Up about 7 o’clock and busy all day. Some very bad cases in. Three died – one after an operation and both legs amputated. First time the ambulance has performed such an operation. Had short walk at night. The line a lot quieter. Slept in the dugout again.
Category Archives: April 1918
29 April 1918; Monday
Up about 7 o’clock and on duty. Fairly busy most of the day. A lot of shelling in the village. Mostly local casualties. Discovered little dugout for 4 of us at night and helped Bert Harman to build one. Slept well. A bit off colour still.
28 April 1918; Sunday
Felt pretty rotten in the morning and reported sick. Told to go to bed for a day. Lay in billet. Jerry sent some shells into the village at night. Slept rather badly.
27 April 1918; Saturday
Up about 7 in the morning. Sandbagging all morning. Received orders to move to the other side of the camp in the afternoon. Felt pretty bad and ran a temperature at night. Slept in a big hut.
26 April 1918; Friday
Up about 7 o’clock. On fatigue and waiting about most of the day. Still standing by.
25 April 1918; Thursday
Up about 7 o’clock. Busy in hospital all day. Received orders in the afternoon to pack up and stand by. Many rumours in from the line.
Heard of attack on Zeebrugge1.
The Zeebrugge raid, with the simultaneous smaller raid on Ostend, took place on 23/24 April and was intended to prevent German access into the North Sea for blockade and military/naval purposes. It was approved in February 1918, but originally suggested by Admiral Fisher in 1917, partly as an attempt to outflank the Western Front (allegedly related to the Passchendaele campaign.) The Zeebrugge element was largely ineffective, mainly due to failure of the smoke screen and consequent failure of the main warship to get to the right place and silence the shore batteries, with the result that the concrete-laden blockships did not get into the harbour. The Ostend attack failed totally, as the British warships did not even reach the harbour entrance. Nevertheless, the raid was presented to the British public as a great achievement and 8 Victoria Crosses were awarded. ↩
24 April 1918; Wednesday
Up about 7 and on duty all day. Kept pretty busy. Terrific gunfire.
23 April 1918; Tuesday
Received new patient. Working all day. Did a bit washing and wrote letter at night. Very heavy gunfire all the evening.
22 April 1918; Monday
Up shortly after 7 o’clock. Working about wards all day. Received letter from home. Busy in ward all day.
21 April 1918; Sunday
Reveille at 3.30. Marched off about 6 o’clock. Arrived at Proven 1 at about 10 o’clock. Had something to eat and then started work. Got small dressing room nearly ready when we had to take over D R S 2 and open up the big house. Very nice place. Worked pretty hard. Went into the village at night and were at the end of a church service. The parson very dry. Had good night’s sleep.
Proven (B) about 7km NW of Poperinghe (A). ↩
“D R S”: Divisional Rest Station; see The Chain of Evacuation of The Royal Army Medical Corps at RAMC in the Great War. ↩