Sima arrived at The 3rd Belorussian Front in 1943. Staying just a few kilometers behind the soldiers, Sima and the rest of the medical staff were under fire on a regular basis:

“We were bombed and fired at. Many nurses were killed. Medical staff air raid, it was so scary. We were saving the wounded soldiers all the same.”

Sima stayed with the soldiers for the rest of the war, reaching Berlin in 1945.

After the war in Europe, Sima was transferred to North Korea. Stationed primarily in Pyongyang, where she treated Japanese POWs in addition to Soviet soldiers: “Many Japanese soldiers were captured. They got a treatment which was better than the one our soldiers got [Soviets captured by Japanese]”

Sima was demobilized late in 1946. She worked in a bone tuberculosis clinic for 30 years before immigrating to Canada.