Journey to France

Heroes Remember

Journey to France

Transcript

We really didn't have it in England, we had it when we got to the continent and we had to mix it ourselves. And we didn't give it to the POWs, we kept it for the Allies. Sterile water, and the powder, a great big 50cc syringe. Funny I can't remember, but anyway it was in the summer, and we landed at Aramanse(?), it was an awful trip over, you know, little boats and submarine things going down, rolled off, anyway and then we had to go over the rope ladder on the side of the ship, it couldn't get in the harbour, you know, as I said, we were not trained as troops, and the poor captain, anyway we got in, and there was the landing barge down there, and they had a sailor down there and the girls, they had to put a safety belt on each nurse to go down, we didn't know how to go down a rope ladder on the side of a ship and you get down there, and you know how boats go like this when the waves are coming and you'd get down there and then he'd say "Jump", so you jumped and you were hauled in. And to get ninety Nursing Sisters over, it took quite a while, maybe they had two or three lines going down, and I remember I heard someone, the Captain or somebody say, "Well I hope that's the last hospital that I have to move," Cause it was slow. Then when we got into Bayeux, that's where all the hospitals were it was, the whole area was like a Red Cross, suppose to be a protected area, for hospital, you know for planes, had to wear our tin hats to bed. Aw, that was wild and they had all the hospitals lined up, all tents you see, it was all tents, and as each hospital was filled, casualties coming in, just coming, coming from the front all the time, you'd just put your sign out "No Admittance" and the ambulance would keep going until it found one that was admitting. I mean it was quick turn over you see.

Description

Mrs. Page talks about penicillin (or the newness of it), and then going over to France to work.

Nancy de Boise Page

Mrs. Page was born in Saint John, New Brunswick. Her father was a doctor and her mother a nurse. Mrs. Page recalls going to the hospital with her father when she was young and knowing early on that nursing was her calling. She trained at the Royal Victoria in Montreal and in 1942 joined the army as a Nursing Sister. She served overseas in England, France and Belgium loving every moment she was able to help the soldiers. Following the war Mrs. Page returned to Queen Mary's Veterans Hospital in Montreal to continue nursing Canadian Veterans.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 02:38
Person Interviewed:: Nancy de Boise Page
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Northwest Europe
Branch:: Army
Occupation:: Nursing Sister

Language selection

Journey to France

Heroes Remember