- Contributed by听
- NTLHC1
- People in story:听
- William Tyrrell
- Location of story:听
- Iraq and Palestine
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A1986979
- Contributed on:听
- 07 November 2003
My late uncle Bill Tyrrell (born c 1904) was an officer serving in WW2 in the RA in India at the outbrak of war and then in Iraq, for a time helping to run a rehabilitation centre for wounded soldiers.
He nearly died when a Nazi agent put ground glass in his food in Baghdad. Luckily, following a long, dusty and bumpy road journey across the desert to Palestine he was successfully treated for a perforated colon in the 32nd General Hospital,MEF near Haifa and nursed by nuns. He could eat little for over a month, surviving on milk.
He had hoped to be repatriated to England after this ordeal, but the powers that be put him on a ship going the wrong way, and he landed the job of guarding German POWs from North Africa heading for Australia! When he finally got home in 1942, via the USA and weakened by his experiences,he had been away nearly 3 years.
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