A Stretcher Bearer S War

Maxwell Fox didn’t know what he would witness in France. America had only been in the Great War since April 2, 1917. Nothing could have prepared him for the horrors that awaited him and the rest of the men of the 4th Infantry “Ivy” Division. As the Meuse-Argonne Offensive raged on, Maxwell became assigned to a unit of stretcher bearers, men who were tasked with running into harm’s way to rescue their fallen brethren from the clutches of death. This wouldn’t be an easy job, but with Graham, Frank, and Ralph by his side, Maxwell had to rely on his team and hope to survive. A dark and honest look at the bond of brotherhood during war, The Stretcher Bearers tells the unforgettable tale of a young soldier trying to save the lives of wounded soldiers and keep the men he’d formed a bond with alive. But in the “war to end all wars,” no one was safe.

Biography and war diaries of Ralph Goode, stretcher bearer with 2nd Field Ambulance during WW1 and devoted citizen of Lilydale, Victoria

DIARIES OF A STRETCHER-BEARER is the story of a family that came to Australia before WWI and found itself immersed in the war with four family members taking part. It is a day-to-day account of the heroism of the stretcher-bearers during WWI. These men walked out into no man's land, picked up the wounded and dying and struggled back to their own trenches through the glutinous Somme mud under fire from German snipers. Intertwined in the book is the story of another brother evacuated from Gallipoli with typhoid fever. It tells of his whirlwind romance with the English Nurse who nursed him back to health, and the tragic end of their romance in a Royal Flying Corps training crash. Throughout the book the author maintains his steadfast spirit in finding the lighter side of war. Contrasting the horror of war are stories of army idiocy and the camaraderie of true mateship. DIARIES OF A STRETCHER-BEARER is a book that reveals both the best and worst of human nature.

This book provides a generously illustrated, engaging and moving account of the history of the stretcher-bearer.

"[O]ffers a new look from the perspective of wounded soldiers and those who strove to save them; utilizes first-hand accounts of medical personnel and wounded men to produce an immediate, intimate narrative; deeply researched and based on unpublished diaries, letters and other accounts from the war, many housed in the Imperial War Museum"--

Among the thousands of men who shivered and suffered in the trenches during the First World War, some did not even have the protection of a weapon. Members of the Royal Army Medical Corps (the RAMC) were there not to take lives, but to save them. Many chose this difficult and dangerous work because of their principles - including volunteer Charles Horton, who went through the horrors of Passchendaele, Ypres and the Somme, fighting to get the injured away from the guns, to the safety of the field hospitals and beyond. After the war, Horton felt that the RAMC and their sacrifices were forgotten, and so in 1970 he wrote down his memories. In this glorious book, full of first hand detail, he takes us back to the trenches in France and the mountains of Italy. This is a wonderful authentic account into one man's struggle to survive - and to keep others alive. With the approval of Horton's family, author Dale le Vack has edited Horton's journals for clarity, and added more text to provide background. The result is a superb memoir of one of the darkest periods in history.

Stretcher-bearers is a compelling account of the experience of Australian stretcher-bearers during the First and Second World Wars. Respected military historian, Mark Johnston traces the development of formal stretcher-bearing from its origin in the early nineteenth century under Napoleon to the Second World War. Johnston draws on accounts by stretcher-bearers who worked on the front line, as well as tributes from rescued soldiers, to deepen our understanding of the crucial role these soldiers played in Gallipoli, Palestine, the Western Front in World War I, and in the Middle East and the Pacific in World War II. The narrative is further driven by rich imagery, featuring over 130 full-page photographs. This book provides a generously illustrated, engaging and moving account of the history of the stretcher-bearer, a figure praised by countless Diggers but never previously the subject of a book.