Sickness in Salonica: my first, worst, and most successful clinical trial.

While acting as medical officer to "D" Battalion Layforce I was captured on Crete on 1 June 1941. Together with other prisoners I reached the transit camp for all prisoners of war at Salonica late in June, very tired and hungry. The camp was a run down overcrowded army barracks, infested with bed bugs. The diet was minimal-breakfast: unsweetened "ersatz" coffee; midday: a bowl of vegetable soup; evening: two slices of plain bread-in all, about 400 to 500 calories. We were always hungry.