July 2nd
The Situation - At the beginning of July 1917, Elsie Inglis and her Scottish Women's Hospital Unit had been in the small Romanian town of Reni (now in Ukraine) since January that year. It had become strategically important because of its proximity to The Danube and the fact that it was on the main railway line to Odessa. The town, however, had been in danger of been taken by enemy troops since the moment they arrived.
The Unit were supposed to be supporting Serbian troops, but with many of the divisions deemed unfit for battle, ended up in fact looking after the Russians more. As spring turned to summer, the Russian army was falling apart - the first revolution being a part of this. Soldiers were heeding the call to think more about the situation at home, not necessarily in terms of fighting, but also supporting their homesteads and families. Self-inflicted wounds to the hand were not uncommon. If the Serbs fought alongside the Russians, the feeling was that none would survive.
As the situation became more and more chaotic, the idea of evacuating the 13,000 Serbian troops north, through Russia, over to England and back to Serbia the long way, became a realistic option, and Elsie Inglis was the person to lead this initiative. By the time July came around however, she still had months ahead of her of secret negotiation, intervention and bloody-minded persuasion, involving the governments of Britain, Serbia and (an extremely unstable!) Russia.
The fact that the Unit could have been returning before Peggie Simms and her three colleagues got there however, didn't halt their journey down to the little town of Reni not far from the north-western side of The Black Sea.
The Unit were supposed to be supporting Serbian troops, but with many of the divisions deemed unfit for battle, ended up in fact looking after the Russians more. As spring turned to summer, the Russian army was falling apart - the first revolution being a part of this. Soldiers were heeding the call to think more about the situation at home, not necessarily in terms of fighting, but also supporting their homesteads and families. Self-inflicted wounds to the hand were not uncommon. If the Serbs fought alongside the Russians, the feeling was that none would survive.
As the situation became more and more chaotic, the idea of evacuating the 13,000 Serbian troops north, through Russia, over to England and back to Serbia the long way, became a realistic option, and Elsie Inglis was the person to lead this initiative. By the time July came around however, she still had months ahead of her of secret negotiation, intervention and bloody-minded persuasion, involving the governments of Britain, Serbia and (an extremely unstable!) Russia.
The fact that the Unit could have been returning before Peggie Simms and her three colleagues got there however, didn't halt their journey down to the little town of Reni not far from the north-western side of The Black Sea.
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