The field of action is more
restricted and the aid is better organized.
[Sidenote: Transportation is painful and dangerous.]
[Sidenote: Relief at the first dressing station.]
[Sidenote: The nurses devoted and the sufferers resigned.]
If transportation, however, is less retarded than three years ago, it is
still painful and rather dangerous. Even when a special passage has been
dug before the attack for the evacuation of the wounded, all jolts are
not avoided in this dark and narrow way; but in going through the
ordinary passage-ways, dangerous and unseen obstacles are often
encountered--crumbling earth, perhaps, or convoys going in the opposite
direction. If they heeded the wounded soldier, the stretcher-bearers
would go on open ground. This he frequently does, if he is at all able
to get on without aid; once hit he thinks himself invulnerable--a
singular illusion which has brought about many catastrophes. At the
first dressing-station and at the front hospital, relief begins. In
ordinary times, this will be quite complete, and the wounded will not be
carried to the rear until they are really able to stand the journey. But
while the battle is on, they must go in the greatest haste: the worst
cases are thoroughly cared for; the badly hurt who can be moved receive
the attention which enables them to depart speedily; the slight cases
have to be content with summary consideration. Here one sees the
devotion of the nurses and the resignation of the sufferers, and better
than resignation: the noble effort not to moan, the murmured prayer, the
forgetfulness of self, eagerness to ask news of the fight.
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