大象传媒

this was writen by my father in the 1980 he is still with us at 91. Being in the Red Cross meant I was called upon to join the RAMC on the 2 September 1939,and I was posted to the Royal Herbert Hospital at Shooters Hill Woolwich. A member of 6 Coy Royal Army Medical Corps.
The RSM had a punishment he enjoyed inflicting on his miscreants and I was up late one morning and he delighted in sending me to the mortuary. Normally the men did not like this at all but of course my father was an undertaker and I had been taught how to lay out a corpse. It held no fears for me and in fact I felt quite at home In fact I was such a success at the job I became a permanent member of the Department. I even made money out of it from the tips I got for my work. Much to the disgust of the RSM as he could not send anyone else there whilst I had the job, quite a profitable lay-in.
After a month I was billeted out and was posted to camp Reception Station at Balfore Road Brighton. The CO's name was Lt Cd William Ret. this was a support camp for Preston Barracks. The only army personnel were 1 corporal and 4 privates.
At the beginning of 1940 I was posted to the CRS at Brockhurst East Grinstead, this was a large establishment. Apart from the RAMC Detachment there was a Detachment of ATS and BRE. The RAMC Detachment was under a Sgt with a Corp and 10 privates. An officer came from Sevenoaks once a week with our pay and checked out the unit for smartness and efficiency.
During Sept 1940 I was posted to Fleet which was one of the main RAMC Depots. I was kitted out with tropical uniform, a month later I had embarkation leave of just one week.
Then off to transit camp at Dunstable near Laxton for tropical jabs.2 weeks later I entrained for Glasgow the journey took 2 days. We were billeted in a large warehouse to await the arrival of SS Tuscany a troop ship. The ship didn't arrive for a fortnight so we were kept busy doing drill, PT and long marches around Glasgow.
The ship finally sailed 3 Dec1940 in convoy with 17 other ships, I was in 6 General Hospital destined for Port Said as a complete unit. In command a colonel and 1500 personnel. After 5 weeks we docked at Capetown but we were not given any shore leave and only took on supplies. We went on to Durban where we had 4 days shore leave. I liked the place and the climate but the locals did not mix with us, and we sailed on to Egypt.
We unloaded the supplies and set up a camp at Kassasin near the Sweet water canal. It took a long time to set up the Hospital, but eventually Kassasin became a garrison town with a cinema and a POW camp for the Italians. During this time I passed all the medical certificates and became a ward master.

In the spring of 1941 I was posted to 14th Light FA which was a Mobile unit in direct support of the infantry. The unit took 2 months training to become operational. Then the 14th light Field Ambulance were attached to the Scots Greys and KRRC part of 7th Armoured Div.
During late 1941 and early 1942 we were supporting these units in the Qattara Depression area during Auchinlecks advance. We stayed here until August and then retreated South of Alamein. We were not in the main fighting as the bulk of the battle was by the coast. Here we dug in at Alamein and were reinforced and replenished.
At the end of Oct 1942 the battle of Alamein started and we were very busy with all the casualties. The British advanced on a wide front I was about 50 miles from the coast. Most of our casualties were from the mines.

The 7th Armoured division was to attack the January and February mine fields at the Qattara end of the battle line. And when the Scots Greys passed through the minefield at the last minute one of the mines was touched .The resulting explosion caused great casualties from the Axis fire, and the bottleneck, which added to the carnage. The front moved to Gharion, then Benghazi turned south to Agheila and then by the beginning of March
Medneine. The hospital was demolished and I was in the hills for 2 days in the rain. I caught pneumonia and had to be evacuated, back to Benghazi, I was there for 3 days until I got an airlift to Cairo in a Bristol Bombay. I went to Helmia just outside Cairo when I had recovered I was medically downgraded to C1 and was posted back to England. The SS Britannia left Port Said down through the Mediterranean direct to Liverpool. U-boats were very active at this time and there were several depth charges dropped very close to us as we came home. After disembarking I went straight on leave for one month. October 1943. It had been 3 years since I had seen my family.
I was posted to Maidstone Hospital as a medical orderly for 2 weeks. Then I was posted to Botleys Park War Hospital at Chertsey as an operating theatre attendant until Oct 1944.
My last posting was to Denton transit Camp Newhaven until the end of the war in 1945 when I was transferred to the fleet depot and was demobbed from the army 14 Nov 1945.

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