There were rumors that a big invasion was being planned on the coast of France, but it was top secret and no one knew anything for sure. Their C-47s were too awkward and cumbersome to land on the beaches, so they wouldn’t be able to pick up the wounded. The air evac unit would have to come in by ship from France, or from hospital ships off the coast of England. There were rumors that two or three ships would be coming soon, but they hadn’t seen any so far.

Five days after their casual conversation about medical school, which was just something to talk about, Audrey and Lizzie were sound asleep in their beds in the dorm when the night duty officer went floor to floor pounding on the doors and an alarm bell sounded. Within minutes, everyone was up and in the halls. A hospital ship was lying off the coast at anchor. It had come in during the night, and the Germans had bombed it. It was sinking, and the nurses were needed on land and sea to help rescue the injured men who would otherwise go down with the ship. The C-47s were going to try to land on the coast as close as they could to fly the wounded in as quickly as possible. The officers who ordered them to their posts said the ship was burning and would go down soon. The Luftwaffe had clearly known about the ship and had bombed it mercilessly despite the visible red cross. A second hospital ship had been sunk at sea, heading for Southampton.

As soon as they jumped into their flight suits, Lizzie took off at a dead run for the airstrip with dozens of nurses. She saw Pru run past her and wondered if the men would already be there. Emma and Audrey were with them, and all the familiar faces. Every available nurse was heading for the hospital or the airstrip, ambulances were taking off at full speed. Lizzie’s crew got to their plane seconds after she did, and C-47s lined up on the airstrip for takeoff one after the other. They flew low and reached the coast quickly. They saw the hospital ship, and hundreds of men in the water. There were said to be fifteen hundred wounded on board with crew. It was pandemonium and the ship was listing badly as the German fighter planes returned to strafe them again and killed many of the men on deck and in the water. It was a scene of total carnage. Reggie tried to stay out of sight until the fighter planes left again, and then landed in a field as close as he dared get to the water. Ambulance crews and trucks of personnel grabbed litters and headed to the shore, where navy rescue boats were circling the ship, trying to grab men out of the water, and pull others from lifeboats.