Eyewitness at the Somme: "It Was No Simple Matter to Work Amid Blood"

Senior Physician Richard Schwarz 1st Battalion, 121st Reserve Infantry Regiment (26th Reserve Division) 

Our regimental medical dugout was located in the Soden Redoubt, on an elevation between Beaumont Hamel and Serre, with an expansive view of the Ancre Valley and the ridges of Thiepval and Pozieres on the other side of the river to the south. All through the week long bombardment preceding 1 July there was conspicuously little service for the medical people to perform. During this time we had only 35 wounded of the 1st Battalion to look after. Nearly all these arrived at our dugout in the nighttime hours. Excellent construction of the field positions in our division stood the test splendidly. Likewise, in spite of numerous nighttime gas shellings, we treated only six gas cases, one of which, unfortunately, could not be saved. Greater  numbers of gas casualties were avoided due to frequent  instruction and practice in the use of the gas mask. 

The principal work of the doctors and other medical personnel began the morning of 1 July, soon after the  English infantry's great frontal attack. At 8:30 the first  lightly wounded streamed in. Not until the afternoon  and evening were the stretcher bearers able to bring in the badly wounded, some of them with horrible head, lung and abdomen injuries, in addition to smashed bones of every conceivable type. We were thrust into uninterrupted, feverish activity. It was disquietingly  overcrowded in our confined dugout, and no simple matter to work amid blood, perspiration and foul odors tainting the air. 

The lightly wounded mostly arrived with field dressings  already in place. They were adjusted by our medical  NCOs and if necessary, changed. After being given some coffee, sausage and bread, these people were sent  off in small groups with directions to the main medical station behind Miraumont. With Dr. Broemser I  attended the severely wounded on our makeshift  operating table. Broken bones were examined, blood  vessels stopped from hemorrhaging and dressings applied. Several casualties with crushed or fractured skulls died in the dugout. We could only ease their passing by administering morphine or chloroform. 

We were especially concerned about hastening transport of the head, lung and belly cases to the rear. This could not begin, however, until the night of 1-2 July. The division surgeon, Generaloberarzt Dr. Bihler, had detailed for our use 12 men and a very efficient corporal from the [division's] medical company. These brave people carried the badly wounded through  communication trenches from Soden Redoubt to  artillery positions in a hollow near Beaucourt. It was a  laborious, dangerous job. That first night one of these  stretcher bearers was killed and two were wounded. 

 

Corpsmen and Stretcher Bearers in a Quieter Period

From the medical company wagons were dispatched forward under shell fire along the Mirauumont-Beaucourt road, in order to fetch the non-walking  wounded deposited in the artillery hollow. Often there was a delay or blockage in transport, which was understandable during a day of heavy combat along the division's extended front, and we doctors must  thankfully recognize and appreciate what obstacles the  medical company people overcame in those days and nights. 

In the Soden Redoubt dugout we rendered assistance to more than 200 wounded within the battle's first 48 hours — over 140 of our own and some 70 English. From 3 July on, access to the wounded became more difficult. As a curiosity it should be reported that, on 6 July, we treated the last wounded Englishmen who, since the morning of 1 July, had been marooned without help between the lines.

Source: This Carnival of Hell, published by Blue Acorn Press in 2010.