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Description: | Two ms diaries (148pp, March 1943 - April 1944) recording his experiences as an officer with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, including the journey past Gibraltar to North Africa in the troopship SS JAMARAO and landing at Algiers, Algeria (March 1943); active service with the 98th General Hospital in Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily and Italy (March 1943 - January 1944), including attachments to the 96th General Hospital in Algiers (March 1943), the 8th CCS (June 1943, preparing for the invasion of Pantellaria which is cancelled), and the 33rd General Hospital (Sicily, September1943 - October 1943) and hospitalisation sick in the 70th General Hospital (Sicily, September 1943) and the 11th Convalescent Depot (Sicily, October 1943 - November 1943); and the 54th General Hospital in Bari, Italy (January 1944 - April 1944) and commenting on the air raids; the poor conditions; the rotten food; high prices; poverty of the local children; the lack of news from his pregnant wife; the mail; politics; his fellow officers and the chaplains; his duties and routine; the types of cases and treatments dealt with, including the high prevalence of malaria; his low opinion of the army, the high command and the RAMC; relations with the Americans, French colonials and Arabs; mistreatment of animals; his off-duty entertainment, notably climbing in the Atlas mountains, playing bridge and chess, sight-seeing, sun-bathing, swimming and reading; the poor treatment of the British troops compared with the US Army; drunken parties in the mess; the progress of the war; his homesickness and weariness of the war; Italian prisoners of war who work for him; the damage caused by the war; the heavy casualties; the lack of success at Cassino (March 1944) compared with the successes of the Soviet Army; and his own ill-health; and mentioning his brother who is captured (September 1943). Also included are his two ms notes (17 pp, July 1943 and undated); his ts official demobilisation papers (9pp, March 1946 - May 1946); his ms airgraph letter with "Christmas Greetings" to his children (1p, ?December ?1944) and 26 photographs (undated) relating to his RAMC service; also included are a ts Certificate with a photograph and red seal (1p) from the Italian Consulate in Glasgow, August 1918, certifying that his father, an Italian immigrant, was born in Italy and is unfit for military service; an undated ts Certificate of Employment during the War (Army Form Z.18, 2pp) relating to his father's service as a private with the 3rd Battalion Manchester Regiment; and an ms letter (4pp), April 1943, from his brother, a corporal in the 8th Platoon, A Company, 7th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders following a transfer from the Black Watch, complaining about the mail, describing the war "as an nightmare", and hoping to eventually get home.
Cataloguer SNR
Catalogue date 2002-06-12 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | 11th Convalescent Depot 98th General Hospital 70th General Hospital 96th General Hospital 54th General Hospital British Army Royal Army Medical Corps 8th Casualty Clearing Station | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Porchetta, B O | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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