Ideas for feedback and discussion:
- It is a photograph, in black and white. It is taken from inside a tent, looking out.
- There are two people carrying a stretcher, with what looks like a person lying on the stretcher.
- There is also a woman standing beside the stretcher, looking at the person being carried.
- It can be inferred that the person on the stretcher is possibly a casualty of D-Day and the woman looking down at the stretcher is a nurse.
- The tent could be where the patient is being treated, because there are no hospital buildings nearby.
Transcript:
Photo Shows: A casualty arrives at the Mobile Field Hospital. In the foreground is Sister I. Ogilvie of Swansea, an RAF Nusing sister. (Picture issued 1944) C.6.
Then reveal:
This is a photograph showing a casualty arriving at the no. 50 Mobile Field Hospital in Normandy, France, 1944. Over 20,000 troops landed on Juno beach on D-Day, taking heavy casualties. In the foreground of the photograph is Iris Ogilvie, an RAF nursing sister, waiting to receive the patient. Iris was one of only two nurses dealing with these casualties for over a week before other nurses began to arrive.
Questions for further discussion:
- How must Iris have felt as one of the only nurses available to treat so many casualties?
- What would some of the challenges be when treating causalities in tents such as this?
- What can you see?
- What type of document is it?
- What can you infer?