大象传媒

This story has been added to the People鈥檚 War website by 大象传媒 Radio Leeds on behalf of the contributor with his permission. James Williams, Featherstone, West Yorkshire, was 18 in 1938, and had moved to London from his home in Pontefract to study physiotherapy. When the war began he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and travelled over most of the world. He has written a book documenting his experiences and has kindly given permission for parts of it to be placed on the People鈥檚 War website.

September 3rd 1938:

At 11am Neville Chamberlain announced we were at war with Germany. The air sirens began to wail. We had no idea what an air raid would be like but imagined that waves of bombers would sweep in across the North Sea and devastate London.

We got on with our lives normally until May 10th 1940 when the Germans invaded Holland, Belgium and France. Churchill announced, 鈥淭he battle of France is over, I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin.鈥�

After James finished his exams it was inevitable that he would be called to the army:

My call up papers came and I had to report to a recruiting centre in North Cheam for a medical examination. I was graded 3B, the normal grading for anyone with bad eyesight and told that I would be joining the RAMC and would be sent for in due course. I joined the army on January 21st 1941.

James was sent to Fleet, near Aldershot, for the training:

I got off the train in Fleet with what seemed to be the whole new intake for the RAMC at Boyce Barracks. What a mixture we were. We were billeted thirty to a barrack room of which there were six to a spider. A spider was a group of six rooms surrounding toilet and washing facilities, all connected by corridors. We were taken up to the dining hall for a meal, and were given bread, jam and tea. I learned my first lesson. In the army you begin again. Everything that you were, everything that you were taught seems to vanish, and in order to survive you have to become one of the pack and save all the niceties for home and civvy street.

During the war, James assisted the RAMC in building many hospitals around the world. In his book he tracks the procedure of the building of a hospital in Malta:

Early one morning we were taken down to the docks, where we boarded the Hospital Ship, Somersetshire. Once we were on board we were told that we were to sail to Malta, and under no circumstances were we to appear on deck, except in an emergency, as the Germans could think that the ship was carrying out combat troops and act accordingly. It was an eerie, frightening experience to be sailing at night on a white ship, completely floodlit, so clearly to be seen on the empty ocean, especially as we were sailing very close to German territory. Fortunately the voyage was uneventful.

We arrived at the Grand Harbour in Valetta to the cheering of small groups of Maltese who were obviously wondering what was going on for the harbour was beginning to fill with vessels of all types, the siege having just been relieved. Quickly disembarking we were transported to the 28th British General Hospital, already established at Melhia, where we were given temporary accommodation. Tent, groundsheet and a blanket again. We spent several days lounging about, not too many yards from one of the few sandy beaches on Malta, until our G1098 (equipment) arrived and then we moved to Ghaintuffia Bay on the other side of the island where we were to build our hospital. The site chosen was an old army convalescent camp. There were about a dozen small, brick barrack rooms and an administrative block. Here we had to construct a hospital to take at least 1200 patients. It was pointed out to us that it was imperative that the work should be completed as quickly as possible.

Somewhere to sleep was our first priority, and tents were soon erected, this time bivouac tents sleeping six men. The terrain was bumpy and uneven, consisting mainly of solidified lava. We only managed to erect the tents, after swapping our wooden tent pegs for metal ones, but until the floors inside the tents were levelled we had to sleep out in the open air. The first night I slept under a tree and got the shock of my life next morning to find myself surrounded by large, brown, bean-like objects that I thought I recognised as the locust beans we used to get in penny lucky bags. I tasted one tentatively and revived childhood memories. They were still pleasant to eat. This knowledge became useful when we realised that food was going to be less plentiful than it had been hitherto.

Some of the derelict buildings, those still in reasonable repair were fitted out immediately as small wards, offices and departments. Everything else, the remaining wards, canteen, dining hall, further offices and departments were to be in hospital extending marquees. This is where we met trouble. The majority of our tent pegs were still wooden. They had been ideal in desert conditions but there was no way you could drive them into the hard, Maltese volcanic rock. We had to send out an SOS to a unit of Royal Engineers who provided us with more steel pegs and 14lb sledgehammers with which to drive them in. Even this method was unsatisfactory and eventually we had to borrow pneumatic drills with which to finish the job. In spite of all the difficulties the hospital was fully operational in 12 days. One wag thought it was such an exceptional feat that he erected a stone on which he carved a parody of Churchill鈥檚 speech on the Battle of Britain pilots:
Never before was so much work done
By so few
In so short a time
It obviously wasn鈥檛 true but it was very good for morale.

In 1946, James was discharged from the army:

I was called up to the army on January 16th 1941, and wasn鈥檛 fully discharged until November 5th 1946, 5 years, 9 months and 20 days. It was an experience I wouldn鈥檛 have missed, travelling around the world and seeing the way other people lived. Conditions were not always the best. We had good times and bad times and fortunately tend to put the latter to the back of our minds. My main regret is that I was unable to settle down and lead a normal life until I was in my mid twenties.

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