Women in War –
“Angels in Uniform”
World War II brought military nurses into much greater danger. In World War I they were kept back from the Front, but in 1939-45 they were sent much closer to the front line, and in some of the dangerous theatres of war. Operating often under fire and in makeshift hospitals, they served worldwide, from the beaches of Normandy to the jungles of the Pacific.
All together, now
The main body of military nurses was the Queen Alexandra nursing service, which numbered 12,000 by the end of the war. But there was a plethora of other services: a naval branch of Queen Alexandra’s, an RAF nursing service, another attached to the Territorial Army, the WAAF nursing personnel and VADs – members of the Volunteer Aid Detachment, formed by the Red Cross and the Order of St John. And then there was the Civilian Nursing Reserve, called up in wartime as part of the Emergency Medical Service. This was overseen by the Ministry of Health, tasked with creating 300,000 more hospital beds and greatly influencing the form taken by the National Health Service when it was created after the war.
Heroism on the Front Lines
Over 400 army nurses lost their lives, some performing acts of the greatest courage. Less well-catalogued are the deaths of other military and civilian nurses who served in the second world war. Particularly dedicated teams were the women serving in the WAAF known as the “Flying Nightingales”, who nursed casualties on aircraft used as air-ambulances. A number of army nurses were killed with the invasion of Singapore, with others captured by the Japanese and held in Prisoner of War Camps. Nineteen of the Flying Nightingales were killed when a Lancaster flying as part of Operation Dodge, crashed on the 4th October 1945 in bad weather. Gertrude Sadler was the Senior Matron. She and the other nurses are all commemorated on the walls at the IBCC.
Military Nurses of World War II
The Nurses of Normandy
After the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, nurses were among the first to arrive on the beaches of Normandy, setting up field hospitals and treating the wounded amidst the chaos of battle. Their presence was a beacon of hope for the injured soldiers, demonstrating the critical role of medical personnel in the success of the operation. Nurses like Mollie Evershed, whose story is immortalised in the IBCC silhouette and is pictured above, worked in hospital ships just off the beaches, vulnerable to enemy action.
Recognition and Honour
The contribution of military nurses led to a change in their status, long overdue. For the first time military nurses wore rank badges. A QA Sister held the rank equivalent to a Lieutenant in the army, a Senior Sister one equivalent to a Captain. Just over 1,300 awards of the different levels of the Royal Red Cross (an honour created by Queen Victoria and first granted to Florence Nightingale) were made.
Medals for exceptional bravery were awarded to civilian as well as military nurses, such as the award of the George Medal to a first aid volunteer, Vera Anderson, on duty when the Boots Printing Works in Nottingham was bombed. Mollie Evershed was posthumously awarded the King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct for saving so many injured servicemen from a doomed hospital ship. However, no woman was to be awarded the Military Cross until Private Michelle Norris of the Royal Army Medical Corps, for her actions in Iraq on 11 June 2006.
A noble legacy
The military nurses of World War II provided medical care and support under the most challenging conditions. In doing so they not only followed in a great tradition but took women’s contribution to the defence of their country to a new level of frontline engagement and courage, as well as humanity and compassion. Recognition of this came gradually after World War II, with the bringing together of military nurses with doctors into a single medical corps.
