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
Estelle M. Davis explains why she enlisted as a Red Cross nurse during World War One and describes her experiences. She reminisces about being a public health nurse in Jersey City, her family's reaction to her enlistment, and being shipped across the Atlantic to Calais with 350 fellow nurses. Davis recounts the awful food and the terrible conditions under which staff had to perform surgery, while serving only 50 miles from the front at Verdun. She says that she met her future husband when treating him for a shrapnel wound at her aid station. Davis is interviewed by Lois Collet.
Date Issued:
1982-10-23T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:
Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:
Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
Agnes Elaine Osborn Myers talks about joining the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in September 1917 and serving in World War One. Myers says that she completed nurse's training at Philadelphia General Hospital, joined the Army immediately after the U.S. entered the war and was sent directly to a hospital without ever having basic training. Myers talks about her uniform, slogging through the mud in France, being cold all of the time, working in both hospitals and tents, being assigned to areas where major offensives were taking place, her duties treating injured and ill troops, and being busy every minute of every day. Myers says that she met her future husband, a captain in the 78th Division, in France and married him when they returned to the States. Myers is interviewed by Ruth Banonis.
Date Issued:
1983-11-02T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:
Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:
Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
British Admiral Jellicoe speaking in Royal Albert Hall early in World War I. Jellicoe describes the struggle as Armageddon. There is some extraneous background noise in the recording.