Getting Them Home: The Flying Nightingales

Dr Emily Mayhew tells the remarkable story of the Flying Nightingales, a group of nurses who flew across the Channel to help evacuate injured soldiers from the beaches of Normandy.

The D-Day landings are rightly seen as a huge success for the Allies during the Second World War. Yet this great victory came at a monumental cost, with casualties and injuries threatening to overwhelm the medical forces deployed on the beaches.

A group of specially trained volunteer nurses was sent to help manage the evacuation of the injured. These were the Flying Nightingales.

In this fascinating talk, Dr Emily Mayhew will highlight the role of these nurses, the work they undertook, and how they were viewed by the soldiers they were rescuing.

About the speaker

Dr Emily Mayhew

Dr Emily Mayhew is a military medical historian specialising in the study of severe casualty, its infliction, treatment and long-term outcomes in 20th- and 21st-century warfare.