大象传媒

Mr Fred Leaver, a retired barber from Rhyl looks back at his war memories working for the Medical Core in the Middle East.

I remember I was 20 years old when I was called up to go into the war. But I wasn鈥檛 a fighter. I went into the Medical Core as I had been working for St John鈥檚 Ambulance before the war started. I knew when I was at school that the war was on its way, therefore going to St John鈥檚 was like being a war reserve 鈥� I just knew I had to go.

I was sent up to Scotland for training, but when they found out that I had all my medical certificates, I was made up a Corporal and was in charge of a Medical Inspection Unit. After the initial training, around a hundred of us were sent down to a place just outside York. We stayed there until we were moved abroad in a convoy of 20 ships the following year. While most of us headed for Egypt, four of these ships were carrying child evacuees and went across to America. We were called the Western Desert Force, which was later renamed the 8th Army.

I used to write letters to my family, and also to a lady friend who worked in a stationery shop back home in Manchester. Of course I was never allowed to give them my address - I would have been up for jail if I did that.

I was lucky not to have any bad experiences of the food rationing like many did in Britain. Saying that, my mother coped particularly well with the rationing. You see, my mother (an accountant) was a very sensible woman, and she always made sure the family had enough food. As I was in the army, I must say that I was looked after quite well. My colleagues and I used to give our food rations to a family, who used to flog them onto the black market in order to get us the Italian rations, which consisted of food like spaghetti - much nicer!

I remember falling ill in Baghdad and had to go to hospital. During this time my unit had to move to Suez, so as soon as I was better I was on my way to join them. When I arrived I went to report to the officer and asked him where were the rest of the unit. He replied, 鈥淵ou see that ship out there? It鈥檚 going to India. And guess what? You鈥檝e missed it!鈥� Because of this I had to go Cairo, and as hygiene was very significant part of my work, one of my jobs was to boil clothes. We had to put all the clothes into an incinerator, raising the temperature to 150潞C for 20 minutes. When we took the clothes out, at the bottom of there would be a foot deep of lice and bugs.

War has good and bad times, but after all these years now all I can remember are the good times. There were times when we were so scared with the bombing that we clutched to our helmets really hard, trying to get every inch of our bodies under our helmets. Looking back now, I have forgotten the fear and can laugh about it.

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