Living Conditions and VE Day
Heroes Remember
Living Conditions and VE Day
Well while we were in Bologna, we were in tents in a field, a
muddy field, on the edge of an airport. And we had tents for
patients and nurses as well. And we had no electricity and we
had prima stones, stoves, hurricane lamps and a bucket of water
a day, which was brought around by Palestinian water carts.
And we had at this point mainly German patients.
Interviewer: And what was that like?
Well I had some feeling about looking after German patients.
Interviewer: Did you?
My brother had been killed at this time you know, and so I
wasn't very happy about Germans, shall we say. But anyway, I got
over that. And I guess at this stage I burned my face. We had
little alcohol stoves you know and we heated eggs in our tents
you know, and water and what not. And we used methadated spirits
and flannel bandages for wicks and it flew up in my face so I
burned my face. So I had a nice burned face for a while. So that
was my casualty there. But the nice thing about that was I was
given leave and I went to Venice. And spent a week in Venice and
was well looked after by various troops you know. And then
General Alexander, shortly after this, issued an order of the
day saying that Germans had been defeated. And that was
May 8th 1945, this is when we were in Bologna.
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