Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0136Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of several soldiers carrying stretchers inside of a camp, in the background a structure made out of sandbags has been made underneath the ruins of a building. Above the image "W118 (Star)" is printed, below the image "18754 Bringing in Wounded on Fench Front after Battle Ablain St. Nazaire." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company Copyrighted Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
18754
BRINGING IN WOUNDED FROM FRENCH FRONT
Pathetic scenes like this, poor fellows maimed, crippled, sufferng, were multiplied hundreds of thousands of times, during this great war. France alone had two million wounded, a vast host, one in every ten maimed for life, fated to live the balance of their lives a charge to friends and relatives. A sacred charge, for these men gave their vigor and young manhood to their country. After a great battle, "blesses," as the French call the wounded, lay by thousands on the stricken field, sometimes solitary and alone, again in groups, one fallen upon the other. Stretcher bearers sought them out and bore them to the first aid stations. There, after hasty cleansing of their wounds, they lay in rows waiting transfer to the ambulances. Even while the battle raged stretcher bearers brought in wounded. Often they themselves were stricken and the wounded man suffered fresh agony as he was dropped to the ground. Even in the ambulance his sufferings were not over, for the roads were torn by shells and though driven as carfully as possible the car jolted over the rough surace, each jolt bringing fresh suffering to the wounded men.
The work of the stretcher bearers was hazardous in the extreme. It was never safe for them to go on the field without masks, for at any time they might walk into a fog of low-hanging gas. Many paid with life for their devotion to duty. Surrounded with suffering and horrors, it was a task to try the nerves of strong men. None but strong men could endure it. Something of this shows in the faces of the men who are carrying the patient before us. All that can be done for him has been done, and he is now on the way to the ambulance, a silent tortured figure.
Copyrigy by The Keystone View COmpanyCollection
Photograph Collection