COMBAT NURSES of World War II Here is the story of the courageous young women who served at Pearl Harbor, Corregidor, Anzio, Battle of the Bulge, Iwo Jima, and other fighting fronts of the Second World W.ar.
COMBAT NURSES of World War II by Wyatt Blassingame illustrated by Gil Walker
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Random House. New York
To Kathi Diamant
Cover illustration by Shannon Stirnweis. For permission to quote [rom books and letters, grateful acknowledgment is made to the following: The John Day Company, Inc., for quotations from letters by Lieutenant Sally Zumaris in Wilh Love, Jane by Alma Lutz (John Day, 1945); Dorothea Daley Engel and Crowell Collier and Macmillan, Inc., for a quotation from "I Was Married in Battle," American Magazine, October, 1942; Patricia Lockridge Hartwell and Crowell Collier and Macmillan, Inc., for a quotation [rom "Solace at Iwo," Woman's Home Companicm, May, 1945; Leota Hurley Leavens for quotations from a letter; Agnes Jensen Mangerich for quotations from letters; Putnam's and Coward-McCann for a quotation from Helmets and Lipstick by Ruth Haskell (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1944); Simon and Schuster, Inc., for quotations from Purple HeaTt Valley by Margaret Bourke-White (Simon and Schuster, 1944); Al K. Smith for quotations (i-om letters of Phyllis MacDonald Smith; Keith Wheeler and Shirley Collier [or a quotation from We ATe the Wounded (E. P. Dutton, 1945). Š Copyright, 1967, by Wyatt Blassingame. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in New York by Random House, Inc., and simultaneously in Toronlo, Canada, by Random House of Canada Limited. Manufactured in the United States of America: printed by Colonial Press, Inc., Clinton, Mass.
elP data may be found at the end of the book.
Contents I. The Beginning 2. Bataan and Corregidor 3. England 4. North Africa 5. Italy 6. Training for War 7. Islands of the Pacific 8. Hospital Ship 9. Flight Nurse 10. France and Germany II. Prisoners of War Author's Note Index MAPS
The Pacific Theater The European Theater
1 17 37 51 67 85 97 111 127 147 163 177 179 4 41
INDEX Aeromedicine, 131-32 Ain El Turck, Algeria, 69 Air Medal, 135 Albania, 138 Almond, Hallie, 74 Anzio, Italy, 75, 83-84 Archard, Theresa, 39-40, 4?, 47, 54,59,66 Arizona) U.S.S., 7 Army Nurse Corps, 83, 99, 109, 119 Arzeu, Algeria, 59, 64 Atabrine, 103 Atkins, Edna, 59, 62 Australia, 34, 100 Baggs, James, 136 Bari, Italy, 135 Barnes, Wilma, 72 Bataan, 27, 34, 99 American nurses on, 19-20, 22-24, 26, 33, 88, 92 Bataana, Victoria, 27 Battle of the Bulge, 95, 157, 160 Bernatitus, Ann, 29-30, 34 Berrett, Anna Bess, 78 Bliss, Louis, 76 Bountiful) U.S.S., 120-23 Bourke-White, Margaret, 73 Breese, Minnie, 13, 165, 168-69 Brisbane, Australia, 100-01 British Secret Service, 141-42 Buckley, Ruth, 79 Bulge, Battle of, 95, 157, 160 Cadet Nursing Corps. See United States Cadet Nursing Corps Camp Davis, N.C., 99 Camp Shelby, Miss., 39 Canopus) U.S.S., 23 Clark Field, 14-15, 20 Comfort, U.S.S., 124-25
180 Cook, Betty, 72 Coral Sea, Battle of,) 0 I Corregidor, 13-16, 19,27,32-35,88, 165 captured by Japanese, 35-36 Daley, Dorothea, 14-15,20,22-23,28,33-34 quoted,28 Davidson, Ann, 7, .9-12 Dial, Kathleen, 135 East Indies, 100 Efate Island, 106-08 II th Field Hospital, 72 Engel, Emanuel "Boots," 14-15,23-24,28,33-34 England, American nurses in, 46-49 Espiritu Santo Island, 106 Farquhar, LaVerne, 83 "Fatigue neurosis," 74 Flight nursing, 131-32 Ford Island, 6 Fort Stotsenberg Hospital, 14-15 48th Surgical, 47, 49, 53-54, 64 Fraleigh, Lieutenant, 30 France, field and evacuation hospitals in, 151-52 Geneva Convention, 70 German submarines, 43-44 Guadalcanal, 106, 133 Guam, 120, 133 Halfpenny, Martha, 89 Harvard Unit, 44 Haskell, Ruth, 46-49, 57, 59-62 Hayes, Theresa, 107 Hindman, Ruth, 78 Hogan, Rosemary, 32 Hurley, Leota, 120-22 quoted,123 Iceland,46
181 Italy Allied invasion of, 70, 72, 75-77, 83 American nurses in, 72-75, 78-84 Iwo Jima, 113, 116, 132-33 Jensen, Agnes, 135-36, 138-41 quoted, 137-40, 142-44 Kamikazes, 122 Kandeigh, Jane, 132-33 Kelly, Lieutenant, 59, 61-62 Kopcso, Ann, 141 Lally, Grace, 3, 6-8, 12 Limay Hospital, 19-20, 23-24 Little Baguio Hospital, 24-25, 27, 29, 31 , 32 Lytle, Wilma, 140, 144 MacArthur, Douglas, 100, 104, 109 MacDonald, Inez, 23 MacDonald, Phyllis, quoted, 56-58, 62-66 Malaria, 103 Maness, Ann, 138, 140, 144 Manila, 165, 171 Manila Bay, 13-14, 19 Mariveles, Bataan, 24, 28, 32-33 Morrow, Marjorie, 78-79 Navy Nurse Corps, 119 Nesbitt, Josephine, 32 Nevada, U.S.S., 6 New Caledonia, 105-06, 108 New Guinea, 92, 100-04, 109, 157 American nurses in, 101-04, 109 New York Port of Embarkation, 42, 100 Newfoundland (British hospital ship), 70-72 95th Evacuation Hospital, 69, 71-72, 78-81 Nissen huts, 48 Normandy, 150 North Africa. 49,54, 69,71,88,92
182 Allied landing in, 54-58 American nurses in, 59-66 Noumea, New Caledonia, 105-06 Okinawa, 122-24, 133, 174 153rd Station Hospital, 101 140th General Hospital, 157, 162 Oro Bay, 109 Oxygen shortage, effects of, 132 Pearl Harbor, 3 Japanese attack on, 6-14, 27 Sick Officers Quarters at, 7, 10 Peto, Marjorie, 46-47, 49, 149 Philippines, 13-14, 19,27,92,99,109,165-66,174 Pirl, Marie, 90-92, 109-10 Port Moresby, 101 Porter, Helen, 140, 144 Pridham, Dorothy, 40, 42 Purple Heart Drive, 80 Redmond, Juanita, 22-23, 31-32, 34 Registered Nurse degree, 88 Renski, Caroline, 153-54 Richardson , Catherine, 12 Roberts, Mary, 81-83 Roe, Elaine R., 83 Roosevelt, Franklin D., 27 Rourke, Virginia, 83 St. David (British hospital ship), 78 Saipan, 118-19, 125, 133 Salerno, 70, 78 Samaritan, U.S.S., 116-19 Santo Tomas internment camp, 165, 173-74 Seabees, 105, 106 2nd General Hospital, 46-47, 49, 149 Sheetz, Carrie, 78-79 Shikoski, Dorothy, 133 Sick Officers Quarters, at Pearl Harbor, 7, 10
183 Sigman, Blanche, 78-79 Silver Star medal, 83 Slanger, Frances, 154, 156 quoted, 154-55 Smith, Lieutenant Commander, 30 Solace, U.S.S., 3, 7-8, 11 Solomon Islands, 107 Spelhaug, Glenda, 83 Stars and Stripes, 155 Stoltz, Ruth, 13-16, 35-36, 165, 168-74 quoted,166 Submarines, German, 43-44 Sullivan, Mary Ann, 44, 46 Tansy, Bernice, 94-95, 157-59, 162 38th Evacuation Hospital, 74 33rd Field Hospital, 81-83 Thrasher, Charles, 136-37, 141 Tulagi,106 Ulithi Island, 119-20, 123, 133 United States Cadet Nursing Corps, 88 number of girls in, 88 training for, 92-95 uniforms, worn in, 88-89 Vowell, Edith, 99-104, 174 Wainwright, Jonathan, 36 Wingerd, Fern, 79 Zumaris, Sally, 159-60, 162 quoted, 159-61
About the Author In World War II, Wyatt Blassingame was an intelligence officer with the Naval Air Corps on the islands of Tinian and Okinawa. He witnessed the work of army and navy nurses when he visited sick and wounded comrades in hospitals on Hawaii, Saipan, and Okinawa. His twenty books include The U.S. Frogmen of World War II (Landmark) and The French Foreign Legion (World Landmark) . Mr. Blassingame and his wife, who have two married daughters, live on Anna Maria, an island off the west coast of Florida. This title was originally catalogued by the Library of Congress as follows: Blassingame, Wyatt. Combat nurses of World War II. Illustrated bv Gil Walker. New York, Random House (1967) • 184 p.
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