WOMEN IN WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24337, 29 June 1940, Page 12

WOMEN IN WAR

HEROISM OF NURSES DAY AND NIGHT SHELLING "DON'T WORRY ABOUT US" (From Our Own Correspondent) LONDON, June 4. Army nurses who for days defied the bombs and shells on the beach at Dunkirk and tended Allied casualties even while being machine-gunned, refused to be evacuated until the last B.E.F. wounded were sent to safety. Some of the nurses have been killed, others wounded. This story of the Red Cross women was related by a wcunded British soldier. , "I cannot describe what we feel about those girls," he said. '.Out on that dreadful beach, with the sun pouring down on them, with German nlanes continually overhead and shells bursting all the time, they havo worked without stopping for days past. If they have slept, they have done so en their feet Dressed in their white uniforms, the women stand out among the exhausted and. wounded men. "Angels is the Only Word" "Attacked by German planes, and even by tanks, with machine-gun bullets whistling all round, I have seen them crawling into the open and dragging wounded men to shelter be* neath sand dunes. I saw one party of them dressing wounded who were lying out in the open. A plane began bombing. They just lay down by their patients and continued bandaging. They have fetched water and food, helped wounded to reach the rescue boats, even wading in the water to assist the men "Angels is the only word you can use to describe them. I have seen sortie of them killed as they have gone about their work. Refused to go Mack "We have asked them to go back in the rescue ships, but they have .e----fused. Each one has said, 'We shall go when we have finished this job- - there's plenty of time, so don't worry about us.'" These nurses who have ignored the day and night shelling like veteran soldiers are giving invaluable aid to the army doctors, who 'are working stripped to the waist in the heat of the sands and in casualty stations, in bomb craters and small tents. ; Thirty-six tours in Horse Box Nurse J. T. Duncan, a Scottish matron, travelled for 36 hours in a horse truck, tending wounded soldiers evacuated from a hospital in France. "After the invasion, we were working day and night," she said. "Convoy after convoy of wounded arrived at the hospital. We had British, French, and German soldiers, and they were all treated alike. The hospital held 600, and many more were treated under canvas. The hospital roof xs painted white, with a huge Red Cross. When air raids started the Germans at first made no attempt to bomb us, but as the raids intensified several places within the hospital area were struck." Hospital Ships Blazing Describing the evacuation of the hospital, Nurse Duncan said: "We were making for a small seaport town. We got all our patients out on stretchers, and then a German air raid started. Three German airplanes passed over, but they did not bomb us. We got into ambulances and hurried away. We lost all our possessions. It took us an hour and a-half to get to the town, for many parts of the road were blown up. We had intended to ge f the men away in hospital ships or in a hospital train, but both ships* were blazing and i so was the train. We had to take all the patients back to hospital and get them back to bed again. Started Again "It was an awful night, for we expected the Germans would arrive any moment. We started our journey., for the coast again next morning. I was in a horse truck, with walking cases, and we spent 36 hours in it. We picked uo many refugees on the way. Some of the carriages had 73 people in them. A mouth organ was' produced and we sang songs. Eventually we reached this country in a hospital ship. Got Used to Bombs Among the last women to leave Flanders were two Y.W.C.A. workers, Miss Ruth Adeney and Miss Joan Wilson. They have told of their experiences in the last terrible days before the Germans entered the toWn in which they were on duty. They were sent to organise a social centre for A.T.S. and military nurses, but they had hardly got the building ready before air raids began. For days they were under air bombardment. "It was the first time we had been under fire," Miss Wilson said. "It was not so bad as I. had expected. After a while we got quite used to it." "The only cars to get through were those with mattresses on their roofs, said Miss Adeney. "As days went on. refugees got more and more desperate. One man came' along in a.bullet-holed car. He had set off with his wife, three children and their nurse. On the way. the children and nurse were shot dead, and his Wife, out of her mind, had jumped from the car. He | had only one fixed purpose. He had to get to a certain place in France to join his regiment. I've seen nothing more terrible than his cold, staring ey " Our .troops were line. They arrived foot-slogging and looking dreadfully tired, but as soon as we said, milio. thev perked up at the sound of an Englishwoman's voice, and were as cheery as ever."