'Stretcher-bearers': (22) Return to action zone - February 19445

Return to action zone.

We left Isernia one morning at 11.30 a.m. by a very tortuous mountain route and reached a village where we spent the night.
Next morning we set out again for Castelfrentano which we reached after dark. We had a welcome meal, followed by a peaceful night's rest.

Next morning, 5.2.44, I was chosen for MI (Medical Inspection) room duty and had a small sick parade. At the end of it three Italians appeared for treatment and I was asked to take over as interpreter. It was necessary to call in an MO, but he refused to deal with Italians , saying "It is because of them that I have to be out here. I have no time for them."
This annoyed me intensely. I decided to give them some tablets and then, if further treatment was required, to refer them to the civilian doctor who could send us back a list of requirements.
This was the best I could arrange. We treat all wounded enemy soldiers in accordance with the Geneva Convention. How far the Convention extends to enemy civilians also, I do not know.
This afternoon shells began to drop in the town. At about 3.30 p.m.
some fell so close to us that we prepared for casualties and were ready when the first man was admitted with shrapnel in both legs and in the left wrist. We had to cut off his trousers and pants and remove his socks and shoes, dress his wrist and one leg and give anti-tetanus serum and morphine. We were in the middle of dressing his left leg when a mighty explosion brought glass crashing in and the room was filled with dust and smoke. We saw later that a shell had dropped next door, making a large breach in the wall.
We immediately moved the patient into the resuscitation room and finished the leg dressing.
The next man also had leg wounds and a through-and-through wound of the wrist. He was in great pain, but responded well to tea, a cigarette and the usual injections of morphine and ATS (anti-tetanus serum).
About half a dozen more shells burst in the town and four more stretcher cases came in, three Canadians and an Italian civilian. Two of the Canadians had minor head wounds and were not worrying much about them, but the third with several shrapnel wounds was badly shocked.
The Italian had a large part of his shoulder muscle torn away and we had to pack the wound with sulphanilamide on acriflavine gauze before applying a shell dressing to it. The man was moaning a good deal, but stopped when told that the wound was not serious. It was. He provided a marked contrast to the Canadians who bore their injuries more calmly, but Italians in general are more highly strung and this man was badly wounded. At all events, Capt....'s disgust at the man's cries were quite unjustified and his refusal to treat him reprehensible. I shall not last long working under him if he continues to disregard civilians.
After evacuating all casualties within half an hour of admission, we went to tea, then swept up the debris and settled down to normal routine work.

8.2.44.
There are amazing rumours circulating that we are about to make spectacular moves.
Outside news: The Russians are said to have cut off the German armies in the Dneiper bend and are advancing north into Estonia.
Little progress towards Rome on the west coast 5th Army front.
From England the news is that we are still making immense air raids on Germany. Nobody here believes strongly in "precision bombing".

11.2.44.
More shells dropped in the town during the lunch hour. One landed 20 yards away and we were soon busy treating a young girl and her mother, both crying hysterically. The girl had been hit four times in the buttock and legs. She was not easy to treat. Matters became worse when I approached the MO and he was annoyed and reluctant to treat the casualties because they were civilians. After some wrangling he came down from his room to see the casualties and thought that he had scored one over on me because, in filling a syringe with 1 c.c. of morphine, I had not completely freed the syringe of bubbles. Truth to tell, my hands were shaking of their own accord, as they always do now when shells fall near, that I had difficulty in drawing up the dose.
(Observation made later: This shakiness did not seem to have anything to do with fear. I remained about as scared as before, and was becoming used to the feeling..)
Capt....... was also shaken and could not fasten the bandages properly, but tried to regain confidence by being as rude as possible to me. In addition, as a direct result of his temper and scorn of the Italians, he refused to give the routine anti tetanus injections and sulphanilamide tablets. He would not evacuate them by our ambulance to the civilian hospital in Lanciano (and may have been following orders in this instance).

Left Castelfrentano at 07.15 a.m. on 12.2.44. Left soap and cigarettes for the family with which we had been quartered. They had experienced the shelling very calmly.
It was a bitterly cold journey, since snow had fallen during the night, when an icy wind had suddenly arisen. We packed into a 30 cwt lorry already well loaded with medical equipment. It was not long before all sensation left our toes, which were inside boots cramped together on top of each other's, owing to lack of space.
This was a true mystery tour and became more speculative as we retired further from the line. About 60 miles behind it we came to rest for the night in an old school, where we spent much time stamping back the circulation into our feet.
Second and last meal of the day at 6 p.m. Retired to bed for warmth.
No guns tonight. Rum ration 9 p.m.

13.2.44.
A depressing day when everything that could go wrong did so.
In the morning some of uswas detailed to join a light section under the same Capt....Our section was to set up a Medical Inspection unit for the brigade.
Previously I had prided myself on settling down well in the unit, but now found myself in company with which I had little in common..
As soon as the rest of the company had moved off to another locality Capt..... burst in upon us to exclaim triumphantly that he had offered 100 lire (c. 5/-) for two hams which had been refused. Whereupon he had seized three hams and had the vendor, a woman, arrested by AMGOT (Allied Military Government.) She had become hysterical, he stated. Strangely, he found her behaviour surprising.
His information was greeted with unbounded approval, not because anyone expected any share of the hams, but because it excused their own looting. He even advised them that, "as you are not staying here", pilfering would be permissible.
Fortunately an opportunity arose later for me to ask him how much the hams should cost and to what extent did he consider taking from the Fascists legal.
When we moved to our new destination and opened a sick bay, I was relegated to the wards instead of working in the admissions department.
The next two days on this detachment were unpleasant because our sick bay, with 10 patients, lacked sufficient staff, food and medical equipment. The situation was hopeless and the patients blamed me. After only two nights we were ordered to pack up and we rejoined our unit at 1 p.m. in Lucera..
As we alighted we were told that the unit would be moving in half an hour, but we did manage to eat a small lunch before climbing back into lorries. It was about 4.30 p.m. before the whole convoy moved off.
I landed the unpopular role of enemy plane spotter. This entailed mounting the roof of the lorry above the driver's head and tapping like hell on it if enemy planes approached. Since the month was February and no planes came anywhere near, I was well-nigh frozen within the first half hour.
At about 7.30 p.m. the order was given for the convoy to turn back, and at about 10 .30 p.m. a chilled, half starved procession staggered back to billets in Lucera, under the weight of kit and bedding.
Next morning reveille was at 6 a.m. and we, now reinforced by friends who had returned from another detachment, were ready to move again at 8.a.m.
There followed some two hours of unexplained delay until we were ordered to take another break again until 12 noon, so Leslie Lingard, Prior, Peel and I went for a walk around the town, remarkable for the fact that it actually had a few shops open. We bought bottled cherries, some dried figs and even postcards to send home. We returned to the lorries in a leisurely manner to find that hasty preparations were being made for departure.
Again I mounted the driver's roof as spotter and, now armed with three blankets, steel helmet, jerkin and greatcoat, maintained a precarious position. It was a foregone conclusion that no enemy aircraft would appear. After about an hour snow began to fall and spotters were ordered to vacate their posts. I climbed into the back of an ambulance.
The journey continued until about 10.30 p.m. We had eaten our haversack rations, 3 slices of bread and cheese, at mid-day.
The convoy came to a halt in a snowy village and the NCOs started looking for billets. The officers were having their beds made on the ambulances.
Eventually we were led to billets, but cleared out of them owing to overcrowding, and, by great good luck, were conducted into a different house with, mirabile dictu, a fire burning in the kitchen. Into this room six of us bustled, had our second meal of the day and went to bed. Rum ration issued.
Reveille 5.30 a.m. Travelling again 7.30 a.m. Passed in sight of Vesuvius. Came to rest in a field. Pitched bivouacs at 4.30 p.m. Next day visited Caserta and then Capua.
Stayed near Capua for five days, apparently in reserve) Went off on my own. Shared Capua's Roman amphitheatre with a few goats. We were surprised to meet each other.
Set out for 5th Army front in rain and mud. More rum issued aftera freezing 5 hour journey.

24.2.44.
As a special concession our reveille this morning was a late as 8 a.m. and, since I was awake at the usual earlier hour, I had some time to reflect on the discomforts of the journey.
We had set off at about 1.30 p.m., after placing chains on the lorries to counter deep. treacly mud. This had covered us in moist clay. Next, we had travelled some 15 miles in a lorry where rain poured through the canvas in long streams.
After about another 3 and a half miles we began to dawdle idly up and down the same stretch of road, so that it was nearly dark when we disembarked and were ordered to carry our packs and bedding for a quarter mile over streaming roads and bogged fields.
As we ploughed our way over the fields it was so dark that only occasional lightning
flashes showed us momentarily the puddles through which we were sliding, our streaming greatcoats, soggy forage caps, muddy hands, dripping bedding and boots swollen to almost double their size by brown-yellow mud.
Eventually we reached a small cottage and edged our way up a narrow, irregularly runged ladder to arrive at a garret, low roofed, pock-marked with holes in both floor and ceiling, but, thank God, reasonably dry.
Immediately there was a bustle for sleeping space. I found myself hemmed into a space some 6ft x 2 ft. This included a soap box of acorns, some of which had spilled on to the floor. This was no time for niceties. I spread my bedding over the acorns with alacrity and made ready for sleep. We mostly slept well, except for trouble with rats that threaded in and out between us most of the night.
"Who's that buggering around? Keep your bloody legs to yourself!."
"Didn't touch you. It's a bleeding rat."
"Then get up a boot and bash it!"
What a contrast we found this morning. The sun was already up and shining steadily before we started to queue for breakfast.

26th Feb.
Another dismal day when the ridiculous failed to summon up the necessary humour to overcome it.

27th Feb.
More rain driving relentless upon us. We were banished from the rat-infested garret and ordered to fetch our bivouacs from the lorries and set them up on soggy soil. It was raining only mildly at mid-day, but in the afternoon it poured again. The rain leaked through the bivouac. forming a puddle on my blankets and soaking my small pack. Fortunately Lingard and Prior invited me into one of the two company ridged tents.
Rum issued again. Went to bed damp outside, warm in the inner man.

28th Feb.
Rained again today. In the afternoon an officer called in and asked if we were comfortable in the double ridged tent. Unsuspectingly we said "Yes", adding
that the tent did not leak. Half an hour later he sent orders to us to strike the tent and clear out to the garret. Within two days in the same locality some of us had been ordered from or rained out of three separate quarters.
In moving our belongings the 300 yards to the garret we and our bedding became soaked again . On returning to strike the tent in the rain we became wetter still.
We had difficulty in installing ourselves again in the garret which "B" company had now taken over. Our colonel, to his credit, came along to enquire how we were settling in, but it was quite impossible to relieve the overcrowding, so we spent the night sprawling and tangling on the floor.

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