Kendall, Edward Stephen (Oral history)

British medical orderly served with 199th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 1940-1943; NCO served with 46th Field Surgical Unit, Royal Army Medical Corps in GB and North West Europe, 1943-1945; served with 105th British General Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps in De Haan, Belgium, 1945; served with 39th Field Surgical Unit, Royal Army Medical Corps in Nijmegen, Netherlands, 1945

REEL 1 Background in Fulham, London, GB, 1917-1939: family; education; employment; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Aspects of enlistment and training as medical orderly with Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 1940: German Air Force attacks on Fulham area during leave, 1940-1941; public morale during air raids; call-up for military service, 5/8/1940; his preference for service with Royal Air Force; background and attitude to conscription into Royal Army Medical Corps. Aspects of period as medical orderly with 199th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 1940-1943: character of training with unit including periods in civilian hospitals; his wish to join surgical unit; operating room assistants' course at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Watford. Recollections of period as NCO with 46th Field Surgical Unit, Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 1943-1944: joining unit; problems with allocation of large tent; importance of speed in mobile operating theatre; number of personnel in unit. REEL 2 Continues: vehicles provided for invasion; attending commando course in Scotland; move into holding camp near Southampton, 5/1944; pre-D-Day briefing; attachment to 3rd Canadian Infantry Div; visit of King George VI in New Forest; issue of Bergen Rucksack and equipment; embarkation and sleeping arrangements aboard landing craft. Recollections of operations as NCO with 46th Field Surgical Unit, Royal Army Medical Corps on Juno Beach, Normandy, France, D-Day, 6/6/1944: question of timing of landing and knowledge of where unit was to head for after landing; towing of Rhino Ferry into beach to facilitate landing; jumping from landing craft to Rhino Ferry; his beach landing; lone German Air Force aircraft attack on beach; reaction to removal of 3rd Canadian Infantry Division insignia. REEL 3 Continues: problems with vehicle not starting on Juno Beach; entry into Bernières-sur-Mer to set up unit base in chateau; setting up of operating theatre; nature of work in theatre on 6/6/1944 and 7/6/1944; opinion of surgeon Major John Leggate. Aspects of period as NCO with 46th Field Surgical Unit, Royal Army Medical Corps in Normandy, France, 6/1944-8/1944: anaesthetics used; story of dealing with badly wounded Germans left behind in Belgian hospital; advantage of having penicillin; lessons learnt from Spanish Civil War in plastering over wounds; problems of cleanliness in dealing with battle casualties; difference between clean and dirty work in theatre; use of Benzedrine; opinion of work of Pioneer Corps in digging slit trenches for hospital staff; incident when German prisoners of war were bombed by German Air Force; state of patients in theatre; disregarding of official ban on use of penicillin on German casualties; lack of expectation of carnage on D-Day; sight of corpses rolling in surf off Juno Beach. REEL 4 Continues: return to Juno Beach and chateau on 40th anniversary of D-Day, 1984; attitude of French civilians in Normandy to Allied invasion; presence of snipers in church spires. Recollections of period as NCO with 46th Field Surgical Unit, Royal Army Medical Corps in North West Europe, 1944-1945: reception given to Allied troops on arrival in Brussels, Belgium, 9/1944; encounter with British deserter in Brussels, Belgium; route taken by hospital in France and Low Countries, 1944; attachment to 1st Commando Bde in Netherlands, 1/1945; dealing with casualty from V weapon raid on Antwerp, Belgium; crossing River Rhine at Wesel, Germany, 3/1945; sight of painted murals in hospital at Münster, Germany. Aspects of period as NCO with 105th General Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps in De Haan, Belgium, 1945: role as post corporal; dealing with prisoner of war patients; request to go back to theatre work, summer 1945. Aspects of period as NCO with 39th Field Surgical Unit, Royal Army Medical Corps in Nijmegen, Netherlands, 1945: posting to unit and types of casualties dealt with, 10/1945. REEL 5 Continues: meeting future wife; question of display of Red Crosses by medical units in the field, Normandy, France, 6/1944-8/1944.