Childbirth

Some years ago, I heard a story about a party of Royal Engineers, who ended up on an island in the middle of a river, during a fierce battle. On the island was a maternity hospital, but most of the staff had fled leaving a group of very frightened pregnant women.

The Engineers did in fact help out and no babies were lost. They had no drugs at the time, but according to the story, they had plenty of champagne in the cellars. So they used that.

Whether the story is true, I do not know, but I did hear it from someone who had been through many of the worst horrors of World War II. He just used the story to illustrate the madness of war!