AND IF I PERISH is a book that is hard to put down once you start reading it.
The authors keep you turning page after page as you follow in the footsteps of the U.S. Army nurses of World War II.
"Suddenly, the barge Haskell was in stopped its foward motion, dropped its bow ramp, and GIs farthest forward disembarked into a cold, choppy sea and began wading toward the beach. Haskell was shocked to see tall men disappear up to their necks in the Mediterranean. She watched as two of the shorter nurses in her party followed the soldiers and sank up to their eyes in cold, gray-green salt water." (excert from Operation Torch)
If the American public had known these nurses were wading ashore on D-day invasions, there would have been hell to pay!!
These nurses were a lifeline for our troops! By their very presence on the frontline hospitals, they gave hope to the wounded. After all, if our nurses are this close to the frontlines then we must be winning.....right?
Very little has been published, in comparison, about the nurses who served alongside our military during World War II. You will read about the first Silver Star to be awarded to a woman, about their constant packing up and moving the hospitals forward, as the battles shifted and the front line moved forward, along with a sudden retreat where the enemy was only minutes away!
Some of the nurses survived the bombing of their hospital ship, only to be later placed on another hospital ship that also was bombed. Both ships had to be evacuated. The Battle at Anzio beachhead saw the continual bombing of the Army hospitals there, with many patients wounded again from shrapnel as they lay healing in the medical tents. Tents which were clearly marked with a giant Red Cross, per the Geneva Convention.
You won't regret one minute of your time spent reading this book!
Stumble It!
