "urgent" arc operated on at once, while those marked "send to next station" are placed in an ambulanco and tho machlno Is sent out with Its load of poor creatures who only a few hours boforc wero strong, sturdy fighters and now lumps of humanity as helpless as babies. Tho trip for tho first few miles over roads filled with sholl holes, which aro difficult to avoid in tho darkness, is frightful, and at each bump the groans of tho woundod can be heard. Thero Is tho Bound of guns and tho weird light flares throw uncanny un-canny shadows over tho road. "Sometimes "Some-times I think 1 cannot stand tho cries of the men," said a young American Ambulanco Corps man, "but thon I think how much worse it would be if we could not got thorn out of tho range of fire." A number of ambulances ambu-lances havo been hit by shells and tholr occupants killed, and in ono Instance In-stance only tho drlvor was killed, and the machlno rushed on until it finally ran Into a ditch and turned turtlo killing several of tho wounded occupants. oc-cupants. Sometimes there Is a gas attack near tho dressing station and for this reason tho ambulanco drivers aro all required to wear gas masks when in tho danger zone. Frequently a kitchen ambulanco Is sent out to tho dressing stations from which hot broth is served to tho wounded, who aro waiting their turn. After one of tho battles on tho West front tho ' British brought their wounded in on littlo cars ovor an improvised track laid in the snow. They did this under flro and several of tho cars wero hit. In Italy tho wounded are sometimes brought down the mountains In sleds, whllo In Sorbla a curious two seated saddle Is rigged up and put on a mulo, and In this way those who were unable to walk wore taken to safoty. Divisional Hospitals. When tho divisional flold hospital is reached tho men are examined and placed in classes. For Instance ail log cases aro sent to ono ward, all head cases to another, all abdomen wounds to another, while tho hopeless cases aro sent to a ward to dlo togethor. In this way no tlmo is lost by tho surgeon who knows exactly what kind of work he will have to do beforo ho enters tho ward. From this point tho wounded aro sent to the baso hospital and aro taken to a warehouso or freight station, which has been fitted up as a hospital d'evacuation and at this placo they are loaded on hospital trains and sent cither to Southern Franco or to somo channel port to bo sent to England. Recovery is often slow, but under tho gentlo ministrations ministra-tions of a nurse at somo beautiful French chateau or English country homo tho soldier usually regains his health and strength and frcqnontly is able to got back in tho trenches. Snrgcons Duties. This problem of getting the -wounded to safety, which has cost tho lives of so many physicians, was vividly described In a recent lecturo at Cornell University by an eminent surgeon who is a member, of tho Royal Medical Corps of the English Army. In tho course of his remarks ho declared that "a regimontal medical officer's duty was to koep as near tho commanding j ofilcor as possible If tho attack Is successful there will bo a certain num- t ber of wounded in 'No Man's Land1 j and tho medical officer should direct . j tho rescuing of theso and tell each of . thoso wounded who aro able to walk : i H and go back, taking shelter as much as possible until they reach tho tM Trctchcr bearers. The wounded who aro unable to move should be shel- tcrcd anywhere possiblo in shell craters or trenches and -first aid -ound k as rapidly as possible. The medical ( I ofneor must at all cost keep In touch with his battalion and movo forward with It. His presence in the trenches is of Immense moral valuo. He can j forthwith sot about lmprclslng a reg- j JA Imental aid post with shelters for tho 'M wounded meanwhile attending to any ' casualties as they occur." It can bo readily understood from this why the J , mortality among physicians at the front is so large The loss of life among the surgeons of the British Army has become so great .that tho London Lancet, a well i known medical magazine runs an fH obituary column in each Issue telling I jJ how and whero each medical man met 1.1s death and In nearly ovory instance 1 . o-o reads that they wero killed in ac- 1 tion whllo attending wounded. Tho great guns used mako tho 9 j danger zone a very largo ono and f whether by accident or purpose tho Gorman gunner has found a mark in many of tho Allies' hospitals. Today hundreds of our own physicians aro olther on their way or proparlng to follow Pershing and his "Sammies" ( to the firing line Already the Johns Hopkins and Harvard units aro in Franco cstab- lishlng hospitals about twenty-five miles from tho front Theso units 1 comprise somo of tho most noted medical men in tho country. They havo left lucrattvo practices, which it has taken years to build up, and families as well, and liko tho knights of old stand ready to do their "bit" j with a rare chivalry and solf -sacrifice, |
