30th April 1916 Sunday
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“Our main Dressing Station was now at La Gorgue. I was on duty at Laventie Dressing Station until April 30th and had quite a busy time whilst there. We had a number of wounded to attend to always and lots of odd detachments of troops (divisional and army) whose health we had to look to also. Ours was a most hospitable mess too and not a day passed but that we had numerous callers of all ranks.
Our other ADS was situated at La Flinque, where Captain Ffoulkes was in charge. It took a good half hour’s walking to reach it across country from our station at Laventie.”
“About 11 o’clock one night we got our orders to ‘stand to’ with gas helmets ready. Great excitement! We got all the men out into the back yard and all the horses harnessed into the limbers ready to move off at any moment.”
“There was a great artillery duel going on. The noise was fiendish. Dispatch riders tore up and down the road on motorbikes and on horseback. Ammunition wagons and Battalion transport limbers clattered past at the gallop. It was all very thrilling, but nothing more happened and we all got to bed about midnight.”
“From 4am the next morning we were kept very busy for a full eight hours attending to wounded as a result of the midnight ‘straffe’.”
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