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Description: | British officer served with Royal Army Medical Corps in Mesopotamia, 1914-1916; captured at seige of Kut-el-Amara and POW in Turkey, 1916-1918
REEL 1: Recollections of operations with Royal Army Medical Corps in Mesopotamia, 1914-1918: posted from India and attached as Medical Officer to Norfolk Regt; description of living conditions and medical facilities in Basra; attitude to Arabs; transferred northwards to Amara, 1915; skirmishes with Arabs and Turks; description of climate; health of men; water supplies and transportation; description of Battle of Ctesiphon, 11/1915; casualties and lack of medical facilities; role of Arabs; description of retreat to Kut-el-Amara; transportation of wounded by barges; role as Medical Officer and types of wounds treated; description of conditions in Kut-el-Amara, 11/1915; strategic position and fortifications; medical facilities in Kut-el-Amara and treatment of wounded during siege.
REEL 2 Continues: problem of food supplies and question of eating horses and mules; accommodation; memory of eating starlings; water supplies; story of making cigarettes; question of morale during siege; memory of supplies dropped by aircraft; opinion of General Townsend; casualties during siege; story of receiving news of relief force; problem of dwindling food supplies; attitude to surrender of garrison, 29/Apr/1916; daily life during siege; problem of flies; sanitary facilities; state of health of garrison; taken POW by Turks and question of treatment; attitude to separation of officers and men; description of journey into captivity; opinion of food and water rations; relations with Turkish captors.
REEL 3 Continues: further description of treatment by Turks and journey into captivity; accommodation during march; opinion of food; story of receiving dental treatment in Aleppo; communication with home; sanitary facilities; daily routine; question of morale; story of German engineers; health of officers and duties as Medical Officer; question of venereal disease; opinion of food; relations between British and Indian troops; opinion of Gurkhas; reaction to news of Armistice; opinion of Turks; description of journey back to GB.
REEL 4 Continues: question of health of men after release; reflections on conduct of Mesopotamian campaign; further description of Battle of Ctesiphon and casualties; opinion of Indian organisation of campaign. Aspects of period as Consultant Venereologist to War Office, 1939-1945: problem of VD and treatments; educational programme; comparison of problem of VD in First and Second World Wars. Further recollections of operations in Mesopotamia, 1914-1918: opinion of General Townsend; modes of transport; water supplies; memory of arch of Ctesiphon; attitude to Arabs; further comments on retreat after Battle of Ctesiphon and siege of Kut-al-Amara and assessment of role of General Townsend; problem of contracting typhus. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Smith, Lyn E | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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