8th Field Ambulance
Off to War
The 8th Australian Field Ambulance was formed in Australia during 1915 to support the 8th Brigade. Unlike an infantry battalion, a field ambulance was a mobile medical unit responsible for collecting, treating and evacuating wounded and sick soldiers. Its personnel included medical officers, stretcher bearers, orderlies, drivers and transport staff.
The unit was organised into three sections. C Section was established at Mitcham Camp, Adelaide, on 4 August 1915, while A and B Sections were formed at Liverpool Camp, Sydney, on 12 August. The Sydney sections trained in first aid, stretcher drill and other medical duties before moving to Queen’s Park. In October, the three sections assembled at Albert Park in Melbourne.
The unit travelled to Egypt in several groups. Eighteen men under Captain North embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A72 <i>Beltana</i> on 9 November 1915. The majority embarked from Melbourne with the 29th Battalion on the HMAT A11 <i>Ascanius</i> on 10 November. Other members travelled aboard the HMAT A13 Katuna, HMAT A2 Geelong and HMAT A25 Kabinga, the latter carrying much of the unit’s transport section.
Most of the unit reached Suez during December 1915. After a short stay at Heliopolis, it moved to Serapeum on the Suez Canal. C Section established a field hospital at Ferry Post, while other personnel undertook outpost duties and continued training in physical exercise, first aid, signalling, trench construction, route marching and stretcher drill.
On 27 February 1916, the 8th Field Ambulance moved with the 8th Brigade to Tel el Kebir and became part of the newly organised 5th Australian Division. Seventy one horses and eight ambulance wagons arrived in March, allowing the men to begin wagon drill and practise loading and unloading casualties.
From 27 to 29 March, the unit accompanied troops on a three day march of approximately 40 miles from Tel el Kebir to Ferry Post. The men marched behind the infantry, treating those overcome by the heat and carrying exhausted soldiers in the ambulance wagons. The second day proved particularly severe as the column crossed deep sand in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Hundreds of infantrymen fell out through exhaustion, heat and lack of water.
Private E. T. Herford, a stretcher bearer from Tasmania, later described the march:
“From our previous abode to our present position is a distance of 40 miles. This we marched in three days, and, believe me, tramping over the blazing, arid wastes of this desolate land is far from a pleasure jaunt, and we were mightily glad when we finally reached our destination, very weary, and minus a few pounds avoirdupois. Hundreds of men found the strenuous conditions too much for them and dropped from sheer exhaustion.”
Herford summed up everyday camp life rather more neatly:
“Our grub usually consists of sand, flies, and food.”
Source: “In Egypt: Hobart Soldier’s Experiences”, The Mercury, 17 June 1916, p. 9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1021888
At Ferry Post, the unit prepared a hospital capable of receiving 180 men who had fallen out during the march. Its sections were subsequently dispersed to Duntroon Plateau, Hogs Back and Railhead, where they operated hospitals for the battalions and continued training. In May, the unit was brought together again at Ferry Post and restored to full strength with approximately 60 reinforcements. It now included ten officers and continued intensive medical and stretcher bearer training in temperatures that sometimes reached 125 degrees Fahrenheit.
On 15 June 1916, the 8th Field Ambulance left Ferry Post and travelled to Alexandria. The men embarked for France aboard the transport <i>Tunisian</i>, leaving Egypt on 17 June and reaching Marseilles on 23 June. They then travelled north by train through France, passing Lyons, Dijon, Paris, Amiens, Abbeville, Boulogne and Calais.
On 26 June, the unit detrained at Steenbecque and marched to billets at Morbecque, where much of the 8th Brigade was assembling. It moved through Estaires and Erquinghem in early July as the brigade approached the front near Fleurbaix. For most of the men, the fighting at Fromelles would be their first experience of treating mass casualties under fire.
Source: L.W. Colley-Priest, The 8th Australian Field Ambulance on Active Service: A Brief Account of its History and Services from 4th August 1915 to the 5th March 1919 Sydney, 1919, pp. 7–19, National Library of Australia, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-37956543
Battle of Fromelles
The Battle of Fromelles was the 8th Australian Field Ambulance’s first major operation on the Western Front. In preparation for the attack, the unit established a chain of medical posts behind the 8th Brigade. Its headquarters and Main Dressing Station were located at Fort Rompu, with Advanced Dressing Stations and stretcher bearer posts at Bois Grenier, Port à Clous, Croix Marechal, Foray House, Convent Avenue, Elbow Farm and Rye Farm.
The wounded were first treated at Regimental Aid Posts operated by the infantry battalions. From there, stretcher bearers carried them to the advanced posts of the 8th Field Ambulance. Motor ambulances then transported them to the Main Dressing Station at Fort Rompu, where they were examined and treated before being evacuated to Casualty Clearing Stations farther behind the lines.
The unit’s arrangements were already being tested before the main attack. Port à Clous came under heavy German shellfire on 18 July, while orders and messages passed between the medical posts as preparations continued. At midnight on 19 July, the 8th Brigade reported that approximately 150 wounded were awaiting removal and that all its dressing stations were full.
At 1.00 AM on 20 July, the 8th Field Ambulance was ordered to send three medical officers and 60 stretcher bearers with stretchers to Rouge de Bout. At 2.00 AM, Major Williams and another 30 men carrying 40 stretchers were ordered to Croix les Cornets. Further parties were sent forward throughout the morning as reports arrived of hundreds of wounded remaining in the trenches and No Man’s Land.
Colley-Priest recalled the order that brought the unit’s remaining personnel forward:
“At 2 a.m. word came through that every available man in the Ambulance was to proceed to the line at once. It was rather a long march, about 5 miles. The sky was lit up with flares and lights of numerous colours, and the roar of the artillery and the rattle of the machine guns was terrific.”
Source: L.W. Colley-Priest, The 8th Australian Field Ambulance on Active Service: A Brief Account of its History and Services from 4th August 1915 to the 5th March 1919, Sydney, 1919, p. 20, National Library of Australia, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-37956543
When the men reached the Regimental Aid Posts, they found the approaches crowded with wounded soldiers. Hundreds were lying in the yard of a farmhouse being used as an aid post and along the nearby road. The stretcher bearers immediately began moving them to a loading post about three quarters of a mile away, where motor ambulances were waiting.
Other bearers entered the communication trenches to retrieve men who could not reach the aid posts. They worked under artillery and machine gun fire through narrow, damaged trenches filled with wounded and dead soldiers. Stretchers sometimes had to be raised above the bearers’ heads to negotiate the tight corners. Colley-Priest recalled that a single journey from the front line to the aid post could take two hours:
“On reaching the old front line trenches I looked upon a terrible sight. Good God, it was terrible! Dead Australians lying about; in fact they were piled up four and five deep. Had to pick our way over them to reach the wounded.”
Source: L.W. Colley-Priest, The 8th Australian Field Ambulance on Active Service: A Brief Account of its History and Services from 4th August 1915 to the 5th March 1919, Sydney, 1919, p. 20, National Library of Australia, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-37956543
The scale of the disaster overwhelmed the established evacuation system. Stretcher bearers, transport personnel, tent division staff, drivers, dental staff and orderly room personnel were all drawn into the work. Many of the bearers continued for approximately 36 hours, carrying wounded men through the trenches and along roads exposed to German fire.
At the aid posts, Major Lind, Captain Irving and Captain Wooster treated and dressed the wounded. Lieutenant Colonel Shepherd directed the Main Dressing Station at Fort Rompu, through which the casualties were passed before being sent to hospitals farther behind the front.
The unit war diary described the effort:
“Every available man including transport, dental, bathers, dental details and office staff were in the field and struggled on although completely exhausted, till the area was clear of wounded.”
Source: 8th Australian Field Ambulance War Diary, July 1916, AWM4 26/51/6, Australian War Memorial.
The work continued through 20 and 21 July. At 5.00 AM on 21 July, Captain Mollison called for all available cars, blankets and stretchers to be sent towards Rifle Villa as wounded soldiers were still being brought in from No Man’s Land. By 11.00 AM, the forward dressing stations were reported clear, but the Main Dressing Station remained crowded with stretcher cases. Between 5.00 PM and 6.00 PM that evening, Fort Rompu itself came under German shellfire.
Colley-Priest remembered the condition and endurance of the last men brought in:
“Some of the poor fellows were in a bad way, as they had been lying out in ‘No Man’s Land’ for thirty-six hours, without food or water; yet there was hardly a murmur out of them.”
Source: L.W. Colley-Priest, The 8th Australian Field Ambulance on Active Service: A Brief Account of its History and Services from 4th August 1915 to the 5th March 1919, Sydney, 1919, p. 20, National Library of Australia, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-37956543
The official war diary recorded that the 8th Field Ambulance treated 587 casualties between noon on 19 July and noon on 22 July. Of these, 583 were evacuated, while five men died at the dressing station. Despite operating under shellfire and making repeated journeys into the forward area, the unit suffered only one recorded casualty of its own, 13588 Private C. Beeston, who was wounded on 21 July.
Private Thomas William Howard was awarded the Military Medal for his bravery while retrieving wounded soldiers. The diary recorded that he had shown gallantry while collecting wounded from No Man’s Land under rifle and machine gun fire. Several other members of the unit were recommended or specially commended for their work during the evacuation.
Source: 8th Australian Field Ambulance War Diary, July 1916, AWM4 26/51/6, Australian War Memorial.
The men of the 8th Field Ambulance had arrived in France only weeks earlier. At Fromelles, they faced mass casualties, congested trenches, enemy fire and physical exhaustion during their first major battlefield operation. Their work continued until the forward trenches and dressing stations had been cleared and the surviving wounded had been carried to safety.