| Rank | 1st Lieutenant |
A school teacher at Central School in Chatham, ON. The sister of Charles E of Cornhill St., Chatham and Mrs. Guy Brown of Hyslop St., Chatham.
Dorothy left Chatham for Oklahoma, USA where she trained to be a nurse. She nursed in several cities in the American Southern states. At the time of her enlistment she was a supervisor of plastic surgery at the Grant Hospital in Chicago.
Dorothy enlisted in the American army in December, 1942. Beginning her army career in Florida where she did her basic training. In the spring of 1943 Lieut. Burtch she received her sailing orders, destination North Africa just as the allies were “mopping-up” in Tunisia. In August she was on the move again this time to Salerno, Italy to give aid to the troops on the Italian beachhead.
The nurses were aboard the British hospital ship “Newfoundland” that was anchored in Salerno Bayanchoured well off the coast with three other ‘mercy ships’ isolated from the other shipping in the area that were taking part in the operation, floodlit and marked with the International red Cross sign when they were attacked by an enemy bomber. Many British nurses and officers aboard the Newfoundland were killed in the raid before the ship was abandoned, the ship sank while being towed.
Lieut Burch lost all of her equipment in the attacks and was sent back to Bizerte returning two weeks later with the 16th Evacuation Hospital then located 30 miles south of Solerno. As the troops advanced the hospitals followed. Several months before the end of hostilities Nurse Burtch was assigned to the 52nd Stationary Hospital at Naples where civilians were dying by the hundreds from typhus. German air raids against medical facilities continue ad to the misery. On V-E Day she was attached to a hospital at Florence treating German POW’s.
The CDN 21/09/44 reported that Lieut. Burtch, well on a visit to Rome during which she was granted an interview with the Pope. Besides the interview she was given an inspection of the catacombs with a monk from a nearby monastery. She saw where seven different civilizations lived.
Nurse Burtch left Italy in December of 1945 flying home by way of Naples, Rome, Casablanca, the Azores and New York finally arriving in Chatham in early January. She planned to take a nursing job in Indianapolis, Indiana after her say with her family in Chatham. CDN 10/01/46 (P).
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
| Sources | CBC-RH, CDN(2) |
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