大象传媒

I was one of only 18 young women on a troop ship! There were hundreds of men on the ship. We weren鈥檛 21 and there were all these men 鈥� it was great fun. We had no idea what to expect; innocent young girls. But it was marvellous on the troop ship; we had bananas and oranges, which we hadn鈥檛 seen for ages When we arrived in North Africa, I remember the sheer pleasure of the British soldiers at the sight of a group of young British girls 鈥� we were working for the Joint War Organisation Red Cross and St. John.
We were given some advice before we went. Lady Oliver, the head of the Red Cross said, 鈥淎 lady will drink one drink, but two 鈥� never鈥�. Lady Amulree said 鈥淒o take a comfortable pair of shoes.鈥� That was it!
We had to buy all our own uniform, and had all our injections on one day. We were dive-bombed and torpedoed going out, and the first lot of nurses lost all their kit and went round in battledress for a couple of years; we were the second lot. We had terrible food with the army 鈥� bullied beef in every way you can think of, and we were living in tents for the first year. But it started me off on a life of good work.
And I was in Naples when Vesuvius erupted. There were all the casualties from Salerno, and then casualties from the eruption; we worked very hard. We greeted all the casualties with a dolly bag from the Red Cross. Each bag had in it a toothbrush, a razor, and soap 鈥� the men had lost everything, and these helped them feel human again. It was very wet that spring in Italy 鈥� it rained every day but one 鈥� and the mud and the misery for the troops was so terrible that they were glad to be wounded, and to come to British nurses and the Red Cross girls.

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