Stretcher Bearer

STRETCHER BEARER

The memoirs of George C. Hopper, ex bank clerk, artist, Rifleman with the Kings Royal Rifle Corps, and Stretcher Bearer.  


“In his khaki shirt and shorts and with his curly blond hair, he looked so much like a little boy. One leg was blown off at the knee leaving a ragged brown stump. He was lying on his stomach, his head resting in his arms and it was just as if in his agony and his loneliness he had just turned over and died.”

Excert......El Alamein. October 26th, 1942

It is May 1940 and George Hopper, ex bank clerk and now Rifleman with the Kings Royal Rifle Corps begins his superbly illustrated diary by telling of the early frustrations of military life. In the skies above, the Battle of Britain rages as Hitler vows to destroy the British Royal Air Force prior to German invasion.  

Eventually deployed to Egypt, George vividly recounts the horrendous conditions in the troopships and of  Montgomery’s epic 8th Army battle with Rommel  at El Alamein. As a stretcher bearer in the midst of the most violent warfare, his  terrible and gruesome experiences resulted in the nightmares that were to stay with him for the remainder of his life.

Journeying though Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Israel the regiment finally depart from Alexandria in Egypt  to take part in the invasion of Italy. Here he recounts the bitter fighting that took place in the wintery and mountainous areas around the infamous Monastery at Cassino, as the Nazis with backs against the wall, make their last stand.  Victory finally comes, but at an appalling cost in Allied lives.

Ultimately deployed to the Military Mission to Greece, George experienced and writes of the intense and treacherous  civil warfare that took place after the Nazis departed  as the Communists tried to take over Greece from the British supported Nationalists.  This was the beginning of  the lengthy and disastrous Greek Civil War and led to what eventually became known as the “Cold War” with Russia.

Masterfully written and illustrated, this is an epic story of one man thrown into the battlefields of Egypt, Italy and Greece.  From the Battle of Britain to El Alamein, to the invasion of Italy and the Greek Civil War, this is an historic account, both gripping and compassionate, of a world at war.