IN HOSPITAL with Corporal Harry Winther - Part 9
Continuation of the War Journal of Corporal Harry Winther
In Hospital
We’re headed across the mountains again to the Adriatic side, the move is supposed to be secret so we travel at night. These mountain roads are built for donkey carts and are full of sharp curves and switchbacks, especially difficult for my Bren gun carrier trying to keep up with the trucks. One of our first times in action Cpl. Rushmere is killed, a large piece of shrapnel took his leg off above the knee, the boys twisted a tourniquet as tight as they could but he bled to death in twenty minutes. I was designated to take his place so now I’m with Capt. McDonald, our forward observation officer. We do a lot of reconnaissance work near the front. One Sunny morning we’re driving along with Casey at the wheel enjoying the day when my luck finally runs out, our front wheel strikes a little land mine. I go flying into the air and come down with a pretty badly broken leg and a bunch of cuts which Strathem, one of our drivers with a first-aid kit, paints with iodine. This makes me the 66th casualty in our platoon of 30 men over a period of ten months I’ve been at the front. There are only two men left from the original platoon that have never been evacuated.
Now I start a long journey down the line through forward field dressing casualty clearing stations, at one hospital they mistake me for an officer and carry me up to the third floor, they deposit me in a beautiful room, white sheets on the bed, a flushing toilet which I haven’t seen in the past year, pretty soon they realize their mistake and carry me back down and put me down in my stretcher on a cement floor with two hundred others for the night. Finally after eight days I arrive at 14th Canadian General Hospital at Perugia about seventy mile down the line, here we have comfortable cots with sheets, pillows and blankets. I’m in a ward with three hundred of the more seriously wounded casualties. By this time my leg is swollen to double its normal size and extremely painful. The nurse placed a cage over it so I wouldn’t have any weight on it. The second day after I arrived a group of Scottish girls came in to entertain us, one of them sat on the edge of my bed and sang a whole verse to me, she bounced a little as she sang, the pain in my leg was just killing me but I just smiled.
Eventually they x-rayed my knee but with all the swelling it didn’t show much. I’ve tried to get out of bed and walk but it’s just too painful. I found out that Sgt. Reynolds, Harlan, and Johnson are in here, the platoon was moving forward and took cover in a stone chicken house. The enemy knocked the wall and roof down with an A.P. (armour piercing) shell, sixteen were wounded, one killed and only the one lying in the chicken nests escaped injury. Parsonage had a compound fracture, Reynolds both legs broken above the knee. I finally manage to hop on one leg down to the latrine and visit with Reynolds on the way. Every day a nurse comes by and gives me some leg exercises, eventually they x-ray my knee again and find I have a split fracture of the tibia and some bone fragments in the knee joint. The M.O. tells me it should have been in a cast but it’s too late now, it will just take time. I’ve met a fellow Jens Sorensen, born in Denmark, he speaks Danish so we have something in common, he went out with an ingrown toe nail, in the hospital he caught pneumonia. They cured his pneumonia but forgot about his toe so he’s still limping around. An awful lot of casualties are coming in from the battle of the Gothic line so we’re transferred to a British hospital. The nurses are fine but the doctors are extremely arrogant, if you’re a bed patient you lie at attention, if you’re up you stand at attention when the Medical Officer makes his rounds and only speak if you’re spoken to.
Jens and I decide we want out of there so when he asks us how we are we answer, “fine sir”. He never examines us and since the British consider us colonials expendable he discharges us straight back to duty. We draw our kit and head for the train. There are about twenty of us, Jens and I can hardly walk, the boys think it’s a great joke that we are going back to the front. They carry our kit and help us into the boxcar. We have rations for four days and get hot water from the engineer when we stop so we are able to make a pot of tea, actually it was a very enjoyable trip. When we reach our destination we can hear the machine guns. Before we can be sent up we have to pass a medical, next morning when the M.O. sees my stiff leg with the knee double its normal size he really hits the roof and sends me straight out as a stretcher case. After three days travel stopping at various hospitals overnight I arrive at good old 14th Canadian General where the nurses are familiar.
I’ve been in thirteen different hospitals now over a period of 2 ½ months, had quite a number of x-rays and examinations by endless Medical Officers. After another month the Colonel had a look at my knee, he thought it looked pretty good and went away to look at the x-rays, when he came back it was a different story, the x-rays didn’t show much until the bone began to heal but now it showed that the main bone was split with some muscle torn off and some bone splinters broken off in the knee joint that pretty much guaranteed that I would be evacuated to England. On Dec. 18th I board a hospital ship and watch Naples fade away in the mist. The accommodations are super, just like a pleasure cruise. We sail down the Mediterranean, past the Rock of Gibraltar. The Bay of Biscay is always pretty rough and some of the boys missed their dinner. On Christmas day the sergeants brought us tea in bed and served us roast pork and plum pudding for dinner. We anchored in Bristol Channel and the pilot came on board but the fog was too heavy to take us in on the four o’clock tide, we missed the nine o’clock tide in the morning, I think the pilot, captain and crew were too drunk to navigate. We finally got off the ship on Dec. 28th.
On Jan. 5th I arrive at a convalescent hospital in Colchester, here we are supposed to recover sufficiently to go on light duty. On Feb. 13th after 5 ½ months in hospital I get my discharge back to duty. I turn in my blues which is a kind of pajama outfit we wear in hospital, draw my battledress, kit and a two week leave pass to Edinburgh. I find myself out on the street with my kit bag and suddenly realize after 5 ½ months of having everything decided for me, now AI have to think for myself. Next morning early I got off the train in Edinburgh where I got a nice private room in a hostel, did a lot of sightseeing and took a side trip to Glasgow. I went back to London for a couple of days and finally reported for duty in Aldershot.
Going Home
I’m on light duty now and am assigned to various duties, for a while I’m in the orderly room taking care of the office. I don’t like the way things are run back here and sometimes wish I was back with the boys. Around the first of April I was transferred to Repatriation Depot so I knew I was going home. They wouldn’t give us leave as they didn’t know when we would be sailing. I finally got a three day pass and made my last visit to London. On April 22nd we went on board ship, we’re down in the bottom deck, four flights of stairs to get to our boat stations, there is a little water on our floor but I always sleep in a hammock. We’re travelling in a convoy of forty ships. On May 3rd we sail into Halifax harbour, the band is playing and the Red Cross gives us coffee and doughnuts. We go on board the train and everything is just first class. We all have sleepers, the porters make up our beds and super meals in the diner. May 6th Sunday we pull into Winnipeg, my family is there to meet me, we go to Jensen’s for coffee and then home. I go on leave for a while and finally get my discharge on August 4, 1945.
Cpl. Harry Winther
Service Star
1939 – 45
Northwest Europe
Central Mediterranean
Italy Star
1943 – 45
Service on land in Sicily and Italy
Defense Medal
1939 -45
Service England
North Africa
Volunteer Service Medal
1939 -45
Clasp – overseas service
War Medal
1939 – 45
Full time personnel of Armed Forces
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