Page 46 - QARANC Vol 14 No 10 2015

44 QARANC THE GAZETTE
and to do this we had to climb
down scrambling nets and with
our tin hats and large packs on
our backs, with the ship heaving
up and down and of course the
nets swaying it was difficult to
get a foot hold. Finally we were
all in the landing craft making
our way up the beaches. It
was getting dark and we were
issued with tins of soup, which
were self-heating on opening.
We slept in the open with our
heads in our tin hats. We
could hear the shellfire in the
distance.
Early the next morning a
Betty in Lorry “Lady Guerillas” being transported
lorry came and picked us up
and took us to an old empty
Chateau in large grounds. This was to
be our Headquarters.
Our small advance party was already
there and had just been machine- gunned.
We put up huge white sheets with a Red Cross in the middle lying flat in the adjoining fields to let the enemy planes know we were a hospital. That did help during the day but not at night.
In a very short time with the help of the Troops we had huge Marquee’s erected as our Wards, Operating Theatres, X-ray and Path Lab. In a very short time a bugle was sounded and ambulances arrived bringing in the wounded.
All staff had to be present to receive the casualties. Many went straight to the Theatres and arrived to the wards. All surgical casualties were given 4 hourly Penicillin injections. This saved many lives. It was the 1st time antibiotics were used and only the Troops were eligible for this treatment.
Once we had dealt with the influx of patients we took it in turn to get some sleep but when the bugle sounded and another great surge of injured were brought in even those of us who were snatching some sleep had to get up as all medical, nursing staff and the Troops were needed to cope with the large number of casualties.
German POW’s were brought in with our own Troops and they were all treated the same with the precious penicillin given 4 hourly day and night. In those days the penicillin was in powder form and we had to add sterile water and mix it up.
As soon as the patient had been operated on and had their Post – Op treatment e.g. blood transfusions, Saline and Glucose drips and wounds treated as soon as possible they were flown back to England and our beds
made ready for the next great influx of patients.
‘The worst thing about D-Day was going across to France with all those splendid young men, only to see them coming back so terribly wounded. ‘The burns from those who had been in tanks were terrible. It was shocking to see.’
Life continued like this until the end of September 1944 when we left France as our Troops were pushing ahead in Holland. Into the army lorries we scrambled and were driven through Belgium to Eindhoven in Holland. Here we took over an old Monastery, Casualties came flooding in. Some of the worst burn cases were men trapped in flaming tanks terrible extensive burns. We were there when the battle of Arnhem took place many lives lost trying to capture the bridge the third bridge in the line to cross the River Rhine.
In December 1944 my fiancé and I decided to get married. He was a Doctor and had been in N Ireland but was being posted to India and we wanted to get married before he left. I was fortunate to be given leave to go home for his short embarkation leave. The weather was too bad to fly so I was transported in a motor torpedo boat across the Chanel. I was married on 22nd December at Westminster Abbey – this was a special privilege as my husband had attended Westminster School. We had 10 days together then he went to India and I returned to Eindhoven.
I put in a request to be posted to India to be with my husband but nothing happened until V.E. Day on the 8th May 1945. The war continued in the East and later in May I was on my way to India having been posted to
BMH Poona by coincidence to where my husband was stationed. We were together only 4 weeks as my husband was only there on a temporary basis as the Troops were pushing ahead in the East he was preparing a blood transfusion unit to join the Troops and left for Malaya, Singapore and then on to Java. I wanted to go as well – but because I was married I was automatically group 1 for release at the end of the war. I could go no further East and my friends who followed me after they left Germany were able to go further east all very frustrating.
In Poona we did not have war casualties it was mostly fevers dengue, diphtheria, malaria and small pox. Eventually VJ Day August 1945 came and I then returned from the Far East to be demobilised from the army.
On returning home I raised 2 daughters and turned to voluntary work, which commenced in 1957 when I took the telephone trolley around the wards at the Royal Berks. I also took the Red Cross trolley around the maternity wards as a mobile shop.
In 1972 I returned to nursing in the Eye Department at the Royal Berks and eventually retired from nursing 1983. In 1984 I joined the League of Friends of Reading Hospitals on the Fund Raising Committee and later on the Executive Committee. In 1994 I was invited to Caen in Normandy to receive the Normandy medal from the Mayor of Caen in appreciation for being amongst the first veterans to reach France after D-Day.
In 1997 I was awarded an MBE for my Charity work.
Thank you Betty for sharing your story with us.