Wednesday, October 16, 2019

We Band of Angels by Elizabeth M. Norman

First Lines from Preface: I cannot say where or when, exactly, this story really began. Sometimes I think it started with my mother.

In the fall of 1941, the Philippines was a paradise for the American Army and Navy nurses stationed there. War was only a distant rumor. The shifts were easy, walks on the beach were there for the taking, and dinner and dancing under the stars commonplace. On December 8, all that changed as the Japanese bombed the American bases on Luzon. Now, this paradise was hell. Caught in the battle, the nurses set up field hospitals in the jungles of Bataan and the tunnels of Corregidor where they tended to an endless stream of horribly wounded men while enduring the nonstop attempts of the Japanese to overrun them.

But it got even worse when Bataan and Corregidor fell. The nurses were herded into internment camps where they spent the next three years doing everything they could to help themselves and the other internees to survive fear, brutality, and starvation. Once liberated, they returned to an America that declared them heroes yet later refused to honor their leaders with the medals they deserved.

Author Elizabeth M. Norman did her research, poring through letters and diaries in addition to tracking down survivors to interview them. In reading We Band of Angels, I learned a lot. The Army and Navy nurses in the Philippines were the first American women in combat. They were also the first American women prisoners of war.

Norman takes readers through the nurses' lives before, during, and after World War II. Many of them told her that the key to their survival was to keep busy. It didn't matter what they did as long as they did something. This book is packed with information, but ultimately, I was never fully engaged in Norman's story. I think it can be chalked up to the fact that I've been spoiled with the non-fiction that I prefer to read: detailed histories that still manage to read like the best fiction. So... consider my very subjective opinion when you decide whether or not to read We Band of Angels. It not only covers an important part of history (and covers it well), but it also covers a very important part of women's history. I'm very glad I read it.

by Elizabeth M. Norman
eISBN: 9780307799579
Random House © 1999
eBook, 384 pages

Rating: B
Source: Purchased from Amazon.



  1. This does sound awfully informative, Cathy. I know what you mean about being fully engaged in it, but it sounds as though there is a lot there, and that it shines the light on a group of people who deserved their country's gratitude and loyalty.

    1. These women deserved recognition for the incredible things they did, so this book has served a wonderful purpose.

  2. I don't like to read about the horrors of war and the mistreatment of prisoners on top of the wounded and dead. But whatever attention this brings to those brave women, good.

  3. YOu know, the mystery TV series brought attention to the women codebreakrs who worked at the Bletchley Circle. Many were geniuses with numbers. Many of us hadn't known of them before this series.
    And then a book was published saying thousands of women did this work undercover, could not discuss it.
    So it's so important to credit women who made these contributions during this war.
    Then there were the women in the resistance movements in every country who need more recognition, too.

