Description
Object description
British NCO served with Women's Auxiliary Air Force in GB, 1942-1944; served as nursing orderly in Air Ambulance Service in GB, 1942-1945
Content description
REEL 1: Background in Sunderland, 1918-1939: family life and education; description of two years training as children's nurse, Broadstairs; employment with doctor in Sunderland; evacuated to Cumberland and memory of outbreak of war, 9/1939. Aspects of period with Women's Auxiliary Air Force in GB, 1941-1942; reason for volunteering; basic training at Bridgenorth and Ashville College, Harrogate; uniform; posted to Yatesbury; medical training and duties in hospital; prevalence of infectious diseases; posted to RAF Hemswell, 1942; memory of Polish pilots; story of Wellington bomber crashing on airfield and casualties; role as nursing orderly and issued with special badge. Recollections of period with Air Ambulance Service in GB, 1942-1945: story of volunteering for Air Ambulance Service; description of training at Hendon including air ambulance course; description of base and medical facilities; question of only women working as orderlies; use of Oxford Anson as air ambulance; equipment and medical facilities; attitude to dealing with severe burn cases; system of transporting patients to home area; crew of Anson.
REEL 2 Continues: Red Cross markings on air ambulances; question of not having parachutes; duties with patients during flights; problem of bad weather; flying height; problem of smog in London; description of flying gear; extra rations and pay for air ambulance crew; press interest in air ambulances; description of flying over liberated Europe in converted Dakota after D-Day, 1944; nature of patients and injuries; description of interior of Dakota; crew; medical facilities; system of loading and unloading patients; story of overloaded plane and emergency landing in Brussels; reaction of Belgian civilians after liberation; story of VIP Mrs Neames; story of delivering supplies and collecting patients from Ypres, Belgium; memory of seeing shaven-headed collaborators in cage; duties as nursing orderly; condition of patients; landing strips; rota system; treatment of scabies.
REEL 3 Continues: comparison of Dakota and Anson; reason for security name 'Ruth Smithers'; sanitary arrangements during flights; leave and social life; problem of air raids over Hendon; memory of V2; air raid shelter for patients; memory of VE Day celebrations, 5/1945; opinion of Churchill; attitude to role of women in air ambulances; opinion of organisation and efficiency of Air Ambulance Service; demobilised, 10/1945. Post-war employment as children's nurse. Question of recognition of work of air ambulances during war.