大象传媒

Miss Field and her four Nursing Sisters arrived in the neighberhood of Bawli Bazaar in the Arakan and were astonishedto find that their small group was expected to staff not one C.C.S. but three,each of which was liable to come under intense pressure. Nothing daunted, Miss Field placed one Sister each in charge of C.C.S's Nos 22,23 and 24 and organised herself and Miriam as a "mobile reserve".This meant that she and Miriam together withone lorry and driver could reinforce the individual C.C.S.'s whenever they were receiving wounded.Gone were the white uniforms and the grey and red dress to be replaced by green army battle dress including boots and puttees(the latter made at Fox's factory in Miriam's hometown of Wellington) Head-dresses remained but white was too conspicuous so the girls begged dye from one of the Quartermasters (and this was navy blue dye!)to dye their own but at least this colour was less noticable than white.
The five Q.A's were the only white women within 120 miles of Chittagong and were(and still are) the first women to serve right up on the Arakan front in WW2 or any other forward area. The morning after their arrival,(by lorry over dreadful roads) and being only three miles from the Jap lines they were soon hard at work. They had earlier been flown in a fleet of small planes over mountains and crags to land on rough strips of ground near the Ngakydawk Pass over which the wounded would have to be brought out.
The area where they worked was known as the Arakan Box. The five Sisters had arrived just as a Japanese attack was set up but they took no notice and carried on as best they could.Indeed the battle-lines were constantly moving back and forth and sometimes the Jap positions were only a few hundred yards from their C.C.S.
The Sisters' living quarters were the ubiquitous bashas - wooden and bamboo huts held together with coir(coconut fibre) with the walls being held to the roofs with plaited palm fronds-the roofs overhung the walls for coolness and privacy.There were no windows and as the Q.A.'s had travelled with only their personal kit there were no luxeries whatever. All water for culinary and personal purposes had to be physically collected from a "bowser" and had to be puified before use.Food was desperately short and for one period(a month)they survived on bully beef and hard tack biscuits- dished up in every possible guise! On only one occasion they had fresh meat - when a duty sentry accidentally fired his rifle when a goat stopped in front of him and didn't give the password.However when the supplies trickled through the food improved.
Patients in the C.C.S. lay on stretchers(charpoys)on the ground,six man to each circular tent,while the "Hospitals proper" including the Operating Theatres consisted of large ridge tents.The Theatres were distinguished from the others by being lined with white gauze,to exclude airborne dust and the myriad insects which abounded.The patients came from practically every race in the Indian Sub-continent,every British Regt.(including a small number of Chindits),a few sailors,together with many airmen.There were Gurkhas(whom everyone loved),Canadians,Australians New Zealanders and a few Japanese prisoners.These Japanese received the same treatment as the other patients except that their tents were surrounded by barbed wire.The Sisters still "did" their rounds(a la Florence Nightingale) day and night alone and unarmed(each carrying a torch at night) until a visiting Brigadier insisted that every Sister on this duty must be accompanied by two armed British other ranks.
The weather of course was difficult to say the least,heavy driving Monsoon rain gusting in from the Bay of Bengal,very high temperatures, heavy humidity and deep mud everywhere.
These conditions prevailed for three months with no re-inforcements getting through.The Sisters themselves laid a large red cross on the ground made of red material procured from the stores and weighted down with large stones.Even so the C.C.S.'s were peppered with shrapnel and small arms fire.The Five were totally engaged in caring for the wounded,sick and dying with no "off duty" as such being possible.They worked ate and slept in shifts continuously for three and a half months.The story of these five nurses was published in the News Chronical,Daily Herald etc. on February 22nd 1944 when they had just reached Bawli Bazaar and they were described as the"Five Most Forward Women in the British Army" in headlines.Sadly the correspondent-Stanley Wills of the Daily Herald was killed in an air crash a week after meeting the Sisters in the C.C.S.'s

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