Roses of No Man's Land - Daily Life - World War I Centennial

Roses of No Man's Land - Daily Life on the Front

"Last night they operated on sixty five, so you see we are busy. I have charge of several tents and it keeps me busy. There isn't much we can do for the boys here except keep their dressings clean, keep them warm, and give them hypodermics."
-Helen Bulovsky
August 7, 1918

After a short time at Camp Merritt, New Jersey, the main training base for medical personnel in the United States, the nurses traveled to New York harbor, where they boarded ships for France. Bulovsky arrived in France on June 22, 1918. She transferred from Base Hospital 22 to Evacuation Hospital 5 a month later. This move put her as close to the front as a nurse could get.

Nurses had many daily tasks. The wards had to be cleaned, dressings changed, soldiers given medicine, and instruments sterilized, just to name the more obvious tasks. Personal hygiene was also important in such an environment. Lice and fleas could spread diseases like yellow fever, and were a constant threat.

Standard Army organization provided for 2 evacuation hospitals per division. Each hospital was to have 432 beds. However, this organizational structure was short lived. Drawing on lessons of the French and British armies, the new organization required a minimum of 1,000 beds per evacuation. The Army never met this standard. Of 42 divisions (29 in combat), there were only 37 Evacuation Hospitals (22 in combat), well under the authorized strength.2 This meant that Evacuation Hospitals were under tremendous strain, often operating at or above their listed capacity. Bulovsky’s Evacuation Hospital No. 5 handled 15,195 patients between September 15, 1918 and the end of the war on November 11, 1918.

OKeefe military term list A list of military terms written by Aimee O'Keefe.
An important part of transitioning from civilian
to military life is learning the language.

At the Base Hospitals, conditions were not any better. There was one Base Hospital per division, which was adequate according to organizational charts. These Base Hospitals were mostly Red Cross units, in other words city hospitals which were activated during the war. For example, Base Hospital 22 was comprised of staff from Knowlton Hospital in Milwaukee, and Aimee O’Keefe’s unit, Base Hospital 50, was organized in Seattle, through the University of Washington. Out of 42 total Base Hospitals, 36 were formed in this way. Base Hospital 22 handled over 17,000 patients between July 25, 1918 and January 25, 1919.

The fall and winter in France and Belgium were rainy rainy, and mud was a constant problem. In Boluvsky’s case, the nurses were housed in tents which lacked floorboards. In Base Hospitals the conditions were better. All buildings and tents had floors, usually of wood, however, the walk from one’s quarters to the mess or the wards was a burdensome trudge. nurses outside of hospital Food, a constant complaint of soldiers, was a complaint of the nurses as well. The most prevalent item was “bully beef”, corned beef tinned for preservation. Beans, due to their low price and high protein content, were another staple. O’Keefe related that though they had white bread, they almost never had potatoes, and sweets were a rarity. Sometimes, nurses could scrape some resources together and throw a “fudge party” and make a batch of the sweet treat.

"We are short of food here. The last I weighted 94 lbs. but it will be 84 before long. One of the girls at our base died."
- Helen Bulovsky,
November 9, 1918