Women and the role in World War Two

By the way, this is a topic dear to my heart as the lady who is the bride in my avatar and who is walking through a Canadian War Cemetery in NW Europe is my mother. She served in the British War Department - role still a mystery except to know she said she took a lifetime secrecy oath and had no intention of breaking it - and didn't even on her deathbed. She was as intelligent as she was beautiful, and I grew up believing that I could be or do anything I chose regardless of gender. It was the women of World War II and the strength, courage, and dedication they showed that began to change the roles of women in society. Their impact was and has been far reaching.

In fact, that impact combined with my regard and respect for my father's service as well as that of his peers would explain much about why I as a woman am as strongly interested in World War II as I am in other topics such as history, art, and music. In fact it is amongst my top interests.

I look forward to adding more links and stories to this thread.

 

Women and World War II - Female Soldiers - Roles of Women - Home Front - Concentration Camps
Women at War
Women of the War Years Stories of the War Years Part 1
Women's roles in the World Wars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Just ran across this thread. Thanks for resurrecting it, Michelle.

My mother sewed parachutes during the war in Detroit, MI. I am awaiting some pictures my sister has of Mom and Dad from then and I know there is one of Mom working at a commercial sewing machine at the factory. When I get those, I'll try and post the photo. It's one of those wide-angle shots, rolled up in a tube for storage. Incidentally, her brother served with the 82nd Airborne.

I think Mom may have been involved in some other manufacturing jobs during the war as well, but I can't recall what specifically.

 

I've collected a lot of links regarding Women in WWII today, it includes some I've possibly posted elsewhere before. I'll post the links and then I will add some of the individual stories from each of the sites in other posts.

A Scrapbook of Women of World War II Hawaii
about.com http--www.vac-acc.gc.ca-general-sub.cfmsource=history-secondwar-diary-grandmother
Adolf Hitlers Women
Air PowerWomen in the Military in World War II
American War Bride Experience
American Women Mariners in World War II
Australian Women in World War Two
BBC - History - Women Under Fire in World War Two
Betty Jane Williams; woman aviator found a role in World War II The San Diego Union-Tribune
Books about Black Women in the Women's Army Corp WWII
Canadian War Brides - 60 Years - Veterans Affairs Canada
Color Pictures of Women in World War II, Royalty Free
Comfort Women - World War II Period - Japan - US Troops
Comfort Women Links
DefenseLink News Article Civilian Women Played Major Role in World War II Victory
DefenseLink News Article World War II Women Aviators Reminisce About Flying Army Aircraft
Dutch Patchwork National Celebration Skirts After World War II
Elsie MacGill - First Woman Aircraft Designer - Biography of Elsie MacGill
Fact Sheets Women Pilots in World War II Women Pilots in World War II
FamilyRecords.gov.uk Focus on... Women in Uniform Women in World War II - Introduction
Famous German Women of World War 2
Feature - Woman veteran recalls World War II duty
Female British spy's exploits during World War II are revealed - International Herald Tribune
Forgotten Victims of World War II Hungarian Women in Soviet Forced Labor Camps
German women seized during World War II seek recognition - International Herald Tribune
Grace Hopper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hawaii Reporter Hawaii Reporter
Hidden Her-story The Top-Secret Rosies of World War II EDUCAUSE CONNECT
http--www.berkeleydailyplanet.com-issue-2007-09-25-article-28069
http--www.encyclopedia.com-doc-1G1-73063465.html
http--www.pier21.ca-wp-content-uploads-files-stories-warbrides-English_War_Bride_Audrey_Pratt_nee_Smith.pdf
http--www.pptpalooza.net-PPTs-EHAP-EHAPStudentProjects-WomenInCombatIn_WW2-SamanthaKi.ppt
hyperwar The Women's Army Corps -- A Commemoration of World War II Service
infoukes Ukrainian History -- World War II in Ukraine
Italian Women’s Narratives of their Experiences During World War II
Japanese American Women in World War II
Juno Beach Centre - The Canadian Women's Army Corps
Local History Archive World War II Oral Histories Natalie O'Brien Jones - City of Fort Collins, Colorado
Love and War Canadian War Brides - Conflict and War - CBC Archives
Marina Raskova and the Soviet Women Pilots of World War II
Military Sexual Slave Women during WWII
mpr News Cut The Women of World War II Two Harbors' vets
Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of World War II
Nebraska Women in the Military
New Zealanders in World War II The war at home Women and the war - Heritage - Christchurch City Libraries
NOAA History - A Nation at War-WWII-Women in the Weather Bureau during World War 2
Pin-up Grrrls Feminism, Sexuality ... - Google Book Search
Rosietheriveter
Saskatoon Public Library - Women in World War I and II
Texas Women in World War II, Uniformed Women of The Greatest Generation.
The Impact of British Women on World War II
The Voices of World War II - Documentaries Durning the War Women Went to Work
THE WOMEN'S ARMY CORPS
Toledo's Attic
U-M Heritage Michigan Women at war U-M students in World War II Michigan Today
U.S. Women and World War II Letter Writing
UC Alum Was a Pioneer for Women During World War II
US Women Pilots in World War II Struggle to Tell Their Stories
Veterans History Project, Female Narrators
WASP on the WEB--HOME
What did you do in the war, Grandma
Women IMAGE Index
Women & The Sea The Mariner's Museum
Women aces of world war ii
Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II Women in Military Service
Women and Railroads during WWII
Women and the Home Front During World War II Library MNHS.ORG
Women and World War II - Female Soldiers - Roles of Women - Home Front - Concentration Camps
Women and World War II
Women at Rensselaer The First Women, World War II
Women at War
Women Come to the Front
Women Computers in World War II - GHN
Women In Military Service For America Memorial
women in world war II - Google Search
Women in World War II Category at Duck Duck Go
Women in World War II
Women in World War Two
Women Of Grumman
Women of the War Years Stories of the War Years Part 1
Women of the War Years
Women of World War II Red Cross Clubmobile
Women Remember World War II
Women Veterans of WW II
Women's Baseball during World War II
Women's History
Women's Radio Group Unsung Heroines - ordinary women who did extraordinary things in World War II
Women's roles in the World Wars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
World War 2 Warsaw Uprising Photos
World War II Deutsche Welle Rememberting Germanys Rubble Women
World War II Women Spies of the OSS » HistoryNet
WWII Defense Plants Give Women Better Jobs, Pay » The Arkansas News
Your View War brides Share your stories and pictures

 

As listed on the Veterans Affairs Canada Website:

The Late
Freda M.P. Fisher


This story is submitted by Nancy Willison of the District Office in North Bay. Shortly before her mother passed away, she wrote of her experiences during the Second World War overseas. Nancy shares her mother's story with us.

"While serving in the CWAC (Canadian Women's Army Corps) during World War II, I was posted to Farnborough, England. We were billeted in an old army garrison called Grant Square. There were 20 of us to be working at the field post office. As I was the only one who knew the English money, I was put in the Registration room. We sold stamps, money orders and registered mail. Our main object was to keep the mail moving to the units. After a few weeks there, we started to hear and see tanks and military vehicles 24 hours of the day, so we knew that D-Day was close. One tank got stuck outside our barracks; it made a big hole. Some of us were asked to volunteer to go to London, but we knew the V2 rockets were going there, so half of us declined. Later on, the rest of us were sent to France at Deliverande. We went across the English Channel on a landing craft, and we were living in tents in an apple orchard. Many a time we fell into a slit trench in the dark, as we worked from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. We only stayed there a short time, then moved on to Antwerp in Belgium. We were told that we would be living at the Queen's Hotel. That sounded great until we found out the beds had no mattresses, so we slept on the floor. We were right near the Schelte River and at night we could see the gunfire and shelling. We were attached to the Postal Tracing Section, 2nd Echelon. Our job was to redirect mail to the troops. The addresses mostly came from Daily Orders. Little did we know that just a few weeks after we got there, the Germans started to send the V2 bombs there. The building we worked in had no heat so we wrapped mail bags around our legs to keep warm. When the bombing got real bad, we were moved to a small place just outside Brussells, called Loth. We lived in a wooden Nissan hut, the post office was in a sawmill. Our living quarters were not finished, but we were happy that we had moved, as our old building was bombed the next day. We have to be lucky to live in a country like CANADA, and hope we never have to see things like that again. You can overlook the tough times and remember the good ones and the good friends we made. Some have gone to higher ground. God Bless Them. They will never be forgotten..."
The Late Freda M.P. Fisher.

 

Also from the Veterans Affairs Canada website

Watching Him Go....


This story is submitted by Judi Illingworth of Head Office in Charlottetown. It is a very touching story written about her grandmother.
"Imagine watching your 14 year old son cross the train tracks every evening to go to the Drill Hall. Imagine watching him go overseas, barely out of high school. Then try to imagine travelling thousands of miles across the ocean to visit his grave, 40 years after last seeing him alive.

Many people would have difficulty imagining this scene but it is a scene my grandmother – Mrs Charlotte Smith (Nanny) never forgot.
Born in Ottawa, on October 4, 1900, she lived her entire life in the Ottawa area, attending Bordon Elementary and Cambridge High Schools. Nanny married William Smith in 1920 and one year later Kenneth was born. Kenny was the oldest of six children.
In 1935, at the age of 14, Kenny joined the Governor General's Foot Guards in Ottawa. That was quite young but Kenny just loved it and would come home at night and shine his buttons and boots. Kenny's duty with the Foot Guards included reporting nearly every evening to the Drill Hall. And as he crossed the train tracks that ran behind their house, Nanny proudly sat on the porch and watched him go. She always worried and she used to sit up and wait for him to come home across those tracks at night.

Kenny was the first of his group of friends to enlist and then the day came for him to go overseas with the Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadian) 2nd Armoured Regiment. For months after he left Nanny remembered sitting there at night picturing him jumping the tracks.

Kenny was stationed in North Africa and Italy and he wrote home every week. He would often send little souvenirs home and one day a parcel came for a little girl Nanny & Grandpa had adopted. Here in this parcel was a silk dress that some lady had given to Kenny for a Chocolate Bar. He was always doing things like that. He was a very giving person.

Indeed, Kenny was a giving person, and on September 13, 1944, just two days after his 23rd birthday, C40082 Trooper Kenneth Edgar Smith gave his life in the province of Pesaro, Italy. The unit Kenny was in had been trying to overtake a German stronghold: the Castle of Gradara near the town of Rimini on the Adriatic Sea.

Capt. Brown of Kenny's unit wrote Nanny to describe the events of his death. Captain Brown saw Kenny's tank get hit and that made the letter even worse to read. A few years after Kenny's death, Nanny received her Silver Cross in the mail. Having that Cross meant more than anything in the world to her and she was so proud of it. In 1988, Nanny was asked to lay the wreath at the Westboro Legion Cenotaph. I remember her saying "To be asked to lay a wreath as the Silver Cross Mother is the highest honour anybody could give me." Nanny made a point of attending Remembrance Day services every year – whether it be at Westboro or at the National War Memorial.
In 1982 Nanny, along with my Uncle Corky (another son) and his wife visited her son's grave in Italy. The trip was an emotional one, and even the prospect of seeing Kenny's grave would bring tears to her eyes. I remember her saying she cried most of the way over but the trip was beautiful. Kenny is buried in the Gradara War Cemetery, directly across from the castle where he gave his life. Both Nanny and Uncle Corky found the moment very emotional and sat there in silence crying at the loss of a son, brother, and good friend. Nanny wanted to plant a maple tree on his grave and she wished she had of brought something. She did have a little red, white and blue ribbon on her jacket so she attached it to a stake and put it in the ground. She did bring back a little bottle of soil from his grave. She was impressed with the care that was taken at the cemetery – it was perfect, not even a weed.

There are train tracks beside the road that must be crossed to enter the cemetery. Nanny felt it fitting that she used to watch Kenny cross the tracks every night on the way to the Drill Hall and here she was crossing the tracks to see him again.

Nanny died on June 5, 1991, and is buried in Pinecrest Cemetery in Ottawa. Sprinkled over her grave is the soil she brought back from Kenny's grave. Something she had asked we do. I never met my Uncle Kenny but reading letters and poems he wrote and sent home and listening to stories told by my Nanny and my mom made me feel like I did. Some day I hope to be able to take my mom over to visit the grave of her brother, something I know would make her happy."

 

From the Veterans Affairs Canada Website:

A Student Nurse in
Wartime England


This story is submitted by Nicki Pozzi of the Windsor District Office. It is from Irene D. Courtenay who was a Nursing Sister and served overseas.

At first there were few changes on our routine following the declaration of war, September 1939. Then, one lovely sunny Sunday afternoon air raid casualties began arriving. Among them was one of our x-ray nurses and her mother. Their house had sustained a direct hit and all that was left standing was the staircase. As I was on duty in the emergency ward, it was my responsibility to help attend to the casualties and admit those who were to be hospitalized. Fortunately, only one stick of bombs had been dropped. They fell on a residential area so the casualties were small in number. All were dazed, and many cut by flying glass for it wasn't until later that the need to tape the windows was established. Over 200 glass particles were removed from one casualty. The particles were small and though painful, were not life threatening.

From this early beginning, through trial and error, and the experiences of World War I Veterans, our routines emerged. Some were successful and continued, others proved impractical and were discontinued. Among the latter was the policy that all nursing students were to report to the hospital, in full uniform, five minutes after an air raid siren sounded. The impracticality of this policy became evident with the heavy bombing of London, for the planes flew over our area. Air raid alerts started around 9 p.m. and lasted until 6 a.m. Staff, including students, quickly became exhausted, particularly following twelve hour shifts and so the policy was modified. Then there was the extra training . . .

Our hospital was selected as a decontamination center, for the possibility of gas warfare was very real. Training was arduous. Three times a week following our normal twelve hour shifts we were provided with full protective clothing, except for respirators, and so we laboured with lungs complaining for two hours of heavy lifting and full decontamination procedures wearing our allocated civilian gas masks that were not designed for work.

So many experiences, not a normal part of the nursing curriculum. The day our hospital was evacuated to admit patients from a London hospital that had to be evacuated because of the bombings. The night I was temporarily alone in a ward of 44 surgical patients and a huge supply of extra mattresses that were to be used to shield the bed patients during an air raid, for this was in the years before ambulation. We had a severe air raid that night. Bombs dropping, dog fights overhead as the RAF intercepted the enemy planes and shrapnel from the ground artillery weighing in at a hefty 100 lbs. I lifted the mattresses and protected the patients only to have the all clear sound as I reached the last one and my partner returned to duty.

My last day at the hospital was unforgettable. I had finished my training, taken my final written, oral and practical exams and was having a last lunch with my colleagues. We had just started eating when a fierce air raid started. Grabbing an O.R. gown to cover my travel dress and wearing high heeled sandals, I worked from 12 noon to just after 7 p.m. I will never forget my last patient. A young air force air man.

He was one of the last dug out of a bombed out hotel that had been taken over by the RAF. Fortunately, the majority of men were on manoeuvers, or the loss would have been great. This casualty, quiet and uncomplaining, lay still as I tended to his injuries and irrigated his eyes that were full of dust and dirt so that he could see again.

I was one of the nursing sisters on the ill fated S.S. Santa Elena that was torpedoed and sunk en route to Italy. Upon return to England following the Italian campaign I was one of three nursing sisters who escorted a ship load of English war brides and their children to Canada.

I did work for one year in a military hospital upon return to Canada and for the first time in several years saw the partially healed wounds and scars of battle injuries.

IRENE D. COURTENAY R.N., B.ScN, M.P.H., R.C.A.M.C.
Former Lt. Nursing Sister

 

From American Women Mariners American Women Mariners in World War II




Clara Gordon Main, a stewardess on the SS President Harrison was among the first American Prisoners of War. The ship was captured by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, while rescuing U.S. Marines from China.


The SS President Harrison, sent from Manila to China to transport a contingent of Marines to the Philippines, was captured in the Yellow Sea when a Jap dive bomber dropped notes demanding surrender. Captain Orel A. Pierson, however, ordered the ship "full ahead."


Knowing there was no chance of escape, Captain Pierson headed his ship for the beach. The President Harrison rammed the shore with a grinding screech and almost turned on her side. The liner righted herself, however, and was carried off the rocks by currents. The order was given to abandon ship.



Japanese Marines stormed aboard the vessel after she'd settled to rest on a mudbank - but it was more than a month before sufficient repairs could be made to enable the captives to take her to Shanghai where the crew was later interned. The crew stayed on the liner and an island for 40 days.


During the capture and for over a month thereafter, Mrs. Clara Main, stewardess aboard the vessel, "displayed a courage and calmness exceeded by no member of the crew. While the bomber power-dived us, threatening the ship with bombs -- Mrs. Main remained, at least outwardly, entirely unexcited."



Mrs. Main is credited with saving the life of Chief Steward J. L. McKay of San Francisco. McKay was in a lifeboat which, before it could be pushed away from the hull, was thrown by current, waves and wind into the ship's screw and broken in half. Three men were killed and several badly injured.

McKay and Mrs. Main were allowed to remain on the island the following day when the Japs ordered the crew back aboard. In a few days they returned to the liner and for six weeks the stewardess nursed McKay back to health. ". . . Without her constant care," it was said, "McKay would not have survived.

[SIZE=-1][Text and illustrations from April 1944 MAST, the magazine of the U.S. Maritime Service][/SIZE]


Meritorious Service Medal Citation to Clara Gordon Main



"At the outbreak of the war with Japan, SS President Harrison, in which Mrs. Main was serving as Stewardess, was beached on the coast of China by the Master, in an effort to prevent capture by the enemy. The vessel was, however, first bombed and then captured by the Japanese who ordered all hands to abandon ship. In so doing the Chief Steward suffered several broken ribs. Mrs. Main, the only woman member of the large crew, conducted herself in such a cool and collected manner that she had a decidedly steadying influence on the seamen. She also had the foresight to take with her, as she left the ship in the last boat, certain medicinal restoratives and first aid material, which proved invaluable. During the ensuing six weeks she nursed the Chief Steward so effectively that she undoubtedly saved his life. Her calm and courageous attitude, and her skillful nursing, assisted greatly in maintaining the crew's morale, and will be a lasting inspiration to all seamen of the United States Merchant Marine."


Clara Main and unidentified member of Injured Chief Steward J. L. McKay ashore on the island
SS President Harrison crew await their fate

 

Nurse survivors of the Vyner Brooke

Matron Vivian Bullwinkel, Sister Betty Jeffrey

When the fighting on the Malayan peninsula reached a climax in early 1942, and both the probability of a retreat to Singapore Island and its risks became apparent, the problem of returning the seriously ill and wounded, as well as the members of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS), to Australia became urgent. Tragically, no evacuation by hospital ship was made while there was still time.

On 10 February 1942, six members of the AANS embarked on the Wah Sui with 120 sick and wounded soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force. On 11 February, 59 nurses embarked on the Empire Star, and another 65 sisters and physiotherapists sailed on the Vyner Brooke on 12 February. On 14 February, while heading for Sumatra via Banka Strait, the Vyner Brooke was sunk by Japanese bombers. Sister Vivian Bullwinkel was with a group of 22 survivors on Banka Island when a Japanese patrol arrived and ordered the women in the group to walk into the sea. They were machine-gunned from behind. All except Sister Bullwinkel were killed.

Of the 65 servicewomen who embarked on the Vyner Brooke, only 24, including Vivian Bullwinkel and Betty Jeffrey, returned to Australia. Of the 32 taken prisoner of war, eight died in captivity.

Group portrait of Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) nurses, who were former prisoners of war (POWs), aboard the hospital ship Manunda on its arrival. (Matron Vivian Bullwinkel is third from the right holding flowers.)
AWM P01701.003
More About:

• Vivian Bullwinkel
• 2/13 Australian General Hospital
• Obituary: Statham, née Bullwinkel, Vivian; Matron
• Obituary: Jeffrey, Betty; Sister

 

From Fact Sheets : Barbara Erickson London : Barbara Erickson London
Women Pilots in World War II

BARBARA ERICKSON LONDON

​

​

Download
Fact Sheet Tools Printable Fact Sheet

Barbara Jane "BJ" Erickson, of Seattle, Wash., was a sophomore at the University of Washington when she signed up for the Civilian Pilot Training course. Immediately upon graduation she was made an instructor and flew seaplanes as well as landplanes. Upon receiving her telegram inviting her to join the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, she broke off in the middle of a class she was teaching and left for New Castle Army Air Field, Wilmington, Del. She was accepted into the program and became the 14th woman to qualify.

Ms. Erickson transferred from New Castle to Long Beach Army Air Base, Calif., and became the commanding officer for all WAFS, and later WASPs, assigned to the 6th Ferrying Group, Air Transport Command.

On March 5, 1943, Ms. Erickson served as copilot for Mrs. Nancy Harkness Love when they ferried a Douglas C-47 from Long Beach, Calif., to Memphis, Tenn.

In a display of stamina and professionalism, Ms. Erickson flew 8,000 miles in the course of 10 days. She left Long Beach, Calif., on July 29, 1943, in a P-51 Mustang, which she delivered to Evansville, Ind. She spent the night there, and on the next day picked up a P-47 Thunderbolt, which she delivered to San Pedro, Calif., on July 31, having spent a night en route. In this instance, she had the fortune to be sent to a delivery point at which aircraft moving west were to be picked up. On Aug. 2 she took off from Long Beach in a C-47 which she delivered to Fort Wayne, Ind. She then proceeded to Headquarters, Ferrying Division, in Cincinnati, Ohio, for temporary duty. On her way home Aug. 7, she reported to Evansville, where she was assigned another P-47 to be delivered to San Pedro. Thus out of 10 days she was able, without undue effort to spend five days ferrying. Her logged time for these days is not available. On the basis of the type of aircraft involved and the mileage as given, she may be estimated to have piled up at least 40 hours -- as much as one of the 2nd Ferrying Group WASPs could have hoped for in a full month. For these flights, Ms. Erickson was awarded the Air Medal, the only one awarded to a WASP during World War II. (Note: More medals were awarded after the war.)

During the first two weeks of August, 1944, the experiment was made of stationing two of the most experienced WASPs, Ms. Erickson and Ms. Florene Miller, at the 3rd Ferrying Group, Romulus, Mich., to fly on the domestic Military Air Transport Service from there to Chicago, Ill. They had to meet all requirements for transport first pilots (i.e. aircraft commanders), including a severe flight check. They flew on the scheduled service from Aug. 2-16. The Military Air Transport Operations Officer at Romulus reported of them:

"These pilots were scheduled on a trip departing Romulus at 0700, which meant they were required to report for duty at 0530. In spite of transportation difficulties, these pilots were never late and they showed an unusual regard for adherence to scheduled operations. With reference to their ability, the fact that they were checked out as first pilots on a scheduled cargo and personnel [passenger] run speaks for itself."

Click here to return to the Women Pilots index.

 

​

Michelle, bet you a fiver your Mum worked at Bletchley!

 

Bletchley checked the records they had but no luck. Some of her cousins wondered the same thing. Someday I will figure out where to contact for information on non-military British wartime service.

Now how am I going to collect the fiver!!!!

 

Technically, no records doesn't mean didn't work there and since we're dealing with Bletchley....! I guess we're all going to have to hang on until 2020. Still a bet is a bet, and if you're in this neck of the woods, your fiver will be awaiting you!

 

Yes I know this story... They were the artillery regiment ( I believe ). There is a Russian movie called Stalingrad ( By the same guy who made Liberation ). There is also a little emphasis on a brave Spaniard who fought alongside the Red Army and unfortunately lost his life in opening days of that dreaded battle. I believe he was awarded the "hero of the Soviet Union." Anyone got any info of this brave lad?

 

QA World War Two Nursing

There is much more on the website than I have copied here.

"QA World War Two Nursing and nurses were then known as the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS). Each QA had an officer status with equivalent rank but no actual commission status. This changed in 1941 whens emergency commissions and rank structure were formulated to bring the QAs into line with the rest of the British Army. For the first time QAs wore rank badges and were able to be promoted and receive financial benefits along with ranks from Lieutenant through to Brigadier.

During World War II from 1939 to 1945 members of the QAIMNS served in many countries ranging from Africa, Burma, China, Egypt, France, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Iceland, Italy, Malaya, Malta, Normandy, Palastine and Singapore.

Memories and photos of QAs who served in Africa can be viewed on the Africa Second World War page.

The book Sisters In Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story has quotes and recollections taken from QAIMNS private papers and diary extracts that were written during the Second World War. Many are preserved in full at the Army Medical Services (AMS) Museum collection. The book also includes interviews with QA survivors of WWII. This includes extracts from the then Matron in Chief Dame Kathleen Jones and QA Sisters Molly Budge, Brenda McBryde, Phil Dyer, Daphne Van Wart, Olive Spedding, Catherine Maudsley, Mary English, Dorothy Mackie and Dame Margot Turner who later became the Director Army Nursing Services (DANS) and Matron-in-Chief (Army) of the QARANC. More Information.

British Army nurses served aboard hospital ships and in field hospitals. ...

Many Matrons of civilian hospitals remembered or served in the First World War and knew of the importance of nursing care for wounded soldiers and would encourage their best nurses to enlist for the QAIMNS Reserves. At the same time civvy hospitals increased their recruitment of student nurses to eventually fill vacant staff nurse posts.

Numbers of the QAIMNS were supplemented with the help of Matrons in civilian hospitals, particularly teaching hospitals. They "requested" suitable trained nurses to join the QAIMNS(R) in 1938 when war in Europe was anticipated. Such nurses were interviewed at the War Office and given a sealed packet which bore the words Open only in the event of war.

At the outbreak of World War Two there were about 640 regular members of the QAIMNS. This number was increased with the mobilisation of the QAIMNS(R) and the TANS (Territorial Army Nursing Service). ...

In her book Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War Brenda McBryde compares this 640 (1939) and 12000 (1945) members of the QAIMNS to the Navy and Royal Air Force and cites their figures as 171 personnel for the Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service (PMRAFNS) at the start of WWII with 1215 (which includes the reserves) at the end of the war. There were 78 members of the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing (QARNN) at the start of World War Two with 1341 at the end of the war, though these figures include the VADs.

The Matron in Chief at the start of WWII was Miss Roy (RRC, MM) and the Principal Matron in France was Miss Katharine Jones who later became the Matron-in-Chief after the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940.

The Phoney War

At the start of World War Two members of the QAIMNS along with VAD nurses were mobilised to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). There was little to do because French troops were holding back the German army at the Maginot line. QAs kept themselves busy by treating the French local civilians and holding clinics. They had a good social life enjoying French culture and kept fit playing a variety of sports. Because there was little action in the first year the time was called The Phoney War or the Bore War.

As the troops of Hitler invaded Holland, Belgium and then France in May 1940 the British troops had to withdraw and this included the QAs and VADs (Voluntary Aid Detachment) who had set up hospitals in field conditions and in buildings in the forward areas. The retreat was fast and rather than leave valuable medical equipment for the enemy the Royal Engineers Sappers destroyed the buildings and QAs helped to destroy equipment. Many QAs came under fire from the German pilots along with troops of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).

Dunkirk Evacuation

Many QAs made their way to Dunkirk to await evacuation. One of the last nursing sisters to leave France was Lillian Gutteridge who bravely defended her patients. A German SS officer tried to take over her ambulance and ordered his men to throw out the stretcher bound patients. Lillian Gutteridge was so outraged that she slapped the SS Officer's face. He stabbed her in the thigh with his dagger and he was killed by passing Black Watch soldiers before he could hurt her anymore. Despite her wound she drove the ambulance and her wounded patients to the railway siding and persuaded the French driver to take on board her patients. They went to Cherbourg and during their journey took on board another 600 French and British wounded troops. Several days later Lillian and her patients arrived safely in England.

No QAs were left behind during the Dunkirk Evacuation and all returned to England (cited in the book Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (Famous Regts. S) by Juliet Piggott).


There is a collection of photos of QAs during World War Two in the book Sub Cruce Candida: A Celebration of One Hundred Years of Army Nursing.



63rd British General Hospital in Athens

Whilst researching papers in the Kew Record office, David Grant came across a copy of a report sent to Miss Jones, the Matron in Chief of the QAIMNS, by Miss Sharpe who was the Matron of the TANS (Territorial Army Nursing Service) at the 63rd British General Hospital in Athens in 1940 and 1941 before and during the evacuation from Greece.

Miss Sharpe describes her work at No. 58 General Hospital, leaving Palestine, the arrival in Athens, setting up a hospital at Kephissia which was in the Aphergis Hotel with the Cecil for surgical cases and the Olympus for ENT and dental treatment. Miss Sharpe talks about meeting the King the Crown Prince General Metaxas, Princess Fredricka, Princess Nicholas, Princess Alexandra and General Sir Archibald Wavell.

How the QAs celebrated Christmas with their patients is described.

As air raids started Matron talked about the care of the Greek wounded and the special attention needed by the Greeks. The air raids did not specifically target the hospital buildings but they were sited near to the heavily bombed Menidi aerodrome and the QA nurses were able to see many dog fights.

As the Germans advanced to Athens Miss Sharpe had to make the difficult decision to evacuate some of the QAIMNS Nursing Sisters. Miss Weekly and 24 more QAs were chosen but had to remain at Kephissia after more orders were received. Hours later eight Sisters were evacuated aboard a ship. During this time the Matron had to help with the stomach wash out of the hospitals Maltese chef who tried to commit suicide by swallowing aspirin and quinine pills.

The Commanding Officer, Registrar and patients were evacuated in another ship, but this was attacked with three direct hits. Miss Sharpe seeing the lads again but with fresh wounds. The CO also survived and went back to work at the 63rd BGH.

The next day the staff were evacuated and made their way to the Port where a Destroyer was to evacuate the nurses. They found a small jetty and merchant ship was awaiting them and they sailed to Crete miracously avoiding the heavy bombing. They were reunited with the other eight nurses who had been evacuated earlier.

The full report can be read at his website Report by Matron of 63 General Hospital, Athens

David’s mother, Sister Jane Pugh QAIMNS, was evacuated to Crete and more can be read about her on the British Military Hospital Egypt BMH Alexandria page.


Far East

It was thought that those soldiers, their families and QAs serving in the Far East would not be involved in World War Two. This changed when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and America and Britain declared war on the Japanese. Within hours Hong Kong came under attack and the worst war atrocities on members of the QAIMNS took place. This dark chapter in the QAIMNS history can be read in the BMH Bowen Road Hong Kong page.

The first members of the QAIMNS to be taken as a POW in WWII by Japanese Forces were Sisters from the BMH Bowen Road, Hong Kong on Christmas Day in 1941.

In Singapore many QAs were captured by Japanese forces after the fall of Singapore in 1942 and their evacuation from BMH Singapore and were interred into concentration camps as prisoners of wars. This included Dame Margot Turner who survived the sinking of her ship and was captured by a Japanese Destroyer after being afloat on a raft. Read her remarkable story.

In Imphal Hospital in the summer of 1944 the unit security officer advised that each QA Sister be issued with a hand gun with at least one bullet so that in the event of capture by the Japanese she could shot herself ( cited in the book Women Who Went to War by Eric Taylor).

QAs were caring for the Gurkhas as they bravely fought against the Japanese troops. This meant having to quickly learn about the Gurkha soldier and his battle customs. For example Eric Taylor in his book Women Who Went to War writes about Sister Winifred Beaumont who was going to remove a smelly bundle that was around a wounded Gurkha warrior and was warned by the doctor not to touch it. The bundle contained the ears of the enemy he had killed.


Recruitment for army nurses was so successful that many highly qualified staff nurses joined the war effort either as a QA or VAD nurse. In 1943 and for the duration of the Second World War a restriction was put into place that decreed that only newly qualified nurses could enlist. This now meant that more experienced nurses stayed in Britain to care for civilian air raid casualties and nurse evacuated soldiers back to health to rejoin their corps and regiments. A Nurse's War by Brenda McBryde is the true story of one such civilian nurse who then joined the QAIMNS(R) after qualifying. Her army nursing service career started in Peebles, Scotland where the Hydro Hotel had been temporarily converted into the 75th British General Hospital (BGH). As the Second World War progressed she saw service with the 81st British General Hospital just after the Normandy Allied landings. Brenda McBryde was then volunteered to work at a Field Dressing Station near the front line at Hermanville under the direction of Matron Ellen Davies and nurses of the Voluntary Aid Detachment of the Red Cross. From here she went to the push into Caen then Brussels in Belgium.


Sicily

In July 1943 Britain and Allied troops invaded Sicily to take on the German and Italian army. QA's accompanied the servicemen aboard the Hospital Carrier Leinster. Surgeons and QAIMNS nurses worked for over 48 hours without a break during the early days of the invasion of Sicily. Even when the theatres had to be closed to be cleaned the doctors and nurses went to give blood or assist in dressings and injections. The casualties were taken to Bizerta in Tunisia. There is more written about the work and life aboard hospital ships and carriers of the First World War and the Second World War on the Hospital Ships page.


Penicillin use in World War Two

The first use of Penicillin in a military hospital during World War Two was described by Brenda McBryde in Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War which was at the 98th British General Hospital (BGH) at Chateaudun on the Constantin Plateau.

Professor Alexander Fleming worked with army doctors in choosing suitable patients to trial his new antibiotic drug. The first use of penicillin by the military is described in Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War and was a soldier with gas gangrene in his wound. The bubbles could be felt under the tissues and this normally meant the patient would die despite the best efforts of the nurses and doctors. He was given penicillin and made a recovery. Other patients were given penicillin such as servicemen with wounds exposed down to the bone. These too survived and the mortality rate fell.

QAs and medical officers were estimated to have saved up to 15% of lives with the new super drug penicillin. This new antibiotic was used extensively for military patients who had undergone amputation and other major operations or had extensive wounds. QAs would administer penicillin every three hours and often would no sooner finish one drug round of penicillin injections than they would have to start all over again. Even preparing the wonder drug was time intensive and these early preparations would have to be drawn up from their orange yellow coloured powder and mixed with sterile saline - no easy to pop and draw up ampoule for WWII QAs.

Nor was there easy to use disposable syringes and needles. Each life saving penicillin injection was administered with a glass syringe and had to be sterilised between usage. The syringes were wrapped in gauze and boiled but would often crack in the steriliser despite the best care of the QA Sisters.

It was said that the yellow powder penicillin drug smelt like old hay (cited in the book Women Who Went to War by Eric Taylor).

The early production of penicillin was expensive and the drug was in short supply until American and Australian laboratories set up production plants and supplied Allied medical services with the life saving medication.

The commercial production of penicillin was developed by Ernest Chain and Howard Florey and together with Professor Alexander Fleming they were awarded the 1945 Nobel prize for Medicine (cited in the book Women Who Went to War by Eric Taylor.

Sir Winston Churchill became ill in early 1944 with a chest infection. He was nursed by QAIMNS nursing sister Elizabeth Lavinia Clarke in his Flower Villa at Marrakesh (also spelt Marrakech) in Africa. She had been secretly flown from Egypt to nurse the Prime Minister back to health and he was soon able to plan the capture of the German Tenth Army at the Gustav Line.

Some of this valuable penicillin was left over after the Prime Minister had been treated by Brigadier Bedford of the Eighth Army. It was urgently dispatched to Delhi to be used to treat Brigadier Marriott. He was an RAMC consultant physician who developed septicaemia after a hernia operation. He was on the Dangerously Ill List but responded to the intra muscular injections and made a full recovery (cited in Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War by Brenda McBryde).

Sub Cruce Candida: A Celebration of One Hundred Years of Army Nursing describes how the South East of London and particularly London saw heavy bombardment from the Luftwaffe and by 1944 damage to buildings and loss of life from V1 and V2 rockets was so severe that a Holding Unit for the QAIMNS was set up at Anstie Grange, South Holmwood near Dorking in Surrey. This then became the first Depot and Training Establishment of the newly formed QARANC. The QA depot then moved to Aldershot in 1967 to the QA Centre.


Normandy

Four years into World War Two the QAIMNS and TANS went back to France with the Allied troops of the Battle of Normandy of D Day on the 6 June 1944. As part of Operation Overlord they pushed into mainland France, Belgium and Holland as the Allies made their way to Germany.

Lessons had been learned about the medical evacuation of wounded or injured troops and Landing Ship Tanks (LST) and hospital carriers were used to take patients from the battlefield and the beaches to nearby hospital ships such as Amsterdam, the Isle of Jersey, the Duke of Lancaster and the Duke of Rothesay (cited in Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War by Brenda McBryde).

Each Landing Ship Tank could hold 350 stretchers and 160 walking wounded.

The wounded were evacuated back to England within hours of being wounded and the hospitals in the South of England were evacuated further North in preparation of receiving the wounded of Op Overlord. Large stocks of medical supplies had been collected in the weeks leading up to Op Overlord and this included a huge amount of blood, plasma and penicillin that had been mass produced in Allied laboratories.

As part of the preparations for Operation Overlord QA's had physical and military training for the first time. They were taught soldierly things like how to climb and ascend a rope ladder on a ship, jump from a ship to a boat, marching, how to scramble through barbed wire barricades and self defence. For Operation Overlord the QA's took off their veils and scarlet and grey uniforms and wore boots and battledress (cited in Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War by Brenda McBryde).


Clearing Station at a Dutch school in Nijmegen

In the intro to the book Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (Famous Regts. S) by Juliet Piggott, Lt General Sir Brian Horrocks tells of a visit to a Casualty Clearing Station at a Dutch school in Nijmegen during which the CCS was shelled by the Germans during the Battle of Arnhem (Operation Market Garden). He wanted to take cover as he heard one shell approach but the QA Sister did not and bravely got on with attending to her patients. The shell landed nearby causing the window to blow in. What a bore - we shall have to get all that repaired said the Sister demonstrating to General Horrocks the resilience, humour and bravery of the army nurses who also had "the gentlest of touches when it came to tending a wounded soldier".

Battle Shock

The treatment and care of soldiers, airmen and sailors suffering from battle shock was much improved during World War two though still rarely spoken off at the time. So much so that there were eighteen psychiatric hospitals in secret locations throughout Britain that specialised in caring for servicemen with mental health problems. Many were set up in stately homes to provide peaceful and seclusion to aid their healing. One such example was Cholmondeley Castle. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was still little understood and many psychiatric patients were labelled as NYDN (Not Yet Diagnosed Neurosis) as a diagnosis. There is more written about such centres with photographs in the book Combat Nurse.


Concentration Camps Liberated by Allied Soldiers

When concentration camps were liberated by Allied soldiers there were many QA sisters on hand to care for the survivors of Nazi atrocities at concentration camps such as Belsen. Few were prepared for the horrors that they were to witness, emaciated people who had survived torturous conditions. Piles of bodies, torture pits, gallows, ovens, torture cells and whipping posts and gas chambers. The camps were infested and disease ridden. At Auschwitz two doctors and one QA who were treating the survivors caught typhus and sadly the QA sister died.

The survivors of German concentration camps were cared in specially set up British General Hospitals. Here nurses had to work hard to gain their trust whilst coping with multiple illnesses, neglect and diseases. Brenda McBryde talks about the challenges of caring for the survivors of Sandbostel, North Germany with the 86th BGH in her book A Nurse's War. She describes how ex prisoners would hoard food because they did not know when they would not next be fed and how even the sickest would not rest on their bed for fear of being executed because they could not work for the Germans. It took weeks and months for some to learn to trust the British nurses.

There is more written about the liberation of the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp and the Nazi truce because of a typhus outbreak on the Belsen Concentration Camp page.


World War Two was coming to a close and Adolf Hitler shot himself in his bunker on the 30 April 1945. His Third Reich collapsed and the German army surrendered.

There was still work for the QAIMNS though in caring for the prisoners of the Germans. For example Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War by Brenda McBryde describes the work of the 79th British General Hospital at Oslo Airport in Norway where Russian prisoners had been forced to work for the Germans in labour camps. They were forced to build defences along the Norwegian border because Germany feared an invasion from Russia. Despite this arduous work they were given meagre rations and all were suffering malnutrition and many disease.

War in the Far East with Japan was still not over and troopships, with QA's on board, set sail. By this time the Japanese Navy had been destroyed and the Japanese army were fighting to the death. Japan ignored the Allies request that they unconditionally surrender. They chose to keep fighting and the Allies were forced to drop Atomic bombs on the two Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima which then brought about the unconditional surrender of Japan.

By the end of World War Two there were 12,000 members of the QAIMNS.

The book Sisters In Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story describes the care of Far East Prisoners of War (FEPOW) and the difficulties they had to overcome as they learned how to cope with their unique experiences. Sisters In Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story also describes how members of the QAIMNS coped after the Second World War

Four years after World War Two the QAIMNS became a British Army Corps and were renamed the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC) in 1949.

For the history of the QAIMNS please visit the World War I Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service QAIMNS Nurses page.

For an overview of British Army Nursing please read the History of the QARANC page.

 

Another heroic woman in World War II:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/11/us/11honor.html

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 11, 2006

BALTIMORE, Dec. 10 (AP) — In 1942, the Gestapo circulated posters offering a reward for the capture of “the woman with a limp.”

Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image
The Baltimore Sun via Associated Press
Virginia Hall, left, an Allied spy in World War II, receiving a distinguished service medal in 1945.




“She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies and we must find and destroy her,” the posters said.

The woman was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore native working in France for British intelligence, and the limp was the result of an artificial leg. Her left leg had been amputated below the knee about a decade earlier, after she stumbled and blasted her foot with a shotgun while hunting in Turkey.

The injury derailed Ms. Hall’s dream of becoming a Foreign Service officer because the State Department would not hire amputees, but it did not prevent her from becoming one of the most celebrated spies of World War II.

On Tuesday, the French and British ambassadors plan to honor Ms. Hall, who died in 1982 at age 78, at a ceremony at the home of the French ambassador, Jean-David Levitte, in Washington.

Sir David Manning, Britain’s ambassador to the United States, plans to present a certificate signed by King George VI to Ms. Hall’s niece, Lorna Catling. Ms. Hall should have received the document in 1943, when she was made a member of the Order of the British Empire.

“I think it was ironic that the State Department turned her down because she was an amputee, and here she went on and did all this other stuff,” said Ms. Catling, who lives in Baltimore. She said she did not learn many of the details of her aunt’s espionage career until after her death.

Ms. Hall, who was fluent in French, was living in Paris when the Nazis invaded in 1940, and she decamped for London, where she was recruited by the secret British paramilitary service, the Special Operations Executive, becoming its first female field operative.

She was sent to Lyon, becoming “the heartbeat” of the local French Resistance, said Judith L. Pearson, whose biography of Ms. Hall, “Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America’s First Female Spy,” was published last year.

“Any agent from London came through her flat,” Ms. Pearson said. “She coordinated them with Resistance members. Most agents only stayed about three months in the field. She stayed 15 months.”

After the Gestapo’s wanted posters made her situation untenable, she fled through the Pyrenees into Spain.

During the journey, she sent a radio message to London, reporting that “Cuthbert,” her nickname for her prosthetic leg, was giving her trouble. Her commanders did not understand the reference, and their reply suggested the gravity of Ms. Hall’s circumstances and her value to the Allied cause: “If Cuthbert troublesome eliminate him.”

Back in London, she joined the American Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, and returned to France in 1944, disguised as an elderly peasant.

She located parachute drop zones where money and weapons could be passed to Resistance fighters and later coordinated guerrilla warfare. Her teams destroyed bridges, derailed freight trains and killed scores of German soldiers.

“I would certainly put her name in the pantheon of people who distinguished themselves in intelligence,” said Peter Earnest, executive director of the International Spy Museum in Washington, which has an exhibit devoted to Ms. Hall.

Ms. Hall maintained her cloak of secrecy after the war. The certificate that went with her Order of the British Empire honor sat in a vault for more than 50 years because the British government was unable to track her down.

 

I'm from Port Glasgow and during the war my late mum washed Flying boats on the Clyde.

 

Interseting! I never thought of that for an occupation.

 

Rosa Lea Fullwood Meek Dickerson Honoring WWll Women Pilots

It was an unconventional job for women at the time. But for Rosa Lea Fullwood Meek Dickerson, flying was a way of life. She began flying in her early teens at her father’s flight school in McAllen, Texas, and helped out with the flight school operations, doing work in the office and even gassing up airplanes when needed. By her early twenties, she had made history as part of the first group of women to fly military aircraft for the United States, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).

The rest of the article... AOPA Online: Honoring WWII women pilots

Great story, Enjoy!

Mark