NURSES IN GREECE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 112, 30 May 1941, Page 3

NURSES IN GREECE

NEW ZEALAND UNITS READY TREATMENT. OF CASES Many days before the Germans begin their invasion of Greece, New Zealand hospital units were in position behind their soldiers and an Auckland nurse, Sister E. J. Wilson, describes in a letter written on April 7 how her work had already begun. She was on duty in charge of a surgical ward of 36 beds, and, although there had been no battle Casualties, there were plenty of fractures from accidents and ' a good imany burns" to be treated.' O^ 1 - British soldier died the morning she wrote, having been badly burned through an oil stove exploding. 4 Another of her patients was an Italian sergeant-gunner who had been rescued from an aircraft shot down by the R.A.F. A party that went from the hospital to bring him in for treatment spent about 13 hours on the journey, which took them through wild, unroaded country to a hut where he was being tended by a peasant girl. Sister Wilson also mentions thar In spite of her isolation and the difficulty of getting raitions up to the hospital .the meals were remarkably good. From the nearby village they were able to obtain eggs, whicn were gigantic in comparison with the small Egyptian ones,. together with lettuces,, oranges and excellent whole meal bread,, at a weekly cost of about 4s each. Most of the food, however, came out of tins. She also mentions that during an earlier picnic from Athens she and another nurse bought broad for Id, %Ib of "olives for 9d and a cream, cheesy kind of butter which cost Is 6d per lb.