To War With The Bays: 22 - A Miraculous Re-Union
...I was going to have to learn to walk again. Seven weeks after being wounded I gingerly got my feet on the ground for the first time - just for a few minutes. A note in my diary says: 'I'll be walking in two or three days.' That, to say the least, was over-optimistic. A week later, after daily testing, I walked a few yards with a crutch, then graduated to a stick, and eventually was going under my own steam...
Jack Merewood slowly recovers from his wounds received in a battle in the North African desert.
To read earlier chapters of Jack's war memoirs please click on To War With The Bays in the menu on his page.
On 27 June I wrote: 'On the 23rd (I think) a miracle happened. Ronnie walked in. Couldn't believe my eyes and ears.'
Ronnie had his left arm in a sling. He had been diving into a slit trench as they were being bombed, and a piece of shrapnel had taken off the end of his thumb. As soon as I saw him I burst into tears, I just couldn't believe it. He had arrived here and been put in another ward but had found out where I was. I'm sure seeing Ronnie did me more good than any medicine could have done.
He brought the awful news that Bob Weightman had been killed, machine-gunned after baling out of his tank. This was a great shock and very upsetting.
There was quite a lot of reading material in the ward, and there was also a library. Ronnie brought me books from there when he came round to see me every evening. But he was not the only visitor. I wrote in my diary that some ATS girls started coming to the ward.
One came a few afternoons and the diary says: 'The ATS sergeant came and sat with me again (to the envy of the boys). She's a Russian and really very beautiful, just like Sonja Henie. Told her so. . . .'
I was going to have to learn to walk again. Seven weeks after being wounded I gingerly got my feet on the ground for the first time - just for a few minutes. A note in my diary says: 'I'll be walking in two or three days.' That, to say the least, was over-optimistic. A week later, after daily testing, I walked a few yards with a crutch, then graduated to a stick, and eventually was going under my own steam.
The time passed. My leg was swollen from time to time, but it improved. There was an army cinema in a tent at the hospital, and sometimes Ronnie and I would go there.
Then early in July we were separated, both moved to different nearby hospitals. We were destined eventually for convalescent camps, so we hoped we'd be reunited again soon. I really missed Sister Furnival, but when my walking improved I went back to see her.
While I had been in hospital the German push was gaining momentum and they had our forces on the run. As they advanced, General Auchinleck decided to dig in at El Alamein (150 miles west of Cairo) in the hope of holding them there. In view of this it was decided to evacuate the hospital.
The weather was now very hot indeed, and in the marquee wards it was very uncomfortable. On 18 July, 1942, I was put on a train, bound for Palestine. We went alongside the Suez Canal for a few miles, crossed it in a boat, then boarded a train on the other side. We had left the hospital at 5 a.m. and arrived at our destination, a hospital in Jerusalem, at 2 a.m. next day, a long tiring ride, but interesting.
I wasn't too keen on the hospital there, probably because I had become attached to the one near Ismalia. One thing I disliked intensely was that in a big room, with chairs and writing tables and playing-cards etc. were wickerwork chairs, and the minute you sat down on one, bugs came out and bit your legs. So before sitting down it was essential to lift up the chair, bang it on the floor and then tread on the bugs as they hit the ground. Some were as big as woodlice.
Every day I had to go for massage. My leg was stiff but the massage made it easier. Then, after being at the hospital for twelve days, I was sent to a convalescent camp at Nathanya.
It was a beautiful place, right on the coast. There was a window near my bed, and I could see the blue sea from it about 500 yards away. It was marvellous to walk along the sea-shore, and sometimes to go in the sea which was very warm. The town of Nathanya itself was only small with nothing there of great interest.
Reveille was 6.15 a.m. during the week, but on Sundays we were allowed to lie in until 7.00. There was also a church service on Sunday mornings in one of the huts, which I went to. Most of the work we did was light duties - tidying up places, like the road, or the sergeants' mess, peeling potatoes and onions for an hour or so a day. We also did fifteen minutes' very light PT every morning before breakfast. We had to do the occasional guard duty as well, but it was an ideal convalescent camp. I made friends with a New Zealand boy, and we'd go for walks on the cliffs.
