Lilian West witnessed the full horror of World War Two as one of the 'Flying Nightingales' - the air ambulance nurse who risked their lives to bring back almost 100,000 wounded soldiers from the European mainland to British hospitals.
Lilian West believes she is the last of the "Flying Nightingales" - the air ambulance nurses of World War Two who risked their lives to bring back almost 100,000 wounded soldiers from the European mainland to British hospitals. During her four years with the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, Mrs West witnessed the full horrors of the war.
Mrs West had to learn how to use oxygen, administer injections and deal with war wounds such as broken bones, severed limbs, burns and head injuries. The flight across the Channel was far from smooth. The craft would shake from side to side and bounce up and down. The wounded soldiers had been sent to airfields on the French coast and were often waiting for the Dakota to pick them up and take them back to England.
On the way back, their orders were to stay with the plane to treat any survivors and their parachutes were locked away.
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