Nurses in world war 2 By Sara, Vania, Lauren, Phillippa, Giulian

Nurses in war Australian nurses serving in the war - Major role of women was nursing women served in the war that was enrolled in the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). - Many travelled overseas to serve medical support for the troops, some were captured by the Japanese and became the prisoners. - On February 1942, a ship called Vyner Brooke (a Britain ship) carrying 65 Australian nurses was sunk by the Japanese near Sumatra in Indonesia. - Some who survived were washed away to the ashore of Banka Island, most became the prisoners of the Japanese. - A group of twenty nurses was machined gun to death by the Japanese in the different parts of the island. - Vivian Bullwinkel was one of survivor of the massacre. In the following year, about 299 nurses were killed in the hospital ship sank (Centaur)by the Japanese near Queensland.

The s of the Vyner Brooke On 12th February in 1942, carried evacuees to leave Singapore. It carried 181 passengers and 65 Australian Nurses. On the 13th February, Vyner Brook laid up in a lee, of a small, jungle covered island near Japan. She was attacked late in the afternoon by Japanese aircrafts. At sunset they tried to make a run for Banka strait, heading for Palembang in Sumatra, but Japanese war ships found her on flat sea just inside the strait and she was attacked at 2pm and was cripples by several boats and sunk. 150 survivors made it to Banka Island, after periods between 8 and 65 hours in the water. The Island was occupied by the Japanese and most survivors were taken captive The survivors from Vyner brook that landed on Radji Beach joined up with another party of civilians and up to 60 Commonwealth servicemen and merchant sailors whose ship had sunk. After unsuccessfully trying to gain food and assistance from the locals, the locals contacted the Japanese to try to take the group as prisoners. Some Japanese troops arrived at Radji beach shortly after and shot and bayonetted the males and made 22 Australian nurse and one Englishwomen to wade into the water and shot them, all but two survived, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel, and Private Cecil Kinsley, a British soldier. Of the 65 Australian nurses on the ship, 12 were killed during the air attack, 21 were murdered on Radji beach and 32 became internees, 8 of these then died before the end of the war.

VIVIAN BULLWINKEL She was the sole survivor of the 1942 banka island massacre. She was born born the the 18th of December 1915 South Australia She wanted to enlist as a nurse in the raaf (royal Australian air force) but was rejected for having flat feet. However she was able to join the Australian army nursing service which sailed to Singapore. Japanese troops invaded Malaya in December 1941 forcing the nurses to evacuate Singapore. Two days later the ship was sunk by Japanese aircraft. Bullwinkel, 21 other nurses and a large group of men, women, and children made it ashore at Radji Beach on Banka Island; they were joined the next day by about 100 British soldiers Some Japanese solidiers came and killed the men but ordered the nurses wade into the sea where they machine-gunned the nurses for behind. She pretended to die. She spent 3 and a half years in captivity. Vivian Bullwinkel died on 3 July 2000.