Watts, John Cadman (Oral history)

British medical officer served with Royal Army Medical Corps in Palestine, 1938-1940; served with No 8 British General Hospital in Egypt, 1940-1941; commanded 41st Field Surgical Unit, Royal Army Medical Corps in Palestine, Libya and Italy, 1941-1944; commanded 195th (Airlanding) Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 6th Airborne Div in GB and North West Europe, 5/1944-5/1945; commanded 225th (Parachute) Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 5th Parachute Bde in India and Java, Dutch East Indies, 1945-1946; commanded Surgical Divison, British Commonwealth Hospital, Kure, Japan, 1950-1951.

REEL 1 Background in GB, 1913-1938: family; education; medical training at St Thomas' Hospital, London, 1930-1932; reasons for joining Royal Army Medical Corps, 1938. Recollections of period with Royal Army Medical Corps in Palestine, 1938-1940: arrival, 10/1938; work at Casualty Clearing Station in Jerusalem; methods of dealing with gunshot wounds; nature of soldier patients; question of patient hardihood; lack of sense of danger during Arab Revolt; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Recollections of period as medical officer with No 8 British General Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps in Alexandria, Egypt, 1940-1941: role as surgeon; triage problems in mobile war; first gas gangrene case; reasons for gas gangrene cases and how they were treated; maggots in wounds; use of sulphonamides; contrast in wounds caused by high velocity bullets and everyday injuries; anaesthetics used; soldiers' reaction to wounds; treatment of Italian prisoner of war patients; work with burns cases, 1941 REEL 2 Continues: work at No 9 British General Hospital in Cairo. Aspects of period commanding 41st Field Surgical Unit, Royal Army Medical Corps in Palestine and Libya, 1942-1943: Casualty Clearing Station work in Palestine, summer 1941-1942: reasons for why Casualty Clearing Stations were less disorganised than General Hospitals; nursing staff; work in Tripoli, Libya, 1943 including first use of air evacuation of casualties. Aspects of period commanding 41st Field Surgical Unit, Royal Army Medical Corps in Italy, 7/1943-4/1944: work with malarial cases in Sicily, 7/1943-8/1943; surgical work at Mercatello, near Salerno, 9/1943-4/1944; ski-ing holiday in Apennine Mountains, 1/1944; length of tour of duty and posting back to GB, 4/1944; participation in landings at Salerno, 9/1943. Recollections of period commanding 195th (Airlanding) Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 6th Airborne Div in GB and North West Europe, 5/1944-5/1945: taking command of 195th (Airlanding) Field Ambulance, 4/1944; reaction to amount of equipment issued for airborne landings, D-Day, 6/6/1944; glider crossing of English Channel to Normandy, France, D-Day, 6/6/1944; landing in Normandy, France, D-Day, 6/6/1944. REEL 3 Continues: question of time taken to get casualties to unit; relations with American medical staff; move on staff duties to Dinant, Belgium during Ardennes Offensive, 12/1944; attitude to staff work; glider landing during Operation Varsity, the crossing of the River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; advance through Germany, 4/1945; German civilian who shot his whole family, Wismar, Germany, 5/1945; Soviet Army shooting of staff of German ambulance train, 5/1945; finding British airborne prisoners of war in German military hospital; impressions of Soviets in Wismar, Germany, 5/1945. Recollections of period commanding 225th (Parachute) Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 5th Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in India, 7/1945-8/1945: preparing for Operation Zipper; question of why Operation Zipper would have been a failure if it had taken place. REEL 4 Continues: calling off of Operation Zipper, 8/1945; liberation of Singapore, Malaya, 8/1945; handling German naval prisoners of war in Singapore, Malaya; memories of 'Count Bobbi' character in German Air Force journal. Aspects of period commanding 225th (Parachute) Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 5th Parachute Bde in Java, Dutch East Indies, 1945-1946: Japanese handing over weapons to Indonesians and then attempting to re-capturing them; rice denial tactics adopted at Semarang; reasons for unpopularity of Dutch; Dutch confusion over his rank and titles. Recollections of period commanding Surgical Division at British Commonwealth General Hospital, Kure, Japan, 1950-1951: posting to hospital; role as senior surgeon; treatment for gas gangrene wound; question of suspicion of regular army medical officers; incident with anti-British Australian registrar; use of American PX dollars; method of treating frostbite cases; story of how his opinion of Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery changed in post-war period.