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Once on the water, sealed orders were opened and a message was read from the General to all ranks. This message confirmed the last of the rumours. The regiment was on its way toGreece.

The principal appointments were as follows:

Battle forGalatas

On the afternoon of the sixth day, 25 May, the Germans attacked in force in theGalatassector following intensive mortar and air bombing, which reached a terrific climax about 4 p.m. For more than two hours the New Zealanders held their line intact, but extreme pressure forced a fighting withdrawal and the Germans tookGalatas. But as darkness fell the New Zealanders launched a counter-attack which drove the Germans out of the village, with heavy casualties to both sides. The troops, dog-tired after days of fighting and continuous bombardment, with their ranks thinned by casualties, were not in a position to follow up their advantage. During the night 4 Brigade withdrew through 5 Brigade, which had reformed and moved into a new line east ofGalatas, alongside19 Australian Brigadeand also east of the hospital area.

On 24 May Captain Lomas, moving with Headquarters 10 Brigade, resited his RAP on the northern outskirts ofGalatas. During the battle ofGalatasmany of the casualties from the Divisional Cavalry RAP run by CaptainStevenson-Wright1went through this RAP, and some of the casualties from the 18 Battalion RAP under Captain Dempsey were also sent on by Captain Lomas. On some days the number evacuated from Lomas's RAP reached ninety. It is estimated that there was an average of seventy casualties a day for the six days' fighting atGalatas.

The 18th Battalion had been moved forward to the west of the Composite Battalion on 24 May and from the fighting nearWheat Hill, west ofGalatas, many wounded came in to its RAP, which was situated in a depression about 200 yards from Battalion Headquarters. Many were severely wounded by mortar fire, and Captain Dempsey thought the proportion of killed to wounded was abnormally high. The serious cases were loaded on to a small truck and rushed back to 6 MDS in daylight. The truck was strafed on its journeys and had to run off the road many times, but it was not thought that any of the wounded received further wounds. The walking wounded made their way back on foot.

When 18 Battalion retired behindGalatas, Captain Dempsey and Padre Dawson2at the RAP were unaware of the move until they discovered there was no one between them and their forty wounded and the Germans. There was still time to move the wounded back – many could walk but some were carried on stretchers; three had to be left behind. Captain Dempsey was not, therefore, in touch with his unit in the final fighting atGalatas.

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On the afternoon of 25 May the enemy's fierce attacks produced about ninety casualties, which were evacuated with great speed once the defence line was broken. Here again the drivers of the light trucks did splendid work in the daylight, being subjected to aerial attacks most of the time. All the casualties had been evacuated by the time of the start of our counter-attack which led to the recapture ofGalatas. In the withdrawal the Divisional Cavalry did not inform its RAP, but Captain Stevenson-Wright became aware of the position and managed to bring back the few wounded he held and rejoin his unit nearCanea.

In the retirement towardsSuda Bay18 Battalion suffered many casualties from air strafing. Its headquarters was hiding under some trees when one of its officers crossed the road to the hiding place while a plane was overhead. The plane came down and strafed the area, killing some, including the stretcher-bearer sergeant, and wounding a number. There were other such incidents on a smaller scale. First field dressings were applied to the wounded, but those who could not walk had to be left behind. They were well treated by the Germans.

1Capt E. Stevenson-Wright, MBE;Wellington; bornDannevirke, 16 Feb 1909; medical practitioner; medical officer1 Gen HospMar 1940–Feb 1941; RMO 2 Div Cav Mar–May 1941; p.w. May 1941.

Casualties Suffered and Work Done

The campaign inGreecehad resulted in considerable losses in medical personnel and the battle forCreteadded substantially to this depletion. About half of the medical personnel onCretebecame casualties. One medical officer was killed, another wounded, and the acting ADMS NZ Division and seven medical officers were takenPAGE 199prisoner.1Of the other ranks of the medical units, 5 Field Ambulance lost 1 killed and 63 as prisoners; 6 Field Ambulance lost 6 killed and 83 as prisoners; 4 Field Hygiene Section lost 17 as prisoners; and 1 General Hospital lost 17 as prisoners. These figures are exclusive of those who were temporarily missing and who later escaped to rejoin their units, and also of attached ASC drivers.

In the short but fierce battle forCretethe medical units were called upon to treat large numbers of wounded. Fifth Field Ambulance admitted 1274 patients and 6 Field Ambulance 1400 (half of the latter being casualties fromGreece), and in most localities urgent surgery was done by surgical teams attached to the main dressing stations, with a limited amount of medical equipment and supplies. The staff of 4 Field Hygiene Section gave assistance at 5 Field Ambulance, to which they were attached, and the party from 1 General Hospital, in the words of the Registrar, “worked admirably” for 7 General Hospital, to which unit 6 Field Ambulance also gave valuable help.

In a survey of all the medical services onCrete, Colonel Kenrick remarked that to him the outstanding points were: firstly, the amazing fortitude displayed by the walking wounded under the most ghastly conditions; and, secondly, the universal courage and devotion to duty shown by all ranks of the medical services under conditions of warfare such as had never before been experienced by our troops.

1Lt-Col W. H. B. Bull, acting ADMS NZ Division, Major S. G. de Clive Lowe and Lt R. F. Moody of 5 Field Ambulance, Lt D. A. Ballantyne of 6 Field Ambulance, Captain O. S. Hetherington, RMO 21 Battalion, Capt L. H. V. Longmore, RMO 22 Battalion,Capt R. S. Stewart, RMO 23 Battalion, andCapt E. Stevenson-Wright, RMO 2 Divisional Cavalry Regiment, were taken prisoner. In addition, Lt-Col Plimmer, acting CO 6 Field Ambulance, was killed, and Capt Mules was wounded, losing an eye.

As prisoners of war the members of the Medical Corps continued their work for those who needed their help. The service of some was so notable as to gain an award. Of those captured inCrete, recipients of awards included Lt-Col Bull, OBE, Capt E.PAGE 142Stevenson-Wright,11MBE, Captain O. S. Hetherington, MBE; and of those captured inGreece,Maj G. H. Thomson,12OBE,Capt H. M. Foreman, MBE,Capt J. Borrie, MBE, S-Sgt H. S. King,13MBE. In addition a number were mentioned in despatches.

Besides the groups already mentioned, there were sick and disabled men in various hospitals, and medical and dental personnel who were still more scattered. There was a New Zealand dental officer in Ilag VIII atTost, where over a thousand British civilian men were interned, only a handful of whom were New Zealanders. And sometimes transferred medical or dental staff found themselves the only New Zealanders in their new camp, like the two doctors and the medical orderly2who volunteered to go and treat an outbreak of typhus at a Russian camp atNeuhammer, near Stalag VIIIB,Lamsdorf.

1Hospitals in this military area containing New Zealanders includedObermasfeld(attached toStalag IXC),Stadroda(attached toStalag IXC), Dieburg (attached to Stalag IXB).

2Capt H. M. Foreman,Capt E. Stevenson-WrightandPte J. Butler, allNZMC. The two officers were both awarded the MBE, and Butler the BEM, for this and for outstanding services to their fellow prisoners of war during captivity. Foreman and Butler both developed typhus fever but recovered.

Typhus: Probably the greatest threat to health came from typhus fever, to which thousands of Russian prisoners and many German soldiers fell victim. Typhus fever raged through the Russian camps from November 1941. Two New Zealanders, Captain Foreman and Private Butler,NZMC, who, with Captain Stevenson-Wright, volunteered to go and assist at the hospital at the Russian camp atNeuhammer, developed typhus in March 1942, but both recovered. The sick at this hospital came from the 60,000 Russians in the nearby camp, where conditions were deplorable. Most of the cases treated in the hospital were suffering from starvation associated with hunger oedema, tuberculosis, dysentery, and typhus. The daily diet in the camp consisted of no more than 1200–1400 calories, and the diet for the sick Russians in hospital was 250 grammes of bread, 10 grammes of margarine, 10 grammes of sugar, and swede soup morning and evening. The hospital of twenty wooden barracks, each housing 100 patients, was overcrowded; there was no soap, medical supplies were very inadequate, and there were no laboratory and surgical facilities. There were 100–200 typhus cases in hospital at one time, and 80–90 Russians died each day. As far as typhus was concerned, good nursing was the only possible treatment. This description of the conditions of the Russians gives an indication of what could have been the fate of our own prisoners of war.

Major S. de CliveLowe1became an anaesthetist at theKokkinia

1Maj S. G. de Clive Lowe, m.i.d.; England; born NZ 27 Feb 1904; medical practitioner; medical officer 5 Fd Amb Mar-May 1941; p.w. May 1941.

PAGE 108hospital; CaptainBallantyne1was put in charge of a ward of sixty patients; CaptainsMoody2andLongmore3were in charge of the ‘convalescent’ camp; CaptainsStewart4andStevenson-Wright5went along with Major Thomson and Captain Slater to open up an additional hospital at the Polytechnic Institute inAthenson 6 June.

The Mixed Hospitals

These were hospitals established to deal with prisoners of war in general and not with ‘British prisoners’ alone.

One of the first to function was Teil-Lazarett,Cosel, which housed in most primitive conditions Russian, Serbian and a few British sick in theCoseldistrict. In 1942, because of overtures from British medical officers nearby, and because of adverse reports carried to the central stalag by visiting British padres, British medical officers were detailed by the Germans to go toCoselto assist the Serbian doctors. Shortly after, following an outbreak of severe summer diarrhoea due to hopeless sanitary arrangements, the benign and ineffective GermanChefarztwas replaced by an active German organiser; and, with plenty of effort from the British as well, the hospital soon became a reasonably satisfactory institution.

It catered for 100 British, 200 French, 300 Russians and some Serbians. On its staff were British surgeons and physicians, a French physician, a Serbian surgeon and a British administrative OC, and two New Zealand medical officers (Captains Stevenson-Wright and Foreman).

From July 1942 to November 1943 Stevenson-Wright and Foreman worked in the hospital atCosel. The hospital then housed 300 Russian and 100 French and British sick prisoners of war. At first, housing conditions were little better than those in Stalag VIIIE, the notorious camp for Russians atNeuhammer, although the feeding was better. Among the Russians all types of medical diseases were seen, the most common being all forms of tuberculosis, famine oedema and dysentery. All manifestations of vitamin deficiency were frequently seen but in nearly two years only four cases of beri-beri were admitted. These four cases were in men apparentlyPAGE 140well nourished who worked in a sugar-beet factory. Here again the state of the Russian prisoners admitted to the hospital showed the inhuman way they were being treated by the Germans, who made them work hard on construction work and gave them totally inadequate food. In 1945 theCoselhospital was transformed into a pleasant, efficient hospital, thanks to the Senior British Medical Officer and theRed Crossand a co-operative German doctor. It was interesting for the New Zealand medical officers, following this period inCoselhospital, to return to work again at the British stalag atLamsdorf, where among better nourished and cared-for prisoners of war the only illnesses seen were those encountered in a small town anywhere with a population of 10,000.

A similar mixed 600-bed hospital was commenced atTostin May 1944, functioning until the area was liberated by the Russians in January 1945. It was under command of Major S. G. de Clive Lowe,NZMC. Those taken by the Russians were finally released throughOdessa, going through the Mediterranean Sea toEgyptand England.

New Zealand medical and dental officers fromGreeceandCreteat Stalag VIIIB, November 1941

Front row (left to right):Capt J. le B. Warren,Capt R. S. Stewart,Maj S. G. de Clive Lowe, Lt-Col W. H. B. Bull, Rev. J. S. Hiddlestone, Capt O. S. Hetherington.Back row:Rev. R. J. Griffiths, CApt J. T. Dodgshun, Capt P. Noakes, Capt P. N. R. McDonald,Maj L. H. V. Longmore,Capt D. A. Ballantyne,Capt E. Stevenson-Wright,Capt H. M. Foreman, Rev. W. E. W. Hurst

CAPTAIN E. STEVENSON-WRIGHT
16 FEBRUARY 1909–
(PERSON)

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Mentioned in

• Divisional Cavalry
• CHAPTER 4 — The Regiment United
• Medical Services in New Zealand and The Pacific
• II: Kokkinia Prisoner-of-War Hospital
• Medical Units of 2 NZEF in Middle East and Italy
• Honours And Awards
• Medical Staffs Remain with Wounded
• Embarkation
• New Zealand Medical Services in Middle East and Italy
• Battle for Galatas
• Casualties Suffered and Work Done
• Prisoners of War
• II: Prisoners in Germany

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For several reasons, including lack of resource and inherent ambiguity, not all names in the NZETC are marked-up. This means that finding all references to a topic often involves searching. Search for Captain E. Stevenson-Wright as:"Captain E. Stevenson-Wright". Additional references are often found by searching for just the main name of the topic (the surname in the case of people).

Other Collections

The following collections may have holdings relevant to "Captain E. Stevenson-Wright":

• Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, which has entries for many prominent New Zealanders.
• Archives New Zealand, which has collections of maps, plans and posters; immigration passenger lists; and probate records.
• National Library of New Zealand, which has extensive collections of published material.
• Auckland War Memorial Museum, which has extensive holdings on the Auckland region and New Zealand military history.
• Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, which has strong holdings in Tāonga Māori, biological holotypes and New Zealand art.
• nzhistory.net.nz, from the History Group of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

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