American Nightingale: The Story of Frances Slanger, Forgotten Heroine of Normandy
Type
Book
Authors
ISBN 10
0743477588
ISBN 13
9780743477581
Category
United States - Military History
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Publication Year
2004
Publisher
Pages
320
Tags
Description
"A young nurse jumped onto the Normandy beach just after D-Day and comforted hundreds of wounded young boys. They beheld her as an angel, but she told them no, they were the real heroes. After a shell ended her life, larger stories obscured her death. Then almost sixty years later, a young author discovered that her memory still burnt brightly in the hearts of many. Bob Welch has done the country a service by recalling Frances Slanger's story. I recommend you enrich your life and read this touching story of an American Nightingale." - James Bradley, author, Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys
Of the 350,000 American women in uniform during World War II, none instilled more hope in American GIs than Frances Slanger. In Army fatigues and helmet she splashed ashore with the first nurses to hit the Normandy beach in June 1944. Later, from a storm-whipped tent amid the thud of artillery shells, she wrote a letter to Stars and Stripes newspaper that would stir the souls of thousands of weary soldiers. Hundred wrote heartfelt responses, praising Slanger and her fellow nurses and honoring her humility and patriotism. But Frances Slanger never got to read such praise. She was dead, killed the very next day when German troops shelled her hospital, the first American nurse to die in Europe after the landings at Normandy.
Frances Slanger was a Jewish fruit-peddler's daughter who survived a chilling childhood in World War I-torn Poland and immigrated to America at age seven. Inspired by memories of her bitter past and a Nazi-threatened future, she defied her parents' wishes by becoming a nurse and joining the military. A woman of great integrity and courage, she was also a passionate writer and keeper of chapbooks. This is the story of her too brief life.
American Nightingale is the heart-wrenching account of a young woman whose passion and patriotism inspired thousands of soldiers, and whose life exemplified the American spirit.
Bob Welch is an award-winning general columnist at The Register-Guard newspaper and an adjuct professor of journalism at the University of Oregon in Eugene. The author of several books, he has been published in such magazines as Reader's Digest and Sports Illustrated. He and his wife, Sally, live in Eugene.
Taken from the inside flaps.
Of the 350,000 American women in uniform during World War II, none instilled more hope in American GIs than Frances Slanger. In Army fatigues and helmet she splashed ashore with the first nurses to hit the Normandy beach in June 1944. Later, from a storm-whipped tent amid the thud of artillery shells, she wrote a letter to Stars and Stripes newspaper that would stir the souls of thousands of weary soldiers. Hundred wrote heartfelt responses, praising Slanger and her fellow nurses and honoring her humility and patriotism. But Frances Slanger never got to read such praise. She was dead, killed the very next day when German troops shelled her hospital, the first American nurse to die in Europe after the landings at Normandy.
Frances Slanger was a Jewish fruit-peddler's daughter who survived a chilling childhood in World War I-torn Poland and immigrated to America at age seven. Inspired by memories of her bitter past and a Nazi-threatened future, she defied her parents' wishes by becoming a nurse and joining the military. A woman of great integrity and courage, she was also a passionate writer and keeper of chapbooks. This is the story of her too brief life.
American Nightingale is the heart-wrenching account of a young woman whose passion and patriotism inspired thousands of soldiers, and whose life exemplified the American spirit.
Bob Welch is an award-winning general columnist at The Register-Guard newspaper and an adjuct professor of journalism at the University of Oregon in Eugene. The author of several books, he has been published in such magazines as Reader's Digest and Sports Illustrated. He and his wife, Sally, live in Eugene.
Taken from the inside flaps.
Number of Copies
1
