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VAD. Margaret Mary Botsford
Royal Navy HMS Collingwood (Shore Base)
from:Newbury, Berkshire
Every morning at six o'clock the American Forces Network was switched on in the wards to familiar music from Elgar. The day staff came on duty at half past seven and although we had been aware that an invasion was imminent to us it was an ordinary morning. On 6th June 1944 I was twenty years old, serving as a full-time VAD nurse at a large naval camp HMS Collingwood just outside Fareham near Portsmouth. In the previous weeks in May all leave had been cancelled, we were not allowed more than five miles beyond the camp and the roads around were crammed with army vehicles and personnel. Eisenhower's headquarters were on the hill beyond the town and large staff cars with American flags were to be seen.
On the particular morning our routine was similar to any other but half way through the morning it was announced on the radio that troops had arrived in France and the long-awaited invasion had taken place. At about twelve o'clock I was told to report to the Superintending Sister's office where twelve of us were to be sent to the base hospital at Haslar to help with casualties. On arrival we were sent to bed in preparation for night-duty. This started at seven thirty in the evening and we were directed to empty wards which needed preparation. Out of the window we could see the channel but as it grew darker nothing happened and the night passed.
The following evening we were told to be ready as the operating theatres were full. The lift doors clanged incessantly during the night, all beds soon became occupied and we had little time to ourselves until going off duty, later than usual, the following morning. The patients were glider pilots, airborne troops and infantrymen and there were amputations, head and eye wounds most needing constant attention though glad to be safe. Some were anxious to talk and one boy attempted to write a letter with his left hand (the one he had left). After a few days evacuation to hospitals in less dangerous areas started along with a stream of relatives who were told they had further journeys to make. Many heartbreaking sights, tears and efforts to cope with the unknown. After a week we were sent back to camp. Sixty years later it is still fresh in my memory.
30/5/04
P/JX W502416 V.A.D Botsford M.M.
