AWM41 1041 - [Nurses Narratives] Sister A N Smith - Part 1

Conflict:

First World War, 1914–18

Subject:

Documents and letters
Nurses Narratives

Status:

Awaiting approval

Accession number:

AWM2021.219.100

Difficulty:

6/47

[6/20] AA

[[?]]

Butler Colln

AWM 4 1

AUSTRALIAN ARCHIVES

ACCESS STATUS

OPEN

SISTER A.N. SMITH.

A. W. M.

LIBRARY

Classⁿ 373.2

[[?]]

[1041]

C.C.S.

France

Sr A. N. Smith

60/88

1917 [[?]] To 2 ACCS

after Messines Ridge Taken

2,300 cases [[?]] with in 19

hours [[?as?]] majority operation.

July, Huns bombed at 10 p.m.

2 patients , 2 orderlies killed.

15 men wounded.

Dug out built for sisters -

working hard all day, - day and

all night -

amicable, sisters working

at 5 a.m.

The Official War Historian of the Commonwealth
Government (Dr. C. E. W. Bean), after his study of the
collection of private war records preserved in the Australian
War Memorial Library, wrote : -
"The private diaries in this collection furnish some of its most
valuable historical records, but, like all private memoirs which were
not compiled with any historical purpose, they should not be
regarded as first-hand evidence except where it is certain that they
are so. The diarist is almost always sincere in his desire to record
accurately, but he is subject to no obligation or inducement to
indicate whether he is recording his own observations or incidents
told him by friends or heard at third or fourth hand at the mess-table.
Thus, in some of the diaries in this collection, scenes described with
vivid detail, and without any warning that they are told at second
or third hand, have been found to be completely inaccurate in
important details. A certain number also have been written up
or revised long after the events, though doubtless usually from notes
made at the time. In most cases the student must rely on his
experience and on internal evidence to guide him in judging what is
and what is not likely to be historically accurate."

Spare Copies

60/88

Experiences during Messines Ridge Battle, and the 9 months dating from

4th January 1917, to October 4th 1917, in The 2nd Australian

Casualty Clearing Station.

--------------------------------------------

On the 4th of January I was sent to 2nd Aust. C.C.S. stationed

at Trois Arbers, between Dieppe and Bailleul. I am afraid my idea of

a C.C.S. at that time was rather vague. So I was surprised to find

that it consisted of quite an up-to-date hospital, in many ways,with

excellent applications and X Ray plant. The building consisted principally

of shacks. Nissen huts and tents all connected by duckboards

to keep out, if possible, the mud and slouch so well known in Northern

France. There was little excitement first three months, after that

the excitement never finished for a very long time, and while it lasted,

so did the hard work.

The oatients in the wards often told me what was going to happen

"when we take Messines Ridge." We had heard of that ridge so often

and the time it was going to be taken, that we only laughed when they

spoke of it , and decided the day had not yet dawned for "that ridge".

However, when the Ridge was really to be taken, we heard very little

about it. Carpenters arrived one morning and immediately commenced

working in various places. Our dressing room where patients had their

wounds attended to, on admission was enlarged to accommodate 10 tables

where it previously held two our operating theatre was also made

capable of running six different operating tables. Tents sprang up on

all available space, where with duckboards leading to them.

All necessary

equipment was installed in them. Primus'were issued, often an additional

one in case of accident. Then splints, bandages, pyjamas, blankets and

the hundred and one small things needed in a busy ward arrived by motor

transport, until we knew that the ridge was going to be taken. All

patients able to travel were sent to the base, leaving us with practically

an empty hospital with the exception of a few convalescents kept

for light duty. Doctors, Orderlies and stretcher Bearers arrived in

large numbers and our staff of sisters was made up to 20, including

3 sisters attached to surgical Teams.

Of course, we were used to Bombardment, that the noise which preceded

Messines Ridge Battle was little noticed. For the bombardment had

seemed perpetual for weeks and weeks. Shells had been bursting above

us in the daytime, and with the noise of the bombs a short

distance away,

and anti aircraft guns, we had little to learn of noise.

I was sleeping in a tent at this time, and it was from here, I heard

the noise of the mines blowing up, and felt the concussion of the earth

which preceded the Messines Battle. We could not sleep after this

wondering how the Australians and other troops were faring.

Wondering

if they had won the hill, or were being slaughtered, and knowing which

ever way it happened, we were bound to have hundreds of wounded coming

in shortly. About 7 a.m. we heard that the Ridge had been taken with light

casualties, and shortly after the first wounded started to arrive. I

could'nt see where the light casualties came in, as all those strong

healthy men came in dead, dying, unconscious and moaning. We had a large

marquee created near the entrance much like a circus tent in its size.

There the wounded were received, examined by an M.O., who ordered their further disposal. After he examined their condition, they were

stripped of their bloodstained dusty khaki - parts of which had often

been slit up or cut away to allow the doctors in the forward areas to

dress their wounds and give them injections of Anti Telamic Serum.

Their various private belongings were collected into a Dorothy bag bearing

their name and ranks. The men were dressed in Red Cross Pyjamas and

carried on stretchers to the dressing room and put on one of the ten

tables, which were constantly kept going during the days which succeeded

the battle.

Again they were seen by another Med.Off. who ordered their special

dressing and often dressed them if time permitted, and sent them to

different wards I may say the wards were many and varied.

Perhaps it was straight to the Operating Theatre - in case of haemorrhage or abdominal wounds. Many of the boys coming in with a leg

blown off. It was dressed in the Aid Posts, a Torniquet applied to stop

bleeding, and sent hurriedly to the C.C.S. in charge of an A.M.C. man,

for immediate operation. Sometimes they died on the way, and never reached

the hospital alive. Then we had a post operative ward, a

tre-operative

ward, resusitation, chest, abdominal, jaw, multiple wound, and lastly

a morbid or dying ward.

-2-

Each patient was sent to a ward, sorted by according to his wound and all

necessary treatment and dressing done. we had no time to think of the

hundreds of casualties. We only knew that work was waiting to be done

everywhere, and men were suffering - waiting to be dressed, or to have

an injection of morphia, strychnine or other stimulant, and that many

of them had not had a drink or food for hours.

Everybody worked many hours at a stretch. We had a day and night

staff, but how could anyone go off duty with dying and wounded men all

waiting for their turn to be next, and you know that it would be for

hours, before the night or day staff as it happened to be, could cope

with the crowded wards. Everybody tried to have enough sleep to keep

them going, without interfering with the way they did their work, realizing

the best work could not be done without some sleep. But how

could anyone sleep, with our big guns firing a short distance from us.

Shells bursting overhead, and air craft and machine guns going continually

with the noise of the general bombardment and the screach of shells

overhead on their way to Beilleul , or Neuve Eglise. Colonel received

great praise, afterwards, for putting through 2,300 cases in 19 hours -

the greater part of whom were operated on, and the foreign bodies

removed. Everything must have been well planned. We had all we wanted

and everything went smoothly. All working very cheerfully together,

for the Padre who served the patients with the tea, if we were busy,

to the stretcher bearer xhe looked, judging by his appearance as if he

were just about fit to be carried out on a stretcher himself, instead

of carrying others.

Disposal of patients.

----------- --- -----------

Many patients on admittance were sent to the pre Operative

Ward,

there to wait their turn for the X Ray room and theatre. There was

little time for preparation, only that which was necessary being done.

Many of them were too badly wounded to know they were going to the

theatre. Others less wounded were remarkably bright, and only seemed

to want a cigarette, and for you to look after someone who was worse

hit than themselves. Occasionally a doctor came in, and left list of

names as they were to go to the theatre, or a padre came in to see

someone who had not long to live. From the theatre, the very serious

cases were sent to wards for further treatment, and to wait till they

would have recovered from shock and haemorrhage, sufficiently to go

down the line to the Base. The lesser wounded we put in a tent till

the affects of the anasthetic had passed off, they were then

put on

the train which ran beside the C.C.S. When one hospital train was

full, it pulled out and an empty hospital train pulled in, waiting

to be filled. I worked in various parts of the hospital, sometimes

the Operating Room, Abdominal Ward or Dressing room, or perhaps

the Resusitation Ward assisting the doctors with various methods

of combatting shock and haemorrhage, and trying to help the patients

over this critical time, by giving injections, and special feeding,

to prepare them for the operating theatre, their only hope.

Often we were successful, sometimes our best efforts failed, sometimes

it was hopeless from the beginning.

for some time I had charge of the Moribund or Dying Ward. It was

a hopeless heartbreaking place, Roves of dying men, mostly Australians

and New Zealanders, nearly all headcases and unconscious, semi unconscious

or else raving in delirium, and pulling their bandages off. None likely

to live more than a few hours, and pronounced hopeless ness by the doctors.

Each on a mattress on a stretcher, mostly in their khaki. They were

the only cases not undressed in the admitting tent. Every hour of so,

someone dying and being taken out, only followed by someone

else in an hour or so. All we could do was try and get them to take

nourishment, give injections to deaden the pain, undress them and make them

comfortable. Many of them wore discs with their rank and unit on one

side and their next-of-kin's address on the other, seemingly asking

for some one to write to their people and tell them how and when they

died.

General Prisoners (Wounded)

---------- ------------ -------------

In a tent next to these were all the German prisoners, mostly wounded, and

needing quick operative attention if they were to live. Our own men

were attended to first, unless the germans were very seriously wounded.

-3-

Some of them had been lying out some time, and gas gangrene had been

developed very quickly, where otherwise the wound was not very serious.

They were operated on as quickly as possible and sent xx down the line

to make room for others. Very few could speak a word of English, but

as I had an orderly who could speak German it did not matter much.

Our own men were wonderfully brave about their wounds, seldom complaining,

now and then a groan bursting from them which told how they were

suffering. The germans seldom complained, either, they were good patients.

Only once, and Officer complained to me in broken English, but it was

not of his wound. It was to speak of the degradation of the officers

being "put" as he expressed it "to lie with common soldiers". The

officers were afterwards screened of and their stretchers put on trestles.

Shelling and Bombing of the Cas.Clearing Station.

----------- ---- ------------- --- ---- ----------------- ---------

During all this time of severe work and for weeks after Messines

The C.C.S. had been receiving shells, parts of shells or shrapnel.

Sometimes directed at a balloon between us and the boche. Sometimes

the germans were shelling the Railway Line and trucks hoping to find

a 12 in gun which was kept on a line very close to us, camouflaged as

a truck, and was generally sent up the line at night, at other times

it seemed to be just the shelling of back acres. The staff and patients

had sometimes an anxious time,. Numerous narrow escapes occurred, but

no one was seriously wounded. For three days and nights after Messines

the night staff worked hours, later than their usual hours and were

kept awake by the noise, until they got so tired they would have slept

thro anything. Bombs were continually being dropped on different

camps, and on the Bailleul-Nieppe road. No one bothered much about

them. We all had the idea that we were safe, because we were a

hospital.

However in July 1917 a taube dropped several bombs just outside

a tent, killing two patients, two orderlies and wounding 14 of 15

other men. This happened about 10 o'clock at night.

On the afternoon of this same day, the Germans had been shelling

the balloon pretty frequently and pieces were falling in different parts

of the camp. One large piece came down and buried itself in a tent between two patients, who were side by side on stretchers. It missed

both and one of the patients was an elderly man, and was very much

terrified, and practically suffered from shellshock all the afternoon.

This luck was further out however, as he was on of the patients

killed by the bomb that night.

After this the sisters peace was at an end, a dugout was built for

them. It did not matter where we were working, if a taube appeared

we had to leave our dash and go to a dugout, and perhaps remain hours

there. At the time I speak of, the taubes were kept out of the sky

by our machine guns and anti air-craft guns during the day, but always

came over us at night, generally on their way to bomb Hazebreuck and

Bailleul. So we spent most of the day working, and spent most of the

night in the dugout - not sleeping. It was underground, and pretty

damp and miserable - until a new one was built above the ground for us.

We arose at 5 a.m. to dress the patients to leave by the hospital train

at 8 a.m.

To give some idea of the uncertainty of life surrounding the C.C.S.

One evening a man was admitted, badly wounded by a shell which

exploded in a motor transport waggon on the Bailleul Armentiers Road.

Two friends in his unti hearing he was wounded, rode 14 miles to see

him, on horseback, arriving at 10 p.m. at night just as lights were to be

put out. I spoke to the two men, and told them they need to hurry

away as their friend was to down on the hospital train, and they would not see him again. I left the two men with him and went to supper.

I was not away ½ an hour, when I returned to another ward. As I entered

the stretcher Bearers were taking out another man out of a red cross

waggon, I went to have a look at the patient, as I did so, he

exclaimed "Why , we must be in the same hospital, this is the sister

we were talking to". They were the two men I left talking to their

friend. They had got their horses, rode a few hundred yards from the

camp. A bomb fell betwee them, killing both horses and wounding pretty

badly the two men - one having his foot blown off. They were so

dazed they did not recognise that it was the same hospital.

-4-

they had just left , till they saw me. All three went dow on the train the next morning.

(Sgd) A.N. Smith, N.S.

No.1 Aust.Gen.Hospital,

Sutton Veny.