She was plunged immediately into almost chaotic conditions.
The Colonel in charge of L'Hopital de Passage, Unit 5's base clearing hospital, was desperately trying to find beds for the wounded now pouring in. 500 were needed straight away. Fortunately the Colonel had already made various contacts, and it wasn't long before the beds were available.
Once that had been organized, Grace's team went into action, transferring 250 to the Cavalry School at Guines, about 20 miles away. That done, 250 more were collected from L'Hopital de Passage, and put on a train for Rouen. Bearing in mind that most ambulances only carried four stretcher cases – some only two – transfers took a long time, and stretcher cases had to be handled with particular care. 'Sitters' as the girls referred to the walking wounded, could be fitted in, around eight in the back, and two more squeezed in beside the driver!
That day, Grace's first back at work, the girls had lunch standing up, at 3 o/c in the afternoon. Then every available vehicle was out again until after 9 o/c. The FANYs had dinner, a brief rest, until the first trainload of wounded – 550 of them – steamed in at midnight, to be cleared by 2.30 in the morning.
Forty-five minutes later another arrived, 130 stretchers cases, and 180 'sitters'. Cleared by 6.45, all drivers dropped onto beds, fully dressed, until 8 o/c., then they were back behind the wheel – patient transfers, moving doctors and nurses, delivering equipment and stores. Moses spent all morning transporting coffins from one hospital to another!
During that afternoon further clearances had to be made to outlying hospitals and centres, Then more trainloads of wounded came in; and just as they finished the last one they were told another was on the way. The girls lay down on their beds, fully dressed. Thankfully the train was late arriving and they were able to sleep until early morning.
That crisis over, Grace joined General Viban in a renewed search for empty beds in the area. The situation was getting desperate, more trainloads on the way.
From the British Assistant Director of Medical Services (ADMS) they obtained an abandoned WAAC camp. The French Governor General Ditte provided a disused aeroplane hangar. Then Grace remembered the YMCA. They were very helpful, produced a huge marquee, large enough to take around 300 beds. A FANY car was sent immediately to collect it, "and we had it up by 2 p.m.!" The YMCA were also able to offer a house with 150 beds.
The FANY vehicles swept into action. Beds and equipment had to be organised and transported. 150 stretcher cases were collected from Gravelines, a further 60 from Soupriantes. The first train of the night arrived around 7 p.m. with 400 patients, and the YMCA 'auxiliary' hospital was ready by 8 o/c. 'A damn close-run thing' as Wellington would have said.
The need for bed space was increasingly urgent. A French Mortar Camp was taken over. Another train in at 2.45 in the morning, 430 casualties. Things began to grind to a halt. Eight local hospitals were full to capacity. Wounded lay suffering patiently, while Grace and the Senior Medical officers struggled to clear the log jam.
They managed to get space from Belgian Aviation at Beaumarais, some miles away. As soon as this was confirmed, Grace's girls swung into action again, transferring 200 cases from local hospitals at Soupirante and Gravelines out to Beaumarais. They were then free to move 100 waiting new arrivals to the now empty beds at these hospitals.
They finished this task at 7 o/c, just in time for the French hospital's early morning evacuation. There was a frantic rush to move the 150 stretcher cases to the further-out hospitals, using four cars promised previously.
Yet again, a hurried, standing-up breakfast, then off to the hospitals at Soupirante and Gravelines to fetch 200 stretcher cases back to L'Hopital de Passage for the next train out going south.
A quick lunch, then rounding up another 270 men for Vival and Gravelines to fill the outgoing train. Mid-afternoon saw the minor hospitals being emptied, and by 5 o/c they were left with 240 casualties to be reorganised, with temporary beds to be found for the less badly wounded.
In spite of short-term evacuation of the smaller makeshift hospitals, they still had to be staffed, even minimally, by doctors and nurses, all in short supply. Doing this left the major L'Hopital de Passage with just the senior Colonel in charge and one doctor.
The strain was beginning to tell. Grace scribbled in her Diary "Life is turning into a nightmare of endless trains."
Though there was a brief respite in the trainloads of wounded, the vehicles were constantly in use transporting all manner of stores and equipment needed to replace the inevitable shortages caused by the huge, unexpected demand. The never-ending stream of shattered bodies and minds continued to flood in from the battle areas.
Grace's diary records, for Sunday 29th, with a touch of tongue-in-cheek – " Now, 5.30 p.m. there is a temporary lull. 'All is quiet of the FANY Front!'"
Not for long!
Forty officers for immediate transfer to Paris.
She goes on: "Monday 30th. Train arrived 64 stretcher cases 95 sitters".
An evacuation train ready to go just as another one, loaded with wounded, arrives.
"All cars hard at work until 11 p.m."
At 11.30 Grace sent all the girls to lie down. She and O'Neill tried to get the 'books' straight, weary though they were. In three days of frenetic activity they had drawn 4,900 litres of petrol. Only 90 litres were unaccounted for. Not bad, considering the conditions and extreme pressures they had all been under.
And so it went on, the dreadful cost of winning a war mounting day by day.
At 12.30 another trainload of casualties arrived. Cleared by 2.30, yet another pulled in at 2.45. Unloaded and sorted by 5.30 a.m. still another of this endless stream of trains full of suffering men arrived.
The offloading went on until 8.30, and Henri, the FANY's cook came to them, full of sympathy and admiration, loaded with prodigious quantities of sandwiches, neatly wrapped and packaged for the girls.
"I pushed them into the girls' pockets" wrote Grace "as they drove up, loaded and set off again."
300 men to be fetched from Soupirante, Gravelines and Vival, and sent south. "Always, beds must be emptied to be ready for new arrivals."
Grace was now becoming more worried still about her girls, the long, backbreaking hours they were working. She had already sought help from PARC, the central transport depot of drivers' pool, repairs etc. but had been turned down. Long hours were nothing new to the FANY, but Grace could see no let up in the immediate future.
"The girls were wonderful" she wrote "but were feeling the strain; they had been driving three days and two nights with about three hours sleep."
She went to General d'Orgo and explained that the Corps of Transport (CTC) must lend them at least half a dozen drivers, so that the girls could catch up with 8 hours sleep.
The General's response was swift and practical. That night six CTC drivers reported to Grace for duty.
Grace had also criticised the largest of the Calais hospitals for refusing to modify their waiting facilities and thus wasting valuable time, with patients suffering as a result. She put forward her own solution to the problem, based on bitter recent experience. That too, was swiftly taken care of, with no apparent hostility on the part of the hospital concerned. Its Quartermaster paid them a visit, armed with packets of chocolates for everyone, and arranged for a large jug of drinking chocolate to be delivered every day.
However, it wasn't all sweetness and light. With extra drivers on hand, Grace organised her girls into two shifts. One was given time off for a good long sleep, after which they would take over and allow the second lot a good rest. Human nature and pride being what they are, there was an immediate outcry. The first shift were absolutely livid at being picked to go first, and angry at CTC men driving THEIR cars while THEY slept.
The only way that Grace finally got the matter settled was to pull rank and order them to bed.
The General rounded things off nicely, by arranging for three teams of three mechanics, from PARC, to each give one of the vehicles a full service every night, a job the FANY had been trying to do themselves whenever they could snatch a few minutes. This was far more satisfactory from all points of view. The concentrated mileage of day and night use had put tremendous strain on the vehicles, of which many were five or six years old.
The condensed entries from Grace's diaries and writing paint the truest picture of the huge pressures, night after night, day after day.
"Always Geumps and Guines, and the new hospitals, always trains. Always evacuations. A French & a Belgian train arriving one before the other was over, and we finished both at midnight. Evacuation 12.30 ended 3.30 – train at 4.15 finished 7.20: 200 stretchers, 340 sitters. Ten cars for Geumps. Evacuation from smaller hospitals. 10.30 p.m. train of 260 cases. A train 9.30 p.m, and 12.30 a.m. Geumps for 11 cars between 3.30 a.m. & 7.30 a.m. Other 3 cars for Geumps after breakfast. Evacuation 200 men between lunch and 3.30. French evacuation at noon. Then four cars for Geumps, one for Guines, eight for nearer places, also cars for Beaumarais & Sagatte, then a train at 7.15 p.m. with 300."
These terse, graphic entries by Grace drive home the enormous, ever-present demands laid on the shoulders of these young girls, pushing them to the limit.
This was a brief synopsis of what Grace describes as " the story of ten days that stand out in my memory."
She mentions others. Farrar, who fell asleep at the wheel of an ambulance, with four stretcher cases inside. "Fortunately she was on the side of the road away from the canal!" McDowall, seriously ill, and rushed to a VAD hospital. O'Brien and Calder, struck down by the flu, or Flanders Grippe as it was called locally. "One of them in the danger ward. That added to my worries, I had little time to go and get news of them."
It was a bad time for them all – wounded, Medical Staff, FANYs, everybody involved. Nothing had prepared them for those scenes of trauma and strain.
If that were possible, there was even worse to come.