221631 Cpl. Victor "Taffy" Kenchington British Army 2nd Btn. Royal Irish Fusiliers I served all through WW2, as I joined the Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1937.
I served in Malta from January 1938 until 1943. I have a lot of poems and stories of that period, but the story I want to tell is this: I was a medical orderly and stretcher bearer in Leros, we were invaded by the German Brandeburgers and other units on the 12th of November 1943.
One of my unit got injured and was left for 36 hours before we found him
We were told where he was and I went out to pick him up with two other stretcher bearers. He was really badly injured, as he had been hit in the buttocks and legs, on seeing him, he kept asking 'could I please give him something to put him to sleep', all I could give him was 5 minims of morphine, I cut his clothes away, and the buttock wound was just a mass of maggots, he also had a compound fracture of his femur, I left the maggots and dressed his buttock wound with two shell dressings, put a dressing on his thigh, put him on the stretcher, tied a rifle sling on his ankle and to the handle of the stretcher. I gave him another shot of morphine, as we had a long walk back to the m.i.room, as we were behind enemy lines, and had to make a devious route back. We surrendered the island to the Germans to save lives, as we had no supplies, and everyone was made p.o.w.s. I was lucky as I was able to escape to Yatikavak in Turkey after rowing a boat 22 hours along with 3 others.
In 1946 when the war had finished I was stationed in Ballymena in Northern Ireland when a chap came to my room to say a chap wanted to see me at the guard room, on getting there this chap said "Hello Taffy", and burst out crying, he said his prayers were now answered, as he wanted to thank me for picking him up, but he had lost his leg. To me this was better than winning any medal, I was almost in tears myself.
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