大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's War website by Pam Riding of Kirklees Libraries on behalf of Norma Hanson and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

The day war started, I remember sitting in my bedroom and thinking that from this day, life was going to be very different. I then decided I'd better write a letter to my friend in America who I'd been corresponding with since the age of 11. I wondered if being at war meant we would no longer be able to stay in touch.

I joined the Red Cross in Huddersfield, volunteering to be a mobile V.A.D and this meant that after some weeks training I could be sent anywhere. The news eventually came that I was to go to the Royal Naval Hospital at Gosport. We were needed to supplement and replace male staff who were being posted to ships on active service.

The Portsmouth and Gosport area suffered frequent air raids and the hospital Operating Theatres were established in the cellars of this historic hospital, built in 1753, and we nursed many patients down there for a time of the heavy bombing. One time I remember was when an Australian pilot of a Sunderland flying boat and a German U-boat seaman were brought to my ward. They had been picked up after an action in the Channel and for a time things were a little tense with a few Nazi salutes. However, after a few days of treatment the seaman went off to a Prisoner of War camp-giving a last salute!.

Later, I volunteered for Overseas Service and this was an exciting and at the same time a daunting prospect. We were issued with tropical kit and after setting sail from Liverpool, we were told that we were destined for the base of the British Pacific Fleet which was Sydney, Australia. My first time abroad! Exciting as this was, the thought of such a long journey by sea, with the risk of being torpedoed did make me feel quite apprehensive at first. Of course, there was the positive side- we twenty nurses were outnumbered by hundreds of handsome sailors and soldiers too! This and daily boat drills with life jackets, which we had to carry at all times, soon made any thoughts of danger recede.

It took us five weeks to reach Sydney and en route we went through the Panama Canal then across the Pacific to Pearl Harbour where we docked for a few hours. The results of the horrific Japanese attack on the U.S.base there were very visible indeed. After a few very welcome hours on land, the first since leaving Liverpool, we eventually sailed into wonderful Sydney Harbour.

It was back to real work again now. The hospital was a mass of Nissan huts on the outskirts of Sydney, but it had over 1000 beds. Rather primitive by today's standards. The work was hard and at times traumatic - treating injuries caused by Kamakazi attacks as well as all the usual injuries and conditions associated with hundreds of ships coming in and out of the base from the Pacific Islands.
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Then came the dropping of the Atom bomb signifying the end of the war at last. This brought the release of our own P.O.W's from the Far East and hundreds who were too sick to make the long journey home were brought to our hospital. Aircraft carriers had been cleared of planes and beds placed in the hangars for their transportation and so our work went on for many more months, but eventually this large temporary hospital closed and I sailed for home. This time crossing the Indian Ocean and through the Suez Canal therefore I'd had a complete Round -the-World trip.

I carried on nursing at a Naval T.B hospital in Kent, meeting up with many patients I'd known as ex P.O.W's and still many more. T.B. was a long illness in those days and conditions at sea were poor and overcrowded- ideal for development of T.B.

And what of my friend in America? We did manage to keep in touch during the war, and this year is the 70th anniversary of our correspondence - we plan to meet to celebrate. Although I have travelled and moved home several times over the years, she is still living in the same house she was born in. Her brother served with the American 8th Air Force and ironically, I met him before Iwas able to meet her, as he was stationed in the Cambridge area during the war and would travel to Huddersfield to visit.

When I think back , I am so grateful to my parents, that they didn't stand in my way when I volunteered to join the Red Cross. Yes, the war was a hazardous time, but it was also exciting if you were young and everyone wanted to do their bit to help. The men who became patients were so respectful and kind that caring for them resulted in a great deal of job satisfaction.The spirit and comradeship of friends I made during those times too and have remained friends with to this day. We look forward to meeting again every year as long as we can in London at the Victory Club. It does make one realize that in spite of all the hardships it was a very special time indeed and a privilege to have lived through it.

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