Laura Smith talks about her service as a U.S. Army nurse during WWI

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Description:

Laura Smith talks about her service as an Army nurse during the First World War. Smith says she graduated from nursing school in the spring of 1917, was inducted into the Army in February 1918 and was sent with her unit to Liverpool, England that same year. Smith says that she was later assigned to a mobile tent hospital near Chateau-Thierry and recalls the surgeries, the daily hospital routine, her quarters, wood stoves for heat, blackout conditions, and meals. Her unit, Smith says, moved with the troops to the Meuse-Argonne front and she describes the horrors of the battle, treating gas attack victims and the onslaught of the flu epidemic which killed so many. She remembers the feelings she had when the guns fell silent on November 11th and taking a cruise up the Rhine near Koblenz in March 1919, visiting Monaco, and the Alps and finally being sent back to the U.S. in early June 1919.

Date Issued:

1983-01-01T00:00:00Z

Data Provider:

Michigan State University. Libraries

Collection:

Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project

Place:

Monaco, Alps, France, France, France, and France

Subject Topic:

Travel, Travel, World War, 1914-1918, World War, 1914-1918, Participation, Female, World War, 1914-1918, Medical care, World War, 1914-1918, Hospitals, Military nursing, Influenza Epidemic, 1918-1919, and Armistice Day

Subject Name:

Smith, Laura, 1893-, Smith, Laura, and 1893-

Subject Genre:

Personal narratives, American

Language:

English

Rights:

In Copyright

URL:

https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m54d8b