Tending to the Wounded

The image usually associated with 25 April, 1915 is that of Anzac soldiers charging bravely up the steep and barren slopes above Anzac Cove. Less appreciated is the picture of nurses on that same day attending to hundreds of battered and bleeding men on the decks and in the confined wards of hospital ships anchored off the beach.

Wounded men were constantly being ferried in small craft out to hospital ships and among the nurses, doctors and orderlies was a young Australian nurse, Sister Ella Tucker working on the hospital ship 'Gascon', who wrote:

"The wounded from the landing commenced coming on board at 9am and poured into the ship's wards from barges and boats. The majority still had on their field dressings and a number of these were soaked through. Two orderlies cut off the patient's clothes and I started immediately with dressings. There were 76 patients in my ward and I did not finish until 2am".

By the evening of the 25th, 557 wounded had been taken on board the Gascon.

 

   Hospital ships were anchored offshore and the wounded transferred from the beach in small craft

    Steve Chambers, our military historian, dispensing his huge resovoir of Anzac knowledge

    Graves of the many who did not make it to a hospital ship