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I
Base Camp Reception Hospital

Bcrh, by which four letters the Base Camp Reception Hospital, NZEFIP, was always known, cannot as a unit commence any story of its existence with the oft-repeated words,' When we were in Fiji/ for although many of its personnel saw service, long service, too, in those isles, BCRH itself was New Caledonian born and bred. The foundations of the unit were laid in January, 1943, when the disposition of units in New Caledonia proved the necessity for a hospital in the base area. As a nucleus of this new unit four men were transferred from the 4th NZ General Hospital, and, with nothing but their bare hands or with what they could borrow or 'acquire,' these four started their sterling work for the unit by setting about the preparation of a camp site on a guava-covered hillside near the Base Reception Depot in the Tene Valley at Bourail. The first consideration was an, area for accommodation tents, and this was cleared and the tents erected by the time the first reinforcement of 23 men arrived on 9 February, 1943. From this date Base Camp Reception Hospital became a unit under the command of Captain (later Major) John Rule, NZMC, who combined with this post the duty of senior medical officer, base area. At this stage accommodation only was available and the pioneers will, no doubt, readily remember the trek to Base Reception Depot for meals—a none-too-pleasant undertaking in the then prevalent wet weather.

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It must have been at about this time that the wellknown cry ot 'All out, general duties' was first heard echoing up the BCRH hill (some of the boys were destined to hear it every morning until August, 1944), because by March, 1943, with the expert and welcome assistance of two sappers, the cookhouse burc was completed and was closely followed by the mess hut and quartermaster's store. Later, other bitres were to make their appearance on a well ordered hillside. The orderly room and RAP staffs were soon working in these native style huts, and last, but not least, the officers' mess was completed and won renown throughout the length of the land as a house of hospitality.

Major Rule, because of ill-health, returned to New Zealand in March, and Major E. S. Thodey assumed command of the unit, to be joined soon after by Captain J. L. Adams as his assistant. To these two officers must go much of the credit for the moulding of an efficient unit and for the layout of an excellent camp and hospital. Construction work proceeded apace during March, and a working party from the 22nd Field Ambulance earned our gratitude for the construction of '22nd Street'—the first all-weather road of a series which was to develop under the eagle eye, strident voice, and often caustic comments of Sergeant-Major Bert Hart.

By April, 1943, the unit achieved its main objective. The hospital opened for patients in a series of Indian-pattern tents. • Sergeant Phil Scott and his assistant orderlies worked hard under difficult and primitive conditions to install all the normal features and fittings of a hospital. The operating theatre tent is particularly worthy of mention, and credit is due to Private Gordon Poole for the creation and installation of the operating table. Trleath Robinson might well have designed it, but no one could deny its effectiveness. At the same time, a little way across the guava flats, Staff-Sergeant Jan Fowler had organised, in an excellent manner, a department of BCRH which rendered a very necessary service to NZEFIP. In Captain Adams the patients in this department had a wise counsellor. Thus by April, 1943, was BCRH functioning in all its departments and was giving, what the staff were pleased to consider, a valuable service to the base area of NZEFIP.

In June there came into being the Medical Training Depot as an offspring of BCRH. Although this venture did not ever attain the maturity that was no doubt hoped for it by Brigadier Twhigg, page 109the deputy director of medical services, the initial course for junior NCOs from all medical units run by Sergeants Ron -Hannam and Brian Richardson was of unquestionable value to those who attended it. These two sergeants will probably long remember the work which they put into clearing the guava from what they visualised as the Maadi of the Pacific. Lieutenant L. A. Mills joined the unit shortly after the completion of this first course to become training officer cum adjutant.

During August the long awaited permanent ward buildings arrived at the camp and their construction was begun almost immediately. With the completion of this job in September the patients began to enjoy a greater degree of comfort and the hospital staff was able to work under much more congenial conditions. The two excellent wards provided increased bed space, a much more professional operating theatre (although still equipped with the now traditional table), and a treatment room worthy of the job being done. A third prefabricated ward was to be added at a later date.

This stage in the short account of the life of BCRH is a fitting time to mention certain personalities without which no story of the unit would be complete, because soon, with the supply of reinforcements to the division, a considerable change in the staff was to be experienced. It is not of course, possible to mention every member of the staff, and no one man can be singled out for doing a better job than the next. Every man was pulling his weight, and looking back now it must be agreed that our unit worked as happily and as harmoniously as any making up the force in the Pacific. Old boys of the unit will long remember 'Shorty' Jones and his farmyard noises; Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant Eric Lash, who kept a gentleman's hours, said 'Come back on Tuesday,' and was invariably 'awake'; Percy Wilkinson and his book of current rumours; (Mr. Punch' and his little can of disinfectant; Frank Page, who was the mightiest worker among the general duties personnel; Jack Cameron and Tom Brown, the famous syndicate with a square of cloth and the three dice; 'The Kelly Gang,' headed by Tom Lyle and his violin; and the many others.

October saw the arrival from New Zealand of a batch of about 50 reinforcements, and once more the training depot went into action to initiate these new arrivals into the rigours of life in New Caledonia. To Corporal 'Shorty' Oborn, fresh from a page 110course in commando training in New Zealand, and to Sergeant Richardson goes much of the credit for the training and acclimatisation of the new arrivals. These latter will, no doubt, remember the route marches, the obstacle courses, the rope bridge across the river, and the many other tasks which were set them.

Prior to this divisional troops further north had gone into action, and those whose unfortunate lot it was not to be with them (and somebody had to do the base jobs) were watching the progress of friends and acquaintances with pride and not a little envy. Soon began the supply of reinforcements to forward medical units, and consequently our staff began to change. A few of the older divisional men came back to begin useful jobs for the unit, and some of the younger men got the coveted chance of going forward. Both Major Thodey and Captain Adams were given a long-awaited and well-deserved opportunity to join divisional units, and they went to the 7th and 24th Field Ambulances respectively. Major J. B. W. Roberton, DSO, NZMC, returned to take command of BCRH and, later, Captain S. W. Burcher arrived as medical officer.

Christmas, 1943, for some the first away from the homeland, will long be remembered for the festive spirit which prevailed, despite the fact that everyone's thoughts must have been of home. The quaitermaster and his cooks spared no pains to provide, from the material available, a Christmas dinner par excellence. NCOs took over all the fatigues of the day, and the manner in which the officers and sergeants handled the serving of the dinner bordered on the professional. Good cheer flowed liberally and the meal, in fact the whole day, was an outstanding success. For the patients, who were unfortunate enough to be spending Christmas day in hospital, the wards were decorated, dinner was served in the traditional manner, and no effort was spared to make the day for them as happy as possible. In Corporals Maurice Brewer and Tom Lyle the patients had two men whose main concern was always the comfort of their charges.

In sport, too, BCRH was strong in endeavour if not in success, and there were not many sporting activities organised by the base sports committee in which the unit was not represented. The cricket team, under the capable leadership of Private Jim Noble, did particularly well considering the size of the units (BCRH, Base Hygiene Section, and Advanced Depot of Medical Stores)page 111from which the players were drawn. A cricket match played in the sweltering heat between officers and sergeants and 'The Rest' will long be remembered, if not for the standard of play, then for the singular bowling of Lieutenant S. P. Pushman.

January, 1944, will probably be marked in the memories of most of the personnel then in New Caledonia by the hurricane which hit the island in the early hours of one morning. Fortunately the patients in the comparative safety of the wards suffered little discomfort, but for the personnel of the unit, who, in a futile attempt to save their homes hung on to tent ropes from four o'clock in the morning until eight, it was an experience which will not soon be forgotten. The RSM and the RQMS, who had the best tent anyway, were the only two people in the unit who did not have to seek temporary refuge in the warehouse of the Advanced Depot of Medical Stores or in the officers' and sergeants' messes, which had withstood the onslaught of the elements.

March, 1944, saw the erection of the third ward for the hospital, and Corporal Oboni and his assistant orderlies set about to make this new building the hospital's pride and joy. That they succeeded in this was borne out by the remarks of the patients who were treated in it and by Captain Burcher, who obtained, in one corner, his then immediate desire—a doctor's room, mosquito proofed.

Early in April Lieutenant Mills was transferred to the 7th Field Ambulance, and he was succeeded by Second-Lieutenant H. H. S. Wood. April, too, saw the first batches of men selected to return to New Zealand for essential industry, and we began the task of medically boarding all personnel prior to embarkation. This meant an enlargement of the existing organisation for medical boards, and additional medical officers and other ranks were congregated at BCRH to undertake this task. (Camp Oakey' was founded on the old training area as a temporary home for medical officers who often, it is said, rivalled a certain group of 'Indians' who from time to time repaired to their reservation for the beating of tom-toms. The medical boarding of successive drafts returning to New Zealand continued spasmodically until all personnel of the force had been examined.

At the beginning of July Major Roberton returned to New Zealand and Captain F. N. Sharpe assumed command. By this time most people were able to visualise the answer to the question, page 112' When are we going home?' which had been repeated so often during the preceding months. The matter was placed beyond mere conjecture by August, and the task o£ packing up was begun happily, because it meant home, but not without a tinge of regret at the thought that BCRH would be no more. With the tents down and packing up completed personnel of the unit gazed on a hillside, once a wilderness, and saw the well-ordered site which they had made it. After a few days at the transit camp, which had once been Base Training Depot, the order came to embus— an order which could mean only one thing, Noumea and then home. As the convoy moved out of the Tene Valley past our old site the boys in the back of the trucks saw for the last time the all too familiar bures of the cookhouse, mess, quartermaster's store, orderly room and RAP, and the hospital wards, all Standing silent now, for their inhabitants were homeward bound. Thus ended not just another unit but a period of fellowship granted to a small band of men in a land not their own.

Base Camp Reception Hospital, NZEFIP, will, it is hoped, be sometimes remembered by many people—by Brigadier Twhigg for the useful part it played in the medical services; by the base commandant for the service it rendered the base organisation; by the patients for the good treatment they received there; by the countless soldiers who presented themselves for medical boarding and often for the first step towards home; and last, but not least, by all the personnel, officers and men, who served as part of it because they will surely endorse the opinion that it was one of the happiest units in which a soldier of the New Zealand Medical Corps could wish to serve.