Interview of Elizabeth Margaret Phillips on her service in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in Europe during WWI

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Description:

Ninety-eight year old Elizabeth Phillips talks about her service in the Army Nurse Corps in Europe during World War I. She recalls being assigned to a hospital five miles behind the front near Avignon, France, German planes flying over on their way to bomb Paris, surgeries performed as wounded were brought in from the front, her general duties, the large number of casualties, the catastrophic flu epidemic in 1918 and the many funerals, the regimentation and twelve hour shifts, and that when her unit was first deployed to France in May of 1917, the nurses did not receive rations and were expected to find their own food. Phillips explains that nurses had no rank in World War I and were not treated as equals and says that she lobbied vigorously in World War II to correct that inequality. She also says she tried to volunteer for service during World War II, but was refused and spent the war preparing Red Cross packages for shipment to American POWs in German camps.

Date Issued:

1982-04-28T00:00:00Z

Data Provider:

Michigan State University. Libraries

Collection:

Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project

Place:

France and United States

Subject Topic:

Military life, Nurses, World War, 1914-1918, Veterans, Women veterans, World War, 1914-1918, World War, 1914-1918, Participation, Female, World War, 1914-1918, Medical care, World War, 1914-1918, Casualties, Influenza Epidemic, 1918-1919, Discrimination in the military, and History

Subject Name:

Phillips, Elizabeth Margaret, 1884-, United States, Army Nurse Corps, 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/m5xd73