大象传媒

Our forces were advancing and needed casualty-clearing stations up front. Normally they would have been staffed by doctors and male orderlies. However, Typhus was becoming a problem, spread by ticks. It infected the lungs and many men died from being flown back to hospital in the Camilla area. The idea was that some nurses should be sent forward to nurse them at a medical casualty station till they passed the worst.
We were flown up to Imphal, which had just been liberated, in a Dakota of course. But, going forward, all space was required. All the seats had been removed and we sat where we could on top of everything. We spent one night in a tent and by 7 am the next morning were getting the same Dakota. We were joined by a few others and took off flying over the clouds.
The 鈥榝ew others鈥� were 1 Indian and a few English, all with rifles and looking very anxious. They knew that the forward troops were pushing the Japs back the way they had come. Like us it was their first experience of Burma and fighting. The centre floor space was covered by equipment and provisions of all kinds.
Little bits of the tops of the hills began to appear through the mist and we were told we were flying south. The sun had now appeared and the view was spectacular. By late morning we arrived at Tamu, a clearing in the, now visible, forest.
A jeep met us and joined the very recently made rough road back towards the way we had come. All around was jungle, except for this one rough road. Places were only known by the number on the nearest milestone. I think where we stopped was 64 milestone (from Imphal).
We were allotted a tent with a railed off square in front of it. There was a notice pinned to the netting saying 鈥淗aveldar Thomas鈥� and his regiment. It was rather a nasty shock as it turned out to be his grave.
No white uniforms here! Slacks and shirts and medical. One large tent held diagnosed Typhus patients which we found was a tick infection giving great concern. Almost immediately a convoy of men arrived and had to be given 鈥榖eds鈥�. These were stretchers balanced each on 4 forked sticks, no number, and no diagnoses.
The doctor said first take T.P.R. then sort the highest temperature patients into one tent and give the lot malaria treatment. The trouble was that they didn鈥檛 stay put and there were no numbers on the stretchers. They milled around to be nearer their friends. It was chaos.
Things began to settle down after a few malaria treatments and we began to see who were the really ill patients. In the improvised doctor鈥檚 office it was impossible to keep proper notes and tempers amongst the staff became frayed too. One doctor had the answer. He had two boxes of matches, one for me and one for himself. We exchanged these at a quicker and quicker pace saying da-de-da鈥� , then burst into laughter and the tension broke.
Rations and everything we needed, were supplied by airdrop and had to be salvaged. Once, live chickens were sent down in cages, with parachutes. One of the English girls had been brought up on a farm in North Devon. She knew the best way to kill chickens was to break their necks. The local way was to half cut their throats and let them run around till they died. There was always religious divisions as to who ate what. There was a dreadful time when she took the lot and killed them all cleanly. No body would eat them and of course there was no alternative and a big black mark against us.
We were allowed to keep any parachutes that were torn. As there were no shops, it seemed a good idea to make clothing from them. They seemed thin & light. But, in the steamy heat we discovered that the man-made fabrics they were made from were not a good idea and made us sweat. They were not comfortable at all.
At this CCS we joined up with two English wives trying to get back to their husbands in Burma. They were both lovely and also very useful as interpreters. Close to our site ran the newly made road which had hastily been made to take lorries with supplies. In places it looked very dangerous as there was a bank on one side and a sloping surface followed by a drop on the other. We had just got settled when news came that we were to go further forward, leap frogging the one now in front of us.
All patients were evacuated back to Imphal. All tents came down and were packed into trucks which arrived for them. 3 of the nurses were placed into each of 2 jeeps on top of our possessions, with a driver and one of the Indian bearers sitting beside him. The hood was down because of the heat, which meant that we all got covered with dust. Whatever our race, we all looked the same.
The trees, mostly teak, were loosing some of their leaves. They were huge, at a guess 2 ft x 1 ft in size. They were dry and hard and they cracked as we drove over them. We stopped once and had some sandwiches and were offered tea boiled over an open fire and laced with Ideal (evaporated) milk and rum, but got some that was drinkable in the end.
We passed one stream on reasonably flat ground and a whole unit of army were in the cool water. Suddenly a shout 鈥淲OMEN!鈥� and all turned their backs to us. I hope we didn鈥檛 spoil their swim. We did wave!
At our new medical unit, the routine was much the same, but this time we had a river to cross to get there. The bridge was three trucks (presumably not repairable) with logs crossing the 3 backs, then layers of canvas and stones making the crossing reasonably safe.
We were allotted a tent with a side without a roof to act as a bath and loo. We only had hurricane lamps and had to be careful of our silhouette after dark. Our canvas baths were installed here also. The first time we used it, and every evening afterwards, we got bombarded from above with bits of stick from the monkey population. We must have provided them with a wonderful new game. They laughed a lot.
A convoy of patients was waiting for us as before, that needed sorting, but was easier as there were a few interpreters. The climate was getting warmer with monsoon rain almost stopped and any of the patients who were well enough could go for a swim in the river. We were advised not to!
One day all the men who were well enough vanished. Nobody knew why until about half an hour later when they came back each carrying a fish. Somebody had thrown a grenade into the river up stream and it had killed all the fish which only then needed salvaging. The fish were a great treat to add to rations.
The area in which we were at this time had a lot of trees and undergrowth so it could have been quite a hazard. Little flies sprang up all over the place but, luckily, no bad effects.
We were now near enough to hear gunfire as our troops were attacking. Suddenly we came in contact with the British Press and had a copy each of a photograph they took, complete with small puppy that we had adopted. Unfortunately, the puppy did not survive long as it was probably infected with dysentery.
Another time, a tarpaulin was placed in a small clearing and we had an impromptu dance to a gramophone. I think it was Christmas. The cooks produced amazing ingenuity in coping with rations and even managed to make the dried potato chunks into passable chips on this occasion.
The only contact we had was a weekly letter sent by air home to our families. This was a standard airmail and we were not allowed to say where we were 鈥� most frustrating.

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