V2 Bomb Attacks
Heroes Remember
V2 Bomb Attacks
Transcript
Well it was, it was wonderful being in Antwerp.
It was such a beautiful place and, but we no sooner got there
then they started throwing the V2s at the, at the harbour
because they wanted to shorten the distance that everything had
to be brought from England you know. We had used the
(inaudible) channel ports and then there was a long haul by
road up to Antwerp and beyond. And they want, if they... used
the harbour in Antwerp, it would cut off all those miles and
would be so much easier. And of course what it did was really
they weren’t, they weren’t very accurate. These were, these were
the grand, the great-grand daddies of the rockets we have
today and they weren’t very accurate and they fell anywhere
in the city and it was such a magnificent city, Antwerp, and so
much of it was destroyed. It was dreadful, many civilians.
It was, we lived in a, it was six of us or eight I think, lived
in this magnificent mansion, across from a little park and by
the time we’d been, well, we hadn’t been there any time before
the first rockets fell and they tore the... hardware right out of
the floors that held the doors. So we knew right away, you know,
leave your doors open so the glass can go through. I had a
great big beautiful stained glass window beside my cot and it
was blown out. So you knew right away, you know, that you
have to keep everything open and fortunately we, the sisters
were I think in eight different billets and nobody was hurt.
Nobody in the unit was hurt due to the rockets so I think that
was quite wonderful, because there was no restrictions on us.
We could go where we liked, but it was, it was a dreadful,
dreadful thing that happened to the city. And of course they
apparently they, I don’t think hit them, the harbour. If they
did it wasn’t very often so the harbour wasn’t (inaudible) but a
lot of people suffered trying to get, you know, to use the
harbour. Well, we’d been there up until near Christmas and we
were all packed and ready to move up to Holland and all our
equipment was put away and packed up. We rolled the blankets,
the men rolled the blankets in great big like carpets and wired
them. All the table, little bedside tables, collapsed. The
beds all collapsed. We had great big old warehouse, boxes
that we used every time we moved and put all the other equipment
in those. So we’re all packed and ready to go, and I was going
in the advanced party to Holland the next morning and all of a
sudden we were all called back because a rocket had hit a cinema
right not far from us and it, Antwerp was used as a rest and
recreation centre for all men, lots of people on leave. So
many, many people were killed outright. I don’t know how many,
but we were called back because they had to start opening up the
hospital to receive these people. There were terrible wounds,
and they looked so awful because they were all like mimes you
know. They were absolutely white from the plaster in the cinema.
It was really, really awful and they had terrible wounds from,
you know, glass, flying glass and that sort of thing. I can
remember looking after one young British lad named (inaudible)
said what’s wrong with him and I said, “Well, what did you do
until they dug you out?” He said “Well, it wasn’t so bad
sister. You know, they handed us down cups of tea.” And we got
along alright, you know. That lad was dead within an hour. His
lungs totally collapsed inside from the blast. We still left
the next day, the advanced party, but the others were left to re-
fold the hospital and try to put everything back together ready
to move.
Description
Ms. Sloan describes the devastation in Antwerp when V2 bombs hit the city.
Hallie Sloan
Hallie Sloan was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1920. At age ten, she and her family moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Ms. Sloan always had the desire to become a nurse and moved to Vancouver where she obtained a nursing degree at the Vancouver General Hospital. When war was declared she became very anxious to serve her country in the medical field. She decided to join the army. She held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and Matron-in-Chief in the Medical Service, serving in Germany and many parts of Canada. After the war, Hallie continued her nursing career and devoted much of her time towards advocating the vital part that nursing sisters played during wartime service and post-war. Ms. Sloan was the National President of the Nursing Association of Canada (1994-1996) and was active in volunteer work. She has become a strong role model for the Nursing Sisters Association.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 4:19
- Person Interviewed:
- Hallie Sloan
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- Belgium
- Branch:
- Army
- Rank:
- Lieutenant-Colonel
- Date modified: