So I felt that I would be useful if I
could get over.
"It was November and very cold. When I got to Calais there was not a
room to be had anywhere. But at the Hotel Centrale they told me I
might have a bathroom to sleep in.
"At the last moment a gentleman volunteered to exchange with me. But
the next day he left, so that night I slept in a bathtub with a
mattress in it!
"The following day I got a train for Dunkirk. On the way the train was
wrecked. Several coaches left the track, and there was nothing to do
but to wait until they were put back on.
"I went to the British Consul at Dunkirk and asked him where I could
be most useful. He said to go to the railroad station at once.
"I went to the station. The situation there was horrible. Three
doctors and seven dressers were working on four-hour shifts.
"As the wounded came in only at night, that was when we were needed. I
worked all night from that time on. My first night we had eleven
hundred men. Some of them were dead when they were lifted out onto the
stone floor of the station shed. One boy flung himself out of the
door. I caught him as he fell and he died in my arms. He had
diphtheria, as well as being wounded.
"The station was frightfully cold, and the men had to be laid on the
stone floors with just room for moving about between them.
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