Interview with Harry Miller

British NCO served with 12th Field Hygiene Section, Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, France and North West Europe, 9/1939-4/1945; served with 1st Sanitary Section, Royal Army Medical Corps in Sandbostel Subcamp, Neuengamme Concentration Camp, Germany, 4/1945-5/1945; civilian worked for British Red Cross in refugee camps in South Korea, 1951-1955

REEL 1 Recollections of background in Germiston, South Africa and Leeds, GB, 1913-1939: family; education; employment. Aspects of period as NCO with No 12 Field Hygiene Section, Royal Army Medical Corps, GB, 1939: joining Territorial Army, 1/1939; dealing with meningitis outbreak among troops at Hungerford, late 1939. Recollections of operations as NCO with 12th Field Hygiene Section, Royal Army Medical Corps in France, 1940: meningitis outbreak, 1/1940; role of field hygiene sections; how he was on leave in GB during German invasion of Belgium, 10/5/1940; return to unit in France; evacuation from Saint-Nazaire, France, 16/6/1940. Aspects of period as NCO with 12th Field Hygiene Section, Royal Army Medical Corps, 48th (South Midland) Infantry Div in GB, 1940-1944: 'Dunkirk leave', 6/1940; move to Okehampton, 1940; learning to ride motorcycle; field hygiene work with 48th (South Midland) Infantry Div in South West England, 1940-1941; clearing kitchens of cockroaches in Devonshire; refusal of Italian prisoners of war to waste coffee grounds; cancellation of plans to send 48th (South Midland) Infantry Div to North Africa, early 1943. REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of operations as NCO with 12th Field Hygiene Section, Royal Army Medical Corps in North West Europe, 1944-1945: landing of unit at Arromanches-les-Bains, Normandy, France, 10/6/1944; bartering cigarettes for lettuces with French farmer; story of German who feigned lunacy to keep out of German forces; knee injury received in motorcycle accident, 1944; suffering of Dutch population without access to coffee supplies at Nijmegen, Netherlands, 1944; United States Army troops who went Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) in France, 1944; encounter with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery whilst crossing River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945. Recollections of work with 1st Sanitary Section, Royal Army Medical Corps at Sandbostel Subcamp, Neuengamme Concentration Camp, Germany, 4/1945-5/1945: nature of concentration camp section; method of disposal of thousands of corpses; emotional break down of Jewish chaplain; role of disinfecting visitors with DDT, including Major-General Brian Horrocks; holiday unit received in Cuxhaven for work in camp; contracting enteric fever from work in camp; medical treatment for fever; change of name to No 1 Sanitary Section, Royal Army Medical Corps; work of medical officers in identifying concentration camp victims who might survive. REEL 3 Continues: lack of interest of victims in food; presence of French boys in camp; question of lack of mental reserves of victims from 'labouring classes'; attitude towards fear of illness; receiving pork sandwiches for VE Day, 8/5/1945; carrying of camp survivors to showers by German civilians. Recollections of period as civilian with Red Cross in South Korea, 1951-1955: volunteering for British Red Cross unit in South Korea, 11/1950; journey from GB to South Korea via United States of America and Japan; reasons for delay of Red Cross teams in Japan, 2/1951; role of team in running of refugee camps; lack of concern of Korean civilians about inoculations; tendency of Koreans to exaggerate need for food and drugs; basing of team in Kangnung; handling of lepers; story of Korean who rose to rank of major in Imperial Japanese Army in Second World War; conditions of North Korean refugees in refugee camps, 1951. REEL 4 Continues: types of refugees in camps; lack of signs of economic growth in South Korea, 1953-1954; conditions of service working under United Nations; Korean's attitude to presence of foreigners; story of Korean police chief's embarrassment when Miller's boots were stolen and how three guerrillas were beheaded for crime; prior recollection of role with 12th Hygiene Section, Royal Army Medical Corps in Normandy, France, 6/1944, including removal of German corpses from armoured car and removing dead cows from countryside; delivery of DDT drums to mosquito infested island; role as observer during disinterring of American dead from cemetery in Pusan for reburial in United States of America.