The UK is set to remember the eightieth anniversary of Germany’s surrender on 8 May,1945 (V-E Day) which officially ended the war in Europe. For six years nurses from across the world supported allied forces playing an integral role in areas of conflict across the globe. Often working in unfamiliar and dangerous conditions, brave nurses learnt new skills at pace, became experienced at logistics and lived under canvas. They worked long hours, struggled to get appropriate and clean uniform whilst also risking their own lives in combat zones.

In 2024 I visited the British Memorial in Normandy where I saw a memorial to two nurses who lost their lives on D Day, 6 June 1944, they were commemorated in the Standing with Giants Art Instillation. The silhouette display represents the 1475 British casualties that lost their lives on that day (pictured).

Sister Mollie Evershed and Sister Dorothy Field both died heroically helping to evacuate the hospital ship they were working on after it struck a mine off the coast of Normandy early that morning. Their names are also carved on the memorial at Ver- sur- Mer, France (pictured).

Also, a recent addition to my personal collection is an original press photograph from June 1944 (pictured). The visual is powerful, showing how nurses had to be responsive, adapting quickly to their new working conditions.

The title of the photograph is “the Liberation of Europe: First women to land in France” Personnel of Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Service (the nursing service attached to the British army) were the first women to arrive on the Normandy Beachhead.

On 13 June, seven days after the initial landings of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, Lieutenant Colonel Helm of Colchester arrived with two sisters, followed three days later by a party of fifty sisters. Their purpose was the setting up of a General Hospital to house 600 patients, and with the assistance of pioneers and the British Army Medical Corps the hospital was quickly established and functioning well. The picture below shows scenes in the operating theatre which was in use immediately after the arrival of the nurses.

In war, nurses had to deliver urgent care, provide both emergency and palliative treatment, adapt quickly to changing conditions, work cohesively as a team, and do so with limited resources—upholding the highest professionalism. We can see some similarities with nursing roles of today, eighty years later.

However, you chose to mark the eightieth anniversary, spare a thought for the brave nurses who volunteered to care for the troops - often in primitive conditions risking their own lives along the way. Thank you for your service. 

Images

1 Standing with giant’s memorial: Sister Mollie Evershed and Sister Dorothy Field (author copyright)
2. World War Two memorial, Ver- sur- Mer, France (author copyright)
3. 'The Liberation of Europe: First women to land in France’ British Official Photograph B5802/RN, 1944 (copyright IWM (B 5802))