Campaigning Notes, 1940-45

Together with other Bristolians, most of whom are now out of uniform, I have been asked to record a few of my personal experiences while in the Army. Where should one begin ? The events of the last few years seem already far away. Like so many, I joined the forces and saw something of the world. Never have so many travelled so much and often, apparently, so much at random. Events crowd each other out of memory, and at times even years get mixed. When the war started I was House Surgeon to Mr. Wright, and like many others was " fixed " at my post in expectation of heavy air raid casualties. Nothing happened. Finland was fighting, and for a variety of rather ill-defined motives, including pacifist ideas and a dislike of wearing uniform, I volunteered to go over and do medical work in Finland. The story is complicated and, in retrospect, full of the improbable. The organization was phoney, and the plan futile. I arrived in Finland with about two hundred others to join the advance guard of about a hundred, forming the nucleus of the British Contingent of the International Volunteer Brigade. The date of our arrival was 13th March, 1940, the day after the Russo-Finnish armistice was signed. There was a possibility, or so many of us thought, of further fighting and a spread of hostilities to Scandinavia, and so we stayed. I liked the Finns, and made many friends. It seems odd now to think that Britain tried to go to war with Russia and Germany at the same time ! It took ten months to get out of Finland and several attempts failed. Meanwhile, Norway fell, Belgium and Holland were invaded, and the collapse of France was followed by the astonishing evacuation of Dunkirk. Daily and anxiously we listened to the disastrous news. Some of the Finns were so anti-Russian as to be pro-German; and some, particularly the Swedish element, were pro-German by association. They and all the others expected England to ask for terms.