Blitz Hospital: True Stories of Nursing in Wartime London

By: Penny Starns

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Synopsis: As the German Luftwaffe subjected Britain’s major cities and ports to unremitting waves of aerial bombardment, doctors, nurses and first aiders constantly risked their lives to give urgent treatment to the severely wounded. Over 80,000 casualties were sustained during this period and city hospitals, especially in London, were working under extreme conditions. The diaries of London nurses reveal that they were confronted by a vast array of appalling injuries on a daily and nightly basis. This book follows the fortunes of three major London hospitals as they struggled to cope with mounting casualties: The Royal London Hospital, St Thomas’s Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital. Together, through previously unpublished wartime diaries, letters and reports of medical and nursing staff, they highlight the many human stories of tremendous courage and hope that lived and breathed within the corridors, theatres and wards of London’s hospitals during the Blitz.