7 General Hospital Released and Re-established

At 1 p.m. on 20 May the hospital area and the patients, with whom a small staff, including New Zealanders, had remained, was recaptured. The hospital was re-established immediately in large sandstone caves on the foreshore and an improvised operating theatre was functioning the same evening. In all, five large caves were used and as many as 500 patients accommodated. Four of the caves were used for surgical and the other for medical cases, and a great deal of work was very efficiently done there until the hospital was involved in the retreat.

New Zealand orderlies from the staff of 1 NZ General Hospital continued to be attached to the hospital and there was the utmost co-operation with New Zealand ambulance units.