IN the spring of 1940 you couldn't always believe what you read in newspapers due to the secrecy surrounding the evacuation of troops from the British Expeditionary Force who had been helping to defend France.

Among those brought home as the Germans advanced across Europe was a Walney nurse.

Her comments to readers of the Barrow News played down the seriousness of the retreat to the England Channel ports and what turned unto the extraction of more than 300,000 soldiers between May 26 and June 4.

THE Barrow News of Saturday June 1 in 1940 described the exploits of the wartime nurse - Miss K. D. Evinson, of 22 Lord Roberts Street.

She was home on leave from France where she had been serving with the Territorial Army Nursing Service.

The nurse had been evacuated from the unnamed town where she had been based but didn’t feel she had been in danger.

She had been in many air raids and said “nobody worried much. In fact, after a time, we used to sleep through them.”

She confirmed stories widely believed at home that Germans were infiltrating British defensive lines in France by using disguises.

The article noted: “She had seen motor cars riddled with bullets.

“She had not seen any parachute troops but there had been some nearby and it was quite correct that they were dressed as priests and in Allied uniforms.”

Miss Evinson was not born in Furness but had lived here for many years.

The article noted: “She trained as a nurse at Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford.

“Mostly she has been in London hospitals but for a few months she was at Devonshire Road, Hospital, Barrow.”