大象传媒

During the war I was a nurse based in an ammunition factory in Grantham, Lincolnshire. We saw some horrific injuries when raids came with little or no warning. It was of course very upsetting to see men that we knew and worked alongside injured or killed during raids. I managed to stay strong in spite of this, people used to comment on my strength, I can鈥檛 ever remember feeling afraid, and I can鈥檛 explain why. Even when we were under machine gun fire, out in the open with not much cover, I never felt fear.

I remember we always tried to find a funny side, no matter what was happening. On one occasion I remember the lights had gone out because there was a raid on, and we all grabbed our tin hats from where we thought we had left them in the darkness. The day nurse had a very small head, and had just grabbed the nearest hat she laid her hands upon, and threw it on her head. Our resident doctor was a big man, and he had done the same. Imagine the roars of laughter when the lights went up, and she had his huge hat on her head, and the doctor had the day nurses tiny tin hat perched on top of his large head! This made us laugh, and I remember it went some way to breaking the tension.

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