Casualty Clearing Station

You know, we just kept on. We had to get going and we had vague reference of where we assembled and so on. But anyway, I eventually got to the assembly point and then the major said, “We’re taking you up to our casualty clearing station in Basly.” And up we drove and because I had a little clerical experience at the moment, I had to keep record of the casualties. But in between that time there was different things happening, you know. You were patching up guys and whatnot. I have a picture of a chap in here and he thanked me for looking after him. I said, “I don’t remember you.” He said, “I remember you!” So the reason being that he probably remembered me is that they published a picture of me as a 19 year old. He only had that face to remember. And so if he remembered me fine, anyway I said you’re alive, still you’re surviving wonderful and we hugged and we shed a little tear. Apparently he lost his leg, that chap, had it blown off either by a mortar or maybe a mine or a shell. It’s terrible. It’s a horrible thing to see what high explosives can do to a human body. One minute they are going along like a full individual and the next minute they could be blown to bits or down with an arm or a leg blown off or a very bad chest wound and what not.