Up about 7 o’clock. Nothing to do all day after the morning. A civilian injured on the rail crossing and had his left foot amputated and his head injured. Operated on him during the night and at about 10 o’clock.
1 May 1918; Wednesday
Up about 7.30 and on duty. A few cases in in the morning. Some men of the 75 Field Ambulance got out on the road.
30 April 1918; Tuesday
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.
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.