大象传媒

This story was submitted to the 大象传媒 People's War site by Wymondham Learning Centre on behalf of Sid Richards and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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Before the war I worked in the Treasury Department of Bristol City Council. In 1940 I was called up and enlisted in the Medical Corps. My brother was a doctor and I was interested in medical matters.

In December I travelled to Dorset to join a unit of mainly new recruits. When it was realised that we had had no military training, we were posted to Aldershot in January 1941.

After training, I travelled to Ormskirk, where we received medical training in a civilian hospital and then north to the Clyde to join a unit of the 46th West African General Hospital, which was based in Kaduna, Nigeria.

We boarded the Narkunda, which took a week to reach Freetown. The journey was dangerous and I think we crossed nearby to Canada before sailing south in order to avoid German submarines. In Freetown, we transferred to the Ulster Monarch, which had previously sailed the route between Ireland and Scotland. The ship was bound for Lagos and during the five day journey the men were allowed two cups of tea per day whilst the officers had the use of a bar. It was so hot that we slept on deck, even when a violent storm blew up. My attitude was that at difficult times like these, I just had to take whatever came my way.

I spent two happy years at the hospital in Kaduna, working in the office. British doctors and QAMS sisters were based there, but the African medical orderlies did the majority of the work. The patients were segregated, Africans and Europeans in different wards. In addition to common complaints, patients were often admitted with smallpox, malaria and yellow fever. There were marquees in the compound that could hold forty beds each. The rains usually started in May, but that year there was a freak storm in February. I have vivid recollections of men trying to hammer in the tent pegs which kept popping out of the ground. The marquee collapsed on top of the patients and the orderly who was trying to administer injections! Later, semi-permanent wards were built out of mud bricks, with thatched roofs.

One day sparks from the fire in the middle of the compound set fire to the thatch and the ward had to be evacuated quickly. Fortunately, no one was harmed. At 6 o'clock, when darkness fell, the electricity supply would often fail due to sudden increases in demand. I would have to phone the police station to ask them to send an engineer.

A boy worked in our billet (gida), doing housework and laundry. Johnson was about 15 years old. One day he went berserk and I took him into the hospital for tests. I was worried that he might have encephalitis, but test results were negative. The doctors could find no reasons for his behaviour and when he returned to the gida, he was fine. Johnson's little brother (same mother, same father) came up from Lagos to help him. Eight years old Sunday made the 36 hour train journey alone. He had no shirt and wore a ragged vest. Johnson was paid by the Army, but it was Sunday who did most of the work and so we gave the little boy half a crown a week. Whilst the boys were working at the hospital, they were employed as civilians, but when the unit was transferred to Burma, they were enlisted.

Whilst I was out in Africa, it was difficult to believe that a war was going on back home. Sometimes planes flew over, as they were assembled in Lagos and flown to Egypt, but there was little other military activity. I think that the British Army were out in Nigeria because it bordered on the French Colony of Chad and the British Government was unsure whether the French state would side with the government of Petain or with the Allies. My time in Africa was a great experience for me, as I would not have travelled to the area without the war. My understanding of that continent was deepened.

On the journey home, the escort ships dropped depth charges off Dakar, as there were many German submarines in the area. Whenever there was an alert, we all had to parade on deck, wearing life jackets. Once, when planes few overhead, someone started to fire at them, thinking that it was the enemy. Soon all the escort ships joined in. When we reached the Clyde, the escort prepared to leave us and the commanding officers of the escorts broadcast on the loud hailers: "You sure gave those Seafires hell, sir!" We had only been firing on our own side! Fortunately, no harm was done.

Soon I was to be in the thick of the fighting as part of the Normandy invasions. It was quite a different experience to my African adventure.

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