The Medical Corps
Though the Reports Are All Too Few Every Doctor Was a Hero
“If there be degrees of chivalry the highest award should be accorded to the medical profession,” was said in the London Times in 1916. People didn’t know whether that was meant quite seriously. Soon they found out. Medical men were figuring heavily in the casualty lists, and more and more stories were coming over of exceptional courage and devotion to duty among the doctors, nurses, and ambulance drivers. Usually, also, no one but the wounded on the fields of battle knew how to appreciate the deeds of the non-combatants. There was in general no thrill attached to the records. They were simply records of steady self-sacrifice in the face of the greatest danger.
The Times instanced a number of heroic doctors. Captain Chavasse was one of them. Utterly regardless of heavy firing he would time and again rush across the open to dress the wounded. He kept this up all through the engagement and then he himself was wounded in the side by a shell splinter. This injury he sustained while carrying an urgent case into safety, the journey being over 500 yards of shell-swept ground. Afterwards at night he took up a party of twenty volunteers, rescued three wounded men from a shell hole only twenty-five yards from the enemy trench, buried the bodies of two officers, and collected many identity discs—and these things he did although he was fired on by machine guns and bombs.
The Captain finally met his death while at such work. The official record gives only brief details: “Though severely wounded early in action, while carrying a wounded soldier to the dressing station, Chavasse refused to leave his post, and for two days he not only continued to perform his duties but also went out repeatedly under heavy fire to search for and attend the wounded who were lying out. During these searches Chavasse was practically without food, he was worn with fatigue and faint with his wound, yet he helped to carry in a number of badly wounded men, over heavy and difficult ground. It was due to his extraordinary energy and inspiring example that many wounded were rescued who would otherwise undoubtedly have succumbed to the bad weather conditions.”
“There had been many displays,” adds the London Times, “of almost superhuman courage and endurance in the war, displays which had been recognized by the bestowal of the greatest of all naval and military distinctions; but standing out prominently even amongst these proofs of highest bravery and duty was the heroism of Chavasse.”
It seemed almost as if such action became a tradition with the profession, for another hero was soon announced—Lieutenant George Allan Maling. During the heavy fighting near Fauquissart, Maling worked hard and incessantly under the unceasing shell fire. “He began his task at 6:15 in the morning, collecting and treating more than 300 men in the open and exposed to merciless fire. Throughout the whole of that day, during the evening, all through the night, without a break till eight o’clock next morning—twenty-six unbroken hours—he worked, reckless of shell and bullet. It seemed impossible that human strength could endure more. Eleven o’clock came, then a large high explosive shell burst and did dreadful havoc. It killed several of his patients, it wounded his only assistant, and it flung Maling down and temporarily stunned him. Yet no sooner did he regain consciousness than he pulled himself together and resumed his work. A second shell exploded, covering both Maling and his instruments with débris; yet even so, he had not finished—he extricated himself and continued his work single-handed.”