stretcher-squads

Updated: May 5, 2025

Somehow you always thought yourself back to England. No matter what train of thought you went upon, it always worked its way by one thread or another to England. Mine did, anyway. It was better to be up with the stretcher-squads in the firing line than lying there sick, and thinking those long, long thoughts. This is how I would think

John Hargrave - At Suvla Bay : Being the notes and sketches of scenes, characters and adventures of the Dardanelles campaign, made by John Hargrave ("White Fox") while serving with the 32nd field ambulance, X division, Mediterranean expeditionary force, during the great war.

We were often out on the Clare Mountains for field-days with the stretcher-squads. Coming back one day, I spotted two herons wading among some yellow-ochre sedges in a swampy field. I determined there and then to come back and stalk them. The following Saturday I set out with a fellow we called "Cherry Blossom," because he never cleaned his boots.

John Hargrave - At Suvla Bay : Being the notes and sketches of scenes, characters and adventures of the Dardanelles campaign, made by John Hargrave ("White Fox") while serving with the 32nd field ambulance, X division, Mediterranean expeditionary force, during the great war.

It was just then that I spotted it a little black figure, motionless, away beyond the bushes on the right. He lay flat under a huge rock. I left the stretcher-squads, and, crawling behind a bush, looked through the glasses. It certainly was a Turk, and his position was one of hiding. He kept perfectly motionless on his stomach and his rifle lay by his side.

John Hargrave - At Suvla Bay : Being the notes and sketches of scenes, characters and adventures of the Dardanelles campaign, made by John Hargrave ("White Fox") while serving with the 32nd field ambulance, X division, Mediterranean expeditionary force, during the great war.

It was only a stroke of luck that I didn't stay with him and his stretcher-squads. "You'd better come down with me, sergeant," says the adjutant. Next day the news spread in that mysterious way which has always puzzled me. It spread as news does spread in the wild and desolate regions of the earth. "... lost... all the lot..." "Who is?" "Up there... Lieutenant S and the squads..."

John Hargrave - At Suvla Bay : Being the notes and sketches of scenes, characters and adventures of the Dardanelles campaign, made by John Hargrave ("White Fox") while serving with the 32nd field ambulance, X division, Mediterranean expeditionary force, during the great war.

Soon I was back in the ditch beside the wounded men. I had successfully dodged the sniper by following along the bottom of the bed of the stream. With me I brought two stretcher-squads, and they had a haversack containing, as I thought, splints and bandages. But when I opened it, it had only some field dressings in it and some iodine ampoules.

John Hargrave - At Suvla Bay : Being the notes and sketches of scenes, characters and adventures of the Dardanelles campaign, made by John Hargrave ("White Fox") while serving with the 32nd field ambulance, X division, Mediterranean expeditionary force, during the great war.

I worked up and down the line of squads trying to keep them in touch with each other. Those we had left on the beach were busy putting up the operating marquee and other tents, and the cooks in getting a fire going and making tea. The stretcher-squads worked slowly forward. We passed an old Turkish well with a stone-flagged front and a stone trough.

John Hargrave - At Suvla Bay : Being the notes and sketches of scenes, characters and adventures of the Dardanelles campaign, made by John Hargrave ("White Fox") while serving with the 32nd field ambulance, X division, Mediterranean expeditionary force, during the great war.