Stretcher and medical ww1

[paul searing]

Hello fellow forum members

please tell me

I have read many WW1 books and stories but the one thing that stands out is each side would respect stretcher bearers and Medical officers who would during after and a battle attend to wouded and dieing people, many of the stories tell of how is some case the wounded being collected without the stretcher bearers being shot at.

is this true fact or fiction ?

thankyou

Paul

[Coldstreamer]

if you look at all the medical gallantry winners seems they did come under considerable fire and didnt get much quarter from the other side

[truthergw]

It varied. Sometimes wounded and their carers were spared, sometimes they were targetted. At Hill 70, 2nd day of Loos, the Germans allowed British wounded to escape after mowing them down. There are many stories of men being shot attempting to go to the aid of a wounded comrade. Stretcher bearers were not immune to crossfire even if it was not aimed at them. Needless to say they were under the same threat from artillery fire as everyone else.

[arneken]

just read this:

as the stretchers went on to the battlefield the noise stopped. Nobody shot and a sudden silence appeared. The strechters did several rounds to pick up the wounded. When they for the last time disapeared the firing restarted. Never saw brAver men in my life then those two.

by Harry Siepmann

[truthergw]

Interesting quote, Arneken. Could you give the source?

[59165]

I can only reply with a family story.

My great uncle & a mate went out twice to pull in soldiers wounded & stuck in NML.

Under fire for over an hour,they retrieved the 2 wounded & got them back to their own trenches.

The men had been crying out/lying there for a couple of days so,I cant see that there are too many instances of cease fires for stretcher squads of either side.

This was december '14,when there was still supposed to remain a bit of 'chivalry' between the 2 sides.

[arneken]

Interesting quote, Arneken. Could you give the source?

It's from a book. by harry siepmann called 'recollections of an artillery officier. '

[truthergw]

Thank you.

[SiegeGunner]

"There were no parachutes in those days. If a pilot jumped out, he slammed deep into the Flanders mud, and if a plane came down anywhere near our lines it was one of my duties to go out and get the pilot back, dead or alive. The Germans were perfectly agreeable about this, as long as we did not touch the machine. There was a funny little black-and-white dog that used to carry notes if we wanted to cross no man's land for any special duty. We were used to going out to retrieve the bodies of soldiers in order to establish their identity and collect what personal effects they might have on them. It was always a difficult and unpleasant job, and it was even more so with the pilots".

Nurse Elsie Knocker, aka Baroness de T'Serclaes, 'Flanders and Other Fields'

[centurion]

It in part seems to have depended on which units were in the trenches facing each other. There are accounts of tacit (and entirely unofficial) truces being observed to allow movement in no mans land especially where the units on both sides were already observing a 'live and let live' arrangement of not looking for trouble (which did not mean that you wouldn't normally get shot at if you were moving around in no mans land). It would seem however that where on one side or the other there was a particularly active and aggressive unit in place the general degree of animosity was raised and anyone anywhere whould be shot at. Parts of the front where Guards units or almost any Irish regiment were stationed were regarded as particularly active and stretcher bearers, wounded etc would be regarded as legit targets by both sides.

[eltoro1960]

My Grandfather was in the RAMC and he told my old man they were always fired at, therefore they did a lot of looking for the wounded at night when sadly there was less chance of finding anybody. He expected to be fired at, because every wounded man they got back with was another man to come and fight (potentially), he and his mates opted against a red cross flag in No Mans Land because he reckoned it made them a clearer target, others might have had diferent experiences, but he reckoned it was virtual suicide to walk out in daytime, obviously if in support of an attack they would though, and like Coldstreamer states, won several gallantry medals in the process.

[BJanman]

he and his mates opted against a red cross flag in No Mans Land because he reckoned it made them a clearer target,

Hi John

I've read accounts of this, and I've read that the Generva Red Cross arm bands were good targets to aim at so they would take them off. However, I've also come across stories where both sides have agreed unofficial truces so that the wounded can be cleared from no mans land. I agree with Centurion that it 'seems to have depended on which units were in the trenches facing each other.'

Dad told me once that he had read an account where the Germans were unable to get their wounded away so the British gave them an ambulance, the next day the Germans returned it. I can't remember the full details but it's one I'm looking out for as I study.

Crazy!!

Barbara

[findabetterole]

Hello Chums....

I think this is a good time to mention that two of the three 'Double VC' winners were RAMC members.

Seph

[Michael Johnson]

I remember a Second War vet saying that they lost a lot of stretcher bearers until they realized that the Germans didn't know the significance of their "SB" brassards, and replaced them with red crosses.

[Muskoka]

I've read so much lately I can't recall where it all came from. But I've come across mention of medical aid being "allowed" for a short while in NML, but that the victims had to wait until nightfall to actually be evacuated. Rather odd to think that the Germans wouldn't fire on those who were bandaging and helping the wounded, but that they wouldn't actually extend that to them being carried off the battlefield.