| The 26th Military General Hospital were present in both
Greece and Crete in 1940/41 |
Site Map |
| There is not a lot of detail in the books regarding the
support to the troops provided by the field hospitals. The
information below came from an obituary in the Times of 20 November,
2001, for Lieutenant-Colonel Agnes Barnett. |
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| Agnes Barnett was the eldest child of Sergeant
Jack Barnett who had won the Military Medal and been mentioned in
dispatches as a stretcher-bearer on the Western Front. She joined
the Territorial Army Nursing Service in March 1939, and in June 1940 she
was sent out to Palestine with the 26th Military General Hospital.
The 26th was then sent to Greece in November following the Italian
invasion of that country. As the Italian invasion was completely
repulsed, the Germans invaded Greece in
1941. Many members of the unit were killed or captured in the
rapid German advance, and when the Allies were expelled from the
mainland, its survivors were evacuated to Crete. |
| On Crete Barnett contracted acute appendicitis
which required an immediate operation . Before she had recuperated
the Allied resistance on Crete had collapsed, and along with the rest of
the unit she was evacuated to Alexandria via Heraklion. |
| Many nursing staff did not get off the island,
as they stayed to attend to the wounded, and were captured along with
them. |
