#2 Neuropsychratic Wing
R.C.A.M.C. C.M.F
26 February 1945
... Do you remember C. Goodine from Kingsclear. He is hospitalized with a fractured leg. I met him last week when I was working on Surgery giving them a hand. Must keep up the wartime surgery you know. Ralph Gilmore wrote an article to the Maple Leaf I planned to sent it along but tonight I can't find it. It was well written and the thoughts of many of the boys here whom have married English girls. Wanting to know why the 30 day home leave could not be spent in England. Ralph I fear is still waiting for his answer.
Early in February the G.O.C. 1st Canadian Corps was notified that by a decision of the combined chiefs of staff to reinforce General Eisenhower's armies on the western front at the expense of the Mediterranean theatre, the corps would join the First Canadian Army in North-West Europe without delay.47Immediate steps were taken for Canadian medical units to evacuate as many of their patients as possible, and on February 15 medical responsibility for the Adriatic sector was handed over to the British 5th Corps.48 By that date the long trek across Italy had begun. Because of the limitations of the staging camps in Italy most of the nursing sisters from the Adriatic coast went by road to Rome, to be lodged at the "Chateau Laurier," the Canadian Officers' Hotel, until it was time to embark. Nos. 1, 3 and 5 General Hospitals sailed from Naples with corps headquarters and corps troops. On landing at Marseilles the sisters were put up at an American general hospital before leaving by air for Brussels. Then came a welcome nine days' leave in the United Kingdom before rejoining their units at their new stations. It was late March before the nursing sisters of Nos. 14 and 15 General Hospitals under Matron Elva Honey and Matron Sarah Miles respectively, left Italy with their units. With no role for them in North-West Europe, they were slated to return to England for disbandment. Their remaining patients were taken over by No. 28 Canadian General Hospital, which had been formed in Italy in October 1944 as No. 1 Field Hospital. Last of all the Canadian hospitals to serve in Italy, it was disbanded at Avellino on April 19, 1945, its few remaining Canadian patients going to British installations. Its nursing sisters returned to the United Kingdom, where like those from the other disbanded hospitals they were posted as reinforcements to other units."
As they moved from the Mediterranean theatre, there must have been many Canadian nurses who would have echoed the sentiments expressed by the diarist at the headquarters of the 1st Canadian Division: "Thus we leave Italy, a country so full of history, so beautiful, and at the same time so dirty, so modern in its antiquity... "51 Yet it was an experience that few would have wanted to miss. To them had been given the distinction of being the first Canadian nurses to serve in an active theatre of war. As seasoned veterans they could now move to new fields of endeavour secure in the knowledge that the reputation of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps in which they served had not suffered at their hands.
B.N. & P.S. Hospital
R.C.A.M.C.
Canadian Army Eng.
26 April 1945
... Today my leave is over and as my brass and shoes are now ready for morning I will spend a few minutes with you. Flora, Sandy, Verna and I all went to Ireland as we planned. I had a lovely leave Margaret and we had perfect weather. We made Belfast our headquarters and from there went on little trips around the countryside. Bought you a few little souvenirs as it will probably be a long time until I return and no doubt never. What a terrible trip thirteen hours on the train and two hours on the boat. Never the less it was well worth it. One day Flora and I went to Port Stewart, Port Rush and the Giants Causeway. I took some snaps also we had a drink from the wishing well sat in the wishing chair. The day before we shook the hand of a crusader. So when all my wishes start falling at my feet I will know from whence my luck came.