'Stretcher-bearers': (10) Landing in North Africa and first unit casualties there, including loss of C.O.

Landing in North Africa and first unit casualties there, including the loss of our commanding officer

11 Brigade, Seventy-Eight (Battleaxe) Division, in which 11 Field Ambulance served, attached to the Lancashire Fusiliers, was part of the combined British and American force which invaded North Africa, code name "Torch", on November 8th, 1942.

Account of Donald MacKenzie.

When I left the troopship (a Dutch liner) by scrambling net 15 miles west of Algiers, fortunately the landing was unopposed. We linked up with the infantry, making for Algiers.
We spent most of the day in the town, wondering whether we would be accepted by the French, or not.
We had to wait for our transport to be unloaded before we could move on. Once on the move it was our aim to make for Tunis as quickly as possible
When we reached the small town of Testour our troops had the first contact with the Germans and our first casualties for the majority of the men in A" Coy. These were the first dead they had seen, excluding those killed in France and Belgium.
I took casualties from Testour to a French hospital at Souk-El-Kemis.. I had no idea where our MDS was, perhaps even further back.
On the return journey to Testour I had my first brush with a Messerschmitt since Dunkirk, and of course, it wasn't to be the last, as the Germans controlled the air.
From Testour the infantry fought their way to Medjez and just outside the town we established our ADS in a farm on the Tunis road.
Alex McIver and I were to pick up casualties from the fighting at Tebourba where the Germans eventually brought our dash to capture Tunis to a halt. Among the casualties was one who was blinded. On the way back to Medjez we came on a troop carrier upside-down in a field and a number of injured from the Hampshire regiment. We filled the ambulance and told them we would send an ambulance for the remainder.
The ambulance we sent never came back to us, as the three personnel in it were taken prisoner. I think that this will account for the "three missing" from 11 Field Ambulance, recorded in Battleaxe Weekly Newspaper, 1945.
It was just a couple of days later that the incident involving Col. Butcher happened.
The first member of our unit to be killed in North Africa was the orderly on the water cart. The second was our commanding officer, Lt. Col. Butcher. I always believed I was the last one in A Coy to speak with him.
I had been sent by ambulance to pick up a casualty (Lancashire Fusiliers) from an air attack. I had just checked that the patient was dead when the colonel appeared on the back of a motor bike. He told me to return to the farm and to inform the RSM that no further ambulances were to be on the roads in daylight.
As he was talking a Messerschmitt dived low but did not fire, whether it was out of ammo or had seen the Red Cross on the Ambulance, I don't know, but we were certainly an easy target on that straight stretch of the Medjez-El-Bab to Tunis road.
The German fighters had the freedom of the air at the time, as we had advanced so quickly since landing near Algiers that we were ahead of our support units. At that time it was a dangerous business travelling the roads by daylight.
Col Butcher left me to go forward to some Army Brigade HQ and later that day was killed, 1.12.42. The rumour at the time was that he was killed by a sniper.
The Germans continued to push us back towards Medjez as they became stronger, while we were short of essential support, especially in the air.
HQ Coy moved to a farm west of Medjez, where it remained until the final push for Tunis, while A and B Companies were continually on the move with the infantry as they tried to block gaps in the line. We were supposed to be the First Army. We were never that. We lacked several divisions, both armoured and infantry
HQ Company was kept busy during the Christmas period and the beginning of 1943, when the Americans and Guards tried to dislodge Jerry from Longstop Hill, a notorious area on the road to Tunis. All the casualties came through HQ Company.
When the Germans occupied the Arab villages above Medjez, the town and the farm occupied by our HQ came within artillery range. It was a struggle to hold the Beja- Ouad Zaga- Medjez road in the worst of the winter weather, cold, wet and miserable in January-February, 1943. The tracks turned to mud.
In early April the weather improved . We began reclaiming lost ground. Supplies to and from the front depended on mules.
It was my job to unload the wounded on to any vehicle passing our ADS. While I was
doing this job, a medical officer of the RE who was busy improving the tracks with
bulldozers, saw us evacuating all types of wounded. He suggested that it was a waste of time evacuating the "bomb-happy" (nervous exhaustion, or shell-shock cases), but that they should be kept in the area to get used to the noise of air bursts and mortars. I told him it was our job to evacuate all the wounded to the ADS. He produced a tent for the shell-shocked to stay in. That was fine until the first mortars arrived. Naturally they all scarpered (ran away), leaving us with the problem of rounding them up. Of course, this occurred several times throughout the day.
It was during one of these shellings that Crossley, 11 Field Ambulance, was hit. He failed to reach a slit trench, and received a leg wound.
Later that day we had a visit from Col. Keeling, our new CO, and the ADMS (Assistant Director Medical Services, a "Brass Hat".)
I told the colonel the problems we had with the bomb happy. He said "Dismantle the tent and evacuate everybody in it." While he was talking Jerry threw over two air bursts. The crack from these airbursts made the ADMS and the colonel duck and dive. They were standing with their backs to the explosions and did not see the puffs of smoke from the bursting shells. I remember that they both looked at Robertson and me and left without saying anything further.
We continued to follow the infantry as they cleared the hills and villages with the help of Churchill tanks.
When the job was completed towards the end of April, '43, the division was withdrawn and did not take part in the final push for Tunis.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.