Commentary on 'with a Royal Marine battalion in France'. 1917.

摘要

On joining the Battalion some two years ago, to my extreme embarrassment I quickly discovered that a battalion medical officer was not only supposed to have a certain elementary knowledge of medicine and surgery, but was also suspected of being an expert sanitarian and a first class mess caterer, in addition to showing an intelligent appreciation of the tactics and strategy of modern warfare. In order to hide my colossal ignorance of certain of these very specialised subjects I had perforce, to adopt the attitude so commonly attributed to Highlanders of saying little, but appearing to think an "awful lot", until such time as I was able covertly to assimilate a little knowledge from that all-round expert: the adjutant.