大象传媒

The Story of Kerry Cunnington

The first day of the war as a training Nurse in a London hospital I was evocated in a double Decker bus to a base hospital in the country, but I was back in London in time for the blitz to stand on the hospital roof watching planes the size of black birds dropping tiny bombs in on the east end of London which we later found was the dock lands.

The wards were empty and a casualty area created in the basement. The first patients were from the local YMCA, the second were women. Nylon had become a fashion accessory before the war and then become very scares so shops with large plate glass windows set up workbenches with small latches were able to mend ladders.

At that time we received bundles from Britain and America, we were very grateful for the quilts and bedding, which cheered our wards with their colourful display. Some of the bundles contained small packages of toys or chocolates or candy, but most contain coco, which was never rationed during the war. I the air raid alarm was sounded during the night and we had hot water in the taps we could make coco drinks for wakeful patience鈥檚, of course no milk or sugar it wasn鈥檛 very cheering but it was the only thing we had.

A day bomb shattered the thick glass windows, which fell on the backs of the heads of the women workers. Long hair and curls were in fashion, it was long pain stacking job to clear the glass splinters from there heads.

In causality we were amused during the black out with patience with facial injuries all of which said lamppost had hit them. We later found from personal experience this was an exact description of what it feels like when walking in to a lamppost in the dark.

We started off sleeping on mattresses in the basement, later moved up stairs to our old rooms. The higher command did not tell us of there planes so from hearing odd bombs during the night suddenly there was gun fire near by and search lights picking out planes. Our casualty department had a glass roof so the morning looked as if we had had a direct hit, though the hospital was never hit, we were cheered in future nights knowing there were our guns, then came a night when we could hear planes diving above us. No guns, we clung in great fear, next morning we found the night fighters were ours. No more guns, so peace.

Towards the end of the war a new menace arrived with buzz bombs. These had motors attached, you could hear the sounds of the engines over head, when the engine stopped the bombs dropped. At first there were over Southern England or Home Counties. There was great secrecies to prevent knowledge of the range of the bombs reaching the enemy. Eventual they got to London, by then I was a pupil Midwife. Mothers in London nearing the end of there pregnancy were advised if they could make private arrangements to move over 25 miles North of London out of the range of the bombs.

I was working in this area; we had opened the private wing of a workhouse with minim facilities to cater for the extra deliveries. We had no untoward effects from primitive conditions. The last buzz bomb by chance hit a factory a few miles further north. One of our Mothers lost her husband in this incident. The factory made ball bearings, vital wartime machinery components. This was the last phase of the war.

The theatre of activities moved out of England on to the continent

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