Pioneering…fearless: The Flying Nightingales

Watch out for my new release date for my new book – ‘Cherry’s War and The Flying Nightingales’.

The Flying Nightingales were air ambulance medics who flew on military aircraft to evacuate horrifically wounded soldiers after the D-Day landings in Normandy.

Their RAF Dakota aircraft carried military supplies and ammunition so could not display the Red Cross, and often came under fire from the German Luftwaffe.

But the women – many of whom volunteered for the role – were banned from using their parachutes if their planes were shot down, as their orders were to stay with the plane to treat any survivors.

Each plane flew up to 24 wounded soldiers home and would have one Nightingale onboard to treat them.

They played a vital part in keeping thousands of soldiers alive for long enough to receive life-saving operations, and were the first British women to be sent into war zones by the Government.

The ‘Flying Nightingales’ had to cope with treating soldiers suffering from a horrifying array of injuries – missing limbs, faces blown off or burnt away and the grotesque results of operations improvised in the field, amputations, colostomies and facial repairs. When they arrived back at . Burn cases went to Odstock, Salisbury, head injuries to St. Dunstan’s at Radcliffe, spinal injuries and skin grafting to Stoke Mandeville.

Two Flying Nightingales died on active service, and many of the women suffered terribly in the aftermath of their experiences, traumatised by the terrible injuries they had seen. But despite the harrowing experiences they endured, their efforts helped ensure soldiers got the treatment they needed.