Wounded: From battlefield to Blighty 1914-1918
Emily Mayhew
Bodley Head £20
(978-1-847-92261-8)
Church Times Bookshop £18 (Use code CT440
)
THROUGHOUT my teenage years, it was a combination of my
grandmother, Vera Brittain's book Testament of Youth, and
the work of war poets such as Wilfred Owen which fuelled my
interest in the First World War. Despite the words I read and the
stories I was told, however, I felt that a true understanding of
what people experienced during the First World War remained
elusive.
I can say that that, in part, is true no longer:
Wounded is a powerful and descriptive read, and through it
I found a greater understanding of what it was to be part of that
war.
Emily Mayhew has undertaken extensive research, using public and
private archives, to produce a highly readable account of the work
of the men and women who struggled among the horrors of the Western
Front. In doing so, not only has she created a comprehensive
account of the medical care at the Western Front, but she has also
recognised the courage and determination of the men and women who
saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
The striking horror of the war is caught in particular in her
writing of events such as those involving the Regimental Medical
Officers (RMOs), documenting the second assault on Aubers Ridge in
September 1915 at the battle of Loos.
Although Mayhew's objective is to talk of the part played by the
RMOs and bearers, in doing so we hear also of the British tactics
that led to 8000 casualties - a catastrophe that so repelled the
German gunners that they sent out their own medical personnel to
help carry the wounded. In describing a casualty who is being
supported by a nurse, she talks of the 800 patients arriving in
just 36 hours at the medical centre.
With a descriptive use of language, she gives us the opportunity
not just to see but to smell war, and powerful images are created
throughout the book. "He could smell the battlefield as if it were
a living thing, sweating cordite and blood, twisting and writhing
as if trying to shake him off its back."
In another instance, this time in talking of the London
Ambulance Columns, the image of stations' smelling strongly of gas
is particularly descriptive - a smell so strong as to cause all the
flowers brought in by well-wishers to welcome the wounded men back
from war to turn black and die. In other accounts, there are
stories of men who lived with dressings that became rank, as nurses
were too busy to change them.
We read of stretcher-bearers struggling through the muck;
surgeons operating in tents; and nurses working for hours, standing
up in trains, all of which paint a memorable picture of
theirplight.
The First World War redefined weapons as tools that had a
destructive primary and secondary wounding power within seconds of
impact. These in turn made medical staff tear up the rule-books and
redefine the whole concept of battlefield medicine.
Mayhew's historical research has been made more powerful by the
voices of the wounded and those involved in caring for them. As we
prepare to mark the centenary of the First World War, they are
voices that we should listen to - but be warned: they will move
you.
The Revd Dame Sarah Mullally is Canon Treasurer of Salisbury
Cathedral.