The world we live in today has been inspired out of the teachings of the Christian faith. And so it was that as part of that tradition, in 1912, the Presbyterian Church commissioned the Reverend John Flynn to look into the needs of bush communities in remote outback Australia. The Australian Inland Mission (AIM) was set up in 1912 as a result of his recommendations. Then in 1928 a new and exciting step took place using modern aircraft. It was done as a one year trial to see if it was worthwhile. It was called the AIM Aerial Medical Air Service. This morphed into The Royal Flying Doctor Service. It looks like it was really a good idea.

It was a way of rapidly bringing medical aid to people in extreme need and of rapidly getting those people to the medical aid they needed.

You know what it’s like when you go to the markets. If you see something unique and really great on a stall one month, by the next month that same thing is available on a lot of stands. Aerial delivered medical services were clearly an unbeatably brilliant idea and as the crucial moment of World War 2 in Europe was coming, the invasion of continental Europe by the British, Americans and Canadians on D-Day, there was going to be an urgent need to get the wounded away from the landing areas on D-Day and the following days, back quickly to first rate medical help in England.

This is the story of the nurse volunteers who took to the air, at considerable personal risk to themselves, to bring this urgent medical evacuation help to severely wounded soldiers who bringing liberation to Europe from Nazi tyranny. The “Flying Nightingales” they’re called. One of only two of them perhaps still alive, lives in Malanda, the other in Western Australia. This is their story.

Tag words: Christian; Presbyterian Church; Reverend John Flynn; Australian Inland Mission; AIM; Royal Flying Doctor Service; D-Day; Flying Nightingales; Nazis; Edith Lord; C-47 Dakotas; Red Cross; Women’s Auxiliary Air Force; Nurse Iris Bower; Mollie Giles; Corporal Lydia Alford; Rosa Powell; Leading Aircraft Woman Edna Birkbeck; Leading Aircraft Woman Margaret Walsh; KG406; Leading Aircraft Woman Nora Helen Speed; British Empire Medal; Margaret Wilson; Edith Lord; Camilla Parker Bowles; Flight Lieutenant Michelle Goodman; Distinguished Flying Cross; Wing Commander Charlotte Thompson-Edgar; Associate of the Royal Red Cross Award;