Interview with Basil Victor Keeble

British private served as medical orderly with 189th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, Norway and Crete, Greece, 1940-1941; prisoner of war in Dulag 183, Salonika, Greece, Stalag, VIII-B, Lamsdorf and Arbeitskommando E8, Krappitz, Germany, 6/1941-11/1943; repatriated from Germany to GB via Sweden, 11/1943

REEL 1 Background in Ipswich, GB, 1918-1939: family; education; employment; joining St Ambulance Brigade; opinion of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's foreign policy. Enlistment and training with Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 1940: enlistment at Southend; training at Royal Army Medical Corps Training Depot, Church Crookham; drafting to 189th Field Ambulance. Recollections of operations as medical orderly with 189th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps in Norway, 1940: nature of voyage from Aberdeen to Norway; sight of German submarine U-26's torpedo attack on MV Cedarbank, 21/4/1940; question of chaotic organisation during loading of ships in Scotland; disembarking at Åndalsnes; lack of supplies available; German Air Force attacks on Åndalsnes; setting up of field hospital; orders to evacuate; casualties during evacuation to HMS Sheffield, 30/4/1940. REEL 2 Continues: reception aboard HMS Sheffield; relations with Norwegians; period refitting in Selkirk, GB on return from Norway. Aspects of voyage aboard from GB to Egypt via South Afirca and Ceylon, 1940: conditions on board HMT Queen Mary; hospitality of South Africans; conditions on board steamship from Ceylon to Egypt. Aspects of period as medical orderly with 189th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps in Middle East, 1940-1941: acclimatisation period in Palestine; move to Canal Zone, Egypt, 10/1940; hospital work at Moascar, Egypt; lack of security in Egypt. Recollections of operations as medical orderly with 189th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corp in Crete, Greece, 11/1940-5/1941: voyage from Egypt to Crete, 11/1940; setting up casualty receiving station near Canea, 11/1940; problems supplying Crete; medical aid given to Cretan civilians; arrival of casualties from Greece, 3/1941; move to Heraklion and Knossos. REEL 3 Continues: German Air Force raids on Knossos area; start of German airborne assault, 20/5/1941; casualty with eye injury; 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) action against German airborne troops; consequences of not displaying Red Cross at hospital; conversation with German Army officer under truce flag; dropping of medical supplies by Germans; case of Greek with stomach wound; background to being left behind during evacuation. Recollections of period as prisoner of war on Crete and in Dulag 183, Salonika, Greece, 6/1941-8/1941: contrast in attitude of German airborne troops and other German Army troops towards prisoners of war; flight with casualties from Crete to Athens; work he did in Greece; move to Dulag 183, Salonika and conditions in camp; incidents of machine gunning of prisoner of war by German guards. REEL 4 Continues: behaviour of guards at Dulag 183, Salonika; attempts of Greek civilians to give prisoners of war food. Aspects of train journey from Greece to Germany, 1941: chaplain who refused to share cigarettes with other prisoners of war; outbreak of diarrhoea. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Stalag, VIII-B, Lamsdorf and Arbeitskommando E8, Krappitz, Germany, 1941-1943: condition he was in on arrival; delousing procedure; sharing Red Cross parcels; relations with British Indian Army prisoners of war; receiving recognition as Royal Army Medical Corps personnel; role as sanitater at Arbeitskommando E8, Krappitz; rations received at wood factory; German guards' reaction to prisoner of war sabotage act; attitude of factory manager to Nazis; story of German guard who had received severe hand wound; his work in defence of sick prisoners of war. REEL 5 Continues: arrival of Soviet workers at Arbeitskommando E8, Krappitz; obtaining medical supplies for Soviet Army prisoner of war medical officer; disposal of Soviet dead; arrival of Palestinian Jewish prisoners of war and their escape plans; aid received from nuns at cottage hospital; friendship with German guard; infiltration of stool-pigeon; relations with surgeon at cottage hospital; screening of prisoners of war for fitness for work. Recollections of repatriation from Germany to GB via Sweden, 10/1943: move to Sassnitz, Germany; missing ferry from Sassnitz, Germany to Malmö, Sweden; eating with German Navy submariners; crossing to Sweden. REEL 6 Continues: handling of sick prisoners of war in Gothenburg, Sweden; prisoner of war exchange, 10/1943; treatment on return to GB. Aspects of period as NCO with Royal Army Medical Corps in GB and Denmark, 1944-1945: posting to convalescent homes in Clacton-on-Sea, GB; work with 23rd Field Dressing Station, Royal Army Medical Corps in Denmark, 1945; attitude towards Germans after return to GB and disbelief about atrocities towards Jews; prior recollections of method of suturing in Crete, Greece, 5/1941; attitude to having served with Royal Army Medical Corps in Second World War.