大象传媒

The following story appears courtesy of and with thanks to Gord and Leslie Davison.

There was a constant battle going on outside. It did not subside until dark, and even then there was intermittent firing of small arms and the odd mortar bomb would explode in our immediate vicinity.
The wounded kept pretty quite, wrapped up in there own thoughts as to their fate, and I kept them well sedated with morphine. It was my intention to get them to the St. Elisabeth Hospital as soon as conditions were favorable, however about 2:00AM on the Tuesday morning I heard army boots right outside our cellar window. I should explain that our cellar abbuted right on to the sidewalk and had a window below the ground in a window well which had an iron grate at sidewalk level. I could see outside to some extent but could only look upwards.
After hearing a number of boots clattering, across the grating I looked up and discovered that they belonged to soldiers in field grey uniforms, obviously not our lot. I wispered to the wounded, who were awake, to keep very quite as there were Germans outside and after about 15 minutes they had left and things became very quite. However just after dawn I saw boots running past our window again, two soldiers stopped right on the grating and I cautiously looked up to see that they were dressed in Khaki. I shouted to them, which gave them a bit of a fright, asking who they were. They replied "South Staffs". This meant that they were troops of the Glider-Borne South Staffordshire Regiment who had dropped in the second lift of the operation on Monday.
My spirits rose immediately as I figured we were now getting the upperhand. I informed my patients of the developments and this raised quite a cheer. Obviously they were thinking that, maybe, they would not be going to Germany after all. This hope proved to be short lived. About 10A.M. on the Tuesday morning there were Kahki-clad soldiers outside our cellar again, unfortunately, they were going the wrong way. I called up and said "Who are you" The reply was again "South Staffs".
It was obvious they had made an attack in the small hours and had been beaten back as soon as daylight arrived.
So I decided that my strategy was to remain put until the situation stabillized, one way or the other. There was no point in trying to get these patients to the hospital, considering the racket that was going on outside, and most of them were reasonably comfortable. I kept the three most seriously wounded under constant sedation and they slept most of the time.
These conditions pertained until about 2P.M., when everything turned quiet. I figured it was worth a reconisance outside to see what the situation was. I went upstairs to the main floor to discover that the occupants of the house had decamped, not surprizing considering what was going on all around them, and went outside to see what was what. I discovered to my delight that we were in complete control of the surrounding area and immediately made my way to the hospital.
There I found the senior medical officer and informed him of my situation. He said that everybody ther was too busy to help and that I find some means of getting my charges to the hospital.
Upon arriving back at the house, I could not believe my eyes, there, sitting right outside the front door was a jeep, with nobody in it, and, in addition it had two collapsible stretchers stowed in the rear. Obviously it was a jeep that belonged to one of the field ambulances. I got in the drivers seat and tried the starter, no joy, and decided that the distributor arm had been removed. This was the only way of imobilizing a jeep as they had no ignition keys, and this proved to be the case.
Normaly I always carried a spare rotar arm with me, but for some reason I did not have one. Having the use of the jeep was essential to my being able to evacuate the wounded, so I borrowed a ladies bicycle that I found in the house and started off down the line of battle wich was the Utrechseweg from Oosterbeek to Arnhem. I asked everyone I met if they had a rotor arm, no luck, until after about an hour, I found a jeep which had been hit by mortar fire. It was completely wrecked and I dug around until I located the distributor and removed the rotor arm.
Happily I rode down to the house, with a red cross on my helmet, and red cross flags on the bicycle, only to discover that, in my absence, the jeep had been completely distroyed. I dumped the bicycle on the street and and actually sat down and cried in frustration.
After a few minutes, I thought well, I still have the problem of getting my wounded comrades into the hospital. I cycled down to the hospital and found a gurney (a wheeled stretcher) and pushed it down to the house.
Taking the most seriously wounded first, I procedded to evacuate everybody to the St. Elisabeth. There was a constant battle going on all the time and it was quite dangerous, but I had no option, I had to get these people into the hospital.

Continued.....
'This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by 大象传媒 Radio Merseyside鈥檚 People鈥檚 War team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

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