J R Army Med Corps: first published as 10.1136/jramc-81-04-03 on 1 October 1943. Downloaded from

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AN ACCOUNT OF AN' IMPROVISED C.C.S. FROM ITS INCEPTION AT OFFRANVILLE TO, ITS CLOSURE AT RENNES. By BRI,GADIER R: OGIER WARD, D.5.a., a.B.E., Jl!.c.

OFFRANVILLE is a small viliage about seven miles S.E. of Dieppe. Nos. 2 (ColonelT. S. BlRouen sub-area and later on under the control of L. of C. formations. Active war in the West began on May 10. The enemy first paid attention to the Dieppe area by' a bombing raid on May 18, and again on May 19. On that day No. 1 General Hospital began to clear its cases. On Ma}' 21 it was again raided and the hospital carrier 'Maid of Kent lying in an inner basin of the harbour w:as set on fire. Another raid on the town occurred on May 24. All the hosp~tals were clearly marked with the Red Cross in large pattern on the nearby ground ' and,none was bombed. But the hospital carriers ,were also clearly marked I " and two were destroyed in daylight raids. At Offranville we could see the / aeroplane diving Qn to the harbour_ and .the bombs,as they' were released from them, and certainly the markings on the ships must have been clearly visible. Dieppe" at that time had no anti-aircraft defences and the planes v.. ere able to come as low as they wished. With Colonel Gordon Wilson I visited the harbour http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/ shortly after several of these raids. An hour after one of them the remains of the Maid ~f Kent were a hot mass of metal above the partly-submerged hulk. Some trucks of the ambulance train on the quay close by were still smouldering having been burnt down to the floor level. The loss of life had fortunately been slight. Only a few were on board the ship when it was hit and I think all got out. , The train was only partly loaded at the time and the burning coaches were ' quickly detached so that it was able to move off. It contained some patients and sisters besides its usual staff. Although some houses were destroyed the actual damage dorie to the town was not great. on September 28, The 'salvage operations of hospitals and stores which were initiated and controlled by Colonel Gordon Wilson were extremely successful. Almost the entire equipment of six general hospitals was loaded on to trains and lorries and sent south in the course of a very few days. To many who were engaged in the work the immense capacity of a railway truck came as a surprise. It was a great J R Army Med Corps: first published as 10.1136/jramc-81-04-03 on 1 October 1943. Downloaded from

172 .An Account of an Improvised C.C.S.

achievement and the ultimate loss of all the stores to the enemy should not be too deeply deplored. The fact that the British Army made no attempt to embark its stores, though some part of these could no,doubt have been saved, is a testimony to the fact that Britain was always ready to carry on the fight had France been so determined... '., I think it was on' May 20 that a field adjoining No. 3 General Hospital accidentally became an aerodrome. One ~f our fighters crossing tb F~ance'lwas attacked by a Germaq plane ~hich the pilot shot, down into the sea. This drove . him off his course and he lan

to be aboJ.It ten miles f~rther' south. I took him there in my little 8 h.p. Simca, 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. a decrepit ,but worthy vehicle which was to prove so valuable to me in the days that followed. We found the place easily enough though the local gendarmerie were very vague about it; a wide expanse of level ploughed field. A small notice board proclaimed that it was reserved for military purposes but the village policeman whom we caught bicycling back to his lunch assured us that it was an aerodrome but, he added, it was not to be ready until the summer of 1941. During these days a considerable number of ca,rs containing Belgian staff officers passed through Dieppe, this making one realise how serious was the situation in the nortl}. Presumably they were members of the government anq war departments. Many ciVilian .refugees passed through Dieppe and thousands more were seen during the next fortnight. It was a ,tragic sight. In 1912 I was a surgeon, actually only just qualified, in a British Red Cross Un¥!: sent to Constantinople. Max Page was our only real surgeon. In those days Turkey was being driven back by Bulgaria, Serbia, Rumania and Greece. We saw the capital crammed with refugees and their transport from Macedonia and

Thrace. We saw them bivouacked in the side streej:s for weeks and months, http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/ slowly degenerating, the oxen which ~ere to draw their carts sold from lack of forage. They were waiting for space on the ferry to cross the Bosphorus to seek new homes in Asia. In 1918 I was in the March retreat of the Third Army and that was grim enough. But in Normandy o.uring those last wee~s the tragedy \ was deeper; a nation driven from its homes; the huge farmcart drawn by four high-crested horses crammed -With household goods; the family walking and pulling hand carts, except perhaps the grandmother who sat on top' of the load, dry-eyed but staring fixedly ahead. One felt that she had been through it all before but this time had no hope at all. Motor cars always .had mattresses on top as'a protection against machine-gun bullets. ; Sometimes being without on September 28, petrol they were towed by the carts. The discipline was good, these people . ' I' ' kept strictly to the right, rarely doubled the traffic except to avoid some abandoned • , motorcar and, when halted, pulled clear. We saw' these .columns at Dieppe, we saw 'them on all the roads d~wn to 'Alen~on, but- in the last days they 'were. J R Army Med Corps: first published as 10.1136/jramc-81-04-03 on 1 October 1943. Downloaded from

R. Ogier Ward' 173

gone and the countryside was emptied of· them. Now the roads were cleared for the free movements of armies but only the German army made use of them. I passed through Rouen .on June 2 and visited it again twice a few days later. The city was partially empty but those who remained were tr)'ing to carry on~ 'A doctor upon 'whom I called was holding his priv~te clinic much as usual but he had served in the l';1st war and had no illusions about the future when he bade me farewell. Work was going on at all the bridges over the Seine which were being prepared for_ demolition and I suppose thatlater all were destroyed. I had been rath~r concerned lest our retreat from the Dieppe area ,might be interfered with by the early capture of Rouen and had considered using the fei·drat Yvetot about twen~ miles to the west but decided against that and I heard afterwards that it became so congested that parties had to wait two days to cross. It was in tHis corner that the '51st IDivision was afterwards trapped. The Seine seemed a fine . defensive line but it was not held for long. Apparently the Germans quickly penetrirty-five miles south of Rouen, is a pleasant place with a . large green in the middle of the village,' Here is a pond in which the frogs make a tnrmendous din each evening. There are many trees round 'abOtlt it which gave admirable cover. The M.A.C. parked there with ours and many other 'vehicles. The River Iton flows through COIl,ches and the Garde Champetre in whose house I was billetted showed me where I could get som~ fine trout fishing. I did well on sev,eral evenings while we were waiting for orders to

troops saw any leaflets dropped from the aeroplane, which passed over in the.", http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/ morning and I fancy the warning was a benevolent one in some way conveyed for the information of local fifth columnists. After we evacuated the village I paid two visits/to it. It fad sustaine

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that a train coming round a bend out of the cutting had just succeeded in pulling up short of the bridge. On that day Evreux was completely empty~ I arid my driver had it to ourselves. 'When we arrived at Sees .it' was dark. I knew that a blackout was ordered but I could also see that mdny of the cars hurrying through the town had lights on. I wanted to stlldy the exits from the place so turned on my headlights to examine my map. A French ~fficer, a lieutenant,asked me brusquely what I was doing and, when my replies did not seem to satisfy him; told me to come ,to the police station. I did so and was submitted to a cross-examination by the gendarmerie. . In contrast they were studiously polite and my limited French was just adequate to give the explanation which they required. It became

more fluent when I told .the lieutenant how much I resented\ his manner. Ju~t as I ,was leaving my liaison officer, Captain Barbas, came in search ,of me and after some further parley between him and the gendarmerie we departed. When

we got outside he told me that the lieutenant was deeply disappointed as he was 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. sure that he had captured a parachutist. Sees was bombed later and so were . all the surrounding towns and considerable' damage was done for the solitary planes which dune over were entirely unopposed either jn the air or from the ground and could manceuvre just as they wished before dropping their bombs.. Bois 'Roussel was one of France's greatest stock breeding centres for race horses. When we left the Germans could not have been more than a day's march distant but exercise, grooming and mucking out continued as usual. The stud grbom had sent away two of his stallions to the South of France, one remained and also all the brood mares, foals and fillies. His chief anxiety app~ared to be not for himself. and his family or for his staff, of F:rench and Irish grooms and their , families but for the 'safety of his stud books. I remember how the Comtesse \

in whose house we were'" billetted came back one afternoon. . from a hurried visit. . to her husband who was on the general staff at Nantes. Sh~ told us with unfeigned \ grief and shame that they feared France would soon make' a separate peace. Paris fell on June 14. All Capt~in' Barbas' business interests and his hundred' .

employees in the capital ,were involved~ He had joined the artillery of the http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/ ,·French Army in 1918 by Juggling with his age,. for he was 'only seventeen, and , had been give,n. the Croix de Guerre. He was a -splendid officer and no one could have been more whole-heartedly out' to win the war. Indeed I formed the . opinion and strongly held to it that the people of France were willing to go on fighting. I did not see many troops and anyhow troops qui<;kly lose confidence when, because staff arrangements break down, they are left without or~ers; but the civil popUlation was full of spirit. The refugees were orderly and when during our final march from Bois Roussel to Rennes we ca~e to any village we found the entrance to it strongly barricaded, the old men all on duty armed with on September 28, shot guns.' Their eyes lit up as they saw us; the British Army was at hand! Alas!. it was not so and presently each or these villages, upon which in France the roads so characteristically converge and through which all traffic must pass, were to' be abandoned by order and without a fight .. Whilst at BoisRoussel I had made several journeys, either with Capfain Bar-bas .in his Citroen or in J R Army Med Corps: first published as 10.1136/jramc-81-04-03 on 1 October 1943. Downloaded from

R. Ogier TV ard 175,

. ' my Simca, to the north or to the north-east. In the earlier dan,these villages were still in Rart. occupied and 'one could easily make purchases at well-stocked groceries.' Later the'villages were completely empty: Telephone exchanges bec

'lane and we were approaching the main road between Laigle 'and Verneuil. 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. About a mile from this another lane, running parallel to the main roaa, crossed qurs at right angles.' An enemy plane had just flown over this. When we came to the intersection oCthese lanes we found two large heaps of dried grass on the track; one had burnt out, the other was still smoking. No one was to be sel'n, the countryside for miles round was utterly deserted. ,It must have been some signal and the man who lit it w~s doubt1e~s hiding near-by.. But I believe the great majority of the French ,people were loyal to the cause for which they had entered. the \?ar. When I said goodbye to Captain Barbas at Ren'nes on the morning of Sunday,' June 16,. we agreed that neither would judge the' other's country until all the facts were known, I have kept to that promise and I do not doubt that he has done likewise. . ' On Monday, June 17, at a quarter to eight we landed at Southampton after an uneventful night voyage from St. Malo and presently a train bore us to the north.. I went to sleep and woke up just as were passi~g through Oxford. It was about 3 'p.m, After·the station' there are several college' grounds 'close to . \ the railway. On each of these cricket was in full swing, everyone in nice white http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/ flannels, everything just as it was when I was an undergraduate. I wonder if this is one of the reasons why we win wars. . on September 28,

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