Page 29 - QARANC Vol 14 No 8 2014

The First World War was one of the most significant events of the 20th Century and claimed the lives of over 530,000 commonwealth servicemen and woman. As we approach almost 100 years since the outbreak of the Great War there seemed no better time to conduct a Battlefield tour of the Ypres Salient in order to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. The trip was a unique opportunity for MDHU(N) personnel and their partners to visit historic areas and learn about the Army Medical Services involvement throughout. Preparations for the trip were many months in the planning but the support and guidance of Galina, a Battlefield tour company, ensured all elements of the 4 day trip were well organised. Our tour guide was a retired RAMC Col, Chris Best whose expert knowledge and support proved invaluable in the personal and professional development of all those who attended.
As expected the journey to Belgium was long but the relative comfort of the air conditioned coach was a welcome relief and it wasn’t long until films such as “Oh what a lovely War” were being played, setting the scene for the days ahead. The remainder of the trip examined in turn the battles of Ypres, The Somme and Vimy Ridge; the three major areas of the British and Commonwealth involvement across the Western front during WW1. One of the early visits we made was to Tyne Cot cemetery, which is the largest commonwealth military cemetery in the world with 12,000 headstones and 35,000 names scribed on the rear walls of the cemetery. This was the first of many visits to various memorial sites across Belgium, which not only included the well preserved commonwealth cemeteries’ but also the German sites that had a very different feel. In stark contrast there was an apparent lack of flowers, routine maintenance and the rows upon rows of dark crosses were all too frequently marked without so much of a name.
One of the visits we made was to Brandhoek New Military Cemetery. Buried here is Captain Dr Noel Godfrey Chavasse, VC and bar MC. The Victoria Cross is Britain’s and the Commonwealth’s highest award
for bravery. Captain Chavasse was a doctor who repeatedly saved wounded men whilst being wounded himself on more than one occasion, and under heavy fire, with total disregard for his own safety. We walked the area of the Railway Wood – Bellewaerde where Cpl Cahill read out a poem by Rupert Brooke called “The Soldier”. This was the first place Noel Chavasse won his first medal for bravery in 1915. The memorial bears a cross for all the Royal Engineers who lost their lives tunneling mines.
Advanced dressing stations were the most forward of the Army’s medical facilities and in the Salient some of these operated in vulnerable positions, just behind the lines, for long periods. As we discovered the concrete buildings at Essex Farm were used by the dressing stations operating there and can still be seen in the cemetery today. It was here that John McCrae wrote his poem In Flanders Fields while serving with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in May 1915. We took a moment to pause and listen to Sgt Kirkwood recite the iconic poem. Almost 1,200 burials were made here during the war, under the constant threat of shell fire. The haphazard burial patterns and lack of plan in layout give some indication of the urgency with which they were made, bringing home the extremely difficult and dangerous conditions in which the medical serves
worked.
As we learnt the Casualty Clearing
Station (CCS) was the first large, well equipped and static medical facility that wounded men would visit. Its role was to retain all serious cases that were unfit for further travel; to treat and return slight cases to their Unit; and evacuate all others to Base hospitals. CCS’s were often grouped into clusters of two or three in a small area, usually a few miles behind the lines and on a railway line. A typical CSS could hold 1,000 casualties at any time, and each would
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MDHU Northallerton Battlefield Tour – Ex Western Front 07–10 Oct 2013