For decades, many of Australia’s wartime stories have focused on soldiers, battlefields and military strategy, while the experiences of the women who served often remained in the background. Yet among the chaos of World War II were Australian nurses working under relentless pressure, tending to the wounded while bombs fell around them and enduring starvation, captivity and unimaginable trauma with remarkable courage.
In his new book, Sisters Under Fire, acclaimed military historian Colin Burgess brings those women back into focus through the story of Australian nurses Margaret Anderson and Vera Torney, whose bravery during the fall of Singapore and the evacuation aboard the Empire Star became one of the war’s most extraordinary survival stories.
The idea for the book began years ago while Burgess was researching another project focused on Australian nurses during the war. Margaret and Vera’s experiences aboard the Empire Star briefly appeared in his earlier book Sisters in Captivity, but he quickly realised there was a much larger story waiting to be told.
“I remember thinking at the time that there was a potentially wonderful story to be told,” Burgess said.
The deeper he researched women like Betty Jeffrey and Vivian Bullwinkel, the more apparent it became that many Australian wartime nursing stories had never received the attention they deserved. While names like Bullwinkel and Nancy Wake remain widely recognised, countless other women displayed extraordinary courage in near impossible circumstances without ever considering themselves heroic.
Burgess believes much of that mindset came from the women’s nursing training and deep sense of duty.
“I believe their training and discipline as nurses simply took over when it was desperately needed,” he said.
At the centre of Sisters Under Fire is the dramatic evacuation of Singapore in 1942, one of the most significant and chaotic moments in Australian wartime history. While many Australians are familiar with the tragedy of the Vyner Brookeand the Banka Island massacre, Burgess felt the successful evacuations aboard ships like the Empire Star and the Wah Suihad largely disappeared from public memory.
“I felt it was important to tell the story of the successful evacuations because they form an important part of the wider history of those 131 Australian nurses,” he said.
The story of the Empire Star itself feels almost cinematic. As the ship attempted to escape hostile waters, it came under relentless attack from enemy aircraft and shelling. Passengers were killed and wounded as panic spread across the overcrowded vessel. Yet amid the chaos, the nurses continued caring for the injured and helping maintain calm among terrified civilians and soldiers.
For Burgess, telling stories like these comes with enormous responsibility, particularly when revisiting events as traumatic as the Banka Island massacre and the suffering endured by nurses held captive during the war. He is careful to rely on documented facts and firsthand accounts rather than speculation, particularly around stories that continue to affect surviving families and descendants.
“The truth of what these women endured is already tragic enough,” he said. “I believe these stories must be told with deep respect for the women who suffered through brutality, starvation, disease and captivity while still caring selflessly for one another.”
What struck Burgess most throughout his research was not only the brutality these women experienced, but the compassion they continued to show one another despite it. The nurses endured starvation, disease, beatings and appalling living conditions while imprisoned by the Japanese, often watching friends and colleagues die from preventable illnesses due to the lack of medical supplies and food.
Many returned to Australia carrying emotional scars that lasted long after the war ended. Some struggled to speak about what they had witnessed, while others never fully processed the trauma of losing friends and enduring years of captivity.
One of the strongest themes running through Sisters Under Fire is the sense of sisterhood that developed among the nurses themselves. In circumstances where survival often depended on morale and emotional resilience, companionship became essential. Despite the horrors surrounding them, the women tried to maintain humour, hope and a shared sense of purpose.
“That companionship was everything,” Burgess said.
Those bonds often continued long after the war ended, with many surviving nurses maintaining lifelong friendships and regular reunions. For Burgess, those relationships became one of the most moving aspects of the story.
The book also highlights how differently women experienced war compared to traditional battlefield narratives. While they displayed enormous courage and endurance, many served completely unarmed while facing deeply confronting situations on a daily basis. Nurses worked exhausting shifts treating catastrophic injuries, comforting dying soldiers and operating in dangerous frontline conditions with little regard for their own safety.
For older Australians especially, Burgess hopes Sisters Under Fire serves as a reminder of the extraordinary contribution women made during the war effort and the sacrifices many endured without recognition.
“They witnessed horrifying injuries, worked exhausting shifts under fire and cared for dying soldiers while often risking their own lives,” he said. “We should always remember and honour them.”
After spending years immersed in the lives of women like Margaret Anderson and Vera Torney, Burgess said he was left with overwhelming admiration for a generation of women who stepped into danger not for glory, but because they believed it was their duty to care for others.
“We owe an enormous debt to these women who volunteered to stand defenceless under fire in order to care for others,” he said.
Sisters Under Fire is ultimately more than a wartime history book. It is a tribute to the resilience, compassion and courage of Australian women whose stories deserve to stand alongside the nation’s most important wartime accounts.