EVACUATION OF SICK AND WOUNDED. 17 



ambulance was added as part of the transport and many animals 

 were salved thereby. The English horse ambulance of pre-war 

 days is much too heavy, cumbersome, and with too little road 

 , clearance for field work, but a light two-wheeled cattle float as 

 used in France, which can be drawn by one horse, proved very 

 excellent. TJiere yet remains to be devised a suitable horse 

 drawn ambulance as a standard army pattern. 



In its function, a Mobile Veterinary Section is not only the 

 centre to which all animals from units of a Division or Cavalry 

 Brigade are sent for evacuation, but at times of stationary 

 warfare, or during periods of inactivity of the formation to 

 which it belongs, it can undertake a certain amount of treat- 

 ment of the less serious class of cases. 



Advanced Collecting Posts. 



During offensive operations it was common to throw out 

 Advanced Collecting Posts to act as dressing stations and to 

 receive battle casualties just in rear of fighting line. These 

 posts consisted of a N.C.O. and three or four men of Mobile 

 Vety. Sections, but they did not meet with sufficient success to 

 warrant their adoption as a regular routine measure, for the 

 reason that Mobile "Vety. Sections cannot afford to split up their 

 small number of personnel, and moreover battle casualties are 

 never so numeroils as might be anticipated. 



Corps Motolle Detachments. 



With the growth of Corps Troops in the B.E.F., France, it 

 became necessary to provide for the evacuation of casualties 

 from units in the vicinity of Corps Headquarters, and further- 

 more, as Mobile Veterinary Sections of Divisions were so 

 heavily pressed during the operations on the Somme that they 

 could ill afford to send their men down to Veterinary Hospitals 

 on L. of C. with casualties (including those of Corps Troops) 

 it was considered necessary to interpose some veterinary 

 organisation at or near corps railheads. A certain number of 

 N.C.O. and men from each Mobile Vety. Section of Divisions 

 comprising the corps, supplemented by 20 to 30 privates from 

 a Vety. Hospital L. of C. as required for conducting duties, 

 were grouped at corps railheads under the Vety. Officer Corps 

 Headquarters and termed " Corps Mobile Detachments."- The 



