Evening star., 1942-07-21

pital ship that morning, SO half
dozen of us had gone down to help.
The orders were to get back to
camp at once-we were pulling out
at daybreak. Pulling out! We
couldn't believe it. What had hap
pened? No one knew but don't ask
questions, get back to camp.
We jumped in an ambulance and
through the pitch black started back
to camp. The road already was
filling with big trucks heading east.
They charged down on us and we'd
pull off the road, then crawl on, till
we finally got back, packed our
duff1e, gathered our loose gear in
our flea ridden dugouts, began load
ing our cars with gasoline. Then
Jerry started shelling., Our ambu-
lances shook like fratl reeds in a
wind, and we knew we were inside
Jerry's shelling range. That ex-
planned it. That was why we were
getting out. Nevertheless we caught
a couple of hours of sleep. At four
we were up, at six were at the To-
bruk hospital to evacuate the pa
tients and get out the nurses.
We picked up bite OF breakfast
there One poor devil had just got
in from the debacle at Knights
bridge. His eyes were red-rimmed
from the constant firing and the
sleepless nights.
I'VE were told to hold to the last
man." he said. "All we had was
rifles and machine guns. We were
told to hold back their tanks until
our tanks arrived. We held till
there was almost none Of us left,
but our tanks never came. I got
out on foot with 4 wounded friend.
I'm lucky I'm alive"
His voice trembled a little. You
could tell he'd seen terror and pain
right beside him.
All Patients Loaded.
We loaded all the patients In the
hospital, jammed them into our We
hicles somehow, and some lucky
drivers got to haul back the nurses
At 7 we headed out. The roads
were jammed. No traffic jam in
New York was ever so long, so con-
tinuous, so unrelieved of congestion
for hours, big trucks, little trucks
,, staff cars, ambulances, most all the
vehicles Of the Royal Army Corps
piled up one against the other
Spoilers on the tops of trucks
watched out for Jerry planes. Had
the Raj let Jerry through he would
have had field day. One bomb
could have killed hundreds, held up
traffic for hours. But the RAF kept
him back and we got out unscathed
Next day the nurses were taken
to Alexandria and we set up camp
between Bardia and Matruh on the
beach. For two days we awaited
orders. Our men from the Free
French drifted in. One was killed
| In the evacuation from Bir Hachiem
another machine -gunned in both
legs and one arm, but out OF critical
danger, one of our officers captured
by the Germans.
And then news came that Tobruk
had fallen!
When we heard the word we
thought some one was joking. We
couldn't believe It, 1t was like the
Pearl Harbor murders-incredible
Next day we evacuated a casualty
clearing station out in the desert,
we had to go by compass bearing
/ following windblown tracks. Coming
back to the main road from Salum
to Matruh we found it as congestec
as the day we left Tobruk. Only thi.
time guns and tanks, not just trucks
were filling the highway.
At Matruh I met one poor, bat.
tered Tommy who'd been through
the siege of Tobruk, but somehow
got out. He told incredible, amazing
stories of his comrades heroism-
how one man In the harbor, his lee
blown away, tied tourniquet to the
stump and went on rescuing hi!
fellows in the water; how one of the
engineers, for lack of cable, set of
the mines beneath the docks himself
I'm only 27 and it's too young tt
die, but it's gotta be done, so so.
long he said, waved his friend!
back, and went up with the ex-
ploslon.
Underestimated Enemy.
Then Tommy told us of the fight.
ing itself: They shelled us from
in the morning till that night
You never saw such shelling, such
bombing and strafing. Four hundred
planes overhead there musta been
Then they sent Ities-tWO to fou
divisions-hell I dunno how many
but thousands of them-over th'
escarpment with Jerry officers. Their
was fighting with bayonets ant
hand-to- hand fighting in the streets
When Jerry saw he couldn't driv'
back the South Africans along th'
escarpment, he dropped parachute
troops inside the town. Then we go
it on all sides. That done 1t. W.
was out numbered, out-gunned, out
everything" Then he spat an.
rubbed his bloodshot. flre-burne'
eyes. Its the same old story" h
said YEARLY. I'VE underestimate
them"
Why was Jerry underestimated
What had happened to all our equip
; ment? We listened to the radio Il
the back Of our mess wagon at