It will have been noted that for a period of about a week No. 7 General Hospital was obliged to function in caves having been driven by heavy bombing from its original site.
Fortunately there were several good caves along the rocky coast. Our faith in the protection afforded by the Red Cross had temporarily disappeared and it was decided to give the enemy no clue as to the whereabouts of the new hospital. Movement by day was hampered by the sudden and frequent appearance of aircraft and all major activities such as recovering necessary equipment, collecting rations and so on had to be carried out under cover of darkness.
The cave hospital presented new problems all of a sudden; the state of the floor needed attention as it had been frequented by goats and other animals. The irregular surface and strange slopes did not help the arrangements of patients. No beds were available but patients can be made surprisingly comfortable on stretchers and mattresses. Such cooking as was necessary was done on Primus stoves in a corner of the cave. There were five “surgical” caves and one “dysentery” cave. Each cave was responsible for its own cooking.
The severely wounded patients and the new cases requiring operations were collected into the largest and best cave and here an operating table was set up and necessary surgery carried out for both our own people and for wounded German prisoners. The patients were magnificent. They never grumbled. Cramped space, poor light, awkward slopes and lack of proper hygienic arrangements made work difficult. Water was carried from a well some distance away and had to be carefully conserved. Incidentally a core which had been laid outside the cave till burial could be effected at night was fired on by machine gunning from the air.
The Field Ambulance and the Cave Hospital worked in complete co-operation; wounded were evacuated and new cases admitted; at least 500 patients were housed in the caves. In the subsequent trek across the island, during which time a surgical team worked with the Field Ambulance, the need for improvising became even more insistent. Army tin hats are excellent drinking cups, as wash basins or as bed pans; if all strapping had been expended a 6-inch nail removed from a wall will make a good extension for a fractured femur if driven through the sole of a boot. (Source: 1D)
