Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front, 1914-1915 | Page 6

now. The line is very much taken up with ammunition
trains.
To show that there is a good deal going on, though we've as yet had no
work, I'm only half through my 7d. book, and we left home a fortnight
and two days ago. If you do have a chance to read anything but
newspapers, you can't keep your mind on it.
We are getting quite used to a life shorn of most of its trappings, except
for the two hotel meals a day.
My mattress, on the floor along the very low large window, with two
rugs and cushions, and a holdall for a bolster, is as comfortable as any
bed, and you don't miss sheets after a day or two. There is one
bathroom for 120 or more people, but I get a cold bath every morning
early. S---- gets our early morning tea, and M. sweeps our room, and I
wash up and roll up the beds. We are still away from our boxes, and
have a change of some clothes and not others. I have to wash my vest
overnight when I want a clean one and put it on in the morning. We
have slung a clothes-line across our room. The view is absolutely
glorious.
Saturday, August 29th.--A grilling day. It is very difficult, this waiting.
No.-- had 450 wounded in yesterday, and they were whisked off on the
hospital ship in the evening. It doesn't look as if there would be
anything for us to do for weeks.
Sunday, August 30th.--Orders to-day for the whole Base at Havre to
pack itself up and embark at a moment's notice. So No.--, No.--, No.--,
and No.-- G.H., who are all here, and a Royal Flying Corps unit, the
Post Office, and the Staff, and every blessed British unit, are all
packing up for dear life. We may be going home, and we may be going
to Brittany, to Cherbourg, or to Brest, or to Berlin.
Monday, August 31st.--We all got up at 5.30 to be ready, but I daresay
we shan't move to-day. Yesterday we had two starved, exhausted,
fugitive (from Amiens) No.-- Sisters in to tea on our floor, and heard
their stories. The last seventeen of them fled with the wounded. A train

of cattle-trucks came in at Rouen with all the wounded as they were
picked up without a spot of dressing on any of their wounds, which
were septic and full of straw and dirt. The matron, M.O., and some of
them got hold of some dressings and went round doing what they could
in the time, and others fed them. Then the No.-- got their Amiens
wounded into cattle-trucks on mattresses, with Convent pillows, and
had a twenty hours' journey with them in frightful smells and dirt. Our
visitor had five badly-wounded officers, one shot through the lungs and
hip, and all full of bullets and spunk. They were magnificent, and asked
riddles and whistled, and the men were the same. They'd been
travelling already for two days. An orderly fell out of the train and was
badly injured, and died next morning.
It is very interesting to read on Monday the 'Times' Military
Correspondent's forecast of Friday. He seems to know so exactly the
different lines of defence of the Allies, and exactly where the Germans
will try and break through. But he has never found out that Havre has
been a base for over a fortnight. He speaks of Havre or Cherbourg as a
possible base to fall back upon, if fortified against long-distance
artillery firing, which we are not. And now we are abandoning Havre!
Tuesday, September 1st.--No orders yet, so we are still waiting, packed
up.
Went with one of the regulars to-day to see the big hospital ship
Asturias with 3000 beds, and also to see Sister ---- at the No.--
Maritime Hospital. They've been very busy there dressing the wounded
for the ship. Colonel ---- brought us back in his motor, and met the
Consul-General on the way, who told us K. came through to-day off a
cruiser, and was taken on to Paris in a motor. Smiles of relief from
every one. One of the Sisters had heard from her mother in Scotland
that she had five Russian officers billeted! They are said to be on their
way through from Archangel.
Troopships full of French and English troops are leaving Havre every
day, for Belgium.
Wouldn't you like to be under the table when K. and J. and F. are

poring over their maps to-night?
Wednesday, September 2nd.--We are leaving to-morrow, on a hospital
ship, possibly for Nantes K. has given orders for every one to be
cleared out of Havre by to-morrow.
We found some men invalided from the Front lying outside the station