大象传媒

I found myself in the army within two months of qualifying as a doctor at St Thomas鈥檚 Hospital in London and in November 1939 I joined the 9th Field Ambulance near Lille in France. Initially there was no fighting and I spent an enjoyable winter seeing friends, especially my brother John who was with the 24th Field regiment Royal Artillery, 48th Division. Sadly he was later to be wounded when fighting started and died following evacuation to England.

On May 10th the Germans invaded Belgium and Holland and we moved the same day to Louvain where we met the enemy. We held them at first but the French gave way and we slowly had to retreat to the Dunkirk area and perhaps back to England. On May 27th I was posted as Medical Officer to the 1st Suffolk Regiment to replace their injured doctor.

We retreated slowly to the Loo canal near Wulpen where we stayed till the night of the 31st May. The Suffolks then left the canal for Dunkirk and hopefully England, leaving me with two men and some wounded whom I could not leave. I assumed that we would be captured next morning when the Germans realised that we had left but I wasn鈥檛 sure what to expect. I had some distant aristocratic German relatives who had visited the family before the war. Knowing that hostilities were inevitable they had jokingly assured me that if I was captured they would arrange for me to be sent to their castle to work on their estate! Fortunately before this became a reality a stray ambulance turned up and took my wounded to a Casualty Clearing Station which was planning to stay at Dunkirk and await capture there. My men and I were therefore free to make an attempt to get back to England.

My men and I then set off in my truck towards La Panne. We were then attacked and the truck was damaged by shellfire. During the confusion I became separated from my men and there was nothing I could do but walk on the beach towards Dunkirk. To my surprise I met General Alexander who told me that the beach evacuation was now over and advised me to carry on to Dunkirk town. Still by myself I was making my way along the main road which was again under heavy shellfire when luckily three Bren gun carriers from a Guards Regiment came along and offered me a lift. On the way one of the carriers was hit and several guardsmen were killed or wounded. Later we were attacked by a dive bomber but had a lucky escape. We reached Dunkirk just in daylight and joined the troops on the mole. I waited with the others for some time until, under heavy air attack, the destroyer Winchelsea came alongside and picked 1200 of us up. Knowing that a destroyer could sink very quickly, rather than going below I stayed on deck and sat beside a gun. During the crossing I watched the sub lieutenant fire at the planes near us, including some of ours near Dover. As far as he was concerned all planes were suspect!

We arrived at Dover and with help of the WRVS we were put on a train and I fell asleep. I woke up when we arrived at Saundersfoot in Wales and was taken to a hotel. The next thing I remember is waking up to a lovely day on Sunday June 2nd. I found myself back in France 4 years later on the 6th June.

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