大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's war site by Ian Hayes of the GMR Action Desk on behalf of Irene Newton and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Crumpsall Hospital in Manchester had much of its 1,300 bed capacity taken over by the MOD during the Second World War. The main part of the hospital was composed of seven four story "pavilions" which contained two wards, these were built parallel to each other, the open space between the top two stories was linked by open bridges. Each pavilion was lettered from the south end of the building,A,B,C etc. and numbered from the ground floor up, the basements remaining unnumbered and, at this time, were used as air raid shelters for the staff and patients.
During the Second World War, I was a Staff Nurse on wards B5 and B6, and, because of the shortage of experienced senior nurses, I was acting as Ward Sister. There were many service personnel on the various wards in the hospital, including a number of German prisoners of war.
One afternoon some time before Christmas 1944, Miss Spenlow, Assistant Matron, came into the ward to tell me a convoy was on its way and I would have to stay on duty. These were RAF personnel and were to be admitted to B6. Many hours later, these RAF lads were settled in.
My joy at being off duty was short lived as on my way to the Nurses' Home the Assistant Matron caught up with me to tell me that another convoy was nearing the gates. This group was expected to be German POWs, so they would be admitted to B5, would need to be settled in and fed, before I could go off duty again.
The convoy duly arrived and they were German soldiers, many as young as 14 or 15! Some had only slight wounds, but others had not been as fortunate and had a variety of quite serious and sometimes very nasty wounds. A German Officer always accompanied me whilst I did their dressings.
The young boys were very arrogant but if they said anything out of turn the officer would just hit them across the face. When I asked him why he acted in this manner, he replied that they should be grateful to be cared for. When German aircraft flew over the hospital the Germans shouted "Heil Hitler" and gave the Nazi salute. In response, we shouted back "Heil Churchill"!
Christmas drew nearer and the RAF decorated B6.The German Officer approached us and asked if he could have any left over decorations.We gave them the left-overs and they made a wonderful job with little pieces of paper. Very artistic!
On Christmas Eve, the German Officer asked if they would be allowed to stand outside B6 and sing to the airmen. With some trepidation, we agreed to the request. All those who could walk crossed the bridge and sang, in German and English, a close harmony version of "Silent Night, Holy Night". I had tears in my eyes and could not help thinking how futile war was.
These men were fathers, sons and boyfriends, just like our boys. I have come to the conclusion that there are no winners in war, just heartache and pain.
On New Year's Day, I was given a temperature chart with all the German Soldiers' names written on it bearing a greeting in gothic script, which I believe is a New Year's greeting.
This remains one of my most treasured memories of my wartime experiences in our hospital.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.