MADE FIT AGAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 87, 14 April 1942, Page 4

MADE FIT AGAIN

TRIBUTE TO SKILL AND

STAMINA

(N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.)

CAIRO, April 11

The experience of a soldier from Taranaki who, after being seriously wounded early in the Libyan campaign, is now passed fit for front-line service is typical of many, and a tribute to the high standard of treatment by the Army medical services. It also shows the toughness of the troops after many months of desert training. During the height of the Sidi Rezegh battle, the soldier was shot through the chest by a machine-gun bullet, which perforated his lung. At dusk, five hours later, two members of the same section, suffering lesser shrapnel wounds, crawled to where he lay, and the three huddled together for warmth. Just before dawn, with only a hazy idea of the whereabouts of friendly troops, his two companions set out on their hands and knees for help, but many hours passed before the stretcherbearers located the soldier. Two days later the advanced dressing station to which the wounded man was taken fell into enemy hands. With rocky ground for a bed, and less than half a pint iof water a day and little food, his condition was low when he was rescued ten days later. An ambulance, a threeton truck, an aeroplane, and a train brought him to hospital at Cairo, 18 days after he had been wounded. Then followed the Army's effective treatment for the restoration of his health and strength—treatment which has brought hundreds of sick and wounded mep back to fighting fitness. When the internal injury had healed, the soldier was sent to a rest home until he was strong enough to face light training and sport at the convalescent depot, under constant medical surveillance. The time soon arrived when the soldier was fit to return to the base camp, and shortly to his unit.

Only a few battle casualties from Libya now remain in the New Zealand hospitals. Mostly they are cases for which full recovery is expected to follow specialised treatment.