大象传媒

During the war I worked in th VAD (Volunatary Aid Department). I was training to become a nurse but the war came along. My training had covered first aid and home nursing and i had already done voluntary work at the Alfred Bean hospital in Driffield so I could deal with such people that came along during the war.
Finding room for the patients in Driffield was very difficult. Ther were ten wards at the Alfred Bean hospital and they were all soon full. Although the main hospital in the area was Hull Royal Infirmary, it had been flattened during the bombing raid which meant the Alfred Bean hospital became the main one in the area. However, in Hull they did manage to set up an underground hospital with a theatre were they could perform surgery. There were many wounded soldiers in Driffield that had come over on boats from Italy. I looked after them when I worked in the base hospital later on in the war. Some would come over limbless but would still smile an wave at the volunteer nurses and local residents. Their spirits were fantastic.
Part of our job was to go out after raids. They would check everyone was ok in Anderson shelters and help the wounded.
The Lancaster and Wellington RAF bombers were situated at Driffield Aerodrome. When we saw them flying we used to say, "there goes the flying beadsteads, there going over to Germany, bless them wonder how many will come back". One of the most memorable moments was when Driffield Aerodrome was bombed. The Germans bombed it at 1:30 in the afternoon. Earlier on in the day there had been more than 2000 men there and if the raid happened earlier the whole lot would have got it. However as luck had it there was only a few men injured and in shock.
There was one particularly bad air raid, and although it happened in daylight it lasted a long time as many people were injured. It was a struggle to get everyone up to the hospital, which was half a mile away. There was never anything convenient nearby and you were 'robbing Peter to pay Paul". There were no ambulances nearby so they had to improvise. However, everyone was pushing to help each other in a difficult situation. The ambulance would often be a matress and sheet on the back of a builders wagon. Everything was improvised.
As Hull got flattened due to it having a port, the Red Cross and St. Johns ambulance put the homeless children on a train and sent them to Driffield to get them out of the area and find a place to live. It was a pathetic site. They did not know what had happened to their parents and had all their belongings in a little bag with a ration book and a gas mask. Me and my friend went out with a driver and collected them in double decker buses and dropped them off at their farms and hamlets. The evacuees were given a loving home and even came back to visit after the war.
In a nearby village called Nafferton, there were German POW's living in huts. They were not bad people and were mixed with the locals once they had been acclimatised.
My brother faught in the war and was in the Kings Own Scottish Borders, connected to the tanks. He faught ast the 2nd Dunkirk and the final stages at Alubek, on the Russian coast. He also had the privilege of going over the Rhine. Towards the end of the war in 1944 at one point the Germans ran out saying, "Oh British Tommy, love to give you". They gave them presents like gold watches as the British had given them relief from Hitler. When my brother came home on compassionate leave, he got off the plane and Field Marshall Montgomery said to him " thanks for what you've done for us it has been a great achievement, but in the next war it will be nothing like we've been through, it'll just be a press of a button", and this has come true.
My husband did not fight as he had a key job. He was in the 'war rag' and his agricultural job was to teach the womens land army how to farm and drive tractors.

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