大象传媒

This is contributed by my father, Harry Harding, who was in the RAMC 8th Army:

I joined the Royal West Kent鈥檚 infantry in Maidstone in 1940 and after initial training I was transferred to the Royal Army medical corps in Cookham as medicine was my main interest. In 1941 I was sent abroad to the Middle East.
Our job, of course, was to save lives as well as treat diseases. Our unit operated in nine different countries. In total I was away for 4 years. We dealt with a lot of diseases, having been trained to treat those who contacted Malaria and other tropical diseases but our work was mainly treating those who had contracted S.T.D or sexually transmitted diseases and this was regarded as a self inflicted injury! Originally the treatment for this was Arsenic & Bismuth, and then when it became more plentiful, Penicillin. Statistics showed that for every 4 battle casualties, 7 were in our centre on treatment for S.T.D.
Malaria was prevalent and Quinine was the antidote, although a preventative tablet given at meal-times was Mepacrin. I was allergic to this medication and had to carry papers with me stating this fact as it was an offence not to take it.
Whilst in Italy an Indian specialist in Malaria joined us and for lectures he would dissect mosquitoes. We learned a lot from him. This came in very useful as we travelled over the Middle East.
We didn鈥檛 just deal with medical treatments. We often rescued the wounded and two of the many stands out in my mind. One being when we had to amputate an arm off a trooper crushed in a battered tank before the tank eventually went up in flames.
The other incident was when a flying fortress crash landed near us and we managed to rescue the crew amongst exploding bullets. I saw many courageous acts.
Back in Civvy Street, having been taught unarmed combat in the army, I put it to good use by teaching the martial arts to many adults and children over the last 50 years.

A/SGT. H.T. Harding R.A.M.C 8th Army 1940-1946.
19 Bound Road, Freshwater, Isle of Wight PO40 9NL.

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