Helena Gleichen, July 2, 1916

Helena Gleichen and Nina Hollings on the Italian Front

Helena Gleichen and Nina Hollings were English radiographers who worked on the Italian Front during World War I. The following letter excerpt, dated July 2, 1916, was later included in Gleichen's memoir, Contacts and Contrasts. 

"The fighting has come at last and there are great doings here and lots of successes; it is interesting to note that the Italians have acquired in a single night the detestation of their enemies. There had never been that feeling here until the other night, when nearly a whole division was gassed. The poor lambs had never realized what it meant, had had no gas drill, had read about it, but, I think, thought the Western Front had made a fuss about nothing/ and then it came...They had their masks in their pockets and never thought of putting them on, and the result was quite awful. The hospitals have been crammed with gassed men...

One day Nina and I were called to a dressing-station which had been established in a school near Sdraussina, not very far from the Carso, where a lot of fighting was going on. Arrived there we found the courtyard blocked with men just down from the trenches, some sitting, some lying against the walls, all more or less gassed. They were a terrible sight, some struggling for breath, some already dead...

Then we were asked to X-ray a man who had just been brought in badly gassed and evidently in the last gasp. The surgeons were very anxious to see for themselves what effect the gas was having on the lungs. On looking through the screen we found that the lungs had shriveled and looked like a piece of coke about two inches in diameter..."

From pages 185-186, Contacts and Contrasts, by Lady Helena Gleichen

The story of Helena Gleichen's work on the Italian Front is included in the young adult collective biography, Women Heroes of World War I.