'Stretcher-bearers': (42) Last Lap

Last Lap

After five more uneventful days with the East Surrey battalion, we were withdrawn to near Castel Del Rio, where we came to know several Italian families living in our immediate neighbourhood. The town itself is partially cleared of civilians to make billets for the troops.
At one spot a cobbler mended my boots gratis, at another they gave us chestnuts and at a third an Italian doctor presented me with books. It is unsettling to recall that the Italians used gas against the Abyssinians. I suspect that, like most farming communities, these people keep to themselves and are not deeply interested in politics. Croce, Togliati and Sforza are mere names to most of them. I do not think that the Italians will embrace Communism
Christmas at HQ was not a very happy affair, but all did their best and expressed hopes of Christmas-at-home-next year. We are growing weary, weary...
Five days of slavery up in the mountains, mainly logging in blizzards.
I was sent back to Castel Del Rio to join a stretcher bearers' pool where, after a stay of two days, I was able to give Epiphany present to an Italian family in the hills. The Italians celebrate Epiphany on January 6th, Twelfth Night, when Befana, corrupted from the Italian "Epifania", fills children's stockings with presents. Befana is a female counterpart of our Father Christmas. Obviously our presents were meagre, ration chocolate and some food.
We were called out to take over from a Recce RAP section at a house called Casone. We slept that night at the RAP, made a trip over the ford to an ADS and had lunch there before returning on foot to Casone.
The snow was still as thick as ever. Marching kept us warm, so we did not feel the sludge leaking through our boots until some time after we had settled down in a dark, cheerless cow shed. However, we secured what might have been the chief bull's private apartment and were reasonable comfortable.
The weather kept "Ted" (Tedesco = German) quiet and the whole section was due to be relieved on the fifth day, but I was recalled earlier to work in a post-operative ward to be formed at the ADS. So I trekked back after breakfast and managed to gain permission to spend the night at Castel Del Rio.
Arrived back at the ADS and was placed on Evacuation because an FSU (Field Surgical Unit) had arrived to treat the most seriously wounded.
In the afternoon I was chopping wood in the open when Ted sent over several APs (Anti Personnel air burst.) One exploded overhead and, as I stupidly looked up, a fragment of shrapnel struck me on the shoulder. Did not even have a bruise.
A house nearby was hit. One casualty.
Later in the day, after a batch of shells had reached us, we received a very seriously wounded lieutenant The FSU was available to perform a double amputation of his legs, but by this time shelling was considered too hot for the Surgical team to stay. It pulled out about five miles, leaving their patient who was too ill to be moved.
Was placed in full charge of this case, instructed to give 4 hourly injections of penicillin, the first time I had used it. The patient was remarkably determined and, to cut short a five-day story, he survived.
On the sixth day I accompanied him in an ambulance travelling at 5 miles per hour to the place where the surgical team that had withdrawn, and much back-slapping took place. The patient's courage throughout was amazing.
This minor success was followed immediately by a reverse, the next patient brought in for resuscitation dying before absorbing more than half a bottle of plasma.
We bustled a third into an ambulance with drip-feed apparatus attached. His chances of recovery were very poor and we did not learn the outcome.
Routine work continued for a week until the 10th Indian Division relieved us.
After a short break at Forlimpopoli and Forli we joined the spring offensive, a complete break-through with hardly any opposition.
A plane machine-gunned us - and missed - at Argenta. It may well have been one of our own, since now the Luftwaffe made few appearances. We continued functioning in a series of swiftly erected ADSs. At one of these we treated successfully a machine-gunned German stretcher bearer, but were unable to help a vitally wounded Lancs Fusilier. The MO decided to end this man's life peacefully and ordered me to fill a 2cc syringe with morphine. There was no hesitation here because the man had been blinded and the tissues of his brain were exposed. The MO injected the dose and we placed him aside to die. Capt. P..... is the best MO under whom I have worked. He won the MC (Military Cross) in the North African campaign.

The end of the Italian campaign found us in Kotschach, Austria, after a very rapid dash north. We arrived some two hours before the official cease fire order
In Austria we received the order "Troops will not make the running in any friendly relations. Troops will not consort with civilians more than necessary. Apart from this, a correct and friendly attitude will be adopted."
This order was a dead dog even before it was proclaimed. The average British soldier quickly made friends with his former enemies, especially with the children. By Christmas army units had prepared parties for them.

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