Greyfriars House

by Emma Fraser

  But at last, the news Georgina had been holding on for; the nurses were being evacuated.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Dodging bombs and shells and the scores of unburied bodies that almost blocked the streets, Georgina ran towards the hospital. She held a handkerchief over her nose in a futile attempt to keep out the stench of putrefying bodies and overflowing sewage, that mingled with the alcohol spilled in an attempt to stop the Japanese getting hold of it and going on another violent rampage. Fires blazed everywhere and a thick black pall of smoke hung over the city, stinging her eyes and blurring her vision.

  Brand new cars had been driven over the edge and into the sea, others abandoned amongst the dead and set alight. Everything that could be of use to the Japanese had been set on fire, including the oil tanks on the naval base.

  The Japanese planes bombed continuously, Allied soldiers wandered dazed and bewildered without hope or direction. The best anyone could hope for now was to make it onto one of the few remaining ships.

  Georgina fought her way through the crowds, pushing aside anyone who got in her way – the need to get to Edith all she could think about.

  She almost sobbed with relief when she saw her sister amongst the other nurses waiting by a truck, their suitcases beside them.

  ‘Dear God, Georgina. What are you doing here? I was sure you’d have left by now.’

  ‘I couldn’t leave. I said I wouldn’t without you.’

  ‘Tell me you have a ticket.’

  ‘I don’t think it matters whether one has a ticket any more. It’s pandemonium at the docks. They’re trying to squeeze people on wherever they can find a space.’

  ‘Sister, you need to get in,’ a soldier said, holding his hand out to Edith.

  ‘Push up, girls.’ Edith leapt on board, ignoring his hand ‘We need to make space for one more. Come on, Georgina.’

  The truck was revving, the driver clearly impatient to get going. The racket of artillery fire sounded as if it was almost on them. Georgina grabbed the soldier’s hand and followed Edith onto the truck.

  If it were possible the dock was even more chaotic than it had been in the days before. Now there was no longer even a pretence of people queuing. Scores of women and children stood right up to the very edge of Clifford Pier, the girls in white dresses, ribbons in their hair, the boys neatly dressed in shorts and shirts.

  As each launch approached the quayside people poured in, clutching their suitcases in one hand, their children in another. The boats filled in minutes and set off back to the waiting ships. Just when Georgina was giving up hope they would ever find a space on one of the ships, the helmsman of a launch, already two thirds filled, gestured to the group of nurses. ‘Sisters! Over here.’

  Georgina hoped that she’d be included in the group, that her civilian status wouldn’t mean she would be left behind, but the helmsman looked at her and shook his head.

  Edith grabbed her hand and pulled her forward. ‘She comes,’ she said flatly, giving him a hard look. Georgina couldn’t help but smile. If this was how Edith was when she was looking after her patients, God help them.

  Georgina tumbled onto the launch with the remaining nurses and within moments they were pulling away. Along with the majority of the women and children on board, Georgina turned to face the city that had been home these last few years. Some sobbed silently, but most sat straight backed, chins held high, fighting back tears. Most would have left husbands, brothers, sons and fathers behind to who knew what fate. Georgina hadn’t seen Lawrence for days. Naturally he had to remain with his regiment. Georgina sent a quick prayer heavenwards for them all.

  As the sky burned red from the fires, Georgina reached for Edith’s hand and for once Edith didn’t pull hers away.

  Even on board the ship they weren’t out of danger. The strait was heavily mined and out at sea, Japanese warships lay in wait. The captain, hoping that the Japanese would miss them in the darkness, waited for night to fall.

  Georgina and Edith stayed on deck as did many of the other nurses and passengers. It was so crowded there was no room to lie down. Georgina sat next to Edith, her back against one of the bulkheads.

  ‘You should go down below,’ Edith said to Georgina. ‘Where it’s safer.’

  ‘If we’re going to be bombed I’d rather get blown to pieces than get trapped down there,’ Georgina said. The cargo hold would be even more crowded. Hot as hell, dark and airless.

  ‘Do you always have to be so dramatic?’ Edith hissed. ‘For God’s sake, there are children. Do you want to frighten them completely out of their wits?’

  Although night had fallen, the heat was still intense. Bodies pressed up against each other and the murmurs of mothers soothing their children filtered through the still air. It was a relief when the boat finally moved out to sea.

  ‘What will you do when we get back?’ Edith asked after a while.

  ‘I have no idea. Try and make myself useful. You?’

  ‘I’ll be sent somewhere else, I imagine. We nurses would have stayed in Singapore given the choice.’

  ‘Will they give you leave, do you think?’

  ‘Perhaps a week or two. Do you know, for the first time, I think I’m actually looking forward to a British winter. I’ve been so hot these last months.’

  ‘What’s it been like for you? The war, I mean.’

  ‘Terrible and awful, but exciting too. I’m glad I was part of it. ‘

  They fell silent and Georgina dozed a little, allowing herself to hope that they might make it.

  She was jolted awake by an enormous explosion. Debris, and body parts of people who only moments before had been squashed up against her were sent flying into the air. Dazed and with her ears ringing, at first Georgina couldn’t take in what had happened. But as the boat began to keel over and screams filled the air, she realised they must have been torpedoed. She couldn’t see Edith in the thick smoke. She had to find her!

  As the boat began to list even further, Georgina, a sob in her throat, scrambled on her hands and knees searching for Edith. Then as the smoke cleared, she saw her. Her foolish, brave sister was already moving towards the injured, even though it was clear the ship was doomed.

  Georgina lurched towards her and grabbed her arm. ‘There’s no time. We’re sinking!’

  Edith tried to shrug her away, but Georgina tightened her grip. As the ship tipped to the side, they were unable to prevent themselves from slithering into the crowd of people desperately clutching on to the sides as the lifeboats were lowered.

  Then – Georgina didn’t know how – whether it was the angle of the ship or the pressure of bodies behind her, but she found herself in the water. She surfaced, gagging on the sea water she’d swallowed. Survivors bobbed in every direction, held up by the buoyancy of their life jackets. Mothers called for children or desperately reached out for them. Not everyone alive in the water had a jacket on – some had decided not to bother as the heat was bad enough without them – and they clung to whoever or whatever they could find.

  At first she wasn’t any more frightened than she had been on the ship. She was wearing a buoyancy aid, and even if she hadn’t been, she was a decent swimmer and she’d kept up by doing several laps a couple of times a week at the swimming club. There were also some lifeboats around. One of them would pick her up, and if they didn’t, they couldn’t be that far from land.

  She scanned the sea, desperate to catch a glimpse of Edith, but it was impossible to see her amongst the bodies and wreckage. She screamed her name, but her voice was drowned out by the shouts and cries of others. The crew, or what remained of them, were still trying to launch the remaining lifeboats. Anyone could see there wouldn’t be enough for everyone.

  One overloaded boat slipped into the water but sank a few minutes later. It was either holed or there were too many people in it.

  The sea was lit by the burning ship. Almost blood red. This, Georgina thought, was what hell would be like.

  Away
from the flames, it was darker. She’d become separated from the rest of the survivors having put some distance between herself and the sinking vessel, realising that if she stayed too close she might be sucked under alongside it. She prayed Edith had thought to do the same. The moon’s reflection on the sea invoked memories of evening dinner dances at the Sea View Hotel. If it hadn’t been for the terrible cries around her she might have been back there. Still treading water she conjured up a mental image of the route the ship had taken, how long they’d been at sea and the relative knots of the boat. If she was right, they couldn’t be too far from land. All she had to do was stay calm, wait for dawn and try to spot land and swim towards it. No doubt those on the lifeboats would be thinking the same thing.

  But then, louder than the cries around her, a scream rose into the night air. ‘Jack! Where’s my Jack? Please! Someone help us. He can’t swim.’

  She glanced around. Amongst the survivors and, God help them, the floating corpses, was a small child clinging on to a piece of flotsam. His mouth was gaping open and his small hands couldn’t continue to hold on for too long. The nearest lifeboat to him was a considerable distance away.

  Georgina turned on to her front and began swimming. Now the life jacket was more of a hindrance than a help, but she daren’t stop to remove it. Furthermore she would need it for the child.

  The ship was sinking fast, pulling the current towards it and she had to strike out hard to prevent herself from being pulled towards it. Her soaking wet dress and her shoes didn’t help either. She stopped and slipped off her shoes, keeping her gaze pinned on the struggling child, knowing that at any moment he might let go and disappear under the waves.

  His head had slipped under once by the time she reached him, but he was still holding tightly to the piece of flotsam. This, she knew, was the most dangerous bit. If the child panicked he could drag them both under.

  Treading water again she untied her life vest, talking to the child all the while in a low, soft voice. ‘Everything’s going to be all right, Jack. I’m going to take you to your mother and then we’re going to get on a boat with her.’

  As she reached for him, the thing that she’d worried about happened. He gave an almighty cry and flung himself towards her, wrapping his arms and legs around her head, blinding and disorienting her, his weight pushing her down.

  She swallowed water, and had to fight the panic that threatened to overwhelm her, knowing if she let it, she might push the child away. Under any other circumstances she might have laughed at the image the pair of them must have made.

  She shouted at him to be still, turned him around, slipped her life jacket off and over his head. She dragged him over to a lifeboat where willing hands hauled him on board. A hand reached for her too and she was about to grab it, when she looked over her shoulder. There were several others still in the water clinging to any piece of flotsam they could find. Some of them looked as if they might have been injured in the explosion and couldn’t hold on much longer. She had no choice. Not really.

  She went after them. She only managed two – a young Eurasian girl and an elderly matron – before she realised she was too exhausted to continue. Yet she couldn’t stop – not while there were people still in the sea. She hung on to the side of the lifeboat for a few moments, just long enough to regain her breath, and struck out again.

  Corpses, some with limbs missing, littered the sea. As she swam past, if there was any suggestion the person might still be alive, she checked, and if they were dead, which most were, she tore off their life jackets and handed it to one of those clutching desperately to anything that floated.

  She collected a boy of fifteen and a woman she vaguely remembered meeting at the tennis club. The woman’s hand was missing.

  Every time Georgina returned to the lifeboat it was at the mercy of the current, drifting further and further out to sea until finally it was out of sight. She trod water, knowing she had no energy left to do more than try to keep herself afloat and wait for daylight.

  But her strength was already exhausted – whether from the effort of swimming or from shock, she couldn’t be sure. All she did know for certain was that she would never make daylight.

  She made her legs keep moving, holding on to the hope that a lifeboat would come past, but none did. So this was how her life would end. She thought of Findlay; that last summer at Greyfriars; she, Edith and Harriet as children, and felt peaceful. She was getting so sleepy. All she had to do was close her eyes and let herself drift away.

  Then she heard someone screaming her name. It was Edith! The sound of her sister’s voice made her want to cry. She tried to swim towards her but she had no energy left. Minutes later, Edith grabbed Georgina under her armpits.

  ‘I’ve got you now,’ Edith shouted in her ear. ‘Just float and I’ll pull you.’ Georgina did as Edith asked. Her sister had always been the stronger swimmer, but to stay in the water until she’d found her…

  How could she have ever doubted her love?

  It seemed like ages until a lifeboat came alongside and she was being hauled aboard. People were still in the water, crying for help, but Georgina knew she was utterly spent and could do no more. But to her dismay, Edith didn’t follow her aboard. Instead she swam back into the darkness and disappeared from sight. Georgina spent the remainder of the night shivering, searching the water for a sign of Edith, praying she was on a life raft.

  But the horror wasn’t over. Dawn was beginning to light the sky when they heard the familiar, dreadful sound of Japanese planes. Even after everything she’d witnessed, Georgina prayed they would leave them alone. It was obvious the survivors were mainly women and children. Her prayers weren’t answered.

  The pilots opened fire, strafing the people still in the sea, the lifeboats. They kept coming back. Again and again and again. Many who’d survived the night were killed.

  When it was over there were dozens more bodies floating in the sea. The ship had finally gone under and the other lifeboats had disappeared. To her utter despair, there was no sign of Edith.

  They spent a whole day and another night in the lifeboat with corpses and occasionally parts of bodies floating past them. Many in the lifeboat didn’t make it, either because of the severity of their wounds or because of shock and sunstroke, most likely a combination of all three. There was an Australian nurse on board, who checked everyone, but as soon as she was sure there was no sign of life, they said a quick prayer and pushed the body over the side.

  Eventually, they made land. Not from any real effort on their part but because a combination of wind and tide brought them in. If it had been a boat with a sail Georgina might, she supposed, have managed to do something to make it go where they wanted – however, it was good luck they had to thank.

  But it wasn’t good luck at all, although they were only to find that out later. Then, the island seemed like an oasis; a sanctuary. They were all burnt from the sun, deathly thirsty and, those still alive, on the verge of collapse.

  They stumbled ashore. Some of the other lifeboats had washed up there too. To Georgina’s enormous joy and relief, she saw a familiar figure, wearing only pants and a brassiere, bustling around with two other QAs and a few nurses from the Australian army. She stumbled over to her sister and enfolded her in her arms. They clung to one another for a while before Edith pushed Georgina gently away. ‘I have patients to see to. Are you all right?’

  Georgina nodded. Apart from sunburn and a few scrapes. Nothing compared to the injuries others had sustained. And nothing that mattered, now she’d found Edith alive.

  There was little the nursing sisters could do for the injured. One nurse had managed to hang on to her handbag in which she’d stuffed some basics; cotton wool, antiseptic, a bottle or two of quinine – but that was all and had to be shared amongst everyone.

  All that day they sat on the beach too stunned to move, still clinging desperately to the hope that other survivors would make it ashore and, indeed, a party did come ar
ound from another part of the island but in the end, out of six hundred on that ship, only fifty or so made it to the beach.

  They waited, hoping against hope that more survivors might make it, but only corpses, body parts and flotsam washed up on the shore. Several suitcases floated in too. Some of the women fell upon them, claiming them as their own. No doubt mostly they were. They were still a civilised bunch then and it wouldn’t have done to steal someone else’s belongings, even if they were almost certainly dead.

  When it became clear they couldn’t stay on the beach without anything to eat or, more importantly, drink, they agreed they’d spend one more night there and walk to the nearest village as soon as it was light in hope of finding a villager willing to give them food and water. At worst, they would be captured by the Japanese. Despite what had happened to the ship, the way the Japanese pilots had strafed them when they’d been helpless in the water, they still believed that their captors would treat them decently. It could only be a matter of time before the British or the Americans got the upper hand and they’d be home again.