"The experiences of the Queen Alexandra nurses (QAs) in the Second World War are some of the greatest adventure stories of modern times and - incredibly - remain largely untold. Thousands of middle-class girls in their early twenties were plucked from sheltered backgrounds, subjected to training regimes unimaginably tough by today's standards, and sent forth to share the harsh conditions of the fighting services and confront the most horrific casualties. The tale of how they coped with these trials is profoundly moving and uplifting. The corps numbered twelve thousand women during the Second World War. Many of them wrote down their reactions then and there - and most of this vivid archive remains unpublished."--Jacket.