Francis Brett Young
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII At this point, to my great unhappiness, I handed over my charge of the regiment. The officer who had been with them since they left Rhodesia overtook us, bringing with him orders for me to return to Nairobi. But now we were not only many hundred miles from Nairobi, but many days' journey from railhead, and it seemed too great a pity that I should not see any of the fruits of our labours; so, like a bad soldier, I evaded my orders, asking that I might be retained with the brigade. The same evening awaiting confirmation of my request, I was attached to the Combined Field Ambulance, and given charge of the Indian section, which was called B 120. The change from regimental life was very abrupt. Henceforward I had to do with a number of African stretcher-bearers, Indian ward-orderlies and babu sub-assistant surgeons, Cape-boy muleteers, and a Boer conductor of transport. Nor could anything have been more different from the European conception of a Field Ambulance either in its constitution or its duties, for in time of action it might represent anything from a regimental aid-post to a casualty clearing station, or even take on the functions of a stationary hospital. The African stretcher-bearers, fifty of them, were untrained, and ready to disappear into the bush on the approach of danger. Only one European medical officer was allotted to each section; the only technical assistance on which he could count was that of two half-educated babus. But I was glad, at any rate, that I should still keep company with the brigade, and help to receive the sick and wounded of the regiment. On the morning of the twenty-ninth we set out at daybreak from the camp between Old Lassiti and the river. In the dark we had quite missed the loveliness of that place, but n...
Marching on Tanga; (With General Smuts in East Africa)