Warwick O’Neill, Military Historian

Last time we looked at Part 1 of Nurses, so how about we get into Part 2. This time we’ll cover the second bit of the 20^th Century and the start of the 21^st. So that’ll be World War 2, Korea, Malaya, Vietnam, Peacekeeping etc.

And just a warning on this one. We’ll be covering an event involving the massacre of some nurses captured by the Japanese which may allude to incidents of sexual assault, so if this is likely to cause any concerns, please feel free to skip ahead. I’ll let you know when we get there.

At the end of the first world war, many of the nurses returned to their normal lives. Like the blokes, it was just assumed that they’d melt back in as though they hadn’t just spent four years witnessing the destruction of their fellow man. Some went back to nursing in civilian hospitals. Many married and had families and, as was the way back then, retired from nursing altogether to focus on the house and kiddies.

Some, though, continued their dedication to those soldiers who they had been taking care of for the duration by going to work in veteran and repatriation hospitals. So many of the wounded from that war required ongoing care and who better to administer that care than the very women who had gained hard earned experience in the types of injuries that war will inflict upon soldiers.

Then, in 1939, it was on again. The Australian Army Nursing Service was placed on an active footing. As their predecessors had done in 1914, volunteers flocked to the AANS to go abroad in support of the Second AIF. This time around though, the nurses would be operating in a much more dynamic environment. Rather than spending their war in fixed hospitals, behind front lines which barely moved, the Second AIF nurses would be subjected to the Blitz, emergency evacuations, they would become prisoners of war and would need to cope with conditions ranging from freezing desert nights to humid tropical jungles. 

The first contingent headed off to the Middle East in support of the 6^th Australian Division at the 2/1^st General Hospital. More followed and the 2/2^nd Australian Hospital and 2/1^st Casualty Clearing Station were established at El Kantara, beside the Suez Canal. The third draft to leave Australia were diverted when Italy entered the war. These women disembarked in England and when the bombs started falling during the Blitz in September of 1940, the nurses worked in the hospitals treating the injured, often after having spent hours in bomb shelters themselves.

In the Middle East theatre…. this is going to get confusing isn’t it. On the medical side of things we’ve got operating theatres but on the military side of things we’ve got theatres of operation. I’ll try to avoid using either term if possible.

Anyway, as I was saying, in the Middle East theatre throughout 1940, the 6^th Division and later the 7^th Division went through their training before being thrown into the fray. The nurses took care of the usual injuries from training and general high spirits as well as illnesses a bit more specific to the conditions, such as heat stroke and the occasional, um social illness.

Then in January 1941, the war proper started for the Australians with the Battle of Bardia and the push to Benghazi. Now the sprains and broken bones of 1940 were replaced by bullet and shrapnel wounds and the nurses showed their metal. Sister Nell Bryant gave a brief description, “On duty 6:30pm to find the place very busy and as night went on it got worse. 23^rd Battalion machine gunned and patients poured in, theatre going all night. By morning all very tired.”

Sounds terribly similar to many of the diary entries from twenty years earlier, doesn’t it?.

Not only were these nurses dealing with wounded men, they were also sharing some of the risks. Throughout 1941, Alexandria was bombed regularly by Axis forces, although it seemed they respected the Red Cross where possible. With Rommel’s Afrika Corps pushing the 9^th Division back to Tobruk, nursing staff who had been working in the town were hurriedly evacuated just days before the encirclement was complete. It seems that now long distance warfare was a reality, there really was no secure rear echelon where nurses could carry out their tasks in 100% safety.

But they were as game as Ned Kelly and undaunted by the risks. After their evacuation from Tobruk they reset and prepared to receive patients injured during the siege. As the months wore on and the inadequate diet, exhaustion and stress began to take their toll, many sick, emaciated and ‘bomb happy’ men began to fill the wards alongside their wounded comrades.

So, there we have these young women who are witnessing firsthand the gradual deterioration of the men they had sailed with from Australia and treated early on in the war. No doubt, many had friends and probably family fighting inside the perimeter. They must’ve been wondering just what sort of conditions those men were facing. Regardless, they kept at it, nursing these men back to health.

While all that was going on, the 6^th went to meet the Germans in the Greek and Crete campaign. Far from staying behind in safety and waving them off, the nurses of the of 2/5th and 2/6th AGH (Australian General Hospital) followed the men to Greece.

Due to the nature of that venture, the hospitals didn’t spend too long in any one place. They were short on medical supplies as it was and they were expected to land on follow up ships. But before those ships could be loaded in Alexandria and sent forth, it became obvious those same ships were going to be required for evacuation.

As the Germans pushed relentlessly south the two Matrons, Joan Abbott of the 2/6^th and Kathleen Best of the 2/5^th were told to prepare their staff for evacuation. As part of the general retreat the nurses made their way south on trucks as the railway had been blown up. They moved mostly at night to avoid the attentions of the Luftwaffe. On arrival at Piraeus they were caught in an air raid as they sheltered in a cemetery. 

On arriving at Nauplion the following day they saw ships burning in the harbour and general confusion as a result from another air raid.

The 2/6^th was to be the first away on 20 April, but as they were embarking the Germans launched an air raid around the evacuation zone and to avoid being sitting ducks at anchor the ships turned to sea. Some of the nurses were left behind.

By the next day the situation had deteriorated. Senior Matron Best was told that the ships could only take 44 of her 84 nurses. In order to decide who should stay and who should go, the Matron called her staff to her and told them that the ones who volunteered to stay would in all likelihood be captured. She then told them to write their names on a slip of paper and whether they wished to stay or go. That way the only person who knew which nurses elected to leave their comrades behind, would be Matron Best. She needn’t have worried. Not one of them wrote ‘go’ on their paper. She selected the 39 who would remain with her and the others were taken by Greek fishing vessels out to the waiting ships.

The embarkation was no easy matter either. The naval ships were substantially taller than the fishing vessels. Cargo netting had been thrown over the side for the evacuees to climb up but it was still a precarious manoeuvre as explained by Sister Barnard of the 2/5^th AGH. 

“We sisters had to judge the gap, and leap to the destroyer, equipped with tin hat, respirator, great coat and a very tight mid-length skirt.”

Those who were selected to leave went on to Crete and once again were subjected to air attack on the way, but they made it to the Island and were soon put to work tending to troops wounded during the evacuation.

Matron Best and her thirty nine volunteers continued working in a makeshift hospital in Greece with near constant air raids as a backdrop. She ordered all her nurses to wear their red caps and white capes in the hope they would be easily recognised as non-combatants should the German Infantry come over the hills at any time.

Sister Una Keast, during an interview for the ABC Special, Australians at War, hinted at another prospect facing the nurses which the men never had to consider. She stated that the matron ordered them to remove any dentures or make up, tie their hair back and generally make themselves as unattractive as possible. The implication being that, for them, the possibility of capture also meant to possibility of rape.

Fortunately this was never tested. On the 26 April they were taken aboard a merchant ship along with other troops and made good their escape. The final word on this effort by the nurses of the 2/5^th is best left to Matron Best.

“We were all very upset at having to leave the hospital, the Officers and the men, and not one of the Sisters appeared to consider the personal risk that evacuation at that stage might entail…

We took one small suitcase each and a rug … Some nurses thought it a pity to leave their stockings, so they pinned them inside the sleeves of their coats …

The Sisters as usual accepted the situation with as much quiet dignity as possible, lying full length on the floor with steel helmets on and even during the worst barrages there was no panic and no comments”

For her actions during the evacuation Matron Best was awarded the Royal Red Cross.

No more than a few days after arriving on Crete the nurses were evacuated again, this time in a more orderly fashion and by 1 May 1941 they were all back in Alexandria. The Greek and Crete campaigns were a debacle as illustrated by Sister Bette Uren of the 2/2^nd AGH at El Kantara.

“When Greece and Crete fell to the Germans, our hospital expanded from 1,000 to 2,000 beds in ten days. We worked eleven hours a day without any days off for three and a half months till reinforcements joined us.”

Then in December 1941, the Japanese attacked and the focus of the AIF, including the nurses, turned to home. To meet the immediate threat the Japanese posed, the 6^th and 7^th Divisions of the AIF were returned to Australia to be thrown in against the Japanese and the majority of Australian nurses currently station in the Middle East returned with them and set up hospitals in Australia.

In January 1942 the Japanese captured Rabaul on the North Eastern tip of New Britain. Six Australian nurses were captured and spent six months in an internment camp at Vunapope after which they were moved to Japan where they spent the remainder of the war.

While that was taking place, the Japanese forces were pouring down the Malayan Peninsula towards Singapore. The 8^th Division was in Malaya and with them were the 2/10^th and 2/13^th AGH and the 2/4^th Casualty Clearing station. Seventy two nurses were evacuated on board the Empire Star and Wah Sui. They were the lucky ones. They made it back to Australia despite the attention of the Japanese air force.

Sixty five other nurses boarded the SS Vyner Brooke. While making her way through the Bankga Straight she was spotted by Japanese reconnaissance aircraft and soon came under attack from bombers. The SS Vyner Brooke was hit several times and within half an hour she rolled over and sank. 12 nurses were killed during the attack.

A number of survivors eventually made it to Bankga Island at various locations. Many were captured by Japanese and marched off to Prisoner of War camps.

We’re now up to the bit I warned you about at the start of the episode so please feel free to jump forward if the details of a massacre and possible sexual assault is likely to cause concern.

As I may have mentioned in previous episodes, in a military podcast sometimes you have to decide just how much of the nasty stuff to include. You don’t want to be gratuitous and throw it in just for the shock value, nor do you want to not include enough, because to leave it out makes the whole thing sound like a lovely walk in the park. And that does nothing to honour the memories of those who suffered. Hopefully I don’t overstep the mark here, but I apologise if I do, it’s not always an easy line to judge.

Some of the survivors of the Vyner Brooke landed on Radji beach. Twenty one Australian nurses joined about 60 servicemen and merchant sailors. They attempted to acquire food from the local villagers, but the island had been overrun by Japanese and, understandably, the locals didn’t want to risk the wrath of the occupiers by helping the survivors.

It was decided that a deputation would be sent to the Japanese to organise their surrender, hoping that their status as non-combatants would protect them. Shortly after the deputation left a patrol of about fifteen Japanese soldiers discovered the group on the beach. They separated the men from the women and took the men down the beach and around a headland. The nurses remaining on the beach heard gunfire from that direction and soon the soldiers returned, some wiping blood from their bayonets.

The nurses were then ordered to form a line and walk into the sea. It was obvious what was about to happen and they faced their fate stoically and without panic. They marched into the sea, side by side and when they were waist deep the Japanese opened fire.

We know this because one of the nurses survived. Only one. Sister Vivien Bullwinkel was hit low in the back and was knocked forward into the water. Realising that she was still alive, she pretended to be dead until she felt it was safe to risk a glance at the beach. The Japanese had gone. She cautiously made her way back to shore and searched for any other survivors. She was the only one of the nurses to survive.

There was however a young English soldier who had survived the killing behind the headland. Private Kingsley had suffered a bayonet wound and, like Vivian, had pretended to be dead until the Japanese left. Together they tried to survive off food given by local women, but after two weeks they realised they had to give themselves up. Unfortunately, Private Kingsley died from his wound shortly after.

Sister Bullwinkel realised that if it became known that she was a survivor of the massacre then her life and those of other survivors of the Vyner Brooke would be over. So she concealed her wound and treated it herself whenever her captors were not looking.

Now, that’s the official story which Sister Bullwinkel gave at the War Crimes Tribunal after the war, and horrific as all that was, there is some evidence that she didn’t give the full story. Much of that evidence was on the uniform dress she was wearing at the time. First, the top button had been replaced by a button from the bottom of the dress, suggesting that the top of the dress had been forcibly removed. Most telling though is a bullet hole through the shoulder of the dress. Remember I said she had been shot low in the back? The bullet hole in the shoulder shows that when she was shot the top of her dress was around her waist. It would be safe to assume the other nurses were similarly treated.

Now whether the soldier decided that they would tear the nurses tops off as a final humiliation prior to execution or whether something more horrific occurred is only conjecture. A recent book by Lynette Silver, Tess Lawrence and Barbara Angell goes into more detail about the evidence and also states that Bullwinkel was gagged by the Australian government before her appearance at the war crimes tribunal. If you like to learn more about that, I suggest checking out the book.

So, we’ll leave that story there. You can see from that incident, that nurses in World War 2 were facing substantial risks in the performance of their duties.

We’ve focussed on the Army Nursing Service so far across both World War 1 and 2 and there’s a very good reason for that. The other two services, Navy and Air Force, didn’t have equivalent nursing services of their own. But in July 1940 as the RAAF ramped up its numbers it also opened entry to nurses for the newly created RAAF Nursing Service. Many were stationed at air bases around Australia and those who found themselves in Darwin, were in the thick of things when the Japanese began bombing that city.

Not to be outdone, in 1942 the Navy also came to the party and formed the RAN Nursing Service. The navy nurses were also mostly stationed in Australia and had 56 members at its peak. Six were posted to Milne Bay in New Guinea.

By and large though, the vast majority of serving nurses were in the army. Although technically they weren’t. Yes, they were attached to the army, they treated the soldiers and all that, but they weren’t actually a part of the army. That changed in March 1943 when they were finally incorporated into the Australian Military Forces and received military rank.

You may have noticed that so far in the nursing story I’ve been referring to Matrons and Sisters. These were not military ranks, but medical ranks the same as you’d see in any civilian hospital. They were accorded the level of respect extended to military officers, but they weren’t. But after March 1943, the Matron-in-Chief became Colonel, Matron became Major, Senior Sister became Captain, and Sister became Lieutenant. But old habits die hard and the nurses continued to use the titles of Matron and Sister etc, except in official correspondence.

Despite being subject to bombing raids on land, it appears the nurses faced their greatest risks while on ships at sea. We’ve already heard about the Vyner Brooke and the thirty three nurses who died. You can forgive the Japanese for attacking that ship as it was a merchant vessel and therefore a legitimate target. But the Hospital Ship Centaur is another matter.

The Centaur was on its way from Sydney to New Guinea with 332 personnel on board, including 12 nurses and 18 doctors. While off the coast of Queensland in May 1943, despite being well lit and clearly showing large red crosses, at 4.10 am she was fired upon by a Japanese submarine. Two torpedos struck the ship. Sister Ellen Savage, the only nurse to survive the attack described the moment.

“My cabin mate, Myrle Moston and myself, were awakened by two terrific explosions … We rushed to the porthole, looked out, and saw the ship ablaze.”

The ship sank within minutes taking 268 people with her, including 11 of the 12 nurses. Sister Moston was hit by a piece of falling timber and was killed. Sister Savage, along with 64 other survivors spent over thirty hours on a makeshift raft and as the only medical person there, Sister Savage did what she could to help the injured until they were rescued.

From October 1942 it was deemed safe enough for women to be posted to Papua and so medical staff were sent to the 2/9^th AGH near Port Moresby. Among the heat and humidity, the mosquitoes and other insects, the nurses tended to the wounded from the Kokoda Campaign. These men had been transported via stretcher or with the support of their fellow walking wounded, for up to eight days through the narrow, muddy track. By the time they got to the nurses they were usually in pretty rough shape. To quote Sister Dorothy Gellie, “stretcher after stretcher of filthy bloodstained bodies; the extent of their wounds was unforgettable.”

Not only were they treating the wounds from battle, they were also tackling tropical diseases such as malaria and scrub typhus. The wounded and sick required constant attention and the nurses rarely had a day off. For example, in September 1943, the 2/11 AGH set up at Buna on the north coast of Papua to treat the wounded from the Finschaafen. On average there were about 2000 men in the wards and none of the sisters had a day off for six weeks.

By the end of the war, the nurses had set up hospitals in Bougainville, Jacquinot Bay, Morotai, Labuan and Balikpapan.

In early 1944, military nursing implemented another new innovation – air evacuation. Seriously wounded troops who need to be moved to better hospitals in Australia were loaded onto specially equipped RAAF aircraft. Initially fifteen RAAF nurses joined the No.1 Medical Air Evacuation Transport Unit. Nicknamed the Flying Angels theses nurses, soon to be joined by No. 2 Unit, transported nearly 8000 seriously wounded men within their first year of operation.

After the war, the Flying Angels were instrumental in caring for the thousands of former POW’s released from Japanese camps, most in very poor condition after years of starvation, over work and abuse. Imagine how those men must’ve felt to finally have some tender care after all those years. That alone must’ve contributed to their recovery as much as any physical treatment.

And so to finish off World War Two, and speaking of POWs, it’s proper to point out that not all prisoners of the Japanese were men. When the Japanese seized Rabaul in New Britain they imprisoned six nurses, and the survivors of the Vyner Brooke who weren’t massacred all became prisoners of the Japanese. Initially their conditions weren’t too bad by POW standards. They took part in educational activities and musical concerts and were reasonably well treated. But like their male counterparts, the longer the war went on, the worse things became. This is despite the Geneva Convention Article Nine, which states

“Personnel charged with the transportation and treatment of the wounded and sick shall be respected and protected under all circumstances. If they fall into the hands of the enemy they shall not be treated as prisoners of war.”

As we know, the Japanese army didn’t care much about the Geneva convention. The nurses were moved around from camp to camp and food and medical supplies became increasingly scarce. As a result, sickness increased and, of the thirty two survivors of the Vyner Brooke, eight were to die in captivity.

Sister Wilma Oram probably said it best.

“We knew we were living on a knife edge… we were starving and we were sick… if the Japs didn’t kill us, disease probably would.”

Upon their release at the end of the war, the survivors unpacked the dresses they were wearing upon their capture, which they held onto in the hope of just such a day, put them on and stood with as much dignity as possible when the Allied troops arrived.

In total, 3 477 women served in the Australian Army Nursing Service. 71 nurses lost their lives during World War Two, 53 listed as battle casualties and 18 as a result of accident or illness. 137 were decorated for their service, including two George Medals.

After the war, it was intended that the AANS would assist with the transfer of sick and wounded from the military hospitals to the base hospitals around Australia, and then disband. The civilian nursing staff would then take over and work in the repatriation hospitals. This didn’t go as planned as there weren’t enough civilian nurses to do the job, so the military nurses continued with the AANS until May 1949.

In 1948, the AANS received an R in front. The R stands for Royal and they were now the Royal Australian Army Nursing Service. Then in 1951, they lost the S and gained a C for Corps. So now they were the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps. As anyone who’s had anything to do with the military will understand, this is a big thing. It meant they were no longer an ancillary part of the Army, but an integral part thereof. They had the same nomenclature as the Royal Australian Armoured Corps or the Royal Australian Ordinance Corps, or the greatest Corps of all time (undisputed), the Corps of Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

In early 1946, with the occupation of Japan, Australian nurses were posted to the hospital on the island of Iwo Jima to care for the Australian component of the occupation force and in February of 1949, now stationed at Kure, near Hiroshima, they became part of the British Commonwealth General Hospital.

They were working at the hospital when the Korean War broke out just across the South China Sea and so Australian nurses were once again caring for Australian troops at war. As before, they were responsible for treating battle casualties, dealing with health problems and taking care of patients during transportation. Although 1553 Australian nurses served during the Korean War, at most there was only about 30 at any given time. And were usually based in Japan.

Some nurses from the RAAF and RAN Nursing Services did serve in Korea at the British Commonwealth Medical Zone Mobile Surgical Hospital in Seoul. That’s a bit of a mouthful. The varying climate of Korea meant a wide array of medical conditions needed to be treated. The hot and humid summers meant a lot of heat related illness and tropical diseases. But Korea also experienced freezing winters and the Korean version of trench-foot, known as rice-paddy feet, resulted in many troops ending up in hospital with frostbite.

The nurses were trained civilian nurses who signed on for a four year enlistment, 12 months of which would be spent in the Korean theatre. There was concern that the North Koreans and Chinese troops wouldn’t respect the Red Cross and so all nursing staff were trained in rifle and pistol shooting in order to defend themselves.

The living conditions for the nurses in Korea were far from ideal. Medicine, appropriate clothing, blankets etc were all hard to come by and in many cases, they had to improvise for themselves, just to maintain their own health. If you remember back to the first nurses episode, you’ll recall that the nurses in the Boer War were often required to live rough and provide for themselves. It seems that fifty years and two world wars later, not much had improved.

The RAAFNS staffed a medical evacuation unit for patients from Korea to Iwakuni in Japan. In the three years of the war, 12 763 Commonwealth troops were evacuated this way. From Iwakuni, other nurses took over and looked after the patients on rail to the General Hospital at Kure. From there, 728 Australian patients were flown home via Guam and Port Moresby. So essentially, when a soldier was wounded, he was in the care of Australian nurses from Korea all the way back to Australia. Must’ve been quite comforting.

The last nurses left Korea and Japan in 1956.

In 1955, they were at it again. This time in Malaya. September saw six sisters (remember to always avoid alliteration..) landing in Malaya in support of Australian troops sent to help quell the communist uprising in that country. They served in British Military Hospitals at Kamunting, Kuala Lumpur and the Cameron Highlands. There numbers were later increased to eight.

From 1955 to 1960 they treated troops from Australia, Britain and New Zealand as well as Ghurkas. British Military Hospitals were also required to care for the families of servicemen. It was sold as an opportunity to expand their nursing knowledge, but you’d have to wonder how they felt about being ordered to provide maternity and paediatric care. I reckon it’d be fair to assume that they didn’t choose to join the military hospital because they wanted to look after a heap of mud-magnets. But that’s just supposition on my part.

In 1967, Australian nurses arrived in Vung Tau. The majority were civilian nurses, but 100 nurses from RAAFNS and 43 from the RAANC served in Vietnam, initially with the 8^th Field Ambulance and then, in 1968 the 1^st Australian Field Hospital. Here, once again, the nurses proved their worth and helped develop a sophisticated triage system to assess, resuscitate if necessary and prepare wounded soldiers for surgery. At least one nurse participated in surgeries, assisting the doctors.

Unlike previous wars, the wounded being received at the 1^st AFH had, in many cases, just been plucked from the battlefield only a matter of 15 to 20 minutes before landing at the hospital. I’ve often wondered, from the nurses point of view, what would’ve been better – the experience of a World War 1 nurse at a casualty clearing station who received the wounded many hours later, after the worst of the blood has stopped flowing and the worse cases probably dying before they arrived, or the Vietnam era nurse who receives the patient still bleeding and in shock with even the most grievously wounded still alive. Neither one would’ve been pleasant but at least I suppose in Vietnam it meant they were able to save many lives which would have otherwise been lost.

In an interview for the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Journal in 2019, Jan McCarthy spoke of her experiences.

“Our men had gunshot wounds and there were some amputations because of the mines. If the battalions were in contact with the enemy we were flat out. We all knew when they were coming in by the radio and dust-offs. The choppers would come in 50 metres away from the theatre. It was very sad with the KIAs, they would come in and go to a side room,”

Often, when one group of nurses rotated out and a new draft arrived there was no handover. In the same article, Annie Healy told of her first day in Vietnam.

“I got off the plane, there was no cross over – someone came in and someone went home. I started at 7pm that night or the night after. The Director of Nursing said to me: “have you ever worked in ICU before?” I had looked after a ventilated patient once. I got the handover from Corporal Heffernan. I said “I don’t think I know what I’m doing”. He said: ‘Stick with me Sis, I’ll teach you everything you need to know.”

Another issue almost unique to nursing in the Vietnam War was the fact that this was an insurgency war, which meant the enemy could be anywhere. On their rare days off, if the nurses chose to leave the hospital environs they were taking a risk of becoming targets for Viet Cong in the area. Fortunately, this never eventuated, but the potential meant that for the duration of their tour, just the like the men, the nurses were never really able to relax away from the war.

Since Vietnam nurses, male and female, have served with UN deployments to Somalia, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bougainville and East Timor. In the event of natural disasters throughout the Pacific region, nurses, particularly from RAAF are on the front line treating the sick and injured and helping to evacuate those who require immediate hospital care.

These instances are too many to tick off individually, but when you see them on the news coverage keep in mind that although they’re treating patients with access to the latest technology, they are keeping alive the traditions of resilience and professionalism that their predecessors began 120 years ago when the first contingent of Australian nurses arrived in South Africa. They’ve been keeping Australian soldiers alive ever since.

Related story: The nurses – Part 1

Other military items by the author, Warwick O’Neill, can be found at: https://www.australianmilitaryhistorypodcast.com/
You can read more about the author, Warwick O’Neill, here.