CHAPTER XXIV[ToC]
WARD 43, RESERVE LAZARETTE 5, HANOVER
OCCUPANTS OF THE WARD. CHIVALRY OF THE AIR
Before the war Reserve Lazarette 5 at Hanover was a military school. It is now used for wounded military prisoners, and for German soldiers suffering from venereal disease.
The same operating-room is used for all patients; the wounded prisoners receiving treatment in the morning, and the Germans in the afternoon.
There is a fair-sized garden, not unattractive, and the wounded are permitted to take the fresh air, and to walk about freely, if they are able to do so. So are the German patients, and so are their visitors, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, from 2 till 4 in the afternoon. There is no separation of the two classes of patients, and honour must share the company of disgrace in her captivity.
Ward 43 was a billiard-room in the old days, and the small-sized billiard-table is pushed against the wall and used as a table. There were nine beds in the ward; and four British and four French officers lay side by side in captivity.
The friendship of the two great nations was reflected in the maimed and pain-ridden bodies of these soldiers lying side by side, helpless, uncomplaining, but still champions of Anglo-French unity. Their cause is the same; their pain is the same; and side by side they lay, as side by side they had fallen.
Of the French officers I got to know but little, for they could speak no English, and the English could speak no French.
On my left was an officer of the Royal Flying Corps, Lieutenant Donelly. He had been brought to earth after a fight thirteen thousand feet in the air, against five German planes. With his left arm disabled and three fingers shot off his right hand, and his engine out of action, he nose-dived to the ground. A German aeroplane nose-dived after him, all the while firing as it dropped.