P02783.003 Accession Number: P02783.003

Description

SA. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of SFX10597 Sister Millicent Heulda (Millie) Dorsch, 2/4th Casualty Clearing Station, Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). She was one of sixty five Australian nurses and over 250 civilian men, women and children evacuated on the Vyner Brooke from Singapore three days before the fall of Malaya. The Vyner Brooke was bombed by Japanese aircraft and sunk in Banka Strait on 14 February 1942. Of the sixty five nurses, thirty two survived the sinking and were taken Prisoner of War (POW) of which eight later died in captivity, another twenty two also survived the sinking and were washed ashore on Radji Beach, Banka Island, where they surrendered to the Japanese along with twenty five British soldiers. On 16 February 1942 the group was massacred, the soldiers were bayoneted and the nurses were ordered to march into the sea where they were shot. Only Sister Vivian Bullwinkel and a British soldier survived the massacre. Both were taken POW, but only Sister Bullwinkel survived the war. Sister Dorsch, aged 30, was one of twelve nurses who were lost at sea. She was washed out to sea on a raft along with Matron Paschke and Sister's Trenery, McDonald, Clarke and Ennis. They were never seen again. She was the daughter of Adolph Dorsch of Hove, SA. (Photograph copied from original photograph attached to attestation form, lent by Central Army Records Office.)

Details

People

• Sister Hulda Millicent Maria Dorsch

Rolls

• Dorsch, Hulda Millicent Maria

Conflicts

• Second World War, 1939-1945