The ambulances move off, leaving the
doctors busy, sleeves rolled up to the elbow. The second stage in the
journey has been completed.
The cars are moving much more quickly now. Lights are still burning in
divisional headquarters, but the field ambulance headquarters are dark,
save for the lamp burning before the gate. An ambulance may have two or
three advanced dressing stations collecting from a divisional front.
Twin lamps on a pole, white and red, draw nearer and faintly light up
two flags, the Union Jack and the Red Cross. The Union Jack in Flanders
is only seen in conjunction with the Red Cross, or perhaps over the
dead body at a funeral; unless the Commander-in-chief comes round, when
the flag is carried behind him on a lance. The cars turn at right angles
into a gravelled yard and draw up before a large door. A corporal, who
has been sitting in a glass vestibule, puts his head inside the inner
door and shouts 'Stretcher bearers!' An orderly crosses quickly to the
office and reports to the orderly officer, 'Two cars with stretcher
cases.' The doctor crosses to the reception room and begins to examine
the first case.
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