Description
Object description
British private trained with Royal Army Medical Corps at Boyce Barracks, Church Crookham, GB, 1/1940-3/1940; nurse served with B Coy, 130th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 3/1940-1/1943 including attachment to HMS Wasp, Dover, GB, 9/1940-2/1941; served as theatre assistance with 30th General Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps in York, GB, 1/1943-5/1944; served with 33rd Field Surgical Unit, Royal Army Medical Corps in North West Europe, 6/1944-5/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Peckham, London, GB, 1917-1939: family; education; employment; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Recollections of period of training with Royal Army Medical Corps at Boyce Barracks, Church Crookham, GB, 1/1940-3/1940: call-up for military service, 1/1940; question of choice of service; reception at Boyce Barracks, 1/1940; meal on arrival; company office and allocation of accommodation; technique for making army bed; first night in barracks; waking early; breakfast and allocation of army number; treatment by drill sergeant; punishment for crossing drill square; lectures; gas drill; adjusting to army life; medical inspections; issue of clothing.
REEL 2 Continues: issue and care of boots; conditions in barracks; initial medical training; physical training; protection afforded to medical personnel by Red Cross; gas training; opinion of training; role with hygiene company; reaction to end of basic training. Aspects of period as nurse with B Coy, 130th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 3/1940-9/1940: reception at unit, near Bath; visit to operating theatre; organisation of unit; weapons training; differences in three nursing grades; nature of exercises; placing on war footing, 5/1940; move to Tring; dealing with wounded from Dunkirk Evacuation; move to King's Langley and billetting with civilians; reaction to posting to officers' hospital at Hatfield; bomb damage in Peckham; sight of German bomber over Peckham.
REEL 3 Continues: Recollections of period as nurse B Coy, 130th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps attacted to Royal Navy on air sea rescue duties at HMS Wasp, Dover, GB, 9/1940-2/1941: character of HMS Wasp; attending Phyllis Dixey shows; intensity of German shelling; duties on air sea rescue launches; sight of aerial dogfights; sight of German aircraft; checking air sea rescue buoys; attending suicide at anti-aircraft site; memories of Captain Goodman; issue of pick axe handle as defence against German paratroopers; sight of British railway guns near Dover; sight of German aircraft 'balloon busting' over town. Recollections of period as nurse with B Coy, 130th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 2/1941-1/1943: marching with infantry units; treating foot injuries; applying field dressings; role of unit in exercises; composition of stretcher bearer teams; use of stretcher slings; attending courses. Recollections of period as theatre assistance with 30th General Hospital in York, GB, 1/1943-5/1944: duties as theatre assistant; composition of surgical theatre team; laying out instruments and sterilising equipment; types of medical treatment provided.
REEL 4 Continues: reaction to working in theatre; relations with surgeons; nature of aftercare; theatre rota; question of treatment of officers and other ranks; move to Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich. Aspects of training with Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 1940-1944: battle training; technique for throwing hand grenades.
REEL 5 Continues: Recollections of operations as nurse with 33rd Field Surgical Unit, Royal Army Medical Corps at Grave-sur-Mer, Juno Beach, Normandy, France, D-Day, 6/6/1944: crossing English Channel and sight of HMS Belfast firing guns; landing on Juno Beach; treating casualties with morphine; setting up unit in orchard; types of casualties dealt with; sight of German prisoners of war on beach; reaction of French civilians to landings; dealing with casualties in Field Ambulance. Recollections of period with 33rd Field Surgical Unit, Royal Army Medical Corps in North West Europe, 1944-1945: contact with American medical unit at Saint-Lô, France, 8/1944; rations; question of feeding troops prior to action; problems with flies; distance from front line; lack of distinguishing markings on hospital; reaction of Waffen SS troops to medical treatment; setting up unit; sight of British troops in action during advance to Nijmegen, Netherlands; medical treatment for infection; use of drugs; medical grading of wounded.
REEL 6 Continues: contact with Dutch civilians, Helmond, Netherlands; crossing of River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; lack of reaction to crossing into Germany; rate of casualties in Germany; dealing with casualties from No 45 (Royal Marine) Commando, 1st Commando Bde on River Elbe, Germany; conditions in German Air Force hospital in Bremen, Germany; contact with Waffen SS troops in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany; reaction to VE Day, 8/5/1945. Aspects of period as nurse with Royal Army Medical Corps in Germany, 1945-1946: reaction to not being sent to Far East; posting to 6th General Hospital at Iserlohn; sight of German women clearing rubble; demobilisation process, 6/1946; story of near mutiny at Rouen, France, 1945.