Robert entered the war in the Balkans on 30th July 1915. He is mentioned in a list of men who went with Lt Smith and a party of stretcher-bearers to collect wounded between Green Knoll and The Pimple, Suvla on 17th August 1915. He was originally listed as missing but was later determined that he had been taken prisoner: - "After midnight on August 17, 1915, Private Flood was part of a four-man stretcher party which set off to look for wounded soldiers following an attack between Green Knoll and The Pimple, Suvla, earlier in the day. His stretcher was last in a line of ten, and, after the others had fallen out to pick up wounded, found itself close to the Turkish lines when they sighted a soldier wounded in the left breast, close to the heart. The party soon came under fire, first from the Turks and later from British naval gunfire. Later that morning he and Private Long, along with the wounded solder, were captured by a Turk who gave the three men water."