大象传媒

In October it was apprarent that the Battle of Britain had been won and the enemy switched to bombing all the famous buildings in London, including Buckingham Palace. In day fights, 1,700 were killed and more than 12,000 at night, but the Germans lost more than 13,000 planes and realised the RAF's superiority.

In October, Italy set up a campaign against Greece and Churchill sent Greece a message that we would help them all we could.

In Novmeber, the Ark Royal - the first great modern aircraft carrier and pride of the British Royal Navy - was torpedoed by an unseen German submarine. 1,600 of the crew were saved with only one casualty.

A lot of the nurses at Ormskirk Hospital lived in Skelmersdale and had to walk the four miles to Ormskirk when the buses stopped running due to the bad weather. Inspite of everything, morale was good and everyone pulled together. We only had one bomb in Halsall, that was in my father's field, the pilots hurring to get away no doubt and unloading on their way back to Germany.

There was a piano on one of the wards I was on at night and the men patients enjoyed a singsong before lights were out and I played all the popular songs of the day. This brightened spirits up a bit.

The first Christmas that I was on night duty, we cooked a dinner and had it at midnight. I think of that night sometimes after all these years and how magical it seems now.

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