| ISBN |
9780733343292 (paperback) |
| Name |
Kieza, Grantlee author. |
| Title |
Sister Viv / Grantlee Kieza. |
| Published |
Gadigal Country : ABC Books, 2024. |
| ©2024 |
| Description |
viii, 343 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm |
| Notes |
"The inspiring story of the nursing hero who survived a wartime massacre and dedicated her life to saving others"--Cover. |
| Includes bibliographical references (pages 322-343). |
| Summary |
Bangka Island, 1942. Australian Army nurse Vivian Bullwinkel was just 26 when Japanese soldiers marched her and her fellow nurses into the shallow waters of a remote beach to be executed. Miraculously, Vivian would be the lone survivor. The Lieutenant-Colonel would also be the first woman to be honoured with a statue at the Australian War Memorial for her extraordinary bravery and service. Growing up in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Vivian started work at a local hospital and joined the Australian Army Nursing Service in World War II. When the Japanese attacked Singapore in 1942, she and 64 other nurses were ordered to evacuate, but soon their ship was bombed by enemy aircraft. Some of the women drowned, but Viv made it to Radji Beach on Bangka Island, off Sumatra, with 21 of her nursing colleagues. There Japanese soldiers forced the women to wade back into the sea, and as Vivian felt a bullet slam into her back, she fell face down into the water then waited to die as the soldiers bayonetted survivors. Somehow Vivian lived. |
| Subjects |
Bullwinkel, Vivian, -- 1915-2000 |
| Australia. -- Army. -- Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps -- Biography |
| Nurses -- Australia -- Biography |
| Prisoners of war -- Indonesia -- Sumatra -- Biography |
| Prisoners of war -- Australia -- Biography |
| Women prisoners of war -- Indonesia -- Sumatra -- Biography |
| Women prisoners of war -- Australia -- Biography |
| World War, 1939-1945 -- Women -- Australia -- Biography |
| World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, Japanese -- Biography |
| World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities -- Singapore |
| Singapore -- History -- Japanese occupation, 1942-1945 |
| Genre |
Biographies |
| Reservations Queue |
10 |
| Links to Related Works |
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