'Stretcher-bearers': (41) Lone Trek

LoneTrek

Since it was too late to relieve Corporal MacKenzie, we all spent the night at the RAP (Regimental Aid Post), where Corporal R... of "B" Coy, section, Eleven Field Ambulance, proposed that I should not wait for Corporal MacKenzie to be relieved, nor should I rejoin his section, but should leave alone in the morning and, finding my own way back to our ADS, partly by hitching a lift on an ambulance, should see that extra tea, sugar and milk rations be sent up to the RAP as soon as possible. He also suggested that the NAAFI supplies, which had just arrived for our squad, should be given to his own squad. Neither of these proposals appealed to me, but arguing about them would only broadcast the idea, so I said nothing.
That evening it rained steadily and turned the hill tracks into slippery slopes. The valley below became as misty as that part of it where a smoke screen concealed an important bridge. Darkness fell on a melancholy landscape.
Next morning the weather was slightly worse. The ground, already churned by the mules, was soggy and waterlogged. The rain showed not the slightest sign of abating.
I told Cpl R... I saw no reason for trying to get back to the ADS that morning as there would probably be no ambulance available and, in any case, the stream through which two fords and a positive water splash passed would now be a minor torrent.
I did not mention that the only time we had been across the fords was in the ambulance which brought us nearer the line and that a shell had then hurried us on our way. Instead, I continued to moan about the prospect of setting out at all.
Here R...... claimed that I was adopting a selfish attitude, was certain to catch the ambulance and was far too pessimistic, his last remark close to the truth.
I did not bother to wash and shave in my old jam tin, but assembled my kit, found a sandbag for my five books and informed Sgt. Mc...... that I was ready. He detailed me to carry back several notes, which he had not yet written and others now decided to write letters. This delayed departure for another valuable 10 minutes.
Eventually, armed with verbal advice and half a dozen billets doux, I bade farewell, turning down Sgt. Mc's last minute offer of my remaining NAAFI rations. Instead I took with me a heavy stick. This prevented many a fall. It was also useful for leaping over small streams near the ADS which I reached in 15 minutes.
Here I received the news both feared and foreseen.
Only two ambulances left the ADS each day, at 8.30 a.m. and 2.30 p.m. It was now 9.30 a.m.
I said I would wait until 2.30 p.m., since the rain showed no signs of abating, but was told that the second ADS was only half an hour's distance by foot, so I reluctantly changed my mind and decided to walk it. I was already quite wet and another half an hour's downpour would not make much difference.
Leaving at about 10 a.m. I eventually reached the ADS well after 11.30 a.m. The first difficulty arose when, after about 10 minutes' brisk walk past a squadron of Sherman tanks, I reached the first ford. The water passing over it was now a fast flowing torrent. This made me wonder whether it was worth while going any further. While I "lingered shivering on the brink...", a Canadian in the tank regiment approached from the other bank , plotted out a course and waded through in his Wellington boots, so I set out in the opposite direction, the water flowing freely over my anklets web and into my boots. Although the month was October, the water was none too cold, and by the time I had walked some distance I felt quite warm.
Soon however I found myself approaching another ford, since the river had swept round in an ox bow and was here deeper than before. The wheel of a shot-up Jeep near the further bank was almost submerged, water scudding up against it.
Obviously there was no crossing there, so I plodded on to reconnoitre a shallower part. All this time it was still pouring and I was beginning to feel uneasy, having seen no signs of people since leaving the Canadian at the first ford.
It seemed futile to turn back, so I chose the broadest and shallowest part of the river and used my stick to great advant age keep balance against the flow. When the water came over my knees I had a sudden dread of being swept away, plunged through the last few yards and clambered out on to the bank. My sandbag of books was still firmly on my shoulders, but soaked with rain. I was waterlogged up to the waist.
This was no time for reflection. I pressed on to a stone bridge which was, as I later learnt, marked "coffin corner". Dead mules littered the path. I came across five in less than 100 yards, some equipment and another wrecked vehicle. About 20 yards from the bridge I saw three bodies of men, part covered by what appeared to be a bivouac. The spine of one was dropping through its back.
I crossed the bridge at which, before I had seen the bodies, I had expected to meet at least a Military Policeman on guard, and hurried on. MPs had the unenvious duty of guarding exposed strategic features.
The road was now sunken and admitted seepings from the river.
I had not gone far before a shell dropped in the area between the second ford and the bridge. I walked on at an accelerated pace. Later came two more shells, then another, but by now I was already entering the smoke screen laid across a third ford, concealing other important objects from the enemy.
In the middle of this screen were a few houses and more dead animals. Here I met one of the men responsible for maintaining the smoke screen and he agreed to have me pulled across this deep and wide ford by means of a stretcher used for passing smoke shells across the river. This was slung on an overhead pulley. So he called two men from the far bank who, after his repeated bellowing, responded by grasping the hawser and pulling me, a swaying, dangling burden, across to them.
(From p.180, of "Algiers to Austria." "The RAMC, for instance, found that the downpour on October 24/25 had caused the River Sillaro to rise four feet in twelve hours and swept away all the fords that the ambulances had been using. Aerial ropeways were built by the sappers and REME and the wounded were passed across them in slings."}
For the first time now, I felt really safe and started walking briskly in search of the ADS.. I found it and delivered all communications to Lieut. Hawthorn and Sgt. G.Gordon.

I then removed my boots, poured out the water, took off my socks and wrung them out, and, soaking up to the crutch, cursed Cpl. R...with all my heart.
That afternoon the 2.30 p.m. ambulance arrived at the ADS without Cpl MacKenzie. It had become bogged in one of the fords so that some of the patients had been ordered to get out and push. They too arrived very wet.
MacKenzie turned up next morning with three others and we all left for the 217 MDS for four days' break
A quiet time at Castel Del Rio
Change of clothing. Shower. Better food. Full sleep.

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