by Lorna Watson
This letter was received from Lorna Watson (nee Newberry). Lorna served as an Army Ambulance driver in the 2nd Australian Ambulance Corps of the Australian Women’s Army from 1945 to 1947. Lorna has fond memories of her trips to the Schofields aerodrome.
Clarrie Neal.
“During the two years (1945 -1947) of driving an Army Ambulance, one of our regular jobs was to drive from our headquarters at Randwick to the Schofields aerodrome, which is near Quakers Hill. There were no expressways, not many traffic lights, and mostly a one-lane road.
I was sent several times to Schofields to pick up soldiers from New Guinea – mostly with Malaria and, if it was winter, they shivered from Malaria and with the cold as they were only dressed in summer uniforms. Fortunately there were plenty of blankets in the ambulance. Usually there were only one or two soldiers each time, looking very yellow from the Malaria tablets and also painfully thin but very happy to be home.
I enjoyed these trips very much and driving on the tarmac in the Blitz ambulance, because of the surface, was like being on a race track.
PS. I still love driving and would like to do it all over again.”