The Medic

Chapter 1
Amie Sarcetta

World War 2, never before had so many men died in war. More and more coffins head back to England filled in men, some men don’t even make it back to England, and most men don’t even get a coffin. People say Man is made to fight but what about the Women, what were they made for? A wife, a cook, or just a mother. I once knew a woman who wanted so much more than what she had had placed in her path and to get it she sacrificed everything. Her name is Amie Sarcetta. She was the only fighting woman medic, she faced what some men daren’t face, she did what some men daren’t do, she sacrificed what most men daren’t sacrifice. She was braver than any man in our squad and will always be remembered as ‘the valiant medic’. True, she faced many criticisms of becoming a medic out on the front line of the action, but she believed she was doing what was right to her. I remember her telling me “Why live a life of greed and selfishness? Why live a life of failure and disaster? Why live a life if there’s nothing to live for?”She herself believed that had she not been fighting she would not have anything to live for. She believed her life was to serve in the armed forces and to help win the war, even if she died, she said she would have died smiling because she did her bit for her country.
Amie Sarcetta had lived most of her life in France when one day she met her husband while he was on a business trip. She moved to England with him, learnt the English language and took up nursing. She had not been in England for more than two years before the war started. I remember her telling me all she wanted to do was return to her home to be with her family, but something that she couldn’t describe kept her in England. She especially wanted to move to France when her husband who had joined the armed forces, was told he would be fighting there. Two months in to the war she started working as a nurse for the armed forces. She remained on the home front while men took up the medic positions on the front line. Amie healed the soldiers that were flown back with injuries. That was when I met her for the first time, two of my brothers had been killed and another severely injured so I was pulled out of fighting to be with him and our mother until he had recovered enough for me to leave again. My mother and I had been sat at his bedside when she walked in. Her lush blond hair was tied back, and her flawless face and blue eyes smiling towards us all. She had a smile that lit up the whole room. She glanced at my brother and at me and then looked towards my mother and said, “’e will be alright, miz”
“Are you sure? I can’t lose another son. I can’t...” Started my mother as she stood up but she burst in tears and collapsed in floods of tears.
Amie was obviously used to it by now as she helped my mother to her chair, looked her in the eyes and said “’e will be fine, we ‘ave had lots of people worse than ‘im dat ‘ave survived mademoiselle. I am pozitiv’ ‘e will survive. We will not rest befor’ ‘e iz fit ‘n’ well”
“Thank you” said my mother suddenly all calm.
I admired her skills to calm a distressed mother, but that was obviously what she was gifted with. I remember my first conversation with her. It was three days later. My brother was sleeping, my mother was grabbing some food and I was sat by my brother’s side when she walked in.
“Hello” I said to her, quite nervously.
“’ello” she replied in her sweet toned voice.
“Any progress?” I asked.
She had a puzzled expression on her face. So I expanded on it “Is he getting better?”
“’e ‘as improved zince ‘e first came. ‘e iz very good at ‘ealing” replied Amie.
“Ok I was just wondering, we were very close, fought side by side in France” I mentioned.
“You’re part of ze army?” she asked.
“Yes. I’m a private.” I replied.
“I ‘ave always wanted to ‘elp de army. Dat’s why I became a nurse for da army.” Mentioned Amie.
She also told me how she wished to advance to being a medic out on the front line. At first I thought she was joking so I laughed but when she looked at me I realised she was definately not. I was a little shocked. I thought ‘why would a girl want to be on the front line, when that really is a man’s job.’ But she explained that as well, she is one of the women that believed in equality. I believe in equality between men and women when it came to at home and jobs but not violence, but she was very strong willed, and I wasn’t in the mood then to argue.
Two years later, I had returned to France and then had to be rescued from Dunkirk and brought back to England. When I returned, my brigade was taken to her hospital and I was looking forward to seeing her again. I had told all of my brigade about her when we were on Dunkirk beach, but she was nowhere to be seen. I asked another nurse about her and she replied with “She moved about a week ago. I believe she’s working with the front line medics.”
That made me smile, how she had achieved what she wanted to, but it also meant I probably wouldn’t see her again.
June, four years after the Dunkirk miracle, I had been given the information of the plan to get France back. We were going to be one of the brigades to land on Sword beach. There will be ten of us. Nine soldiers and then a front line medic. I have to admit at this time she had passed completely out of my mind until I saw her. My brigade had been brought into get briefed on operation “Overlord”. I walked in first from the nine of us male soldiers. She was sat in the corner reading a book, that I guessed was written in French. She quickly glanced at me and the rest of us and then turned her attention back to her book. There were two rows of five chairs, like I said she was sat on the back row in the side of the room.
In front of the chairs was the General. He was quite big and buff, someone I knew I didn’t want to mess with. He was watching Amie with interest when he spotted us.
“Gentlemen, if you would take a seat” said the General to us, he then turned to Amie who was still reading and asked “Mademoiselle, Peut-on obtenir commence?”
“Oui, bien sûr, j'écoute” replied Amie.
All of us sat down. I made sure I sat next to her and I did. The leader of the brigade was sat on the seat in front of her.
“Right, you have been chosen to complete an important mission that is vital. You will be sneaking into Paris so you can provide our army with detailed information on German defences upon their arrival. The success of you being in Paris and observing the Germans without being witnessed is vital.” Said the General.
“I am sorry General, but we do not have our medic, how will we be able to nurse our wounds without a medic” replied our leader standing up.
“Your medic just so happens to be sat behind you” commented the General.
Our leader turned to face Amie, who went bright red. We could tell by the look on his face our leader was not happy.
“She is a lady” moaned Dave who was sat next to the leader.
“Gender does not come into it” said the General.
“Sir, I cannot lead a lady into a German infested France.” Replied our leader.
“She is French, you will need her expertise of the land to get to Paris successfully and she is an extremely talented medic. I will not withdraw my decision, my word is final. She will be your medic. You leave at 0100 hours on 6th June. Now move as we have others we need to brief. Go!” said the General.
Our leader looked towards Amie, who had stood up with the rest of us, and then marched out. He was the first one to leave. When the third person had gone through the door, the general called to me, “Mr Stevens. Come here”
I returned to him.
“Mademoiselle, pouvez-vous joindre à mois s’il vous plait?” asked the General to Amie.
She walked over. He then continued “C'est M. Richard Stevens”
“Mr Stevens, I am leaving you in charge of making sure that this beautiful young lady returns to England in one piece, will you try your best to do this?” asked the General. By this time all of the others had left.
“Of course sir.” I replied.
“Now Go. Both of you” ordered the General.
Both of us headed out without a word.
When we were out of the room, I wished to say something to her but I didn’t know what to say without scaring her.
“zo, you are bejaminz elder brother are you not?” she asked.
“You remember me then” I replied shocked.
“I remember your brother ‘n’ your face. It iz easy to remember ‘im. Very good recovery. Better than any other” She said.
“I thought you said to my mother others have come in worse” I replied.
“I bended da truth a little, but I waz positive ‘e would survive. ‘e was in too much of a good condition to die at dat point” Commented Amie when our leader approached us.
“Richard with me now” he ordered.
“I will ze you around” she said to me and then carried on.
It was the one time I wished my leader had not chosen me as his favourite. He only pulled me away to say he wasn’t happy taking a lady, even though both of us knew we had no choice now.

Chapter 2
Sword Beach

6th June, 0300 hours, in the boats. We were all in our camouflage, even Amie. We had been given information by our leader on our rendezvous (Meeting place). We were also among other brigades that were focused on actually taking France back while we were the spies for them. I was stood next to Amie as I promised I would make sure she made it back to England in one piece. Even I could tell she was nervous we all could. Billy, one of our fellow members in our squadron was stood the other side of her. He took out his drink and pushed it in front of her and said, “Drink something, you’ll feel better”
With her hands shaking she took his drink, and took a sip and then went to pass it back.
“You’ll need more then that trust me” he said taking her hand with the drink in and passed it back to her.
She took another but bigger sip and then went to pass it back.
“Give it a while and you’ll feel better. Trust me. M’names Billy by the way” said Billy taking it back off her.
“I am Amie” replied Amie.
He was about to say something when our leader who was in front of us turned around and said “Listen to me, Lady, you do exactly what I say. I don’t like the fact we have to have a lady medic so you better be better than what your life is worth”
“Hey, Max. Leave the poor girl alone. General wouldn’t have picked her had she not been good enough to do it, alright” said Billy sticking up for Amie.
Max (The leader) gave him a hard stare and Billy soon stood back. Max glared at me, then Amie and then back to Billy and then turned back to the front.
The journey over the channel was extremely intense. The only thing that kept me calm was Amie singing in French next to me. She was singing only loud enough for the ones that were close enough to reach out and touch her to hear. It was obvious that she was only singing to herself. Her voice was a soft and sweet as possibly can be.
“Yeliel, mon ange
Sachez que je vous entends
Et chaque mot que vous prononcez est saint
Vent me caresser
Yeliel, mon ange
Sachez que je vous vois” Sung Amie over the channel.
Ten minutes away from the beach we could tell we weren’t the first wave to hit the beach, we weren’t the last boat but the second out of eight. We could hear the firing guns as we approached.
“we have guns and ammo and that’s it, so straight across the beach” mentioned Max.
“I ‘ave medical zurplies” spoke up Amie.
“Yes, the lady has Medical zurplies” replied Max.
We all stood silent, Amie lowered her head. Max did not like her and that much was obvious, whether she liked him we were unsure but we all knew how he felt about her.
“’ow come we could not be dropped over Parie?” asked Amie.
“Because then they would know we are there. We are starting here so they do not think we’re there. And in English its Paris not Parie” replied Max in a flat but annoyed tone.
“Zorry, i’m just uzed to zaying Parie.” Said Amie back.
“Then I suggest you get used to saying Paris” replied Max.
“Au moins je suis gentil avec les gens d'autres” whispered Amie to herself. Max obviously heard it but he could understand as much French as I could. Amie later filled me that she had said ‘At least I am nice to other people’. So in a way it is lucky for her he couldn’t understand French.
Ten. The Explosions. Nine. The noise of firing guns. Eight. The pounding waves on the boat. Seven. The echoing screams of the wounded. Six. The bellowing shouts of the leaders. Five. More explosions. Four. More firing guns. Three. Whimpers of those around me. Two. The chattering teeth. One. The boat slowing. Ramp down.
“Go, go, go” shouted Max.
As each and every one of us on the boat went charging out and into the water, I could see some of the loss of life that war costs. Two or three men were flattened on the beach, if not already dead, dying. Everything around me went silent as all could hear was my own heartbeat. Dun Dun. Dun Dun. As soon as I could I got shelter from the small amount of firing guns. Still in the water were spikes of metal sticking up, obviously put there by the German to stop the boats from coming any further up the beach, but they provided us perfect shelter from the firing guns. Across to my left I could see Amie cowering behind another one along with Max and Billy.
“Get up the beach now” shouted Max as he lead the way further up the beach to the next shelter, closely followed by Billy and Amie. Two of the men in my battalion and myself followed suit and ran to the next shelter. These were out of the water but unfortunately these were also the last ones. The rest of the way was completely open, with no shelter from the firing at all. I watched as somebody across the beach to my left tried to make the run. He got the half way and then was shot down by a speeding bullet coming from the few German defences.
"All at once. On the count of Three. One.." Shouted Max.
I could see Billy take hand of Amie's hand, obviously to calm her. Even from here I could see she was petrified of the thought of running across the beach.
"Two..." Continued Max as we all got ready to make the sprint.
"Three, go, go, go" shouted Max as he started running followed by the whole of our battalion and others that decided to follow suit.
Out of the about twenty that ran, only two or three were shot down, luckily none from our battalion. At the other side of the beach was a mound of sand supplying a small amount of cover from the fire. Everyone that had made it across was now lay on this sand bank. Amie was lay next to me. I looked into her eyes, she still looked absolutely terrified. A bullet had only just missed her while she was running across the beach and I think the reality of working on the front line has hit her harder than what she was expecting.
"Still want to be a front line medic?" I asked her jokingly.
She just plainly smiled. She reached her hand out, I took it and held it tight. I could feel her shaking terribly.
"We need to get over this mound and knock out the last of their defences before the rest get here." shouted Max and he stood up and rushed over the mound jumping over the other side. The rest of us followed, I still had Amie's hand in mine as we jumped down the other side and backed up against a brick wall. The brick wall was a tower and at the top were the German defences. Billy was closest to the edge so he looked around the corner. When he turned back and said, "Door to the left sir"
"Right then. On three we go round and in the door. Trap them in the tower, no escape" replied Max.
"You think it will be that zimple." spoke up Amie.
"There are no guards if that’s what you are thinking" replied Max.
"I do not mean guardz. Watch" said Amie as she approached the edge. She got out of her bag her mirror.
"There's no time to check your makeup." said Max. Amie gave him a non-approving stare and then moved the mirror out on the side of the building. She changed the angle until she fixed it on a man in a tower not far behind with a long range rifle.
"You take on' step out der 'n' you will be shot down in zecondz." said Amie showing Max.
"Now what sir?" I asked.
"Get your rifles out and shoot them down" replied Max.
Billy went to the edge, he only went out as much as he needed to get a good shot. And in seconds a man came falling out of the tower.
"Girl, the mirror" said Max.
Amie passed him her mirror. He stuck it out and locked on to another just to the side of where the man had fallen out of.
"30 degrees to your left" said Max.
Again Billy locked on the man and fired. The man fell back into the tower.
Max tilted the mirror again. When he was satisfied. He handed the mirror back to Amie who put it back in her bag. He then started his original countdown.
"Richard, stay with the girl here. The rest of you, three, two, one. Go, go, go" said Max.
One by one they flooded into the building lead by Max. Amie and I just watched them go.
We stood there waiting. All around us we could hear fighting. On the beach more boats of men were arriving and more men heading across the beach. The amount of men lying on the beach had doubled. There were now more than twenty.
We heard shouting from above us, we knew that meant they were in. There was some firing when a German fell to the floor in front of us from the top of the tower.
Amie and I looked around the corner. A group of Germans were heading this way.
"They are going to go up de tower" whispered Amie.
I looked to see how many of them there were. There was more than what I could handle myself. They were still a few minutes of. I turned and looked around. I whistled and four heads popped over the mound of sand. I waved them over. They four jumped over followed by another four.
"Our fellow men are up that tower trying to get control. A group of Germans are heading this way. We need to stop them" I spoke quickly to them.
They lined up in the open and shot at the Germans. One Englishman for each German including me. A few shots each and the Germans had been mowed down. Amie had refused to watch. The men that had helped us retreated to the building on the other side of the open gap and waited.
A few minutes later, Max and the rest headed down. Obviously in victory.
"You two, come on." shouted Max running to the next set of shelter. A building that had only one wall and half another standing. It had obviously been hit by a bomb. This was a long building. We ran along the wall and waited.
"We have to start heading east" said Max. "Which way girl?"
"East iz dat way" replied Amie pointing the direction we had already come.
"We can't get that way" replied Billy.
"Den we hav' to go round" commented Amie.
We reached a gap.
"Girl. Mirror" ordered Max.
Amie got out her Mirror and passed it to Max. Again he used it to look around the corner. He pinpointed three Germans right in front, and then one on either side of the gap.
"000, 010, 022, 060 and 290" said Max.
By her face Amie had no idea what he was on about, but Billy went to the end and fired six shots, taking out all five Germans.
Max took another look in the mirror and shouted "Clear go"
Billy took the lead and ran across the gap followed by the rest of us.
This building had more of a wall. We now had a building on either side of us.
"Keep your eyes peeled for hidden Germans" said Max.
We continued along the wall. Two gaps were coming up, one on either side. Max knew they could have German on either side. So before he reached the edge he held out the mirror and looked around the corner opposite. He could see nothing.
Soon enough we were out of the buildings and on to the fields. We had to stick to the fields instead of going on the road in case Germans drive past. We knew which road we need to follow, following through the fields. And of course the precaution was proved to be good idea after a few hours a pack of German trucks came shunting down the road. We had to quickly dive to the floor and crawl to the closest hedge for cover. We lay there as over a hundred tanks drove past heading from east to west.
“There ‘eading for da beach” whispered Amie to me.
“The beach is that way” mentioned Max with a correctional tone.
“Da quickest route is dat way. It’s quicker to go ‘round. De Mached route is quicker, we uzed it when I waz littler.” Replied Amie.
“Then we better keep moving” said Max.
We started to crawl down the edge of the field as the tanks came across next to us.
“Stay still” shouted Max.
We could hear one of the tanks stop. The top of it opened and we could hear a man step down. He trod across the road. He spoke a bit in German and then climbed back into his tank. Once he had moved we carried on crawling. All of us were shocked by the length of the chain of tanks but eventually it stopped and we were able to get back on our feet and move a lot faster.
That night we stopped just on a field floor. I could hear Amie fidgeting all night, I never found out whether she actually fell asleep or not that night. But of course it was soon morning and straight away we were off again.
By midday we reached the edge of a small village, with just rubble of houses in it. We had no choice but to head through the streets. Amie remained quiet all afternoon as we explored the village. At three o’clock we were walking down a street of houses when Amie just froze looking at a house, a destroyed house. When everybody noticed Max was the first person to say something.
“Hey, lady we don’t have all day” shouted Max.
Amie didn’t move. All of us came to see what was so special about the house that she had stopped to look at.
“My family ‘ome. Bin in the family for generations” spoke Amie quietly.
“Oh, don’t worry were not wasting any time staring at a destroyed house” proclaimed Max sarcastically and loud.
“I would like to zee you walk away from a destroyed ‘ouse that your family should still be livin’ in. You may hav’ a ‘eart of stone but I don’t” shouted Amie half crying.
Max bit his lip obviously wanting to shout back but he restrained himself.
I came to her and said softly “We need to keep going Amie, they would have gotten out, I promise you, they would have”
“Iz dat a proper promize or an exaggerated promize?” asked Amie in a whisper.
“A proper promise hopefully” I replied.
Amie just gave a quick smile and then followed all of us out of the village.
(Continued...)

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 25.04.2011

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