Interview of Penny Edlin on her service with the U.S. Army 82nd General Hospital during WWII

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Description:

Sarah Penrose "Penny" Schemmel Edlin discusses her service with the 82nd General Hospital during World War Two. Edlin talks about her childhood, her education as a physical therapist, joining the Army as a commissioned officer in August 1943, her very rigorous basic training, and being shipped to England in February 1944. She also talks about the harsh living conditions in the hospital camps where she served including, the bad food, unsanitary conditions and rodent infestations, and shares a story about a planned German POW prison break near one of the camps and treating the German prisoners who claimed they couldn't speak English. After VE-Day, Edlin says that her unit moved to France to close down hospitals and later to a hospital in England to treat emaciated American POWs who were returning from the German prison camps. She says that romances between U.S. Army officers and nurses was quite common during the war and that she, in fact, married a man from her unit after she returned to the States. Edlin is interviewed by Dorothy M. Harrison.

Data Provider:

Michigan State University. Libraries

Collection:

Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project

Place:

France and England

Subject Topic:

Military life, Physical therapists, World War, 1939-1945, Veterans, Women veterans, World War, 1939-1945, World War, 1939-1945, Participation, Female, Military education, World War, 1939-1945, Hospitals, World War, 1939-1945, Hospitals, Prisoners of war, Hospital care, and Man-woman relationships

Subject Name:

Edlin, Penny, 1922-2007, United States, Army, General Hospital, 82nd, United States, and Army

Subject Genre:

Interviews, Interviews, Interviews, Interviews, Interviews, and Personal narratives, American

Language:

English

Rights:

In Copyright

URL:

https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5hh61