Hellfire Corner

We came to a corner, which I afterwards found out to be called Hellfire Corner. Just as, before we get into this corner, a shrapnel shell burst afield about 100 yards to our right. This was the first shell any of us had ever seen. And we didn’t think too much about it because it was about a hundred yards away. And the next shell, a few seconds later, came and burst right over our heads. We were all told to get into the ditch, get off the road and into the ditch, and another shell or two came over and landed right over my platoon’s head. This only lasted for two or three minutes and my platoon was the only one that suffered any casualties. So H. M. MacKenzie, who was our company commander, ordered me to stay there and look after the men and follow on as soon as I could. And the rest of the platoon, 5, 6, and 7, the rest of the company 5, 6, and 7 platoons, went on and left me there with five wounded men - no stretcher bearer, a perfectly strange place and I had to do the best I could. One of the men had his leg broken so I tried to bandage up his leg and put splints on, tried to splint his leg, try to fix up as best I could. Another man had a shrapnel in his lung. Another had his arm pretty well smashed up. All together I had five casualties there, and of course, I didn’t know just what to do. But pretty soon a fellow came along on a motorcycle and I asked him if he knew where there was a hospital near. He said, “Well, there is a place down the road two or three miles that take casualties.” So I asked him if he would ride down there and tell them I had five casualties in my platoon. He said he would and a few minutes later an ambulance came up and picked up my casualties.