Angels of Bataan and Corregidor | |
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![]() ![]() Liberated nurses, February 12, 1945 | |
Active | December 1941 – March 1945 |
Country | United States |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch | United States Army, United States Navy |
Type | Nurse corps |
Size | 78 nurses |
Nickname(s) | Battling Belles of Bataan |
Engagements | Battle of Bataan Battle of Corregidor World War II Philippines Campaign |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Capt. Maude C. Davison (US Army), Lt. Laura M. Cobb (US Navy) |
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] They were freed in February 1945. [5]
At the outset of World War II, US Army and US Navy nurses were stationed at Sternberg General Hospital in Manila, and other military hospitals around Manila. During the Battle of the Philippines (1941–1942), 88 US Army nurses escaped, in the last week of December 1941, to Corregidor and Bataan. [6]
Two army nurses, Lt. Floramund A. Fellmeth and Lt. Florence MacDonald, accompanied severely wounded patients from Sternberg aboard the improvised hospital ship Mactan that departed Manila shortly after midnight of the New Year of 1942 for Australia. [7]
The navy nurses, under the command of Lt. Laura M. Cobb, stayed behind in Manila during the initial invasion to support the patients there. One of them, Ann A. Bernatitus, escaped from Manila to Bataan just before Manila fell. [8] [9] The remaining 11 navy nurses were captured upon the fall of Manila and interned by the Japanese at Santo Tomas. [10] [11]
The army nurses, under the command of Capt. Maude Davison and 2nd Lt. Josephine Nesbit, together with navy nurse Bernatitus, escaped from Manila and went on to serve in the Battle of Bataan and the Battle of Corregidor. [12] [13]
In late December 1941, many of the nurses were assigned to a pair of battlefield hospitals on Bataan named Hospital #1 and Hospital #2. [14] [15] These hospitals included the first open-air wards in US history since the Civil War. [16] Tropical diseases, including malaria and dysentery, were widespread among both hospital patients and staff. [17] [18]
Just prior to the fall of Bataan on 9 April 1942, the nurses serving there were ordered to the island fortress of Corregidor by General Wainwright (commander of the forces in the Philippines after MacArthur was ordered to Australia). [19] [20] [21]
During the Battle of Corregidor, the nurses were stationed in the hospital and wards in the maze of tunnels connected to the Malinta Tunnel. [22] [23]
On 29 April, a small group of army nurses were evacuated, with other passengers, aboard a navy PBY Catalina. [24] [25] However, they were stranded on Mindanao and became prisoners. They were transferred to Manila and interned at the University of Santo Tomas. On 3 May, the sole navy nurse, Ann Bernatitus, a few more army nurses, and a small group of civilians were evacuated aboard the submarine Spearfish. [26] [27]
When Corregidor fell to Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma on 6 May, the remaining nurses were captured and on 2 July transferred to the Santo Tomas Internment Camp. [28] [29]
The campus of the University of Santo Tomas was converted to the Santo Tomas Internment Camp by the Japanese during their occupation of the Philippines. [30] [31] [32] The camp is described in detail in The War by Ken Burns. In addition to its civilian population, Santo Tomas became the initial internment camp for both the army and navy nurses, with the army nurses remaining there until their liberation. [33] [34]
Capt. Maude C. Davison, 57 years old and with 20 years of service experience, took command of the nurses, maintained a regular schedule of nursing duty, and insisted that all nurses wear their khaki blouses and skirts while on duty. [35] [36] She worked with Josephine Nesbit. [37]
In May 1943, the navy nurses, still under the command of Lt. Cobb, were transferred to a new internment camp at Los Baños, where they established a new infirmary and continued working as a nursing unit. [38] [39] At Los Baños they came to be known as "the sacred eleven". [40] [41]
While the capture of the nurses was widely publicized in the US, little specific information was known of their fate until they were liberated.
Lt. Juanita Redmond, one of the few nurses to escape, published a memoir of her experiences on Bataan in 1943 that concluded with a dramatic reminder that her colleagues were still prisoners. [42] The nurses' story was dramatized in several wartime movies, [43] including:
When So Proudly We Hail was shown in the theaters, a recruitment booth staffed with Red Cross volunteers was set up in the lobby. [44]
In January 1944, control of the Santo Tomas Internment Camp changed from Japanese civil authorities to the Imperial Japanese Army, with whom it remained until the camp was liberated. [45] [46] Access to outside food sources was curtailed, the diet of the internees was reduced to 960 calories per person per day by November 1944, and further reduced to 700 calories per person per day by January 1945. [47]
A Department of Veterans Affairs study released in April, 2002 found that the nurses lost, on average, 30% of their body weight during internment, and subsequently experienced a degree of service-connected disability "virtually the same as the male ex-POW's of the Pacific Theater." [48] Maude C. Davison's body weight dropped from 156 to 80 lbs (71 to 36 kg). [49]
Emboldened by the success of the Raid at Cabanatuan, General Douglas MacArthur ordered Major General Vernon D. Mudge to make an aggressive raid [50] [51] 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. [52] [53]
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. [54] The navy nurses were likewise awarded Bronze Stars upon their return. [55]
On 9 April 1980, a bronze plaque was dedicated at the Mount Samat shrine by men who survived Bataan and Corregidor. [56] It reads:
To the AngelsIn honor of the valiant American military women who gave so much of themselves in the early days of World War II. They provided care and comfort to the gallant defenders of Bataan and Corregidor. They lived on a starvation diet, shared the bombing, strafing, sniping, sickness and disease while working endless hours of heartbreaking duty. These nurses always had a smile, a tender touch and a kind word for their patients. They truly earned the name
Maj. Maude C. Davison, credited by many for keeping the army nurses alive by her insistence on the nurses maintaining their identity as nurses throughout their internment, was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal on 20 August 2001. [59] [60] [61] A similar effort has not yet been undertaken for Chief Nurse Laura M. Cobb. [62]
Nancy Belle Norton, a grandmother dubbed "the Angel of Bataan" was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1945. [63]
The Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war (POW) from the municipalities of Bagac and Mariveles on the Bataan Peninsula to Camp O'Donnell via San Fernando.
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The Battle of Corregidor, fought on 5–6 May 1942, was the culmination of the Japanese campaign for the conquest of the Commonwealth of the Philippines during World War II.
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Ann Agnes Bernatitus was a United States Navy nurse who served under combat during World War II. She was the first American recipient of the Legion of Merit.
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Josephine May Davis was an American nurse who served in the United States Army Nurse Corps. She was second-in-command of the Angels of Bataan, army nurses stationed in the Philippine Islands during World War II, who were the largest group of American women taken as prisoners of war. Nesbit was noted for her "humane, dynamic leadership style." She was credited with the survival of the nurses during the years they were held in captivity at Santo Tomas Internment Camp.
Maude C. Davison was a Canadian-born, American nurse. After a career in Canada, she moved to the United States. She served as the Chief Nurse of the United States Army Nurse Corps in the Philippines during World War II. She received numerous awards for her military service in both World War I and World War II. In 2001, she posthumously was granted an Army Distinguished Service Medal for her leadership of the Angels of Bataan, the first and largest group of American military women taken as prisoners of war.
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