Attending to the wounded on board…

The Second Officer had his elbow shot away and wounds in the thigh, he was brought in and laid out near where I was sitting. Presently a doctor was found, an R.A.M.C. man I had known in Kuala Lumpur. He was very breezy and cheerful, and told me to turn my back as he was going to clean out the wound and it was in an awful mess. The next moment I found myself absorbed into the business, trying to stop the patient from watching it himself, while, with his good hand, he squeezed one of mine till the bones crunched; he must have been in appalling agony. Then I found myself watching, fascinated, while the doctor and nurse delved amongst the bits of human flesh and sorted out the bones from shrapnel. At any ordinary time I should probably have been sick, but it is funny how a run of danger numbs the feelings about such things. It was a relief to have something to do, even if it was only waving away flies and fanning to make a breath of air for the sick men.

-See Malayan Climax by Carline Reid. Possibly self-published, printed at The Mercury press, Hobart Tasmania. 1942.