Source: File: Stretcher-bearers moving up to the forward area; near
Ginchy;14 September 1916. Tank tracks can be seen running alongside them in the
mud. See an original
image at: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stretcher-bearers_attached_to_a_Guards_battalion_moving_forward_near_Ginchy_on_the_Somme,_14_September_1916._Q1214.jpg>
[Accessed
6 October 2016]
An influential pioneer of newspaper trade
Alfred Harmsworth,
had been born into world
Of the gentry,
with brothers of viscounts
And barons to gain
his own title - 1st Viscount
Northcliffe - to become a freelance journalist.
Building on the purchase of periodicals,
Harmsworth went
on to take failing papers
And build them
into successful chains -
From the Evening News
the viscount went
Onto create the Daily Mail and Daily
Mirror.
A tabloid pioneer that linked in compulsory
Education -
another Harmsworth paper,
The Times, had
made reports over the 1915
Shell crisis, that
in turn had led to changes
In government regarding
the lack of shells.
By reaction Prime minster Asquith was forced
To form a
coalition government - by creation
The ministry of
munitions, whose minister
Was to be David
Lloyd George - Harmsworth
Still a
journalist made reports about the war.
A piece appeared within his newspaper,
The Daily Mail,
relating to the War Doctors.
Lord Northcliffe had
embarked on a Somme
Tour of the war
front - reaching the frontline
On a Sunday, under a heavy atmosphere.
As if a permanent
thunderstorm, continual
Clouds of dusty
smoke hung all around.
In his objective
of visiting an Advanced
Dressing station
were endless interruptions,
Having to lay
flat to avoid close shell bursts.
The practise occurred
every few seconds,
To become quickly
tedious, without any
Sign of the
dressing station close by -
Suddenly two stretcher-bearers
emerged
Out of nowhere
through a haze, to vanish.
As quickly as
they came they went down
Underground, as
Alice did into a rabbit
Burrow - an inspector of the medical posts,
Lord
Northcliffe's guide, pointed after them;
Down they went,
to follow into wonderland.
Behind the men they
dropped into a trench,
From foggy light into
pitch darkness lit only
By candles - yet no
quiet place, as an acting
Battery had let
loose above; dominating
Any act of easy exchange
or questioning.
From the flickering light, a grimy grim image
Emerged. They
were stood in a passageway.
Part of a maze
dug out of clay earth, little
More than the
width of stretcher handles -
Under the dull
light men lay on the ground.
Lined out on
stretchers blocking the passage,
The men were
silent under noisome blasts.
Making it
difficult to attempt to talk many just
Stared into space, some smiled others slept;
They stepped over
the stretchered wounded.
Many were out of
it on morhpia - their torch light
Beam passed over varied shadowy faces -by
Half stumbles
they reached the main dressing
Area - above them
rumbles numbed by density
Of solid ground, ignored by those in their burrow.
In a small chamber they found young doctors -
A few R.A.M.C
subalterns taking tender care,
Washing and
dressing of some twenty-four
Soldiers - by
stealth the visitors moved onward;
In another
chamber lay nine wounded men.
In one small room an operation was underway -
A tracheotomy was
performed to relieve one
Mans ability to
breathe - carried out in calm
Beneath five foot
of earth, endless shudders
Above bowed heads,
ignored by doctors work.
Further down in
the dug tunnels were other
Rooms; a
corrugated walled store room, an
Office, kitchen along
with a mess room home
To seventy staff -
all impressed Lord Northcliffe
Providing a
reminder of extremes of war work.
Above them the barrage increased again -
The visitors
would have to remain a while
Longer, sitting among
the wounded men who
Laid helpless on
the ground - he noted among
Some having tremors of
shell shock symptoms.
Around them hands
and expressions played
In time - with each echoing dull thud, such gun
Effects held
equal prejudice for every soldier -
The realization came
to Northcliffe, how these
Caring humans had
ability to go without sleep.
Amazed by their
dedications to treat extreme
Effects of war on
bodies - Northcliffe and guide
Waited for storms
abate, talking over how many
Of the wounded initially
dressed own wounds,
Using basic field
dressings sewn into tunics.
Of course, it was
only those soldiers who were
Able - while
others waited, reliant on regimental
Stretcher-bearers
or reaching aid posts like the
One where they
sat - little wonder he thought,
Some broke down and not just women nurses.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1916. The
War Doctors - Their Life Under
Fire.
The Daily Telegraph, [online]
4
October 1916. P.7. Col.2. Available
at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12213368/Daily-Telegraph-October-5-1916.html>
[Accessed: 5 October 2016].
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 5 October 2016).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Somme
