Melissa F

We nurses had answered the call of duty when Germany attacked Poland in September 1939. I knew it was my time to step up and enlist in the army. I was one of the 4480 nurses that enlisted in the army. However, most of the other nurses I knew had been sent with the navy or air force. After my training in Canada, they had sent the nurses overseas. We were the first to go. Once we had arrived, we joined our own units which preceded us to the United Kingdom. Upon our arrival in England, we had worked in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps’ hospital at Taplow, Bramshott and Basingstoke.

Through earsplitting, thunderous explosions and fearful eerie flashes in the distance, we had waited for the inevitable arrival of wounded soldiers. We had received more than 600 causalities and in one 19.5 hour period, 98 operations had to be performed. In critical times, when there were many wounded soldiers, I had to step up and play the role of doctors in diagnosing and treating their wounds in a very timely manner. Depending on the nature of the injury, many were time sensitive and could not afford to wait for a doctor to attend to them. So I stepped up and took over some of the treatments a doctor would do. I knew if I didn’t do anything, they would die. I couldn’t resist letting a soldier in front of me die when I know I could have saved him. I felt it was my duty for Canada to take care of the needs for these brave men.

I will never forget the conditions some were in. Their faces were filled with horror and were shaking from how scared they were. Enlisting in the war we knew it was our job to heal them. It didn’t seem as bad as being a soldier risking their lives everyday, but it was. It was not only our job to heal them but it was our job to give them hope when they had none, and that little bit of optimism they needed. It was also our job to give them that strength they needed as we stood there doing all we could, but knew they were going to die. It was the hardest thing I’d ever done. We were not only their nurses, but their support.

After three years in England, I was sent into action. Luckily, I was still with Margaret. We’d been together since the very beginning. We had arrived in Sicily. Almost all hospital units deployed to the continent that were initially set up under canvas. Later on, we were moved to abandoned or bombed-out buildings. We started to face many dangers and obstacles in trying to provide medical care in the battle zone. We started to realize just how much responsibility we had. It was September 2, 1943 when Margaret and 11 other Nurses were wounded. An anti-aircraft shell had fallen on the Canadian General Hospital.

- Elizabeth Walker