大象传媒

When war broke out I was two years into my training as a nurse. A lot of pyschiatric hospitals were evacuated so that the buildings could become emergency hospitals for woulded soldiers and, later, prisoners-of-war. I was a theatre nurse so saw some horrendous injuries when wounded woldiers were brought in for treatment. Throughout the war I nursed many of the soldiers who were wounded, some very badly, and I remember how traumatised a lot of them were. So many of them were unable to sleep because of the pain of their injuries or thoughts of their past experiences and worries about the future. When sleep did come to them, it was a mixed blessing because bad nightmares were very common.

When we had German prisoners-of-war in the hospital, they were treated as friends. There was one nurse who wrote to a POW's family on a regular basis.

One of my cousins was very lucky. He was meant to be landing at Dieppe where they were fiercely attacked by the Germans as they were trying to land. His landing craft failed to open so he and his felow soldiers could not get ashore. But for this, he would have been at a very high risk of being killed.

Once the bombing started, there would frequently be planes overhead, sometimes in large groups and sometimes only in ones or twos. To begin with, it was very hard to distinguish between our planes and the enemy ones, but we very soon were able to recognise which of the overhead planes were German. They had a sort of heavy throbbing sound which ours didn't.

I remember watching London burning during the Blitz. It looked like a gigantic bonfire and the fire could be seen from miles and miles away. Terrible damage was done during those raids and there was a big loss of life.

I was on my way to Westminster Bridge to meet an American soldier when Victory was declared. There was such excitement! Everybody was so relieved and joyful, and the atmosphere was wonderful. There were tears, of course, because so many people were celebrating the end of the war but also mourning the non-return of relatives and friends. But overall, Britain rejoiced and celebrated.

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