Helmets and Lipstick is the first-hand account of Second Lieutenant Ruth Haskell, chronicling her time spent as a combat nurse with U.S. troops in North Africa during Operation Torch. First published at the height of the war in 1944, Haskell's memoir is a classic account of combat nursing in World War 2, an important addition to the literature of the war in North Africa and of the history of non-combatants in the Second World War.
In World War II, 59,000 women voluntarily risked their lives for their country as U.S. Army nurses. When the war began, some of them had so little idea of what to expect that they packed party dresses; but the reality of service quickly caught up with them, whether they waded through the water in the historic landings on North African and Normandy beaches, or worked around the clock in hospital tents on the Italian front as bombs fell all around them. For more than half a century these women’s experiences remained untold, almost without reference in books, historical societies, or military archives. After years of reasearch and hundreds of hours of interviews, Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee have created a dramatic narrative that at last brings to light the critical role that women played throughout the war. From the North African and Italian Campaigns to the Liberation of France and the Conquest of Germany, U.S. Army nurses rose to the demands of war on the frontlines with grit, humor, and great heroism. A long overdue work of history, And If I Perish is also a powerful tribute to these women and their inspiring legacy.
"Our need for many more of these girls is urgent, and this book is intended to tell a bit about the trials and tribulations, the fun and the thrills, to be experienced as a member of the Corps." Helmets and Lipstick is the first-hand account of Second Lieutenant Ruth Haskell, chronicling her time spent as a combat nurse with U.S. troops in North Africa during Operation Torch. Helmets and Lipstick also served as a call-to-action for the nurses in the U.S. who had not yet joined the war effort. From deployment to the journey to North Africa via Scotland and London, Lt. Haskell tells her story with a dry wit and humor, perfectly portraying the comradery between the nurses and the Allied soldiers fighting in North Africa at the time. She provides touching accounts of the lighter side of life in wartime, recalling the card games, dances and even Christmas celebrations that took place. But these nurses were members of the U.S. Army and went through the same trials and tribulations of war as the male soldiers. U.S. troops came under heavy fire throughout Operation Torch and Haskell's group learned to nurse in these nearly impossible conditions, receiving tough training and expected to rise to the same high standards as the soldiers in combat. Helmets and Lipstick, which was first published at the height of the war in 1944, is a classic account of combat nursing in World War Two, an important addition to the literature of the war in North Africa and of the history of non-combatants in the Second World War.
Relates the experiences of World War II Army nurses, who brought medical skills, courage, and cheer to hospitals throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific.
No Time for Fear summons the voices of more than 100 women who served as nurses overseas during World War II, letting them tell their story as no one else can. Fessler has meticulously compiled and transcribed more than 200 interviews with American military nurses of the Army, Army Air Force, and Navy who were present in all theaters of WWII. Their stories bring to life horrific tales of illness and hardship, blinding blizzards, and near starvation—all faced with courage, tenacity, and even good humor. This unique oral-history collection makes available to readers an important counterpoint to the seemingly endless discussions of strategy, planning, and troop movement that often characterize discussions of the Second World War.
Recounts the history of the Army Nurse Corps, whose members served with but not in the armed forces, and describes the experiences of nurses in every theater of World War II, including the special situation faced by African American nurses.
"Weaving together information from official sources and personal interviews, Barbara Tomblin gives the first full-length account of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in the Second World War. She describes how over 60,000 army nurses, all volunteers, cared for sick and wounded American soldiers in every theater of the war, serving in the jungles of the Southwest Pacific, the frozen reaches of Alaska and Iceland, the mud of Italy and northern Europe, or the heat and dust of the Middle East. Many of the women in the Army Nurse Corps served in dangerous hospitals near the front lines—201 nurses were killed by accident or enemy action, and another 1,600 won decorations for meritorious service. These nurses address the extreme difficulties of dealing with combat and its effects in World War II, and their stories are all the more valuable to women’s and military historians because they tell of the war from a very different viewpoint than that of male officers. Although they were unable to achieve full equality for American women in the military during World War II, army nurses did secure equal pay allowances and full military rank, and they proved beyond a doubt their ability and willingness to serve and maintain excellent standards of nursing care under difficult and often dangerous conditions.
In 1945, the author found herself in the monsoon-drenched jungles of Assam, caring for soldiers in the China-Burma-India theater of war in a thatched-roof hospital that had few modern facilities. Nothing in her nurse's training had prepared her for the tropical diseases her patients faced, nor had her experiences readied her for a hospital where men spat on the floor, rats were pervasive, and patients, who used their handguns to chase gigantic cockroaches, were as likely to sell their medicine as swallow it. What made the experience tolerable was Nurse Camp's romance with one of the airmen who flew the Hump, supplying O.S.S. troops behind Japanese lines and carrying General Joseph Stillwell's Chinese troops to fight the battle of North Burma. She accompanied her future husband on some of his missions, flying over the treacherous mountains to China and down to Calcutta. Based, in part, on letters she wrote to her parents, this is the poignant story of one nurse's experience in World War II and how her service changed her life forever.
