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Torpedoed!
Ms. Whittaker discusses the events prior to, during, and immediately after the aerial torpedoing of the SS Santa Helena. She gives a detailed account of how the ship's crew kept passengers calm while moving them to lifeboat stations, for which she offers them high praise.
Heightened vigilance in the Mediterranean Sea aboard the SS Santa Helena
Ms. Whittaker describes the safety measures taken aboard SS Santa Helena, because of the risk of torpedoing, once she reached the Mediterranean Sea. These included sleeping in full uniform and frequent lifeboat drills.
Toughening up
Ms. Whittaker describes her hospital experience at Horley, England as being pleasant with little contact with war wounded. Her introduction to army drill brings her back to the reality of war.
I had no idea of the danger.
Ms. Whittaker describes a relatively peaceful crossing to England, even though depth charges were occasionally fired off to thwart submarines.
Dutch retribution
Ms. Drean describes seeing, while in Barneveld, Dutch collaborators being marched off to what she felt was to be their execution. She also talks about having female collaborators, whose heads had been shaved, as assistants, and expresses some empathy for these young women.
Pigeonholing
Ms. Drean describes how she had been taught a technique at nursing school to deal with the stresses of nursing, called pigeonholing. This technique taught her to compartmentalize her thoughts so that she could forget the stresses of nursing while on her free time.
Dutch charity and a revelation
Ms. Drean describes being billeted with a Dutch family and always finding a glass of wine in her room after a long day's work. Her host family then shows her a secret room used to shelter escaping airmen who had been shot down.
The Field Surgical Unit at Saint-Omer
Ms. Drean describes the role of the Field Surgical Unit in Saint-Omer, France, its staffing complement, and what her specific duties were.
Physical and mental preparation
Ms. Drean discusses having to participate in regular parade drill as physical preparation for deployment, and despite having had no hands on contact with the war wounded as yet, feeling ready to do her job well.
Canadian and English hospital service
After her husband had been mortally wounded at Ortona, and following his death Ms. Smith-Adamson enlists in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps as an operating room nurse. She serves in military hospitals in Toronto and Camp Borden, and later in a convalescent hospital in England. Her request for a transfer to the continent is granted.
To #1 Casualty Clearing Station
Ms. Smith-Adamson describes arriving in Njimegen only to find that her documents and kit are missing. A doctor acquaintance arranges for her to join #1 Casualty Clearing Station in Sogol, Germany where she remains with the Army of Occupation for a year.
Treating Field Marshall Montgomery
Ms. Smith-Adamson describes being the only nurse at her hospital denied an opportunity to see Field Marshall Montgomery during his visit to Germany. Ironically, his aircraft crashes and he arrives at her hospital for x-rays and a checkup. She is his nurse while he is there.
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