Annie's Report

Five Months with the Independent Air Force 42 Stationary Hospital, Charmes

I with 9 Sisters and Staff Nurses arrived at Nancy in the early morning of Nov. 1st 1918 for duty at 42 Stationary Hp. We had a thirty-mile drive to the hospital at Charmes through most beautiful scenery by the Moselle River.

The Hospital consisted of 16 large Nissen huts with kitchen annexes and Sisters’ Bunk between each two. The Officers Wards, Surgical and Medical, were in a separate compound and completely self-contained with Dining room, sitting room and kitchen etc. attached. The whole was lighted with electricity and well supplied everywhere with water. There was a Red Cross hut for the Men’s Recreation room with an excellent stage at one end. The main idea in the treatment was to give them plenty of amusement to counteract all the keen nerve strain they had had to go through. Our quarters were on the same ground and just beyond the hospital. They were Aylwin huts divided through the middle with a door at each end and accommodated 4. As it was a very cold place a stove was put in each half and was much appreciated, especially as we were kept well supplied with logs by the Chinese Labour Corps.

The Mess hut was a long one with the smaller end completely divided off for the Sitting-Room and the whole lined with canvas. The kitchen at the end of the former was corrugated iron fitted up with a very good range, sink and larder.

My own qtrs were sitting and bedroom jointly I one hut only divided off with a partition like the Sisters’ huts and also lined with canvas and with beams etc. stained d. brown.

The Aerodromes were mostly 1 to 2 miles away with the exception of one much larger than the rest which was at Courban over 100 miles off. There was a small hospital especially for this of 30 beds and staffed with a Sister and 2 S. Nurses besides the usual personnel of S. Sgt etc. and 4 Nursing Orderlies. They were kept fairly busy on account of it being nearer the front line than the Main Hospital. The Staff for this besides myself were the Assist. Matron and 27 sisters and S. Nurses.

The Surgical Division on the R. end of the hospital with Op. Theatre & X Ray Rooms attached was always quite busy owing to the many crashes and accidents always happening. So often with regard to the former they were quite hopelessly smashed up unfortunately and died soon after admission. We had a pretty little cemetery amongst the fir trees and always well looked after by the Air Force.

There was great excitement just before the Armistice was signed with the French Cavalry going by to be ready to attack Metz and the large bombing planes with their heavy bombs in place for their raid on Berlin.

However as soon as the Armistice was signed the independent Air Force work was finished and they soon started to disband. Within a few days the returned prisoners started to arrive and we were very soon busy looking after them. It was pitiful to see some of them, they were so starved and tired they could hardly crawl. Quite a number were suffering from Phthisis and many had over eaten through sheer hunger and had enteritis. The surgical cases showed in several instances absolute lack of attention, fractures badly set and wounds in joints quite neglected and the joints ankylosed.

The Ambulance Convoy did excellent work in scouring the country for any stray prisoners who might be unable to get on further and also calling at the French hospitals. They brought in a great many this way. Unfortunately there were several deaths especially amongst those who had been prisoners for 4 years which seemed so very sad just as there was home practically at hand. The delight of the men to reach a British hospital and see the Sisters was truly pathetic and brought home much more than anything what war had meant for over 4 years. By March all camps such as Giessingen, Limburg, Düsseldorf & the various French hospitals were cleared and the hospital was no longer needed at Charmes. Ambulance Trains had been arriving every week to take the prisoners down to the Base and so, gradually, the huts were being taken down & packed up and the Staff transferred to other places.

Just 7 of us who were left started the small Detention Hp. Of 25 beds for the Labour Corps and who remained to clear up after all the Aerodromes were down and sent off to dumps. Then we left at the end of March with many regrets as the work amongst the prisoners was most interesting and altogether 2,279 had passed through the hospital.

We had managed to see quite a good deal of the country round too visiting Méricourt, where the lace of that name is made, Strasbourg, Colmar, Thann etc. the last three having been so long in the German’s hands. The Vosges Mts. Too were very beautiful, especially in the snow and were a great shelter to the hospital at their base.

A.L. Plimsaul
A/Matron
42 Stationary Hospital
November 1918 – March 1919

Note: The Royal Air Force (RAF) was formed on April 1st, 1918 as the third service of the armed forces. A new unit was created within the RAF, to undertake strategic bombing campaigns against targets in Germany. On its formation in June 1918, this unit became the Independent Air Force (IAF).