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Angels of Bataan

The Angels of Bataan (also known as the "Angels of Bataan and Corregidor" and "The Battling Belles of Bataan"[1]) were the members of the United States Army Nurse Corps and the United States Navy Nurse Corps who were stationed in the Philippines at the outset of the Pacific War and served during the Battle of the Philippines (1941–1942). When Bataan and Corregidor fell, 11 navy nurses, 66 army nurses, and 1 nurse-anesthetist were captured and imprisoned in and around Manila.[2][3] They continued to serve as a nursing unit while prisoners of war.[4] After years of hardship, they were finally liberated in February 1945.

Angels of Bataan and Corregidor

December 1941 – March 1945

United States

United States

United States Army, United States Navy

Nurse corps

78 nurses

Battling Belles of Bataan

Battle of Bataan
Battle of Corregidor
World War II
Philippines Campaign

Capt. Maude C. Davison (US Army), Lt. Laura M. Cobb (US Navy)

(MGM 1943)

Cry 'Havoc'

(Paramount 1943) (based on the Redmond book)

So Proudly We Hail!

(MGM 1945)

They Were Expendable

Army nurses climb into trucks leaving Santo Tomas, 12 February 1945

Army nurses climb into trucks leaving Santo Tomas, 12 February 1945

Army nurses leaving Santo Tomas

Army nurses leaving Santo Tomas

Navy nurses rescued from Los Baños, 23 February 1945

Navy nurses rescued from Los Baños, 23 February 1945

Navy nurses rescued from Los Baños

Navy nurses rescued from Los Baños

Emboldened by the success of the Raid at Cabanatuan, General Douglas MacArthur ordered Major General Vernon D. Mudge to make an aggressive raid[49][50] on Santo Tomas in the Battle of Manila. The internees at Santo Tomas, including the nurses, were liberated on 3 February 1945, by a "flying column" of the 1st Cavalry.[51][52]


The navy nurses were subsequently liberated in the Raid at Los Baños.


Upon returning to the US, the US Army awarded their nurses, among other decorations, the Bronze Star for valor and a Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism in action.[53] The navy nurses were likewise awarded Bronze Stars upon their return.[54]

The first large group of American women in combat.

[63]

The largest group of American women taken captive and imprisoned by an enemy.

[63]

During World War II, the captured nurses were portrayed to motivate industrial production.

[64]

During World War II, the captured nurses were portrayed to motivate recruitment of additional military nurses. By the end of the war, 59,283 army nurses volunteered to serve, more than half volunteered for and served in combat zones, and sixteen were killed by enemy action.[66]

[65]

By the 1980s, the "Angels of Bataan and Corregidor" were characterized as: "The role model of Army Nursing."

[67]

(one of the US Navy nurses held at Los Baños)

Dorothy Still Danner

(one of the US Navy nurses held at Los Baños)

Goldia O'Haver

(one of five navy nurses captured on Guam)

Wilma Leona Jackson

(American author captured and imprisoned on Borneo)

Agnes Newton Keith

(secret record kept at the Stanley Internment Camp, Hong Kong)

Day Joyce Sheet

(women interned on Sumatra during World War II)

Paradise Road

(American nurse who aided American POWs under cover as Lithuanian nurse in Philippines during World War II)

Margaret Utinsky

(UK nurse and missionary imprisoned in Singapore, author of "The Captive's Hymn")

Margaret Dryburgh

We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese by (1999) Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc. ISBN 9780671787189

Elizabeth M. Norman

Monahan, Evelyn M.; Neidel-Greenlee, Rosemary (2003). All This Hell: U.S. Nurses Imprisoned by the Japanese. University Press of Kentucky.  978-0-8131-9061-7.

ISBN

No Time for Fear: Voices of American Military Nurses in World War II by Diane Burke Fessler, (August 1996), Michigan State University Press,  978-0-87013-440-1

ISBN

"The Angels of Bataan" by E. Norman and S. Eifried, . (1993 Summer). 25(2):121–6. Erratum in: Image: The Journal of Nursing Scholarship (1993 Fall). 25(3):171. PMID 8340120

Image: The Journal of Nursing Scholarship

Captured: The Japanese Internment of American Civilians in the Philippines, 1941-1945 (review) by Lynn Z. Bloom, - Volume 23, Number 3, Summer 2000, pp. 549–552 doi:10.1353/bio.2000.0019

Biography

Herman, J. K. (May–June 1992). (PDF). Navy Medicine. 83 (3): 36–40.

"Dorothy Still Danner: Reminiscences of a Nurse POW"

(United States Army Center of Military History, 1952)

Louis Morton, US Army in World War II: The War in the Pacific--The Fall of the Philippines

(PDF). The Quan. 58 (2). American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor: 1, 6–7, 9–11, 13–15. September 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2016.

"A Tribute to Our Nurses"

Condon-Rall, Mary Ellen; Cowdrey, Albert E. (1998). The Technical Services—The Medical Department: Medical Service In The War Against Japan. United States Army In World War II. Washington, DC: Center Of Military History, United States Army. pp. 23–43.  97022644.

LCCN

Angel On Embattled Seas, American Legion Auxiliary — Volume 1 February 2011 Recollections of Floramund Fellmeth & Mactan

Partners in Winning the War: American Women in World War II - Nurse Corps

Santo Tomas Internment Camp (1942 – February 3, 1945)

Victims of Circumstance-Santo Tomas Internment Camp

Lieutenant (j.g.) Ann A. Bernatitus, "Angel of Mercy"

Santo Tomas, Philippines WWII Internment Camp

Archived 2009-12-20 at the Wayback Machine

United States Army Nurse Corps (a brochure describing the experiences of the Corps during WWII)

Welcome to Army Nurse Corps History: "Preserving our past to guide our future"

Oral Histories - U.S. Navy Nurse Prisoner of War in the Philippines, 1942-1945

Archived June 23, 2010, at the Wayback Machine

"Three Years In A Prison Camp" by Lt. Rita G. Palmer, ANC

Archived June 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine

"Angels At Bataan, Chronicling the Hellish Story of the Battle-scarred Nurses", by Chelsea J. Carter, Associated Press, New Hampshire Sunday News, June 13, 1999

Recollections of LT Dorothy Still Danner, NC, USN, captured by the Japanese in Manila and imprisoned at Santo Thomas and Los Banos in the Philippines

Trailer for Angels of Bataan television documentary

Excerpt from the poem "Angels of Bataan" by Susan Terris

"World War II Bataan 'angel' nurse dies: Jean Kennedy Schmidt was one of 77 taken prisoner at Corregidor"

Caswell County Historical Association: Evelyn Barbara Whitlow (1916-1994)

Archived December 8, 2009, at the Wayback Machine

Lt. Rita G. Palmer of Hampton: Army Nurse Corps

Rosmary Hogan (1912–1964) Colonel, US Army, WWII Nurse

Dorothy Still Danner, Lieutenant, United States Navy, Bethesda nurses honor former POW, by Kevin Sforza NNMC Public Affairs

The short film is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.

We All Came Home: Army and Navy Nurse POWs In World War II

The short film is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.

Fortress in the Sea

Booknotes interview with Elizabeth Norman on We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese, August 15, 1999.