Hadfield-Spears Ambulance Unit
Encyclopedia
The Hadfield-Spears Ambulance Unit was an Anglo-French volunteer medical unit which served initially with the 4th French army in Lorraine
, eastern France, during the Second World War from February 1940 until it was forced to retreat on 9 June ahead of the German advance. Its official French designation at that time was Ambulance Chirurgical Légère de Corps d’Armée 282. The unit made its way across France via Bordeaux to Arcachon
from where it was evacuated back to Britain, arriving at Plymouth
on 26 June. The unit re-grouped and re-equipped in Britain before sailing on 20 March 1941 for the Middle East, landing at Suez
on 2 May. Under the designation of HCM (Hôpital chirurgical mobile) 3 Ambulance Hadfield-Spears, it was attached to the Free French forces (1st Free French Division
) in the Middle East, North Africa, Italy and France before being dissolved in Paris in June 1945 on the order of General Charles de Gaulle
.
in the south of France. She explained to the French Consulate in London that 'the gift was the repayment of a debt she owed to France for the happiest years of her life'. In the First World War, this well-connected American from Philadelphia had been one of the first to start a Red Cross hospital for the treatment of wounded and sick servicemen. This hospital at Wimereux
, near Boulogne-sur-Mer
, was run entirely at her own expense. Lady Hadfield, CBE
, died in London on 6 November 1949.
, who was known to her friends and family as 'May'. The latter had, at her own expense, also set up a hospital for the French army in July 1915 (l'Hôpital Chirugical Mobile No 1); now she wanted to help during the new conflict. Mary had close ties with France – it was while her unit was on the Somme in 1916 that she met Captain Edward Louis Spears, a British liaison officer attached to the French army. He was subsequently promoted to a General Staff Officer 1st Grade, liaising between the French Ministry of War and the War Office in London. They were married in 1918 and living in Paris at the end of the war. Spears later became a Member of Parliament
; his pro-French views in the Commons earning him the nickname of 'the Member for Paris'. They had a wide circle of influential friends, both British and French, whom they entertained at their London home during the inter-war period. Mary Borden (Mrs Spears) agreed to be in charge of the (largely British) female personnel – the nurses and drivers of Lady Hadfield's new field hospital with its 100 beds. Mary Spears was generally known as 'Madame la Générale' by the French – a reference to her husband's rank in the British army. The French military 'Service de Santé' agreed to provide the male staff for the medical unit, including doctors, orderlies and drivers for the unit's heavy trucks.
Complete with tents, X-ray equipment, sterilizing apparatus, surgical instruments, beds, bedding, linen and ward equipment, the Hadfield-Spears mobile hospital left Paris in February 1940 for the village of St Jean le Bassel, near the front line in Lorraine
. The medical officer in charge was Le Médecin Capitaine Jean Gosset – under him were three young French surgeons, a radiographer and administrative staff. There were 12 French drivers for the heavy trucks and 50 private soldiers. The British girls consisted of ten nurses, and 15 drivers of the Mechanised Transport Corps
(MTC). Lady Hadfield had donated a Renault limousine for the use of Mrs Spears.
The Hadfield-Spears unit was attached to the French 4th Army, which was commanded by Général Réquin, a former World War 1 comrade of General Spears. At St Jean le Bassel, they were billeted partly at a convent and partly in the village itself. Their predecessors had left the wards in poor condition and they spent two weeks getting the place into shape before moving patients to their new quarters.
There was little military activity in the sector – even when the Germans launched their attack on Holland, Luxembourg and Belgium on 10 May. The girls had a peaceful time in the French countryside, making sorties up to the front line at Sarreguemines
, which had become a ghost town since its French inhabitants were evacuated nine months previously. Lady Hadfield travelled up from the south of France to visit her unit – Mary Spears would not see her again until the end of the war. On 20 May, the news came through that her husband had been promoted to Major General, although she did not then know that he had been appointed Churchill's personal representative to the French Prime Minister, Paul Reynaud
.
On 28 May, they heard that the Belgian army was surrendering. General Réquin spoke to Mrs Spears and emphasised the serious of the military situation. She received telephone calls from Paris – her husband wanted her to come to Paris before he flew to London. She resisted – how could she leave her unit at a time like this? Spears was insistent but she was reluctant, as was Captain Gosset, who feared the road might be cut and that she would be unable to get back. They heard that Dunkirk had been evacuated. Then Spears rang again – this time ordering her to come to Paris. She decided to make a dash to the capital and back. They met at the British embassy. With the French army collapsing on all fronts, Spears was exhausted. 'His eyes were bloodshot. There were lines inches deep in his face. [...] I saw for one second what what going to happen. The war leapt at me out of his eyes. I was terrified.'
That evening a call came from her unit in Lorraine – they had received orders to move to another location the following day. She realised it had been most unwise to become separated from her girls. Then her driver reported that she had wrecked their car in the blackout. Fortunately, General Spears managed to procure another car with two French military drivers; Mary Spears and her MTC driver left the following morning. They arrived back at St Jean le Bassel just as the mobile hospital was about to move off.
, between Moulins
and Clermont-Ferrand
, they heard that Marshal Philippe Pétain
had asked the Germans for an armistice.
It was no longer a matter of retreat – more of escape. Their destination was Bordeaux
, which had been the final seat of the French government before its ultimate collapse; they knew that Mary's husband, General Spears, had been here with the French government and they were sure he would help them find a way back to Britain. At Brives
, their commanding officer, le Médecin Capitaine Jean Gosset, managed to send a telegram to warn the British Embassy at Bordeaux that the unit was splitting up, and that the 26 women would be continuing alone. All Lady Hadfield's medical equipment and stores were abandoned at the roadside. It is against Red Cross regulations for surgical or medical stores to be destroyed, but it is not known whether they were subsequently seized by the Germans. The women set off in six cars for Bordeaux.
The British military attaché in Bordeaux directed them to Arcachon
where, at a villa outside the town, they met a British naval lieutenant, Ian Fleming
, who arranged for them to be taken aboard HMS Galatea (71)
for the short sea voyage to St Jean de Luz near the Spanish frontier. Here they were transhipped to a passenger vessel, the Etric [sic], which already had on board a large number of British subjects (mainly well-to-do ladies and their staff) evacuated from their villas in France. Mary Spears and her party of 25 British nurses and MTC drivers docked in Plymouth on 26 June 1940 with nothing but their personal effects.
was dying at a country house near Epsom
; Lady Hadfield was cut off at her villa in the south of France. There was accordingly no question of more help from the original sponsors but, through her contacts in America, she tapped into funds which had been donated in America by a charitable organisation known as the British War Relief Society
, whose initial donation of £25,000 was enough for her to consider that their financial worries were over. The name of the new unit would remain unchanged, but its organisation and Anglo-French character would be identical to that of her two previous hospitals. These conditions – including the proviso that Mrs Spears would exercise complete control over the female personnel – were accepted in writing by General Charles de Gaulle
, who was by now leading the Free French Forces
from his headquarters in London.
The unit's next posting would be overseas and there would be a requirement for heavy trucks and 30 men who could not only drive but also act as orderlies. De Gaulle was unable to provide this manpower from his forces, but drivers were forthcoming from the American Field Service, and hospital orderlies from the Friends' Ambulance Unit
in London – the latter all conscientious objectors. Vehicles, tents, beds, cookers and ward equipment were purchased from the War Office
. The vehicles included 15 3-ton Bedford trucks, and the same number of 15-hundredweight trucks, as well as five Ford V8s to transport the nurses and officers. De Gaulle's, Free French had few medical officers and it took months to assemble a team of four doctors who would be led by Colonel Fruchaud. The Mechanised Transport Corps
provided 12 drivers.
The equipment and vehicles left Cardiff
by sea for Port Sudan
at the beginning of February 1941. The personnel sailed on 23 March from Greenock on board the Orient Line liner SS Otranto.
_and_sir_edward_spears_in_the_lebanon,_1942.jpg)
The Hadfield-Spears unit reached Suez
on 2 May, expecting to sail back to Port Sudan and from there to Abyssinia
, but plans had changed and they were told to make for Palestine
. Their equipment had already been off-loaded at Port Said
. During a brief visit to Cairo, Mary Spears met Madame Catroux, wife of General Georges Catroux
, General de Gaulle's High Commissioner to the Levant, who did not approve of Free French wounded being cared for by British nurses. However, instead of going to Eritrea
and the Sudan
, as they had expected, the unit was sent to Sarafand
in Palestine
, where they were joined by Colonel Fruchaud, a renowned French surgeon, and a French detachment from Eritrea. Passing through Samaria
and Galilee
and crossing Transjordania they reached Deraa in Syria.
Lorraine (province)
The Duchy of Upper Lorraine was an historical duchy roughly corresponding with the present-day northeastern Lorraine region of France, including parts of modern Luxembourg and Germany. The main cities were Metz, Verdun, and the historic capital Nancy....
, eastern France, during the Second World War from February 1940 until it was forced to retreat on 9 June ahead of the German advance. Its official French designation at that time was Ambulance Chirurgical Légère de Corps d’Armée 282. The unit made its way across France via Bordeaux to Arcachon
Arcachon
Arcachon is a commune in the Gironde department in southwestern France.It is a popular bathing location on the Atlantic coast southwest of Bordeaux in the Landes forest...
from where it was evacuated back to Britain, arriving at Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
on 26 June. The unit re-grouped and re-equipped in Britain before sailing on 20 March 1941 for the Middle East, landing at Suez
Suez
Suez is a seaport city in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez , near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sokhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities...
on 2 May. Under the designation of HCM (Hôpital chirurgical mobile) 3 Ambulance Hadfield-Spears, it was attached to the Free French forces (1st Free French Division
1st Free French Division
The 1st Free French Division was one of the principal units of the Free French Forces during World War II, and the first Free French unit of divisional size.-World War II:...
) in the Middle East, North Africa, Italy and France before being dissolved in Paris in June 1945 on the order of General Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
.
Sponsor
The unit was established during the Phoney War with £100,000 donated by Sir Robert Hadfield, the British steel tycoon. He had entrusted the money to his wife, Lady Frances Belt Hadfield, asking that she find a suitable good cause. Lady Hadfield, a francophile like her husband, spent most of the year at their villa at Cap FerratCap Ferrat
Cap Ferrat is situated in Alpes-Maritimes département, in southeastern France. It is located in the commune of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.Saint Hospitius lived here as a recluse during the sixth century...
in the south of France. She explained to the French Consulate in London that 'the gift was the repayment of a debt she owed to France for the happiest years of her life'. In the First World War, this well-connected American from Philadelphia had been one of the first to start a Red Cross hospital for the treatment of wounded and sick servicemen. This hospital at Wimereux
Wimereux
Wimereux is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:Wimereux is a coastal town situated some north of Boulogne, at the junction of the D233 and the D940 roads, on the banks of the river Wimereux. The river Slack forms the northern boundary of...
, near Boulogne-sur-Mer
Boulogne-sur-Mer
-Road:* Metropolitan bus services are operated by the TCRB* Coach services to Calais and Dunkerque* A16 motorway-Rail:* The main railway station is Gare de Boulogne-Ville and located in the south of the city....
, was run entirely at her own expense. Lady Hadfield, CBE
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
, died in London on 6 November 1949.
Mary 'May' Borden
At the start of the Second World War, Lady Hadfield was 77 and no longer able to run a field hospital. Accordingly she turned to another American – her friend, the novelist Mary BordenMary Borden
-Life:Mary Borden was born into a wealthy Chicago family. She attended Vassar College, graduating with a B.A. in 1907. In 1908 she married George Douglas Turner, with whom she had three daughters; Joyce , Comfort and Mary...
, who was known to her friends and family as 'May'. The latter had, at her own expense, also set up a hospital for the French army in July 1915 (l'Hôpital Chirugical Mobile No 1); now she wanted to help during the new conflict. Mary had close ties with France – it was while her unit was on the Somme in 1916 that she met Captain Edward Louis Spears, a British liaison officer attached to the French army. He was subsequently promoted to a General Staff Officer 1st Grade, liaising between the French Ministry of War and the War Office in London. They were married in 1918 and living in Paris at the end of the war. Spears later became a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
; his pro-French views in the Commons earning him the nickname of 'the Member for Paris'. They had a wide circle of influential friends, both British and French, whom they entertained at their London home during the inter-war period. Mary Borden (Mrs Spears) agreed to be in charge of the (largely British) female personnel – the nurses and drivers of Lady Hadfield's new field hospital with its 100 beds. Mary Spears was generally known as 'Madame la Générale' by the French – a reference to her husband's rank in the British army. The French military 'Service de Santé' agreed to provide the male staff for the medical unit, including doctors, orderlies and drivers for the unit's heavy trucks.
Active service in Lorraine
Lorraine (province)
The Duchy of Upper Lorraine was an historical duchy roughly corresponding with the present-day northeastern Lorraine region of France, including parts of modern Luxembourg and Germany. The main cities were Metz, Verdun, and the historic capital Nancy....
. The medical officer in charge was Le Médecin Capitaine Jean Gosset – under him were three young French surgeons, a radiographer and administrative staff. There were 12 French drivers for the heavy trucks and 50 private soldiers. The British girls consisted of ten nurses, and 15 drivers of the Mechanised Transport Corps
Mechanised Transport Corps
The Mechanised Transport Corps , sometimes erroneously called the Motor Transport Corps, was a British women's organisation that existed during the Second World War. It was a civilian uniformed organisation which provided drivers for government departments and other agencies...
(MTC). Lady Hadfield had donated a Renault limousine for the use of Mrs Spears.
The Hadfield-Spears unit was attached to the French 4th Army, which was commanded by Général Réquin, a former World War 1 comrade of General Spears. At St Jean le Bassel, they were billeted partly at a convent and partly in the village itself. Their predecessors had left the wards in poor condition and they spent two weeks getting the place into shape before moving patients to their new quarters.
There was little military activity in the sector – even when the Germans launched their attack on Holland, Luxembourg and Belgium on 10 May. The girls had a peaceful time in the French countryside, making sorties up to the front line at Sarreguemines
Sarreguemines
Sarreguemines is a commune in the Moselle department in Lorraine in north-eastern France.It is the seat of an arrondissement.-Geography:...
, which had become a ghost town since its French inhabitants were evacuated nine months previously. Lady Hadfield travelled up from the south of France to visit her unit – Mary Spears would not see her again until the end of the war. On 20 May, the news came through that her husband had been promoted to Major General, although she did not then know that he had been appointed Churchill's personal representative to the French Prime Minister, Paul Reynaud
Paul Reynaud
Paul Reynaud was a French politician and lawyer prominent in the interwar period, noted for his stances on economic liberalism and militant opposition to Germany. He was the penultimate Prime Minister of the Third Republic and vice-president of the Democratic Republican Alliance center-right...
.
On 28 May, they heard that the Belgian army was surrendering. General Réquin spoke to Mrs Spears and emphasised the serious of the military situation. She received telephone calls from Paris – her husband wanted her to come to Paris before he flew to London. She resisted – how could she leave her unit at a time like this? Spears was insistent but she was reluctant, as was Captain Gosset, who feared the road might be cut and that she would be unable to get back. They heard that Dunkirk had been evacuated. Then Spears rang again – this time ordering her to come to Paris. She decided to make a dash to the capital and back. They met at the British embassy. With the French army collapsing on all fronts, Spears was exhausted. 'His eyes were bloodshot. There were lines inches deep in his face. [...] I saw for one second what what going to happen. The war leapt at me out of his eyes. I was terrified.'
That evening a call came from her unit in Lorraine – they had received orders to move to another location the following day. She realised it had been most unwise to become separated from her girls. Then her driver reported that she had wrecked their car in the blackout. Fortunately, General Spears managed to procure another car with two French military drivers; Mary Spears and her MTC driver left the following morning. They arrived back at St Jean le Bassel just as the mobile hospital was about to move off.
Retreat
Over the next 12 days, the unit made its way first west, and then southwest across France. Initially they kept in touch with the French 4th army, hoping to set up their hospital and carry out the humanitarian task which had brought them. But this was not to be. The pace of the French collapse quickened; they were never more than two nights in any one place. It was only at Châlons-sur-Marne that a party of six French orderlies and a French nurse was briefly detached to a hospital to help its overwhelmed medical staff. The roads were choked with refugees, petrol was hard to find and they went off the edge of their road maps. While queuing to refuel at the barracks in GannatGannat
Gannat is a commune in the Allier department in central France.Gannat was a sub-prefecture until 1926, with a population of around 5 800 inhabitants. There is a castle , two churches of which one is partly Romanesque with a 19th-century Gospel Book. The Cultures du Monde Festival is held every July...
, between Moulins
Moulins, Allier
Moulins is a commune in central France, capital of the Allier department.Among its many tourist attractions are the Maison Mantin the Anne de Beaujeu Museum.-History:...
and Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of 140,700 . Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census. It is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department...
, they heard that Marshal Philippe Pétain
Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
had asked the Germans for an armistice.
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, which had been the final seat of the French government before its ultimate collapse; they knew that Mary's husband, General Spears, had been here with the French government and they were sure he would help them find a way back to Britain. At Brives
Brives
Brives is the name or part of the name of several communes in France:* Brives, in the Indre département* Brives-Charensac, in the Haute-Loire département...
, their commanding officer, le Médecin Capitaine Jean Gosset, managed to send a telegram to warn the British Embassy at Bordeaux that the unit was splitting up, and that the 26 women would be continuing alone. All Lady Hadfield's medical equipment and stores were abandoned at the roadside. It is against Red Cross regulations for surgical or medical stores to be destroyed, but it is not known whether they were subsequently seized by the Germans. The women set off in six cars for Bordeaux.
The British military attaché in Bordeaux directed them to Arcachon
Arcachon
Arcachon is a commune in the Gironde department in southwestern France.It is a popular bathing location on the Atlantic coast southwest of Bordeaux in the Landes forest...
where, at a villa outside the town, they met a British naval lieutenant, Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
, who arranged for them to be taken aboard HMS Galatea (71)
HMS Galatea (71)
HMS Galatea was an Arethusa-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built by Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. , with the keel being laid down on the 2 June 1933...
for the short sea voyage to St Jean de Luz near the Spanish frontier. Here they were transhipped to a passenger vessel, the Etric [sic], which already had on board a large number of British subjects (mainly well-to-do ladies and their staff) evacuated from their villas in France. Mary Spears and her party of 25 British nurses and MTC drivers docked in Plymouth on 26 June 1940 with nothing but their personal effects.
Re-grouping and re-equipping in Britain
Mary Spears wished to continue with her work, and had the support of some of her original volunteer nurses and MTC drivers. However, Sir Robert HadfieldRobert Hadfield
Sir Robert Abbott Hadfield, 1st Baronet FRS was an English metallurgist, noted for his 1882 discovery of manganese steel, one of the first steel alloys...
was dying at a country house near Epsom
Epsom
Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England. Small parts of Epsom are in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead. The town is located south-south-west of Charing Cross, within the Greater London Urban Area. The town lies on the chalk downland of Epsom Downs.-History:Epsom lies...
; Lady Hadfield was cut off at her villa in the south of France. There was accordingly no question of more help from the original sponsors but, through her contacts in America, she tapped into funds which had been donated in America by a charitable organisation known as the British War Relief Society
British War Relief Society
The British War Relief Society was a US-based humanitarian umbrella organisation dealing with the supply of non-military aid such as food, clothes, medical supplies and financial aid to people in Great Britain during the early years of the Second World War...
, whose initial donation of £25,000 was enough for her to consider that their financial worries were over. The name of the new unit would remain unchanged, but its organisation and Anglo-French character would be identical to that of her two previous hospitals. These conditions – including the proviso that Mrs Spears would exercise complete control over the female personnel – were accepted in writing by General Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
, who was by now leading the Free French Forces
Free French Forces
The Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...
from his headquarters in London.
The unit's next posting would be overseas and there would be a requirement for heavy trucks and 30 men who could not only drive but also act as orderlies. De Gaulle was unable to provide this manpower from his forces, but drivers were forthcoming from the American Field Service, and hospital orderlies from the Friends' Ambulance Unit
Friends' Ambulance Unit
The Friends' Ambulance Unit was a volunteer ambulance service, founded by individual members of the British Religious Society of Friends , in line with their Peace Testimony. The FAU operated from 1914–1919, 1939–1946 and 1946-1959 in 25 different countries around the world...
in London – the latter all conscientious objectors. Vehicles, tents, beds, cookers and ward equipment were purchased from the War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
. The vehicles included 15 3-ton Bedford trucks, and the same number of 15-hundredweight trucks, as well as five Ford V8s to transport the nurses and officers. De Gaulle's, Free French had few medical officers and it took months to assemble a team of four doctors who would be led by Colonel Fruchaud. The Mechanised Transport Corps
Mechanised Transport Corps
The Mechanised Transport Corps , sometimes erroneously called the Motor Transport Corps, was a British women's organisation that existed during the Second World War. It was a civilian uniformed organisation which provided drivers for government departments and other agencies...
provided 12 drivers.
The equipment and vehicles left Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
by sea for Port Sudan
Port Sudan
Port Sudan is the capital of Red Sea State, Sudan; it has 489,725 residents . Located on the Red Sea, it is the Republic of Sudan's main port city.-History:...
at the beginning of February 1941. The personnel sailed on 23 March from Greenock on board the Orient Line liner SS Otranto.
On active service in the Middle East
Suez
Suez is a seaport city in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez , near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sokhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities...
on 2 May, expecting to sail back to Port Sudan and from there to Abyssinia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
, but plans had changed and they were told to make for Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
. Their equipment had already been off-loaded at Port Said
Port Said
Port Said is a city that lies in north east Egypt extending about 30 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal, with an approximate population of 603,787...
. During a brief visit to Cairo, Mary Spears met Madame Catroux, wife of General Georges Catroux
Georges Catroux
Georges Catroux was a French Army general and diplomat who served in both World War I and World War II, and served as Grand Chancellor of the Légion d'honneur from 1954 to 1969.-Biography:...
, General de Gaulle's High Commissioner to the Levant, who did not approve of Free French wounded being cared for by British nurses. However, instead of going to Eritrea
Eritrea
Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...
and the Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, as they had expected, the unit was sent to Sarafand
Tzrifin
Tzrifin is an area in Gush Dan in central Israel, located on the eastern side of Rishon LeZion and including parts of Be'er Ya'akov. The area proper is defined as an 'area without jurisdiction' between the two cities....
in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, where they were joined by Colonel Fruchaud, a renowned French surgeon, and a French detachment from Eritrea. Passing through Samaria
Samaria
Samaria, or the Shomron is a term used for a mountainous region roughly corresponding to the northern part of the West Bank.- Etymology :...
and Galilee
Galilee
Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...
and crossing Transjordania they reached Deraa in Syria.