That beautiful trill, the enriched pronunciation-no mistake. This lady is probably a lovely Cajun. And to get me really excited, she said, "I was a World War II nurse.”
“You have a story. I have my little tape recorder." There in a noisy lounge-passageway on the CARNIVAL TRIUMPH, as we sailed from Nassau to New Orleans, she shared some of her experiences; today she is still creating memories of an involved life. Of the 500-plus interviews of WWII and Korean veterans I have done, every story is different with each site just as varied, such as this one with Irma.
Irma's early life was in Crowley, the Boulet family. As a high school senior, going into a nursing career was a last-minute decision. Friends had gone into the Nursing School in Port Arthur, TX, so Irma joined them and graduated in 1942. The U.S. was in the HOT WWII since Dec. 7, 1941, patriotism was escalating with "What can I do?" and nurses were being recruited to fill a self-contained hospital unit. Irma joined four nurses who had volunteered for the 127th General Hospital, the John Sealy Hospital, Galveston, TX. Since Irma was a Louisianan, she went to Camp Claiborne, July 7, 1943. The young, healthy nurses did their basic training including a lot of marching and calisthenics, rather than getting into the huge base hospital.
On August 12, they were put on a train headed for New York. A slow train, they missed arriving in time to get on their appointed ship. Instead, they were sent to Fort Devon, MS, continuing training until October. When their clothing was issued, they knew they were going to Europe. On October 13, they were finally assigned to the USS MAURITANIA. Among the 10,000 troops aboard, their hospital unit counted 100 nurses, 80 doctors, and 250 GIs trained as medical technicians.
This fast ship had no escorts, and one submarine lined them up in their periscope but being detected the ship made a quick evasive turn to the left; some of the nurses were flung to the deck like rag dolls. A British patrol plane followed them on to England. Passing near the Azores, they arrived at Liverpool, stopping long enough to pick up a ship pilot. Were they ever welcomed? A band was playing American songs that early morning, and the Red Cross greeted them.
Welcome to England! And off they marched in the drizzling rain to a waiting train, carrying this medical hospital to Bishop's Castle-Lydham, 15 miles from Taunton. The Anglican estate with imposing buildings was converted to a hospital site where formal gardens were once so imposing. In a week, they were admitting patients who were casualties of training accidents and North Africa, pneumonia, hepatitis and infections. The hospital filled up quickly. Fresh brussel sprouts and carrots filled their plates from a front yard garden.
Weekend passes gave the nurses a glance at some of England's cherished heritage. Irma went to Land's End but declined to go to London as the blitz was still going on. "I felt it was kind of foolish." Extending an "adoptive" kind of care for them were neighbor, Mr. and Mrs. Philen, who had warm breakfast for them and hot chocolate in the middle of the night. "They were always available for us, but we never went into their home. When Christmas came, we celebrated with the Anglican children, one nurse volunteering to organize it, and we managed to get toys for them."
"It is sad to lose a patient. Our first was a young boy who had an infection. We had a tall, tall doctor who straddled the bed pressing on his heart, because we didn't do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation then." Penicillin had just come out, and it was so painful to do the injections in their rear. "We still used sulfa drugs, and I was in Medical. "
By May 1944, they turned this hospital over to another unit and re-located in a tent city on the plains near Stonehenge. They continued training and abiding curfew, just waiting for D-Day. That June 6, there were about 100 people around one radio listening eagerly for the minute-by-minute reporting of the landing on Normandy beaches.
Six weeks after D-Day, the 127th General Hospital nurses crossed the English Channel on the Indian ship DEVONSHIRE, a special ambience with white table cloths, etc. and a smooth. sea. They climbed down the ropes into waiting Higgins boats, motored on near shore, the front dropped, and they walked upon Utah beach. Their GIs/medical technicians and doctors were waiting for them in a tent city. Anti-aircraft fire was so intense the nurses ducked into a bombed-out church. It was time for a cigarette, and most lighted up. Since smoking was not allowed even in the ruins, the next group seeking shelter was prohibited. Irma slept on a church pew that night.
The nurses stayed in another tent city. Due to uncleared land mines, they had to stay in narrow boundaries. As they waited for their hospital assignment, what did they do to pass time? They played cards a lot; and they did what people at that time did: they sang in groups. "My children swear they were raised on ‘Beer Barrel Polka’ and ‘Pistol Packing Mama.’ It was so much fun." Enemy snipers and German Luffwaffe air raids introduced them to a war zone.
After twelve days of waiting, the 6x6 army trucks came for them. The nurses pulled and scrambled up, up, up until they got on the beds of the trucks, while short nurses had to be helped up. Destination: Rennes, France, the capitol of Brittany just below the Carenton peninsula. Every inch of land had been fought over leaving much destruction and destitute people but with sizeable, stubborn German troops bottled up northwest to the submarine pens on the coast. So the 12th General Hospital set up where the Huns vacated, finding it necessary to scrub and clean for a week before casualties were admitted. Every disposal item and meds were discarded, which was a sizeable array. The Germans evacuated so quickly, they left a body in the morgue.
Idle hours became memory for the staff worked 12 to 16 hours a day when the wounded were brought in. Alas, Irma had an appendectomy, and while recovering worked in the POW ward taking care of records and medicine. It was there that a most welcome surprise came: Her brother, a Captain in the 156th Infantry, visited her and took a group of nurses on a little tour to places like Ma-may-meschel (sp).
Her brother went on to the conflagration to take Metz and was wounded. "He wrote our parents that he broke a leg. It ended his time in combat."
In the frigid cold of January 1945, they were moving to Nancy, France, just south of Metz. They stopped over in Paris and enjoyed some of the sites and the hotel with hot, running water and tubs in which to bathe. The people suffered from German occupation and too little to eat. "A friend in Crowley asked me to gather up clothes for a family in Paris, and I did. We left them at the hotel desk. I know they received the clothes, for I got word from the sister and daughter in Crowley that they indeed got them. I didn't speak Parisian French, but the people spoke some English."
The hospital in Nancy became the 127th General Hospital, while the nurses stayed in a chateau one-fourth of a mile away. The nurses welcomed the jaunt for they were young and healthy. Irma was in the orthopedic ward and knew they received 150 patients the first day. By V-E Day, the 300-bed facility had treated 1,300 patients.
As a hospital created in Galveston, Texas, composed almost entirely of Texans, they chose as their sign over the hospital a pair of Texas Longhorns. Locals thought it was a veterinary hospital, and one day here came the people leading their horses and cattle. By the end of March, the hospital started getting in German POWs who knew the war was over and they were losing. “From them we had the German tailors -- one who played the piano beautifully, and gardeners who gave us fresh vegetables; they cleaned our clothes and shined our shoes. The tailors refashioned our jackets into Ike jackets (bottom of jacket removed and jacket clinched at the waistline)." Americans who had been POWs were treated. Many were starved, emaciated, and wanted so desperately to go home. (Eating had to be done slowly, carefully, or they could die)
"We were 'hands-on' nurses (all nurses were trained to do this) bathing them, brushing their teeth, massaging and rubbing their backs with alcohol." As the war was coming to an end, the nurses had a baseball team in competition with the other four hospitals in Nancy. "Then we thought we were going to CBI, but they dropped the (atomic) bombs." The 127th was sent down to Marseilles to wait for a ship home. "My brother was there and had a car. He took us to Cannes and Nice, which was fun. We barbequed out in the woods once; did some wonderful things. And he beat me home. We had to be inoculated again before going home. Some of our nurses developed flu. We were just waiting for a ship, along with thousands of troops."
"We returned to Newport News, V A, after almost two years. They sent me to San Antonio. They were glad to get us out of service, for we were drawing overseas pay of $80 a month."
Irma came home and married and reared three daughters and a son. She has always been available to talk to school groups and others about the honor to serve our country. "In 2004, the French Resistance was celebrating the anniversary of D-Day and wanted those who had crossed the Channel after D-Day to attend. I went and took three of my children, and I invited a nurse from Texas. We were put up in a beautiful hotel, provided a bus for us, and dined us in five-star restaurants where we ate and drank wine and, as their custom, had a saucer of brie cheese between each course. It was a lovely event and a stirring, patriotic one."
Irma was also on the first Honor Air Flight to Washington, DC, to visit the WorId War II Memorial. She also helped lay the wreath at Tomb of the Unknown in Arlington Cemetery.
The men in the flight were so emotional-they were crying.
What a great lady! What a proud veteran Irma Darphin is!
