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GASCOIGNE (No. 7921915 Staff Sgt. William E., RAMC) Behind the Wire. Unpublished carbon. ts, paginated in four parts, 159pp. in all (43,000 words approx.), 4to (267x210mm), with several small ink corrections by the author, evidently written-up from diary notes &c. soon after the war & including rare & informative of accounts of the campaigns in Greece & Crete in 1941 followed by PoW life at Lamsdorf camp in Germany until liberated by American troops in 1945, reaching Tilbury Docks in April.  #64394
[HLMainPic] Gascoigne, a veteran of the First Great War, embarked with the RAMC Field Ambulance to which he belonged at Liverpool per SS Orcades on 17th November 1940 for the MEF. After a brief stopover at Durban (where welcomed & entertained by the inhabitants) on the last day of the year that disembarked at Kantara from where they travelled by train to a desert camp near Tel El-Kebir where, inter al, their vehicles were camouflaged for desert warfare. In the evnt they embarked with 1st Armd. Brigade for Greece, landing at Piraeus on 7th March 1941. There followed seven weeks participation in operations until evacuated "with the German Army at our heels" & sailed to Crete. Spent three months on Crete until taken PoW during the disastrous & confused campaign, then a further two months there as a PoW of the German. Then moved to a Transitional Prison Camp at a Greek Barracks in Greece before reaching his ultimate destination, Stalag VIIIB (later renamed Camp 344) at Lamsdorf in Germany. From August 1941 to the Spring of 1945 he was at this camp, until it was liberated by the Americans. He finally reached home in April 1945. Some extracts: Campaigning in Greece: "Easter Day, 1941, will always remain in my memory. At daybreak, the main body of the Field Ambulance retreated to GRAVENA, where the 168 Field Ambulance had preceded them. One section, with three Medical Officers, remained at Kaoli, as there were still a number of casualties in the church, awaiting return of ambulances to get them evacuated. There was a fair amount of enemy air activity during the morning, & in the early afternoon bombs were dropped about 150 yards away from the church shattering the windows & causing much perturbation to the sick & wounded lying there. Then sounds of machine gun staffing were heard & within a quarter of an hour, casualties were rushed in to us. The section of 27th New Zealand Machine Gun Battalion had been caught on the road outside the church... with dire results. Several had been killed & others wounded... The Medical Orderly of the Machine Gun Battalion had been hit in the chest by an explosive bullet & it was evident that he would not recover... Easter Monday proved to be another day of remembrance... One stick of five bombs was dropped within fifty yards of us... the experience of the afternoon was both bewildering & demoralising... By the evening the town of Gravena was a shambles. Columns of smoke were rising from burning buildings & vehicles, petrol dumps were going up & ammunition dumps exploding..." Crete, April 1941: "Casualties were brought in intermittently during Wednesday, some by our own stretcher bearers through the Collection Post, & some by their own comrades direct from the scene of action. Our resources only allowed in the main for glorified first aid treatment... During daylight hours enemy aircraft flew overhead incessantly, machine-gunning areas where there was the slightest sign of movement, & searching for anti-aircraft positions..." Stalag VIIIB, Lamsdorf, working in the lazaret: "The Delouse staff were mainly British personnel, with a sprinkling of Germans, & these became infested with the lice. Five of the British personnel of the Delouser fell ill... & were admitted to our Block of wards... Fortunately for the patients concerned, one of the most efficient Medical Officers available (Capt. Barker) was in attendance on them, & his suspicions were aroused & duly confirmed. WE were up against an attack of TYPHUS..." These are but scant examples of the numerous travails of Gascoigne both during campaigns & in PoW camps. This carbon ts copy inscribed by the author "To R.D. Best Esq. With Compliments W.E. Gascoigne" (he was a travelling salesman for the firm of Best & Lloyd both before & after WW2), bound in blue cloth with gilt titles to front & spine (presumably Gascoigne retained the top copy ts for himself). See illustrations on our website.   £500

     




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