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Overview
The Army nurses of World War II served in the United States and abroad, in dense jungles, war-torn villages, and on barren ice fields. Many encountered hardships: bombings, crude living conditions, inadequate food. They also experienced the frustration of receiving lesser pay and privileges than their male counterparts as they worked, sometimes around the clock, to treat the wounded while confronting air raids, the threat of invasion, and capture by the enemy.
Nonetheless, in additon to their devotion to saving lives, some of the most important things the nurses brought to their units were courage and cheer. From holiday parties in makeshift hospitals to fudge making and softball games amid the grueling conditions of war, these angels of mercy brought light — and life — to the American forces of World War II.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780689820441 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Aladdin |
| Publication date: | 10/01/1999 |
| Edition description: | 1 ED |
| Pages: | 128 |
| Product dimensions: | 8.25(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.30(d) |
| Lexile: | 970L (what's this?) |
| Age Range: | 10 - 14 Years |
About the Author
Since leaving Pennsylvania, Betsy has lived in England, New Mexico, and Connecticut. She now makes her home in Maryland with her husband and their twin sons. She also has written a children's novel, Not Exactly Nashville.
Read an Excerpt
The first Army nurses to care for D day casualties were those of the 12th and 13th Hospital Train Units — but they didn't reach Normandy by train. Sailing on two British hospital ships, they arrived off Omaha Beach on June 7 and Utah Beach on June 8, and began caring for the wounded before they were evacuated back to England.
On June 10, long before things had settled down, the nurses of the 128th Evacuation Hospital arrived on Utah Beach. They'd left England the day before, dressed in fatigues. "We didn't take off those clothes for a long time!" Helen Reichert remembers with a laugh.
At dawn, as her ship neared the Normandy shore, Reichert went up on deck to use the bathroom. "This glider [bomb] came down ... and it fell in between our ship and the ship that was next to us and exploded," she says. "It blew in part of our ship."
The nurses sailed to shore on small landing boats, then waded through the water and ran across the beach to safety. The soldiers had laid down a metal track on the sand for tanks and other heavy vehicles, part of the elaborate D day preparations. Says Reichert, "I looked down and I said, well, this is nice. It was an improvement over our Arzew beach."
Helen Dixon Johnson, a nurse from California, landed on Omaha Beach two weeks after D day. Even then, she remembers, "There was debris all over: tanks and trucks and parts of equipment, machine guns, everything. There were [barrage] balloons all over," large balloons that hovered over the water to help protect ships against air attacks.
The ack-ack (antiaircraft fire) was so loud, she says, "you could hardly hear yourself think." On shore, signs such as one saying "Roads Cleared of Mines to the Hedge" directed them to safe paths. Before the invasion, the enemy had littered the coast with mines, explosive devices usually laid underwater or just below the ground that can kill or maim people and destroy ships, tanks, and other equipment when run over or stepped on.
Johnson, a member of the 3rd Auxiliary Surgical Unit, was assigned to the 51st Field Hospital near the town of Saint-LÔ, close to the front lines. She worked at least twelve hours a day, usually more. Cows, abandoned by their owners, followed the nurses, hoping to be milked, bees swarmed the canned peaches in their K-rations, and enemy fire was never far away. One night the Germans bombed the hospital area, and the nurses jumped into slit trenches. "They were all full of this garbage," says Johnson, but "we didn't care."
The Allies had hoped to move quickly inland after the invasion, but they were having a terrible time pushing past the Germans, who had taken cover behind Normandy's tall, thick hedgerows. Finally, in late July, the frustrated Allies launched a massive air attack near Saint-LÔ, and the German lines began to crumble.
Text copyright © 1999 by Betsy Kuhn
Table of Contents
CONTENTSTIME LINE
MAP OF EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA
MAP OF THE PACIFIC THEATER
1941
"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON?"
MILDRED IRENE CLARK: "IT'S MANEUVERS"
AN ORDEAL IN THE PHILIPPINES: THE JAPANESE ATTACK
CHRISTMAS/HANUKKAH, 1941
THE ARMY NURSE CORPS IN WORLD WAR II
1942
REPORTING FOR DUTY
THE 95TH EVACUATION HOSPITAL: "YOU ARE NEEDED NOW"
AN ORDEAL IN THE PHILIPPINES: SURRENDER
ALICE IN THE PACIFIC: ANTHILLS SIX FEET TALL
THE 48TH SURGICAL HOSPITAL: THE 48TH WADES ASHORE
CHRISTMAS/HANUKKAH, 1942
1943
DANGEROUS WATERS, DANGEROUS GROUND
THE 95TH EVACUATION HOSPITAL: WELCOME TO THE WAR
AN ORDEAL IN THE PHILIPPINES: A CAPTIVE EXISTENCE
ALICE IN THE PACIFIC: TWO HELMETS A DAY
A FLIGHT NURSE'S STORY: BEHIND ENEMY LINES
CHRISTMAS/HANUKKAH, 1943
1944
"THE RAIN BEATING DOWN, THE GUNS FIRING"
A FLIGHT NURSE'S STORY: A VERY GOOD CHOCOLATE BAR
THE 95TH EVACUATION HOSPITAL: "HELL'S HALF-ACRE"
THE 128TH EVACUATION AND 51ST FIELD HOSPITALS:
D DAY, JUNE 6, 1944
THE 95TH EVACUATION HOSPITAL: BONJOUR, FRANCE!
THE 128TH EVACUATION AND THE 51ST FIELD HOSPITALS:
THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE
ALICE IN THE PACIFIC: TO TACLOBAN
AN ORDEAL IN THE PHILIPPINES: SLOW HUNGER
CHRISTMAS/HANUKKAH, 1944
1945
"A CREDIT TO MY COUNTRY"
AN ORDEAL IN THE PHILIPPINES: FREEDOM
THE 51ST FIELD HOSPITAL: INTO THE LAND OF THE ENEMY
THE 95TH EVACUATION AND 51ST FIELD HOSPITALS:
THE HORROR OF THE CAMPS
ALICE IN THE PACIFIC: THE WAR'S NOT OVER YET
NOW THAT IT'S OVER
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ENDNOTES
INDEX