Fiery Streams of Lava, Frozen into Memory. Many Farewells to War

The bells tolling on 9 May 1945 were heralding peace. The question remained: what kind of peace and for whom? Thousands of us marched on a trail for many kilometers, from Mährish-Ostrau eastward, like a silent accordion, sometimes extended, sometimes compressed, chased, not knowing where we were going. The voices of the bells echoed over our column and raised hopes from whose nonfulfillment countless people would perish, not being able to bear the disappointments of the new forthcoming peace. However, it was all unknown to us, we did not even know where we were going. Yet we knew where we were coming from, from the cauldron that had continuously tightened over four weeks, and from which we had definitely failed to escape on 1 May. With a wounded soldier on my back, I laid down my gun. At that point, we didn’t know yet that the Americans would hand all the prisoners that had reached the redemptive West from Bohemia and Moravia back to the Russians. So this fight had been futile and every death in vain. The dead were still lying around in countless numbers.

From front to home and back again: geographical networks of auxiliary medical care in the First World War

Throughout the First World War, a set of complex geographical networks were developed across the British Empire, which led the wounded soldier from the Front back through a series of therapeutic nodal points, to rehabilitation and treatment in a range of established and auxiliary hospitals. This chapter outlines two aspects of these relational geographies. Firstly, it maps the physical networks to show the ways in which a nodal structure of relational spaces of treatment, often ephemeral and temporary, was developed and constructed from the Front to across the British Isles. Typically, such sites were drawn from pre-war hydros, hotels, schools and private homes. Secondly, a number of examples of Auxiliary Hospital spaces at sites such as Blarney, Bray, Dublin and Glengariff are described. In addition, Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute in Scotland was managed by an Irishwoman and provides an especially well-documented example of how the Auxiliary Hospital functioned both as an ephemeral space of care but also as part of a wider set of therapeutic pathways from the Front to home and back again. Finally, the levels of civilian medical knowledge were enhanced and enlarged in such settings.