大象传媒

I was enlisted into the army on the 16th July 1942. After infantry training, which applied to all new entrants, I was transferred to the RAMC. I then had further training as a medical laboratory technician (this was my civilian job), this included tropical medicine which was new to me.

After embarkation leave in April 1943 we were completely fitted out with kit for the Far East. We landed in Algiers, handed in our tropical kit and collected a Middle East version. I doubt if the attempted subterfuge was very successful. Our convoy had been subjected to air attack in the Bay of Biscay and the sound of depth charges were heard occasionally. As we passed through the Straits of Gibraltar the voice of Lord Haw Haw (the British traitor William Joyce who was executed in 1946 for high treason) was broadcast over the ship's tannoy detailing all the ships in the convoy and claiming we would never reach our destination. Nobody showed much concern at what proved to be empty threats.

After a few days lazing on the beach at Algiers we set up a large all tented 104 British General Hospital in some remote area or which I never knew the name. Here, a long way from active warfare, we treated patients for a large range of illnesses including infectious diseases, mental illness and conditions needing surgery. It was hot, uncomfortable (I slept on the laboratory floor), tedious and boring. One memorable thing was a Sirocco, a hot and savage wind, which blew down tents and kept every able bodied person hanging on to the guy ropes to stop the hospital blowing away. Well, it made a change!

Once a week I took two clean buckets and got a lift in a Jeep to a fairly distant Arab village market. Here we had an arrangement that as the butchers cut the throats of goats or sheep I held the buckets under the blood flow until they were full. We used the blood to enrich culture media used for growing a variety of pathogenic bacteria.

Shortly after allied troops captured Naples on the first October 1943 our hospital was dismantled and we made our way to Algiers and boarded a hospital ship which sailed to Naples. This was a pleasant trip. The ship was brightly lit up so it would not be attacked and the accommodation was very comfortable. We disembarked by walking over the side of one of the wrecks lying in the harbour and were marched to a sports stadium where we were each given a tin of stew before settling down to sleep in the open air on a concrete floor. The next morning we were transported to Afragola, a place in the Naples area overshadowed by Vesuvius. The 104 BGH was set up again with patients and officers in proper buildings while other ranks were put in two-man tents to keep fit and hardy! The hospital settled back into normal running. I took a couple of opportunities to visit Pompeii.

One afternoon there was a sound of a huge explosion. I stepped outside and saw Vesuvius erupting with a huge plume of smoke. The eruption went on for days and at night glowing lava could be seen flowing down one side of the mountain while lightning played over the peak.

One morning, a little time later, I was ordered to pack my kit and be ready to report to 18 Casualty Clearing Station (CCS). A CCS was a bit like a US MASH unit without the helicopters and eccentric staff portrayed in the TV series. For security reasons I could not be given an address for the unit. I was driven some way North on Route 6 and from then on enquired at military posts until I located it. Route 6 was in a very muddy state. I recall seeing a military policeman standing on a large wooden structure directing traffic at a crossroads. He was immaculate even down to his boots and must have been carried to his position.

When I joined 18CCS the unit was resting after a period of action and treating the sick other than battle casualties. As the only laboratory technician in the unit I was pretty independent in how I oganised my work. At that time it was largely microscopic diagnosis of malaria, during the quiet time I learned how to do some work from the X-Ray technician so I could help him when we were busy with battle casualties. This was mostly developing X-Ray film. I also helped in the patient reception section.

I had settled in by the time the call came tomove forward to the battle area of Cassino where one of the hardest battles of the war was being fought. We packed our equipment in to crates, folded up our tents, loaded up our trucks and were quickly away. We stopped at a field close to the front, re-erected the tents and sorted out our equipment. I was asked to do a laboratory job before my laboratory tent was even unpacked.

A day or two later there was a terrific barrage of fire from our guns - obviously a prelude to yet another big attack. Hours later casualties started to pour in at a heavy rate and it was 'all hands to the pumps'. Initially I helped in the reception area getting clothes off the wounded so they could be treated. The wounds varied from light to horrific and some soldiers died before they could be treated. There was the sad job of wrapping the dead in blankets so they could betaken away for proper burial. Then it was back to laboratory work; taking blood from patients for grouping; calling on staff volunteers to donate blood and cross matching the donor's blood with that of the patient. Finally, if there was time, I worked in X-Ray. it was hard work with little time for sleep but everyone gained satisfaction from what they were doing. Morale was also high at these times. At last, on the 18th May 1944, the enemy surrendered Cassino and gradually we went back into a quiet period. We continued in and out of action until the end of hostilities in Italy. Only one member of our unit was killed - whilst he was a passenger in an ambulance.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.