Memories Of War’s End In England

We were back, we had gone, by that time, we were back at the, at base hospital in Turnhout, I think it was, that's where our base hospital was then, and we went back. That's the first time then, we were all back together again since we were all farmed out in different places in the, in CCS's or other hospitals. So it was great rejoicing, I mean, there were parades and people were, were dancing around. We were mostly with ourselves, there might have been some Belgian, the Belgian people, but it was mostly our, ourselves, you know, and we were watching the parades and they were watching. They were happy, you know, you could see that from the streets and everything that they were I didn't stay, I had said I wouldn't stay. Soon as they were going back, that I, I wanted to go back and I, I didn't plan to stay in the army. So I went back, I don't know if it was July or June or when it was. It was after, anyway, after the, after the war was over. The war was over in... Interviewer: So you didn't stay in Europe any longer than.... No, not any longer than, I left, I was at the base hospital but then I left. Well, we were at that, that base hospital, we had German prisoners and they weren't, they weren't any different than our own people as far as looking after them. Somebody asked me that question, said did I mind and I said, "No, I didn't." I didn't mind. They were sick and they needed looking after and I said, "When you talk to them, they had a little bit of English, they'd say, showed us pictures of their children and they'd say, you know, the war, they hoped the war was over." That was just before it was over. They would hope it was over and they'd get back to the children and they'd show all these pictures well, as far as that, they were no different than our own people. And the fact that they needed care, you know, that's why we're there is to give care to them. (Exactly.) That, there may have been one or two and if they were a little cocky about it, it would be more the officers than the, than the enlisted men. Interviewer: The officers might give them a hard time? The, the officers would say, I know with one officer, I said something about, he'd spoke English very well and I said, "You speak English." And he said, "We learned it in school." Took me very oddly, kind of you know for a (inaudible) well, perhaps he did. But they were a little, a little, a little more distanced. Of course, our own, our own people used to try once in a while too at those kind of things. I was in a ward and I think they were half teasing me and half not but I had said to one that he had to stay in bed. I was doing a dressing and I said, "You better. You're up." I said, "You're not supposed to be up. You better go back to bed." And he said, "You can't tell me what to do because I'm a captain!" So I, I was just going to reply to him and there was also another fellow up higher rank than he had, a colonel or someone, he said, "Oh yes she can." He said, "You lose all your, your, your upmanship." He said, "The Nursing Sister's in charge here." And I said, "That's right!"

Back at the base hospital in England, the war in Europe comes to an end. Ms. Turner recalls the celebrations. She also remembers the German prisoners-of-war that were also her patients.

Lettie Turner

Ms. Turner was born on Christmas day in 1911. Before enlisting Ms. Turner first served with the Victorian Order of Nurses, followed by a short period as a public health nurse with the province of Nova Scotia. Ms. Turner enlisted in Halifax in 1942. She went on to take basic training in Debert, Nova Scotia, and was then posted to Halifax. She returned to Debert for further training before being posted overseas in 1944 at No. 20 Canadian Hospital near London. More training followed in Yorkshire and after D-Day she was posted to Belgium where she remained until the end of the war. In Belgium she nursed at a casualty clearing station. On her return to Canada after the war, Ms. Turner completed her nursing training, worked extensively in public health and eventually worked as a professor in universities in Canada and the United States.