Canadian Military History
Volume 9 Issue 4 Article 2
2000
On the Beach and in the Bag: The Fate of Dieppe Casualties Left Behind
Charles G. Roland McMaster University
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh
Part of the Military History Commons
Recommended Citation Roland, Charles G. "On the Beach and in the Bag: The Fate of Dieppe Casualties Left Behind." Canadian Military History 9, 4 (2000)
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Roland: On the Beach and in the Bag
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000 1 Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 4, Art. 2
On the Beach and in the Bag The Fate of Dieppe Casualties Left Behind
Charles G. Roland
hen the last Allied ships drew away from No. 11 Canadian Field Ambulance had been the beaches of Dieppe on 19 August 1942, selected and trained with the main Dieppe W forces, the plan being to supplement the they left behind over 2,700 of the 4,963 regimental stretcher-bearers with sections of Canadians who had embarked on the raid: 807 11th CFA. Each section of the field ambulance men were dead, including four Royal Canadian was composed of an officer and 11 men. Their Army Medical Corps [RCAMC] medical orderlies, equipment was thoroughly supervised and an and 1,946 (including four Canadian Medical attempt was made to provide what was most Officers (MOs), a chaplain, and at least 11 suitable. Special packs consisting largely of shell dressings, morphine, sulpha drugs and plasma RCAMC medical orderlies and 48 accredited were provided, and the equipment was divided stretcher-bearers) were abandoned to German so that each man had some of it to transport.3 captivity on the beaches and environs.1 As Lord Lovat wrote decades after the event, “the raid Four tank landing craft and two large flak landing was an exceedingly bitter experience, learnt the craft were selected and equipped for handling hard way.”2 casualties. Each of the four tank landing craft carried two medical officers and several medical It is to the fate of these nearly two thousand orderlies, and each of the flak landing craft, one men, and in particularly the 568 who had been medical officer plus medical orderlies. The flak wounded and then captured, that this article is landing craft were to be grounded on the beaches devoted. Many of the survivors faced lengthy one hour before the withdrawal was due to begin. hospitalization and rehabilitation, frequently Once loaded, each craft had a capacity of 100 under the care of POW medical personnel rather casualties on stretchers and 60 walking than German doctors. The account of that wounded to return to the United Kingdom for medical treatment is one of the untold stories of transfer to hospitals. But, the Dieppe raid. none of this happened. From time to time the Medical Planning tank landing craft, which lay well out to sea awaiting the call to go in, answered urgent requests from destroyers and gun boats for iven that Dieppe was intended to be a raid medical officers, orderlies and supplies, and that Gof only a few hours’ duration, the medical was the total of their participation. At ten planning was not complicated. Typical, perhaps, minutes to nine o’clock, as soon as it had become were the instructions for the South clear to the Naval and Military Force Saskatchewan Regiment: Commanders that the beaches were not securely held, the four hospital tank landing craft were O p p o site :- ordered to return to port. Of the two large flak landing craft one did good service as a medical Top: The beach at Dieppe immediately following ship, and the other was sunk.4 the raid on 19 August 1942. B ottom : A Canadian soldier with head wound is By 0430 hours the first casualties had begun to helped by one of his comrades following their come aboard HMS Calpe and HMS Fernie, even capture at Dieppe, 19 August 1942. though these ships were destroyers, not hospital
© Canadian Military History, Volume 9, Number 4, Autumn 2000, pp.6-25. 7 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss4/2 2 Roland: On the Beach and in the Bag CWM 19830136-001#8
ships. Destroyers have little surplus space under location by 10th Canadian Field Ambulance, but any conditions, but the equipment required to when it was learned late on the 19th that most transform a Hunt-class destroyer such as the of the casualties were arriving on board the Calpe into a headquarters ship further limited destroyers at Portsmouth, 10th Field Ambulance the space that might have been allotted to the and No.2 Canadian Motor Ambulance Convoy wounded. moved there with all haste and were fully ready w hen Fernie an d Calpe arrived early on 20 Nevertheless, much of the immediate care August. Casualties arriving at Newhaven were of casualties was carried out on destroyers, cared for by 8th Canadian Field Ambulance. prim arily Calpe and Fernie, as well as on the Ultimately, all casualties were transported to 7th gunboat Locust. Calpe attempted to cope with Canadian General Hospital.6 278 wounded men plus her own substantial number of casualties. Space in the wardroom Immediate Care of Casualties and in the after mess-deck was soon occupied and, after that, the wounded lay out on the decks -eatment of the wounded on the beaches with little or no protection and many suffered followed standard lines where possible, additional wounds. Goronwy Rees, General T though frequently it was not. The extraordinarily Montgomery’s liaison officer, described the heavy enemy fire prevented many of the medical casualties being brought aboard HMS Garth as personnel from performing their duties. “the grey, lifeless faces of men whose vitality had Nevertheless, much was achieved under been drained out of them...The ship’s medical appallingly difficult conditions. One Canadian officer tried desperately to improvise who was involved in getting injured compatriots arrangements for blood transfusions which were under cover and into the hands of the regimental far beyond his resources.”5 Like the other ships, medical officers on White Beach was Honourary Garth took the wounded aboard to capacity. Captain John Foote, padre of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, who subsequently received the Planning in the United Kingdom for the Victoria Cross for his courageous and selfless reception of the expected casualties was efforts. necessarily somewhat more elaborate. The main reception point was to have been Stokes Bay near Captain D. Wesley Clare, RCAMC, was also Portsmouth, with Newhaven as a secondary site. on White Beach where he found fire so intense The main dressing station was set up at the first that it was impossible to seek out the wounded. 8
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000 3 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss4/2 tan k landing craft th at h ad floated in broadside broadside in floated ad h at th craft landing k tan H becam e c a su a ltie s them selves. “As my one one my “As selves. them s ltie a su a c to e en m becam 13 d a h n attalio b His beach. the to beach, and my sergeant was evacuated an hour hour an evacuated was quickly ey sergeant ith my r th w u and fo t en u b m of beach, r - u h c fo a e pany d m an co to o lare rs tw C rte a - u d n q a d a e id h t-a ies, an p firs m co e s n e p is d later on a craft th at landed the FMR [Les Fusiliers Fusiliers [Les FMR the the landed at th reaching craft a on after later shortly killed as w corporal b atm an stretcher-bearer. The w ounded h ad to to craft.”7 ad our h behind my ounded w d helped The be an or an selves m them aid help first stretcher-bearer. an one atm ad b h I Mont-Royal],
Photo from author's collection done. be could work medical little at th intense so e set up his aid post in the lee of a derelict derelict a of lee the in post aid his up set e On Blue Beach, in front of Puys, the fire was was fire the of Puys, front in Beach, Blue On Canadian MilitaryHistory,Vol.9[2000],Iss.4,Art.2 w ith a sectio n of th e 11th C a n a d ian Field Field ian d a n a C 11th e th of n sectio a ith w Am bulance in su p p o rt of the Royal Regiment of of Regiment Royal the of rt o p p su in bulance Am Captain Charles Robertson, RCAMC, who landed landed who RCAMC, Robertson, Charles Captain w asn’t anything medically th at I or anybody else else anybody Ior at th medically anything asn’t w beach, the onto venture to possible im literally treated until after the surrender. “Really there there “Really surrender. be the could cover after er d n u until already treated was casualties It fire. only y so enem by down pinned was anada, C did,” R obertson recalled. “You su re w eren’t out out eren’t w re su “You recalled. obertson R did,” w ounded Royals. He w as u n d er cover, b u t the the the t u of b e cover, som er d for n u as w care He to Royals. able ounded as w w Laird R.R. ntebeach.”8 b the on badly w ounded himself; the lanyard from his his from lanyard the himself; ounded w badly casualties h ad to get to him since he h ad been been ad h he since him to get to ad h casualties lea v in g one e n d h a n g in g o u t e a c h sid e. e. sid h c a e anada.9 C to t u o repatriated g thigh in g n eventually his a h as w h g u Laird d n ro e th n one blow g in been v lea d a h revolver Ultimately, his leg h ad to be am putated, and and putated, am be to ad h leg his Ultimately, On an o th er p a rt of Blue Beach, L ieutenant ieutenant L Beach, Blue of rt a p er th o an On t i olowi he Dipe raid. ieppe D e th g in w llo fo n tio n tte a an sol ers recei ng medi l a ic d e m g in iv e c e r s r ie ld o s n ia d a n a C d e d n u o W
4 Roland: On the Beach and in the Bag Photofrom author's collection, courtesy Dr. D.W. Clare.
Above: Canadian prisoners formed up on a street in Dieppe. Front row left is Honourary Captain John Foote, the padre of the Hamilton Light Infantry, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry in tending to the wounded during the raid. Front row right is Captain D. Wesley Clare, a medical officer who landed on White Beach.
L eft: Canadian soldiers being marched into captivity.
The Men Left Behind
nce the white flag had been raised, O immediate efforts were made to treat the Captain F.W. Hayter, MO of the South wounded. Generally, the Germans behaved Saskatchewans, established his regimental aid correctly and assisted the wounded men in post well off the beach at Pourville. The majority various ways. Sometimes no more than a sip of of his casualties were re-embarked under heavy water or a lighted cigarette, these were fire and Hayter himself was able to return to nevertheless appreciated gestures. Dressings England unscathed. He gave particular praise were applied, morphine administered, makeshift to the regimental stretcher-bearers, who stretchers rigged, and slowly the beaches began performed prodigiously under heavy fire: “The to be cleared. For some men, succour was majority of casualties among the stretcher- delayed after RAF fighter-bombers swept along bearers occurred while they were carrying the beach after the surrender. The Germans wounded across the beach, some of them making stopped picking up the wounded at this time, repeated trips.”10 and at least one man lay there until dusk.12 The MO for the Queen’s Own Cameron Some Canadians found the initial attention Highlanders of Winnipeg, Captain Brackman, their wounded mates received was cursory was severely wounded. Seen floating face down indeed. Lucien Dumais was quite critical: in the water, he was recovered and returned with the other casualties to England. At Bemeval, the Enfin, un medecin arrive pour voir les blesses. MO with the commandos, Sam Corry, had both Sa visite n’est qu’un simulacre. II regarde une legs broken by machine-gun bullets. And Captain dizaine de blesses et, sans avoir touche un seul Laurence Alexander, MO with the Calgary Tanks, pansement, ni essaye de soulanger qui que ce was blown off a landing craft by a near miss. soit, ni envisage de les diriger vers un hopital, il repart! Ils vont done passer la nuit avec nous Climbing back on, he continued to care for the dans ce chan tier!13 w ounded.11
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000 5 Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 4, Art. 2
Furthermore, there are reports that some of the Germans had permitted them to provide the men wounded were executed by Germans after the with drinking water and to help care for their surrender. Jack Poolton (Royal Regiment of wounds. Canada) stated that at Puys, In this immediate post-battle stage, there were two German officers down there emergency medical care was provided by the actually shooting the worst of the wounded, Canadians, German military personnel, and putting them out of their misery. I actually saw French civilians. Instances are recorded of this one German officer shoot at least three. He was putting bullets through their foreheads. German troops carrying wounded on stretchers, Even though I realised they were doing it as an though commonly the Germans had fit act of mercy, I didn’t want to see any more Canadians carry their wounded comrades. One because it made me sick. man remembers “walking through broken glass carrying wounded up to the hospital in Dieppe. ”'s No other writer seems to have documented this For those who survived, more substantial aid event, but Poolton twice confirmed his account.14 would be given in various hospitals. Certainly killing badly wounded men as a sort of euthanasia was not outside the boundaries of 1. H ospitals known behaviour by German and Japanese forces during the Second World War. A British ie first wounded Canadians seem to have surgeon captured at Arnhem recorded a T arrived at l’Hotel-Dieu, the main hospital in conversation he had with SS medical officers: Dieppe, about noon on the 19th. One of the “Only the simpler casualties are worth bothering sisters saw that they had no medical officers, so about, the ones which will live until they reach a French physician and a nursing sister were the base. Any other approach is sentimentality, requested. Soon the mother superior was n ot surgery. For the rest? Well, in this Division assisting them herself. She also arranged for the we have a useful equation: ‘Bauchschuss Oder sisters in the hospital pharmacy to provide Kopfschuss - SpritzenF [Belly wound or head compresses, bandages, syringes, needles, and wound - Morphia Injection!]”15 ampules of medicine. Oil of camphor was injected in an attempt to stimulate the heart, an Trooper John Lerigo, of No.3 Commando, intern gave tetanus shots, and the sisters brought reported that he saw Germans bayoneting the food from the hospital gardens. During the night wounded. This seems to describe not euthanasia of 19/20 August, the Canadians, fit and wounded, but rather simple murder. And what may have were removed from l’Hotel-Dieu. By morning, been a near miss has also been recorded from only eight of the most severely wounded No. 4 Commando, where medical orderly James remained. One had a fractured skull.19 Other Pasquale was one of six whom the Germans lined casualties were taken first to l’Hotel Rhin. Some up against a ditch. “They never said anything had first aid carried out there, but then most of but it was obvious what was going to happen.” these men went either to l’Hotel Dieu or to the However, a nattily dressed German officer came railway station.20 along and interceded.16 Probably on the evening of 19 August, By mid-afternoon of 19 August, perhaps 500 Captain Charles Robertson accompanied his Canadian POWs had been collected in a park wounded colleague, Captain R.R. “Pinky” Laird, adjacent to the German military hospital on RCAMC, in an ambulance to the Dieppe railway Dieppe’s Avenue Pasteur. Here, presumably, station. There Robertson was commandeered by many of the wounded received some medical a German medical officer to assist in the triage attention, at least to the extent of applying or of the many hundreds of wounded, separating changing dressings. The Germans requisitioned the seriously wounded from less serious cases local ambulances to transport the worst of the and directing German stretcher-bearers to take injured, especially German soldiers. In general, them to different trains.21 The so-called “light “les blesses anglais sont a pied,” though this wounded” were sent to Verneuil, the more same Dieppois also reported seeing a wounded seriously wounded to hospitals in Rouen. Fit Canadian POW being moved by ambulance.17 At POWs, and many light wounded who preferred Berneval-le-Grand, the wounded prisoners had to stay with their friends, were marched first to been well treated, chiefly by the inhabitants. The
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss4/2 6 Roland: On the Beach and in the Bag
Envermeu, and then, after interrogation, to a treatment for his own shrapnel wounds in the transit camp at Verneuil, 130 kilometres south calf. He found that his duty was to hold down of Dieppe. soldiers while they were operated on. “We were anaesthetists, one for each arm and one for each Many of the wounded had some surgical care leg. Either there were no anaesthetics or the there before going on to POW hospitals or camps. Germans did not want to waste them on us.”23 The injured men were transported by truck or train, so at least were spared walking. At In assessing any such claim, it must be kept Verneuil, the three fit Canadian MOs, Robertson, in mind that much rough and ready treatment Walmsley, and Clare, and at least one German is carried out in emergency situations involving doctor spent two days removing pieces of large numbers of casualties. The Germans not shrapnel under local anaesthetic, setting only had responsibility thrust on them for 600 fractures, and suturing wounds. Allied casualties, but they also had 326 of their own wounded who required care.24 No local Other survivors were sent to Rouen on 19 military medical establishment can cope August, making the trip in railway boxcars or instantaneously and effectively with more than trucks. Many veterans have painful memories 900 casualties, many very severe, that have been of their immediate medical care, especially the sustained in a few hours’ fighting in a small severely wounded. This is hardly surprising. geographical area. In cases where the wounds Often they had multiple injuries, and some men are (from the comfort of the historian’s armchair) are still incensed, 50 years later, that all of their “minor” in nature, treatment is usually cursory wounds were not cared for at this stage. One in the initial stages. This triage occurs in peace man, whose leg was ultimately amputated at as in war, and whether casualties are friend or Rouen, criticized the care he received. Wounds foe. Moreover, there were apparently cultural in his arm and his head were not treated at all, differences in the use of anaesthesia. A British though the Germans did put a cast on his leg.22 surgeon left behind at Dunkirk observed this, noting that a Belgian surgeon was inclined “to According to more than one veteran, at least do things without or with insufficient some of the patients treated at Rouen had anaesthetic. High standard anaesthetics were a surgical procedures done without anaesthesia. British luxury not to be found on the Continent Robert Prouse of the Canadian Provost Corps in the years between the wars.”25 worked in the Rouen hospital after receiving
Canadian wounded await treatment following the raid. C \VM 19830136-001 # 18 19830136-001\VM C #
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000 7 Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 4, Art. 2
Finally, three Canadians (Captain Robert supplied with food and other necessities. Food Hainault of Montreal, Corporal Melville Parker was on some occasions denied to the POWs; of Toronto, and Private Adelard de Seve of when a group of German Red Cross workers at Montreal) and one Briton received treatment at one railway station tried to give them food and the Hopital de la Pitie in Paris after their initial drink, the guards knocked the food from their evaluation at Dieppe and immediate surgery at hands. Sometimes conditions in the boxcars Rouen.26 Parker and de Seve made the trip from were truly barbarous. One member of the Royals Rouen to Paris on 26 August 1942, but Hainault found the trip a nightmare in which he was was not transferred until 10 November, wracked by hallucinations. Among his several presumably because of the severity of his injuries, he had been struck in the back; “in the injuries. The four men were housed in a fairly hallucinations the Germans had me and there large isolation ward in one of the buildings of were coils of barbed wire and they had the small the hospital, in the Maxillo-Facial Department. of my back bent backwards over this pile of According to the Red Cross, the accommodation barbed wire and they were wrapping wire all and food were “in every respect excellent and around my right shoulder.” Later he found the exactly similar to those to be found in an cause of his hallucinatory state. He had been absolutely up-to-date Parisian hospital, which heavily dosed with morphine by his own officers, is now being used by the German army for the on the principle that he was not going to live care of its own soldiers.”27 Parker’s disfiguring anyway. “Might as well put the poor bugger out facial wounds required restorative surgery, of his misery.”30 which he received from a German medical officer at La Pitie who was a specialist in this field.28 One of the British medical officers who saw Clearly, these three men received medical the Canadians arrive at Obermassfeld had quite attention of a standard that probably would not unpleasant recollections of their state about eight have been surpassed in the UK. to ten days after the Dieppe Raid: “These people just fell out — absolutely whacked. Covered in 2. Transportation excreta and in a terrible state. They’d been in there for days. Things we’d read about, and he Germans provided varied means of impossible to describe — the stench, the horror, T transportation to move the casualties away the tragedy of it all.”31 from Dieppe and its environs, and from Verneuil and Rouen into Germany. Excepting some 3. Prisoner of War Camps severely wounded who remained longer in Dieppe hospitals, many of the men, wounded n one respect, the Dieppe POWs were and unwounded, left the city on the 19th. Iparticularly fortunate - if they had to be prisoners at all - to enter captivity in 1942. By When they left Rouen, some fortunate men - the middle of this year the general level of health a minority - were transported by hospital train. of POWs in German and Italian hands reached For most, the accommodation was more austere. its highest point in the entire war. Many POWs From Verneuil, all the wounded seem to have made statements to this effect. One of these was been moved in boxcars, an unpleasant surprise Lieutenant-Colonel Leslie Le Soeuf, an for the Canadian MOs who had been looking Australian MO captured on Crete, who spent the after them, and a grim and painful time for the remainder of the war in the bag. In his memoir wounded. After treating over 250 casualties with he published a graph showing swings in the state minimal equipment, the MOs were shocked to of health of western POWs during these years. find that the serious stretcher cases were to be My research suggests that this chart has broad transported in this way. In one boxcar, 21 applicability as a generalization.32 [see chart on stretcher cases were crowded in with four next page.] Canadian medical orderlies and Captains Clare and Robertson.29 a. Lamsdorf
Though travelling by cattle car was standard ie majority of the fit NCOs and Other Ranks practice for European armies, POWs moved in T from Dieppe, along with a substantial this way were usually overcrowded and under proportion of the light wounded, went to
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss4/2 8 Roland: On the Beach and in the Bag
LEOEIMO
------PRISONERS IN GERMAN HANDS 1 NORMAL HEALTH ------PRISONERS IN ITALIAN HANDS 2 BELOW AVERAGE STANDARD 3 LOW STANDARD OP NUTRITION A NEARING END OF ENDURANCE Relative health of Western POWs in German captivity, 1940-1945
Lamsdorf (now Lambinowice in western Poland). challenge their capacity to improvise. Moreover, Stalag 8B, the division of the huge Stalag 8 the working conditions at Lamsdorf acted to complex that held the Canadians, the British, improve care for the wounded and the sick: and other western Allied POWs, was itself a very large camp.-33 In 1944, this camp was designated we were on duty 24 hours a day, you see.. .You Stalag 344. It held at various times between were there on call at any time. Which didn't 10,000 and 20,000 POWs, with more in various matter because there was nothing else to do. But work kommandos attached administratively to it meant that people got quick treatment whereas, even in an ordinary hospital, they might the camp. At various times there were also have had to wait a while till a night sister came internal compounds where special groups were a ro u n d .35 held in segregation from the rest of the camp. Supplies of all kinds were chronically scarce in There was a revier (medical inspection the hospital and revier. As a consequence, the room) within the camp, and also a lazaret, or orderlies used to break into the German supply hospital, in its own enclosure outside the main area to steal what was required. “We had a laddie camp wire. This hospital, into which the most with us who was a professional burglar. He could severely wounded Canadians went, had six open any door, and he was m ost useful.”36 wards, each in a separate building, and was an efficient facility that passed one of the crucial When the Canadian wounded arrived, many tests: despite potential problems with were burdened with plaster casts that had been sterilization, it had little sepsis, except for applied at Dieppe, Rouen, or Verneuil, and by wounds that came in already infected. this time these were pus-soaked and stinking. One patient was especially memorable: asked In addition to the MOs, there were trained where he was wounded, he replied that his right British medical orderlies who worked on the arm was all right. Though the medical staff various wards for about three months at a time, thought he had misunderstood or was being rotating so that no one was too long exposed to smart, when they examined him they found he diseases such as tuberculosis.34 These orderlies had been quite literal; his right arm and only seem to have provided a high level of care on his right arm was all right. He had 21 wounds the wards. Many of them had been well trained scattered about the rest of his body.37 in their special field before the war, and since capture they had had years of work under first- In general, there were correct, though not rate medical officers to hone their skills and cordial, relations between the POW medical staff
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000 9 Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 4, Art. 2
Clandestine photograph of operating room scene in the lazaret of Stalag 8B, Lamsdorf, ca. 1943, showing fem ur being sawn through in an upper-leg amputation.
and the German staff doctors. The POW doctors consequence, there was a major outbreak of were allowed full liberty in the professional chilblains, rheumatic disorders, and chest treatment of their patients. Although it was diseases.41 impossible to obtain medical instruments in Germany, the British doctors had their own sets 4. POW H ospitals of instrum ents.38 W ehrkreis 8 also had an impressive prosthesis program that included not hatever the deficiencies of the German POW only a laboratory, but also a close working Whospital system may have been in 1942, it relationship with a professional German was a better system than had existed in 1940. prosthetic engineer in a neighbouring town. When large numbers of British and French soldiers became POWs in France and Belgium, b. Molsdorf, Miihlhausen, and Eichstatt the best the Germans could do was to leave captured medical units intact, and permit them iree other camps also housed Canadians to use their own supplies and equipment to get T from Dieppe. Stalag 9C Molsdorf was almost on with their work. As one repatriated medical a transit camp. The men sent there arrived just officer put it, “I think I can fairly say that at this before the end of August 1942, and on 20 stage, following the invasion and fall of France, September, they were moved because of repeated no medical organization had been worked out escape attempts. They travelled by boxcar to by the Germans for prisoners.”42 Miihlhausen, where they occupied a new and supposedly escape-proof building.39 Only light For the Dieppe casualties, especially the most wounded were received here; nothing in their severe, Wehrkreis 9 was the German defence treatment stands out as significantly different area they came to know well. This was the from other camps. Finally, 117 Canadians territory bound, roughly, by Frankfurt-am-Main captured at Dieppe (97 officers, including four in the west, Stuttgart in the south, Leipzig to the who were wounded, and 20 ordortnances or east, and Kassel to the north. It included medical orderlies) were in Oflag 7B Eichstatt in the facilities for POWs at Obermassfeld, Kloster autumn of 1942.40 Eichstatt was severely Haina, BadSoden/Salmiinster, Flildburghausen, overcrowded and, though the men were generally Stadtroda, and Egendorf. in good health, the winter of 1942-43 was bitterly cold and the supply of coal was scanty. As a
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss4/2 10 Roland: On the Beach and in the Bag
a. Obermassfeld German quartermaster sold S e k t (sparkling wine) to the medical officers, on the principle bout 180 of the most severely wounded that the intended consumers, the civilians of Dieppe survivors were sent to the 400-bed A Obermassfeld, were not used to such luxury, and POW hospital at Obermassfeld, a few kilometres besides he could make some money this way.44 south of Meiningen. The building had been an But despite this comfortably civilized beginning, agricultural or forestry school before the war, Obermass-feld POW Hospital seems never to but in the autumn of 1940 the Germans have been a happy institution, largely because designated it a POW hospital, one of several of an active and interfering Abw ehr detachment created to provide care for the many casualties that was determined to search and investigate captured at the fall of France. whatever seemed appropriate. As one orderly One of the British medical officers who recalled, “sanitaters [German medical orderlies] helped establish the hospital arrived just before maintained an almost constant patrol through Christmas 1940. The building was empty, and the whole place purely to ensure that internal had large dormitories that eventually made discipline according to their rules was abided suitable wards. The site was in the country, and by to the hilt. Those found transgressing often one feature marked it as being different from found themselves in a stone cell for a week. Even most other POW hospitals in Germany: there a double amputation case once went through the punishment.”45 was a dairy factory, the Molcherei, adjacent which provided the building with abundant heat. Life at Obermassfeld was made unpleasant “We were centrally heated from the factory, and for both medical staff and patients by the rigid we were very well heated. In fact it was almost stance of the Chejarzt, Hauptmann Dr. Martin too powerful. But it was very comforting. We Falke. He took charge in early 1942 and proved never suffered from the cold in the winter, and to be “most difficult to deal with,” in the words we always had hot water.”43 of a British dental officer who was SBMO [Senior On the whole, the medical staff found British Medical Officer] for a short period that Obermassfeld reasonably satisfactory. The summer. The C hejarzt assumed dictatorial powers and “gave certain orders which I could
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000 11 Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 4, Art. 2
only obey under protest and which were clearly medical orderlies was general, from patients and infringements of the Geneva Convention relating from the medical officers.49 to Prisoners of War.”46 By July 1942, Falke had forced this officer out and Major G.D. Hadley, b. K loster Haina RAMC, took over. ne of the more interesting POW medical Hadley was the SBMO when about one-third Oestablishments was at Kloster Haina, a of the Canadian casualties reached small village east of Frankfurt-am-Main, in a Obermassfeld in August 1942. An RAMC medical former Cistercian Abbey that Philip the orderly at Obermassfeld remembered their Magnanimous converted into a mental hospital arrival clearly: four centuries earlier.50 Kloster Haina existed as a POW establishment only from the spring of Most of the [Dieppe casualties] reached us still 1942 until October 1943, though it had a much with the original field or shell dressings applied longer and continuing existence as an insane to their injuries.. .A num ber of them were in very asylum. Part of the building was used for the poor shape. All our fellows sprang to action, surgeons working flat out, orderlies lifting wounded POWs, while some of the remaining themselves to new heights of endeavour. For once sections continued in their original function.51 the harshly imposed rules of lights out at nine o’clock were waived and operations went on Through the efforts of St. Dunstan’s (a through the night and the following night.47 training school for the blind in the United Kingdom), the British Red Cross, the Order of Also extremely helpful for the Dieppe casualties St. John of Jerusalem, the ICRC, the YMCA, and was the existence of a functioning blood two Allied POWs, Major David L. Charters, transfusion service at Obermassfeld, with RAMC, an ophthalmic surgeon from Liverpool medical staff and convalescent patients as the who was captured in Greece, and Lieutenant the donors. When the Canadians arrived on a French Marquess of Normanby, of the Green Howards, ambulance train, they had been badly neglected. who was wounded and captured near Dunkirk, Two teams of surgeons operated continuously the POW hospital was established as a for more than 24 hours; blood transfusions were convalescent centre specializing in POWs blinded needed often, and fortunately were available. The as a result of wounds.52 All anglophone blind Canadians were also greatly aided by the fact POWs were collected here, along with a large that they arrived in hospital after a short, albeit number of amputees. The original German staff painful, battle and thus retained the full benefit was headed by the Chefarzt, Stabsarzt Dr. Erich of their excellent physical condition. Zeiss, with an Assistantarzt, Oberarzt Dr. Helmuth Jung. The SBMO in the summer of Although a few of the Canadians succumbed 1942 was Major John Chapel, RAMC.53 to their wounds and ensuing complications, the majority did well at Obermassfeld. They had the When Charters arrived at Kloster Haina in benefit of first-rate medical and surgical care, June 1942, the blind school had five teachers despite the deficiencies of supplies and ministering to 40 blind POWs. At that time, equipment that plagued all German POW Kloster Haina held 246 British patients (housed establishments. When the International separately in two wings of the main building), Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] visited 200 French patients, and 600 German lunatics Obermassfeld in October 1942, they found that in separate quarters.54 Despite the specialist Major Hadley had ten other medical officers to interests of Charters, most of the patients at this assist him in running the hospital. The wards new camp were amputees, including many were large and well ventilated, with double-tier Canadians, a few RCAF POW casualties before beds for the ORs and, in the officers’ ward, single Dieppe and many survivors of the raid from beds. The operating room was described as September 1942 on. “primitive but clean.” New instruments were needed, however. The x-ray installation was “very In September, the patient population had satisfactory.”48 Finally, morale was good, thanks increased to 382, plus four MOs, eight medical in large part to the medical staff. Praise for the orderlies, one masseur, two blind teachers, one hard work and dedication of the British Army padre, and an orderly. Almost half the patients
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss4/2 12 Roland: On the Beach and in the Bag
Clandestine photograph showing limb-making department at Stalag 8B, Lamsdorf,..ca. 1944. P OW in right foreground is Arthur Weston, who established this department under the guidance of Lieutenant-Colonel T.H. Wilson, RAMC, the Senior British Medical Officer in the camp.
were Canadian. Conditions were less than ideal. finally, every 15 days they were visited by Major The supply of surgical instruments and other Bill Tucker, a British orthopaedic specialist. On medical equipment and supplies was deficient his recommendation, patients who needed for what Dr. Charters had been assured would treatment not available at Kloster Haina were be “the only ophthalmologic centre for prisoners sent to Obermassfeld or to a German Special of war in Germany.”55 By all accounts, Charters Lazaret.57 did effective work with what was available. Many of the non-medical problems Modern facilities needed for the experienced at Kloster Haina seem to have rehabilitation of amputees were also scarce. stemmed from a common source - the Chefarzt, Improvisation provided much, not only Dr. Jung, who had taken over command from rehabilitative apparatus, but also prostheses Dr. Zeiss. Jung had imposed strict rules themselves. At least one Canadian from Dieppe, preventing not only the patients but also the Howard Large of the Essex Scottish Regiment, medical staff from moving about in the evening. an amputee whose leg was removed at This restriction complicated the work of the Obermassfeld, occupied himself over many long doctors and orderlies, who had to send for a months by devising functional, if Rube guard - not always available - to allow them to Goldbergesque, artificial limbs in concert with go and see their patients. Moreover, Jung’s policy several other volunteers.56 had one effect that impacted on everyone in the institution; it made common recreations In the last months of 1942, some impossible, especially the organization of organization took place in providing concerts and other shows, and also prevented rehabilitation services to amputees. Nine the men from taking part in study courses.58 medical orderlies and three masseurs were available to work with the 200-plus amputees. This matter of collective punishment, itself ICRC representatives reported that a room for a contravention of the Geneva Convention, was “mecconotherapy,” or physical therapy, had been a major issue. The SBMO pointed out that, after set up with apparatus made by the POWs. an attempted escape by two officers (one Moreover, a Captain Laurie, who had been a Canadian and one American), Jung placed teacher in physical training at Aberdeen before restrictions on the hospital as a whole. These the war, had volunteered to go to Kloster Haina included not issuing Red Cross food, closing all and supervise the rehabilitation program. And windows, except fanlights, closing all exits into
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000 13 Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 4, Art. 2
the courtyard, and forbidding all exercise in the had a capacity of 95 beds, and internal medicine, open air. An ICRC inspector noted that the two with 15 beds, was allotted a building called “escapers” had not even left the hospital Karolinenburg. The patient wards had from four buildings but merely spent the night in another to 14 iron beds which, the inspectors found, had block. Thus he found it “particularly unjust and “animal hair mattresses, two sheets and two hard that the above restrictions should as woollen blankets.” The sheets were changed collective punishment also be imposed on every three or four weeks, “more often if prisoners who could never hope to escape or necessary.”64 Hot water existed in good supply, even think of it, such as the totally blind or most hot baths or showers were available at least once of the amputees.”59 a week, and there was a hot-air apparatus for disinfecting clothing and bedding. Despite these kinds of petty oppression, the spirit of the men was in general excellent. One Food was basically adequate, though some patient, a Canadian from the Essex Scottish, complaints stemmed from the heavy use of cherishes a group photograph taken at Kloster caraway seed as a flavouring. The food was Haina. He had had a leg amputated, as had a prepared by German personnel, and no control large number of the POWs shown. But, as he was exercised by the POWs. Nor were the pointed out, he was easy to find because he had contents of Red Cross parcels accepted by the carefully seated himself next to the one man who kitchen for incorporation into the cooked meals, was a double amputee. The picture was to be as was done at most POW hospitals. On the other sent home, so his mother could see that he was hand, about 20 patients received dietary far from being the most seriously injured.60 supplements from the kitchens, including white bread, wheat flakes, rolled oats, and soup, on Again, as at Obermassfeld, local German the prescription of the POW MOs.65 Unlike the bureaucracy and petty meanness could not patients, the medical staff had facilities prevent the men from obtaining high-quality permitting them to prepare their own food to medical and nursing care. And for the vast their liking. majority of the men they received this care from fellow POWs. We know a little about specific medical methods used at this lazaret and, by Kloster Haina was closed in late October extrapolation, we can assume their general use 1943, after the majority of the POW patients went with Canadian and other POWs. Men who had home in the first large repatriation. The diarrhoea were treated with calomel (a mercuric remaining patients and medical staff were compound of considerable antiquity), animal transferred to Bad Soden/Salmunster.81 charcoal, and milk. The physician who observed this treatment noted that it “would be classed c. Hildburghausen as good by the German doctor,” but it was not as effective as drug therapies then available - hen the Dieppe casualties arrived at but not in German POW camps. At this same W Hildburghausen in August/September lazaret a diabetic POW had been 25 days without 1942, they found a small POW hospital that had insulin, which the Germans could not or would been in existence since soon after the fall of not supply, and which had been requested from Dunkirk. The first medical officer there, who Geneva.66 remained as SBMO until the middle of 1943, was Lieutenant-Colonel T. Henry Wilson, RAMC, This question of the availability of medicines late of the 21st British General Hospital.62 was a cause of great concern to POW medical officers. Although some drugs were obtained The Hildburghausen site, about 45 from the Germans, these seem never to have kilometres east of Obermassfeld, was a lunatic been in large quantities and, as the war asylum. Two buildings, some hundreds of yards progressed, this source became increasingly apart, were assigned for use as the POW hospital; unreliable. An analysis made late in 1942 one building was a part of the asylum, and the indicated that the supply of morphine and opium second was on a nearby farm belonging to the would be totally expended by June or July of institution.63 The surgical division of the 1943; in the meantime, “it is reported by a hospital, in the building known as Frauenhaus, reliable source that morphine is given to
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss4/2 14 Roland: On the Beach and in the Bag
prisoners in the following order: British, French, 250, and there was an all-British medical staff, Polish, and lastly, the Russians.”67 Intravenous although most of the patients were not British. anaesthetic agents were manufactured in For example, in October 1942 there were four Germany and there should have been no medical officers and 21 medical orderlies to care shortage. Ether and chloroform had been for 252 patients; 59 were “British,” including reported as scarce in some areas. Since March 48 Canadians from Dieppe, while the remaining 1940, iodine could be obtained only with a 193 were Belgian, French, Serbian, and prescription and tincture of iodine was reduced Russian.72 The SBMO was Captain Cooper, in iodine content from 10 percent to 5 percent. RAMC. The lazaret had been established But as with IV anaesthetics, many antiseptics expressly as a typhus hospital, and each patient were made in Germany and there should have went through a delousing plant before entering. been a plentiful supply. Paper bandages of poor However, neutral inspectors reported in October manufacture were widely used in Germany, a 1942 that “there is no typhus case here and fact commonly referred to by POWs who therefore patients with any kind of diseases are regarded them as inadequate substitutes for brought here from the nearby work-camps.”73 cotton.68 Inspectors found many favourable topics for Serious surgical cases were handled at comment at Egendorf. The British cooked the Obermassfeld, but much surgery was carried out food themselves, rather than the Germans. at Hildburghausen, where the SBMO, Lieutenant- Arrangements had been made with the Chefarzt, Colonel Wilson, was seen as “very conscientious S tabsarzt Dr. Seuwen, to permit the medical and highly esteemed by the German doctors of staff to have the use of the electricity into the the lazaret.”69 Unfortunately, by the time the evening. The medical personnel were permitted Canadians arrived a new Chefarzt had taken to take walks, on parole, although the sports over, and relations between this man, Stabsarzt field near the hospital was temporarily closed Dr. Falkenberg, and Wilson were never good. as a reprisal for the escape of two MOs, Captains After a number of confrontations, Falkenberg Gibbons and Deane, in early 1942. Medically, won. He rose in rank from S ta b s a r z t to Egendorf seemed to function effectively. Oberstabsarzt, while Wilson was banished to Treatments beyond the capacity of the medical Oflag 9A/H Spangenberg, where he was no longer staff, including the use of x-rays, were carried doing medical work.70 Later, he was transferred out in Weimar. Dental work was performed by a to Lamsdorf and took charge of the lazaret there. civilian dentist in nearby Blankenhain, but dentures had to be ordered through the main d. Stadtroda and Egendorf Stalag, a process that produced lengthy delays.74
he hospital train carrying Canadian 5. The Geneva Conventions T casualties from Rouen to Stadtroda took four days to reach its destination, a distance of t Kloster Haina, Major Charters accused the only about 500 kilometres. The Stadtroda POW Germans of violating several Articles of the Hospital, located in Wehrkreis 9 as a Reserve A Geneva Convention of 27 July 1929, Relative to Lazaret attached to Stalag 9C, was in a two- the Treatment of Prisoners of War; similar story building, with British and Canadian charges were made with respect to other camps patients in a large ward on the main floor. Late which held Canadian prisoners. The violations in August 1942, it received 70 Dieppe casualties, that involved the sick and wounded, and the thus effectively filling its rated bed capacity of status of Protected Personnel, were most 200.71 Stadtroda had severe limitations as a commonly of three types. First, there was alleged hospital; for example, the supply of latrines was failure to provide sufficient food or medical grossly deficient, a serious problem in a hospital supplies (which has already been discussed in setting. some detail). Secondly, there were allegations of group reprisals. And thirdly, there was the The Egendorf POW lazaret, located in the charge of failing to repatriate both the severely country near Weimar, occupied a stone building wounded and the seriously ill, as well as surplus that had previously been used as a Protected Personnel. Reichsjuhrerschule. The bed capacity was about
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000 15 Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 4, Art. 2 Courtesy oDr. D.W. f Clare.
Funeral o f a POW, Germany.
a. Reprisals The broad issues connected with the shackling of Allied and German POWs cannot A rticle 46 of the Convention on POWs covered be entered into here.76 But a pertinent question .i l p e n a l sanctions against POWs, and specified is whether or not Protected Personnel or patients that collective penalties for individual acts were were made to suffer this reprisal. Certainly it prohibited. Moreover, Article 2 stated that can be said that lazarets and reviers were not “Measures of reprisal against them are generally subject to shackling. At least one prohibited.” In some of the instances charged, Canadian veteran of Dieppe wrote after the war reprisal was avowedly carried out and no defence that he had been tied up both before and after a was possible. In others, attempts were made to hernia operation early in 1943.77 But he was justify the behaviour. One mechanism attempted chained only after being returned to the stalag against POW hospitals was to refer to the Geneva compound, when presumably he had Convention on Sick and Wounded, where Article recuperated and was considered once again “fit.” 7 states: “The protection due to sanitary formations and establishments shall cease if they It seems reasonable to conclude that the are used to commit acts injurious to the enemy.” major reprisal of shackling, in effect for more This would seem to have been the legalistic than 13 months, was not used against patients underpinning of an order issued to the 2/5th of any nationality. Thus this measure was not a Australian General Hospital after its capture in factor in examining the fate of wounded Greece in 1941: “From Routine Order No. 3, 28 Canadians from Dieppe, although there is at April 1941, Change of Command: 1. d. Any least one piece of evidence indicating that the action towards escaping or contrary to military Germans threatened to tie up Canadian patients discipline or harmful to the German Command in the Lamsdorf Lazaret. Fred Hesk, an RAMC will result in the hospital ceasing to hold medical orderly there, remembers that privileges."75 they started chaining the Canadians and they Disputes of this nature are difficult to resolve complained that there weren't enough. They to mutual satisfaction. But there seems no wanted to come and chain the ones in hospital. question that collective punishments of several And we said, “No, we wouldn't accept it. Chain varieties were carried out against Canadian and u s in stead .” Well, they th o u g h t ab o u t it, a n d th en they realized it that if they chained the RAMC other POWs as reprisals for various acts or they’d have nobody to do the nursing. So they alleged acts. The most celebrated of these, and decided they would make the number up with one of the most dramatic to affect western POWs RAF personnel.78 during the war, was the infamous shackling order of October 1942.
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss4/2 16 Roland: On the Beach and in the Bag
b. Repatriation attempt. On the other hand, where no patients t may have been deliberate policy on the part are under care, medical personnel would seem to have the same right - and duty? - to escape of the Germans to retain as many Protected I as do other POWs. Personnel as possible in their territory. Certainly, the more active Allied POW MOs and medical Nevertheless, the matter is not a simple one. orderlies were in caring for their own men, the Technically, under the Geneva Convention of less was required of German physicians and 1929 (and the 1949 revision), captured medical other medical personnel. Ultimately this meant officers and orderlies are not POWs, but rather that more German doctors were available for the are designated as Protected Personnel. Surplus Wehrmacht as well as the home front. Protected Personnel, under the same international agreement, are to be returned to The first successful repatriation of grands their home jurisdiction. Can one “escape” if one blesses and Protected Personnel took place in is not a prisoner? Another question was the October 1943. The repatriates arrived in the status of volunteer medical orderlies. United Kingdom from Gothenberg, Sweden, on Technically, they were not Protected Personnel, 24 and 25 October, the walking cases and yet they were occupied tending the wounded. The Protected Personnel at Leith, having sailed on moral pressures have been well expressed by HMT Empress of Russia and SS Drottingholm, Steve Michell, describing his hospital-train ride and stretcher cases, having sailed on Atlantis, into captivity in Germany: at Liverpool. The total number of repatriates was
4,159: 2,658 disabled, 1,244 Protected Many times I'd look out at the French landscape Personnel, 152 merchant seamen, and 105 with the notion of jum ping out of a window after civilian internees. The Canadian contingent dark. Then I’d look back at all the poor comprised 44 combatant personnel and six bedridden guys in the coach. If 1 took off, who Protected Personnel (Captain R.R. Laird and five would change their bandages and tend their medical orderlies, Corporal G.A. Fletcher, Royal putrefying wounds? Oh, to hell with it; many of them had little enough chance as it was. without Regiment of Canada, Corporal H.V. Jones, Royal me running out on them.81 Hamilton Light Infantry, Sergeant D.H. Jordan, South Saskatchewan Regiment, Corporal Prouse, in the next railway coach, also Corporal G. Pasquill, Queen’s Own Cameron considered attempting to escape. He also decided Highlanders of Canada, and Sergeant L. against it, both because of his feeling of obligation Stephenson, Essex Scottish Regiment).79 to his wounded mates and because he knew that if he remained with the train, ultimately he would 6. Escaping from POW be registered in a camp and his family would Hospitals and Lazarets learn that he had survived.82
nother issue that bears mention is the For non-medical individuals the issues seem Amorality of escaping from medical facilities clearer. It was widely accepted, though not used for the care of POWs. This is quite separate perhaps a directive under military law, that from the appropriateness of attempts to escape POWs had a duty to attempt to escape. Given in general.80 Since Canadian POW-patients could this, why not escape from medical installations? be affected by reprisals that often were imposed Officially, and very widely unofficially as well, it after escapes, discussion of the issues seems was believed that this should not be done. The relevant. reason was the fear of retaliation by captors against an entire hospital or lazaret. Methods of The question carries different ramifications reprisal are relatively few in type: deprivation of for medical personnel and for patients or non food, of liberty for various activities, and more medical staff. For the first group a moral restrictive incarceration. All of these, if effected imperative would seem to be in effect whereby in a hospital, could worsen the condition of medical officers, medical orderlies, and nurses patients left behind by escapees. do not abandon patients whom they are actively caring for at the time of a projected escape
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000 17 Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 4, Art. 2
Conclusions earlier that year, life in the camps and hospitals was especially hard, producing conditions that hat can we conclude from these did not exist again until the closing months of W observations? It is a reasonable and the war. The prisoners had to be housed, fed, in supportable generality that Canadian troops some cases clothed, and medically treated. As captured at Dieppe were as well treated as other has been shown, hospitals were created from Allied POWs from the western nations. This was scratch. It took some time for the POWs to be true of casualties as well as the uninjured. But I processed and information sent to the ICRC in refer to relative conditions. I do not suggest that Geneva, and until that was accomplished and our POWs lived in luxury nor that their treatment each man was individually registered, not only was faultless, merely that compared to many were their families and their governments other national groups, it was better. If one had unaware of their fate, but also the various to be a POW, one’s chances of survival were national Red Cross societies could not initiate profoundly improved if one were Canadian what became, for western Allied POWs, the flood rather than Russian or Polish. of Red Cross food and medical parcels. By 1942, all of these conditions had stabilized so that, In the immediate aftermath of the raid, with isolated exceptions, housing, clothing, and medical treatment was often rough and ready. food were adequately supplied, contact with However, excepting always the possible brutality fam ilies a t hom e h ad been established, an d life of an ardent Nazi medical officer, medical was bearable. orderly, or nurse, treatment was appropriate within recognized bounds of triage and The medical care of the Dieppe casualties emergency care for large numbers of wounded. seems to have been at least adequate in the Dieppe area and usually superior in the POW On the question of transportation of the hospitals and lazarets. Reprisals, in particular wounded from the Dieppe/Rouen area to camps shackling, did not affect either patients or and hospitals in Germany, the situation is less medical personnel. Other collective measures positive. It was standard practice in Europe to were unquestionably major inconveniences but move troops via cattle cars; they were labelled it is difficult to prove that the condition of any “40 hommes ou 8 chevaux” and commonly casualty was made significantly worse by such referred to as 40 and 8s. Unfortunately, many measures. Although repatriation plans evolved Dieppe casualties were moved in boxcars in with painful slowness, when repatriation did conditions of filth, with insufficient food and occur, Canadian survivors of Dieppe were water, and with lengthy delays for the distance accorded the same treatment as all other Western to be travelled. The provision of hospital trains Allied POWs. and ordinary railway passenger cars for some of the men rules out the charge of studied In conclusion, it is worth comparing the brutality. It seems a reasonable supposition that statistics of Canadians captured in Hong Kong, the availability of otherwise unoccupied hospital eight months before their Dieppe compatriots trains was not large. By late August 1942 the went into the bag. Of 1,699 men captured by the Wehrmacht was sustaining prodigious casualties Japanese, 1,418 came home and 281 died in on the Russian front. With the western front captivity, a mortality rate of nearly 17 per cent.83 quiet, a large proportion of medical personnel In contrast, of the 1,946 Canadians captured at and equipment must have been concentrated in Dieppe, 72 died in captivity, a mortality rate of the east. But that situation, if true, does not only four per cent; 1,874 came home. Granted, excuse the failure to provide the wounded with some brought home physical and mental adequate space, food, water, or medical supplies problems that continue to disturb and distress in the boxcars. them, but they came home. And the large majority, while losing three years of their lives, Although they may not have realized it at the returned to jobs and families. time, the men captured at Dieppe entered captivity in Germany at the best possible time. To some degree, credit for this survival rate In the last months of 1940, with the huge number must go to the medical officers and medical of Belgian, French, and British POWs taken orderlies, trained and volunteer. The Germans
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss4/2 18 Roland: On the Beach and in the Bag
created a system of lazarets and reviers that 14. Atkin, p.239; Ja c k Poolton to C harles G. Roland, 17 provided a setting where good medical care could M arch 1993 exist, but their involvement was rarely more 15. D aniel P aul an d Jo h n St. Jo h n . Surgeon at Arms (London: Heinemann, 1958), p.45. direct. With infrequent exceptions, POWs looked 16. Atkin, p.240. after POWs, and they did a remarkable job. 17. C laude-Paul C outure, Operation
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000 19 Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 4, Art. 2
45. H.L. "Bert” Martin, Lasting Impressions, 1939-1945: 67. RG24, vol. 11251, Miscellaneous Reports on POW The War Memoirs oj a Medical Orderly (Unpublished Camps in Germany, Italy, and the Far East; Despatch MS, 1991), p.42. No. 764, High Commissioner for Canada in Great 46. NAC. RG38, Department of Veterans Affairs Records, Britain, 23 December 1942: “Enemy Supplies of Canadian Medical Intelligence Division, vol. 138, file Anaesthetics, Antiseptics and Bandages,” p.l. 7728, Report of Major H.S. Golding, May 1940 to 68. Ibid., p.12. October 1943; p.4. 69. RG24 C2(f), vol. 8025, file 24-19 Hospital, Stalag 9C, 47. Martin, p.61. Hildburghausen, report of Drs. Schirmer and Masset, 48. RG24 02(f), Special Assistant to the Adjutant General, 14 March 1942, p.3. 1945, vol. 8025, file 24-20, Reserve Lazaret 70. Ibid., report of Gabriel Naville and Dr. Aloys Schieper, O bermassfeld Stalag IXC; visit of ICRC representatives, 9 January 1943, p.l; Wilson interview, HCM 35-85, 29 16 October 1942. March 1985, pp.14-15. 49. Gren Juniper said feelingly, of the orderlies, “Boy, they 71. RG24 C2(f), vol. 8025, file 24-22 Hospital, Stalag 9C, were just great!” See Juniper interview, HCM 3183, 27 Stadtroda, letter from SBMO, Maj. Leslie W. Lauste, 20 October 1983, p.20; Major Tucker describes them as October 1942. being “magnificent throughout." William E. Tucker, 72. RG24 C2(f), vol. 8025, file 24-0, Egendorf Lazaret; visit “Experiences as a prisoner of war in Germany,” of Swiss Protecting Power, 21 October 1942, p.l. Proceedings oj the Royal Society oj Medicine 38 73. Ibid., p.2. (1944), p.400. 74. Ibid., p . l 3. 50. Michelin Tourist Guide, Germany: West Germany and 75. Innes Brodziak, ed., Proudly We Served: Stories of the Berlin (Paris: Michelin et Cie, Proprietaires-Editeurs, 2 / 5 Australian General Hospital at War with Germany, 1984), 6th ed.. p.259. Behind German Lines, and at War with Japan in the 51. The 4th Marquess of Normanby, Oswald Constantine Pacific (Chatswood, Australia: 2/5th Australian General John Phipps, interview by Charles G. Roland, OHA, Hospital Association, 1988), p.48. HCM 16-86, 13 A ugust 1986. p. 14. 76. The diplomatic ramifications of this practice have been 52. RG38, vol. 198, St. Dunstan’s Training of Blinded analysed by Jonathan F. Vance, “Men in Manacles: The C anadian POWs, file 9268, letter of M. Shaw (?) to Major Shackling of Prisoners ofWar, 1942-1943,” Journal of C.G. Arthur, 24 November 1942, p.4; David L. Charters, Military History 59 (1995), pp.483-504. “Medical experiences as a prisoner of war in Germany,” 77. Canadian War Museum, CWM 58-04-0092, J.P. Griss Liverpool Medico-Chirurgical Journal 50 (1946), p.54. Papers, Griss to Thane Campbell, War Claims 53. PRO WO 224, File 172, Reserve Lazaret Kloster Haina, Commission, Ottawa, 7 January 1953. 1942 June-1943 August; report of visit 19 June 1942, 78. Hesk interview, HCM 28-85, 20 March 1985, p.33. by Fred 0. A uckenthaler and Dr. H ans Wehrle, p. 1. 79. RG24 FB45, vol. 12812, Report on Repatriation to U.K. 54. Charters, p.55; PRO. WO 224, File 172, Reserve Lazaret of Canadian Army Personnel from Germany, file 45/ Kloster Haina, 1942 June-1943 August; report of visit REPAT/1, p p .179-182. 19 June 1942, p.l. 80. Charles G. Roland, “Medical practice in World War 2 55. Ibid., report of visit 28 September 1942, p.3. prisoner-of-war camps in Europe and Asia: Conflict 56. Wilson Howard Large, interview by Charles G. Roland, between medical and military objectives,” Proceedings OHA, HCM 19-83. 29 June 1983. 14 pp. of the 30th Congress, International Society for the 57. Tucker, p.22; PRO. WO 224, File 172, Reserve Lazaret History of Medicine, Dusseldorf, 1988, pp. 1160-1166. Kloster Haina, 1942 June-1943 August; report of visit 81. Steve Michell, They Were Invincible: Dieppe and After 25 March 1943 by Dr. Lehner and M. Mayer, ICRC, p.2. (Bracebridge, ON: Herald-Gazette Press, 1976), p.15. 58. Ibid., report of visit 28 September 1942, p.4. 82. Prouse, p.25. 59. Ibid., report of visit 19 June 1942, pp.4-5. 83. These figures are derived from Appendix A in Carl 60. Norman W.E. Colley, interview by Charles G. Roland, V incent, No Reason Why: The Canadian Hong Kong OHA, HCM 20-81, 4 December 1981. Tragedy, An Examination (Stittsville, ON: C an ad a’s 61. PRO, WO 224, File 171, Lazaret Bad Soden-Salmunster, Wings, 1981), p.252-53. Total casualties including K1A two reports, one by the Protecting Power (undated, early were 571 of 1975, or 28.8 percent. 1944) by Dr. med. M.S. Meier, and one by Dr. Thudicum Charles G. Roland recently retired as the and M. Paul Wyss, 13 M arch 1944. 62. Thomas Henry Wilson, interview by Charles G. Roland, Jason A. Hannah Chair for the History of OHA, HCM 35-85, 29 March 1985, p.8. Medicine at McMaster University in 63. RG24 C2(f). vol. 8025, file 24-19. H ospital, Stalag 9C, Hamilton, Ontario. He is the author of many Hildburghausen, Report of Dr. Karl Krebs, March 1941, books and articles, including the award p .l. 64. Ibid., Report of Drs. Schirmer and Masset, 14 March w inning Courage Under Siege: Starvation, 1942. p .l. Disease, and Death in the Warsaw Ghetto 65. Do. (Oxford University Press, 1992) and the 66. RG24. vol. 11250, folder 10-3-2 (vol. 2), Reports on forthcoming Long Night's Journey Into Day: ICRC Visits to Hildburghausen, Obermassfeld, and the Lazarett at Stalag 20B, March-May, 1942; p.3 of report Prisoners of War in Hong Kong and Japan, on Hildburghausen visit by Drs. Schirmer and Masset, 1941-1945. 14 March 1942.
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss4/2 20