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Photos, Articles, & Research on the European Theater in World War II
| The WAC: The Story of the
WAC in the ETO [ booklet text only ] |
|
Photos, Articles, & Research on the European Theater in World War II
|
This is one of a series of G.I. Stories of the Ground, Air
and Service Forces in the European Theater issued by the
Orientation Branch, Information and Education Division, Hq.
USFET. Lt. Col. Anna W. Wilson, Theater WAC Staff Director,
lent her cooperation and basic material was supplied
by her staff.
THIS is your story -- a record of the vital
services performed by the Women's
Army Corps in the European Theater.
Your versatility and competence earned
the highest praise from commanders of
every unit to which you were assigned. No
matter what task was given you, the result
was always the same -- a job well done.
It is only on rare occasions such as this
that an opportunity occurs to express my
satisfaction and pride in your record. I
thank you wholeheartedly and wish you continued success.
Anna W. Wilson Lt. Col., Theater WAC Staff Director
THE STORY OF THE WAC IN THE ETO
For two days and nights Allied and German generals
had negotiated surrender terms inside the red brick
schoolhouse. Reporters and photographers waited
expectantly. Weary from pounding out vital messages,
Wacs in the Secretary to General Staff section of
Supreme Headquarters waited, too.
At 0100, Lt. Gen. Walter B. Smith, Gen. Eisenhower's
Chief of Staff, told the Wacs to go home and get some
sleep. The Germans weren't likely to sign that night.
Sgt. Marjorie Wells, Logan, Ohio, went to her
quarters, but she was back again in an hour. This
was it -- this was the moment for which everyone had
been waiting. Sgt. Wells typed the official cable
proclaiming Germany's unconditional surrender to the
Allied nations.
"We were too tired to get excited," she recalls.
"I finished the necessary number of copies about
0530 and went home to catch some sleep. My roommate,
Sgt. Katherine Ruch, New York City, didn't
believe me when I told her the news."
Remembers Sgt. Davina Settle, Omaha: "The
fact that the war was over didn't come to me until
I started typing Cease Firing orders. I'd worked on
drafting the cables the day before, but at midnight
we had to tear them up and change the date to May 7.
After the signing we were busier than ever and typed
Cease Firing orders to 137 Army Groups and units."
On V-E Day, 8000 Wacs could look back on long
months of overseas duty. Only a few had been in
on the surrender. But all had played an operational
part in the war against Nazi Germany.
Attached to the pioneer 8th Air Force, battalion
personnel were assigned to Headquarters, 3rd Bombardment
Div., 2nd Bombardment Div., 8th Fighter and
Bomber Command and 3rd Bombardment Wing of
the 8th Air Force. The Wing, under Maj. Gen.
Samuel F. Anderson, later became the hard-hitting
9th Bombardment Division.
Six battle stars now adorn the ETO ribbons worn by
Wac veterans of the 9th Bombardment Division.
They were awarded for the Air Offensive over Europe,
Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Central Europe
and Rhineland campaigns.
Wacs took over from WAAF and GI personnel.
Within a week, telephone and teletype operators were
working day, night and swing shifts. Flight control
rooms were staffed by newly-trained plotters. Clerks
organized files.
Like the rest of the army, GIs in Britain were openly
apprehensive. For many, it was the first glimpse of
American women in uniform. But doubts vanished
when soldiers observed their work, their sharp, military
appearance. British and Canadian officers, long proud
of their own women in service, agreed that the
performance of Wacs in review was difficult to equal.
MUD, BOMBS, WORK ERASE GLAMOR
Whatever notions they might have had of life in
the ETO, Wacs soon learned there wasn't much
glamor. The clammy English dawn caused them to
shiver in heatless Nissen huts and concrete barracks.
Discipline was strict. Passes were scarce. There
was mud -- and bombs.
March 24, 1944: The Luftwaffe was still riding
high. Air raid sirens moaned at two WAC camps,
one housing SHAEF and Allied Service women, the
other occupied by 8th Air Force personnel. The
Tannoy system wheezed, crackled. Ack-ack guns
pumped lead at the enemy aircraft. The stout-hearted
took shelter.
Flares lit the sky, plummeted earthward to the WAC
camps. Explosions shook the ground; Wacs heard
the unmistakable swish of bombs, were jarred by the
concussion. When they left the shelters, one camp
was silhouetted in flames. That night, Wacs of the
8th Air Force made room for 250 bombed-out buddies.
Typical drama lived by Wacs took place one day in
January, 1944, at 9th Bombardment Division -- just
15 minutes by Messerschmitt from Germany.
"There's an enemy flight coming out of France,"
calmly announced Pvt. Bassie Moseley, Houston,
Tex., as she adjusted her earphones. Before her was
an interceptor board, a 12-foot square table marked
with German and Allied air fields. Pvt. Moseley was
stationed at a Marauder headquarters where she and
other Wacs helped plot the movements of all aircraft
in the area.
Next, she picked up a metal strip on which she began
placing magnetized discs identifying the planes winging
over the Channel. With a croupier-like stick, she
pushed the marker and an arrow to indicate direction
of flight into the Channel section of the map. Seconds
passed. Pvt. Moseley moved the red arrow closer -- closer
to the coast. She nudged the red arrow to point
northward, then quickly swung it back; the Germans
had feinted a change of course. Now they were
coming straight in.
Pfc Lola McCoy, Rensselaer, Ind., leaned forward
to move her RAF markers -- RAF night fighters rising
to tackle the invaders. Sirens wailed. Enemy aircraft
roared overhead. The tenseness in the flight
control boom was broken by a dull boom.
Pfc McCoy moved her RAF marker. "One Kraut
had a fighter after him," she said. Pvt. Moseley
pushed the enemy marker out over the Channel. Those
in the room relaxed, laughed nervously.
"Tomorrow, you'll read in the papers that enemy
raiders dropped a few bombs on the coastal area,"
Pvt. Moseley said.
American women helped whip the
Luftwaffe. Unheralded and unsung -- clerks,
switchboard operators,
stenographers and secretaries. Some
held jobs close to Operations, such
as Pfc Mary L. Finane, Vicksburg,
Miss., who drafted weather reports
on War Room maps.
"What's the dope on weather over
Germany for the next three or four
days?" was a question which ground
as well as air forces invariably asked
USSTAF's weather section. Pfc
Finane's maps held the answer.
A hand-in-glove combination for
Photo Intelligence was Lt. Lillian
Kamphuis, Crichton, Ala., and Pfc
Elizabeth E. Armstrong, Syracuse,
N.Y. Pictures taken by airmen over
targets determined the destruction
or damage to oil plants, bridges,
factories, or naval installations. Pfc
Armstrong processed the film while
Lt. Kamphuis studied the photos,
catalogued the strikes.
As secretary to the Director of Operations, USSTAF,
W/O Mae C. Merz, Nashville, Tenn., always had
advance information on the 1000-plane assaults on the
Reich.
Unit Meritorious Service Plaque awards were made
to the 394th Signal Co., attached to the 9th Air Force
Service Command and to the 21st Statistical Control
Unit, 8th Air Force. Third Bombardment Div.
received the Distinguished Unit Citation for
pre-invasion blasting of strategic Nazi cities and targets.
The entire WAC unit with the 8th Air Force Service
Command won a superior rating. S/Sgt. Bun
Brusse, Houston, Tex., and T/Sgt. Dorothy La Valle,
Winona, Minn., received Theater Certificates of Merit
for outstanding service.
Largest single group of Air Force Wacs in the ETO
was with the Base Air Depot Area. This depot was
charged with furnishing all supplies and maintaining
all aircraft parts of U.S. Air Forces and RAF in Europe.
Wacs served as teletype operators, drivers, hospital
technicians, photo laboratory technicians, rehabilitation
workers, dental assistants, parachute menders.
Wacs never will forget the "Old Homestead" -- 70th
Reinforcement Depot at Stone, England -- where
incoming and outgoing Air Force personnel were
processed.
There was always a husband, sweetheart, brother
or friend turning up at the "Old Homestead." Sgt.
Eunice O'Connell, Minneapolis, Minn., glanced up
from her typewriter July 16, 1944, to see her paratrooper
brother, Cpl. Raymond O'Connell. He had just
returned from France where he had taken part in the
invasion.
HARDSHIP PLUS RESPONSIBILITY
From NATOUSA, Gen. Eisenhower had brought
the "famous five" captains: Ruth M. Briggs, Westerly,
R.I.; Mattie A. Pinette, Fort Kent, Me.: Martha
E. Rogers, Jackson, Miss.; Alene Drezmal, St. Paul,
Minn.; and Louise Anderson, Denver, Colo. First
Wacs to serve overseas, all are now majors, three
still attached to his headquarters.
The Allied Women's Camp, under the command of
Maj. Edith M. Davis, Royal Oak, Mich., provided an
outstanding example of how women of several nations -- WACs,
WAAFs, WRNs, ATS and CWACs -- lived
and worked together. Sri successful was the arrangement
that the women asked to remain together as
long as possible.
All SHAEF personnel, their job was to help with
the vast amount of paper and communications work
essential to the planning and execution of the invasion.
As D-Day approached, work hours lengthened. Days
off, leaves, furloughs were forgotten. Many, like
S/Sgt. Sue Sarafian, Detroit, Mich., typed while the
King of England, Prime Minister Churchill, generals
and admirals conferred in nearby offices.
Wacs shared responsibilities, hardships, along with
the excitement. Bombed from huts and billets by
robot bombs, Wacs rode to work many miles daily
in Army trucks until new quarters were available.
In April, 1944, the first large contingent of Wacs
reported for duty with Services of Supply units. They
were assigned to far-flung installations of the
Transportation
Corps, Corps of Engineers, Quartermaster Corps,
Chemical Warfare Service, Medical Service, Ordnance
Department, and Signal Corps.
Transportation Corps Wacs
spent 18 hours daily
controlling the count and distributing incoming cargo
and war supplies. With RTOs they shared the
responsibility of handling troop movements.
Tribute was paid TC Wacs when the "WAC Blazer,"
a 75-ton locomotive, was christened for the Corps
by Cpl. Maxine Vaught, Evansville, Ind., in the presence
of Maj. Gen. Frank S. Ross, Chief of Transportation,
ETO; Brig. Gen. Clarence L. Burpee, Second
Military Railway Service CG, and Col. Wilson.
Large numbers of Wacs were assigned to First
Base Post Office. It wasn't an easy task to get mail,
some carelessly addressed, to the ever-moving soldier.
APO Wacs seldom gave up the search for addresses.
Little glamor could be attached to flipping letters into
sacks racked up aisle after aisle, but it was a job that
had to be done.
At Air Transport Command bases, Wacs took
incoming calls and made reservations for travelers
shuttling across the ocean. They drove 6x6 trucks,
transporting baggage and mail from planes. In
midwinter, Wacs joked about their appearance -- they
wore arctics and weather-soaked field trousers as they
plodded across muddy airstrips -- but they cheerfully
accepted each assignment. This was the Wacs' war, too.
Military intelligence section Wacs had the specific
mission of helping pilots find their way back after
forced landings in
enemy territory.
As a result of their
work, many airmen
listed as missing in
action reported
back for duty.
Wacs handled top
secret papers daily;
had access to files
few Army personnel
ever were
permitted to see.
Top secret material
also was handled
by the WAC
detachment with the
Office of Strategic
Services.
INVASION -- WACS PLAY PROUD ROLE
Machines reeled off one field order after another.
Virtually every bomber and fighter in the Command
was being called out from secret air-fields throughout
England. The invasion was on!
Field orders, annexes and bombing lines were relayed
to American and British stations in the UK. The
five Wacs on duty -- Cpl. Eugenia Hall, Rideway,
Pa.; Sgt. Carmen R. Brand, Staunton, Va.; Cpl.
Elsie S. Wheeler, Ada, Ill.; T/5 Mary Denton, Decatur,
Tenn.; T/5 Helen M. Sweeny, Chicago -- stuck to
their machines through those early morning hours,
almost completely overwhelmed by the messages
pouring from every high headquarters to air force
stations, then on to combat wings. The pace was
maintained until the shift was relieved at 0730.
As the Wacs stepped from the huge underground
room into the sunlight, they raised tired eyes to a sky
black with planes -- bombers, fighters, troop carriers,
gliders. They had helped put those aircraft there.
Throughout England Wacs looked up and felt the
same pride. For weeks, Wacs at headquarters, Southern
Base Section, 16, 17 and 18 Districts had worked long
hours to help fill hundreds of craft with supplies and
men. Every Wac in the Theater felt she was part of
the military team striving for a single
objective -- invasion of the Continent.
As casualties were brought in from the beaches in
increasing numbers, Wacs in the Chief Surgeon's
Office in London assisted in loading and moving
hospital trains, prepared latest reports on battle casualties.
Flying to Normandy with a group of SHAEF
officers on June 22, T/Sgt. Mabel Carney, Camden,
N.J., became the first Wac to land on the Continent.
She took dictation at a beachhead conference, returned
to England the same night. Nine months later, Sgt.
Carney was one of the first Wacs to enter the Reich.
Wacs continued to arrive in the Theater. In an
effort to secure additional WAC personnel, enlistments
were made available to American citizens residing in
the United Kingdom. Lucille N. Hall, Auburndale,
Mass., was the first woman in the ETO to be sworn in
as a Wac. Approximately 150 Wacs were enlisted
and trained in England.
Buzz-bombs didn't spare the Wacs. Wacs took
their share of hits, near hits and injuries. First to
receive the Purple Heart Award for injuries from
flying bombs were Pfc Dorothy E. Whitfield,
Schenectady, N.Y.; Pfc Effie M. Gibbons, Lewiston, Idaho;
Pvt. Margaret Johnson, Madison, Wis., and Pvt.
Leona J. Gaylon, Odessa, Tex.
Another first came when three WAC officers arrived
in England to attend the British Staff College, ATS
Wing, at the War Office's invitation. They were
Capt. Pauline Spofford, Miami, Fla., Capt. Janet C.
Varn, Jacksonville, Fla., and Lt. Aileen M. Witting,
Gonzales, Tex.
Aboard a heavily-laden cruiser the loudspeakers
blared; "WAC personnel, prepare to disembark."
Wacs hooked helmet straps, grabbed gear, climbed
down the ladder into a bouncing LCI. Ashore, they
saw blackened steel skeletons of vehicles, smashed
German and American equipment and mute rows of
wooden crosses.
GIs waved from tents hidden under trees as Wac
trucks jolted over shelled roads. French peasants
looked up from digging in the ruins of bombed villages
and smiled an amazed greeting at the American women
under pack and helmet.
The 49 EWs and five WAC officers who arrived
with Forward Echelon, Communications Zone
headquarters, lived under canvas near chateau headquarters
outside Valogne. They dug drainage ditches around
their tents as Normandy skies poured rain for eight
straight days. K and C rations, rationed Lister-bag
water, mud and dust, helmet baths, became routine.
When water was a critical item, they rationed it to
themselves. Recalled Cpl. Mary Relic, Cleveland, Ohio:
"If we had only enough water to fill one helmet we
used it to the last drop. First we'd brush our teeth.
Then we'd bathe as best we could in the same cold
water. Next we'd wash our hair -- same helmetful
of water. The last step was to wash our clothes.
And by that time there wasn't any water left."
Up front, battles raged. The titanic supply job
on the Continent mounted; Wacs pitched in.
Telephone operators donned earphones as fast as mobile
switchboards were set up, worked long shifts day
after day. In a chateau wine cellar in Area I, operators
worked the board while rainwater swirled around
their feet. S/Sgt. Sally McCaffrey, Jamaica Plain,
Mass.; Sgt. Laura Carson, Chicopee Falls, Mass., and
Cpl. Mary Nardy, Yonkers, N.Y., many others -- some
of whom had just been flown from the States -- worked
the long, hard grind, sweating out line repairs
and heavy traffic on the long distance Area III board.
PARIS -- PAPER WORK AND PERFUME
Chow became complicated at times. On a hill in
a wooded pasture, M/Sgt. Helen Wilson, Pasadena,
Calif., and a GI mess sergeant shared, responsibility.
Sgt. Wilson and cooks like Cpl. Hazel Curnutt, Springfield,
Mo., and Sgt. Isabel Simbine, Elizabeth, N.J.,
worked 16-hour shifts, rose at 0400 daily, strove to
make field rations tasty.
More Wacs arrived. Under the command of Capt.
Isabel Kane, Tacoma, Wash., life in the "Wac
Area - Off Limits" apple orchard moved smoothly despite
rigors of tent life. First Sgt. Nancy Carter, Los
Angeles, and the cadre worked from reveille past
blackout each day caring for administrative needs of
Wacs and meeting new convoys. Cadre duties in two
additional camps for new arrivals were assumed by
Cpl. Gladys Brent, Seattle, Wash., and Sgt. Virginia
Wallace, Los Angeles.
Still they came. Engineers,
Signal Corps, Medical
Corps, Quartermaster,
Transportation,
Ordnance -- all
had ever-mounting tasks as St. Lo, Bayeux, Caen
became cities of rubble, names in the history of World
War II. Wacs took over new duties as necessity
dictated.
Supply clerks, map makers, draftsmen, typists,
translators back in England, Engineer Wacs helped
plan the newly-constructed roads over which they now
traveled, the pipe lines supplying their water, the
camps they now called home.
The only Wacs attached to a ground force unit
reached France in July, moved with 12th Army Group
Headquarters which trailed close behind the fighting
units. Ever advancing, they lived in tents, ramshackle
buildings, whatever billets were found, travelled along
the road that led to Wiesbaden, Germany, under their
original CO, Capt. Alice Moroney, San Francisco.
With the liberation of Paris, Com Z Headquarters
hit the road again. Overnight, tents emptied and
typewriters, files and records were packed as Wacs and
GIs left the Normandy countryside to establish the
SOS nerve center in the French capital.
Six days after the Allies entered Paris, Aug. 31, 1944,
six Wacs -- Maj. Frances S. Cornick, Norfolk, Va.,
Capt. (then Lt.) Elizabeth P. Hoisington, Seattle,
Wash.; 1st/Sgt. Nancy Carter, Los Angeles; Sgt.
Margaret Wright, Atlanta, Ga.; S/Sgt. Mary Haluey,
Cambridge, Mass.; and M/Sgt. Wilhelmina Fowler,
East Islip, Long Island, N.Y. -- moved into the city
as an advance detachment. For their efficiency and
speed in arranging for the thousands of Wacs to follow,
they were awarded the Bronze Star by Brig. Gen.
Allen R. Kimball, ETO Headquarters Commandant.
Central Base Section Wacs who arrived as part of
the new Seine Base Section, set up offices in a building
vacated only a few days before by the Germans. Wacs
observed a strict 2000 hours curfew. Armed GIs
escorted late-working Wacs from billet to office.
During the first days following the liberation, Paris
was at a standstill: power, light, transportation facilities
broke down; food supplies were nearly exhausted.
But the French greeted the Americans with smiles,
salutes and cheers just the same. Wacs, tired and
grimy-faced from travel, smiled back.
With winter's approach, busy Wacs found time to
sample the wonders of Paris perfume shops and fashion
houses, experimented with Parisian make-up and hairdos,
struggled to master the language.
At Seine Base headquarters, Wac typists, switchboard
operators, file clerks, drivers, and stenographers
combed all possible sources to find hotel billets for
battle-weary soldiers visiting Paris on 48-hour passes.
Wacs worked in the Finance Office and in the Post
Exchange.
Armies pushed on. As Allied-held territory increased,
the strain on Signal Corps communications sections
became greater. More and more Wacs were placed in
nearly every department, releasing technically trained
men for more advanced echelons.
Scores of operators, members of the %3341 Signal
Service Battalion, now under the command of Maj.
Jane A. Stretch, Newtown, Pa., went on duty at
telephone switchboards where German voices had been
heard just a short time previously.
Wac draftsmen with the Transportation Corps
pored over maps in the urgent mission of sending
supply trucks and trains to the front. Their map
tracings of France and Germany, showing all military
rail and trucking routes, became the reference used
by Planning and Control Division to route traffic to
advancing American armies.
Day and night shifts of Wac typists and statisticians in
the far-reaching, intricate Quartermaster system prepared
the final dispositions for releasing huge tonnages of
meat, K rations, blankets, wool socks, gasoline, and
endless supplies which kept the Army forging ahead.
Known as "that Quartermaster Wac," Lt. Elaine R.
Dickson, Kewanee, Ill., was responsible for the
maintenance of clothing supplies for all American service
women in the ETO. In addition to her other duties.
she delivered combat uniforms to Army nurses in
field hospitals, often just a few miles behind combat
lines.
Wacs assigned to Com Z base sections and Seine,
Normandy, Oise Intermediate and Delta bases wrote
their own chapters to the biggest supply story in the
world. In September, the first WAC-driven convoy
in France completed a 400-mile trip, transporting
80 Wacs to Oise Base Section. Because of a driver
shortage, Wacs assigned as secretaries, clerks,
stenographers, took over the jobs.
Air Force Wacs who had earned their overseas spurs
in England, followed airmen to the Continent, moving
as the various headquarters advanced. They answered
roll call at USSTAF, 9th Air Force, 9th Air Division,
9th Service Command, 8th Fighter Command,
I Tactical Air Force (P), First Allied Airborne Army,
Ninth BADA, at the 1408th AAF Base Unit, EDATC,
and at 302nd Transport Wing.
WACS -- "THEY MET EVERY TEST"
Cpl. Faye Haimson, Chicago, cryptographer, decoded
secret orders for the Bulge operation. Cpl. Beatrice
Ratowsky, Brooklyn, was a stenographer in Operations;
Sgt. Frances K. Karl, Chicago; and Pfc Sarah
Hellinger, Philadelphia, kept telephone circuits open
for emergency messages necessary to get 100
widely-scattered cargo planes to the front. Not a man or
plane was lost in the move.
Despite the grim situation Wacs spent their first
Christmas on the Continent in the American tradition
even though a curfew was imposed and holiday
events were cancelled.
Throughout the ETO, Wacs threw open their dayrooms
to soldiers Christmas Day. One detachment
shared its turkey dinner with 75 soldiers on convalescent
leave or on pass. Wacs wrapped packages of candy,
cigarettes, gum, cookies and gifts for wounded in
hospitals in France and England. In Paris, a WAC
choir sang at the Arc de Triomphe, then climbed into
trucks which took them to hospitals where they sang
for soldiers who had just been brought in from front
line aid stations.
The 6888th Central Postal Directory Bn., first Negro
Wacs to be sent overseas, was assigned to the First
Base Post Office in February, 1945. The unit broke
all records for re-directing mail. Each of the two
eight-hour shifts averaged more than 65,000 pieces of mail.
Long-delayed letters and packages reached battle casualties
who had been moving too frequently for mail
to catch up with them.
By early Spring, 1945, Wacs were filling every conceivable
assignment. They drove Army vehicles, transmitted
photographs by radio, "bossed" camps for
enemy women PWs, plotted emergency landings for
lost and damaged aircraft. Junior aide to Gen.
Eisenhower was Lt. Kay Summersby. Other generals were
assisted by able WAC personnel.
When the leave center in Brussels opened, a team
of WAC mess sergeants organized and set up the two
huge Army messes, instructed mess personnel and
Belgian cooks in the preparation and serving of food.
Sgt. Constance Delahoyde, Bath, N.Y., and Sgt.
Margaret McCance, Palo Alto, Calif., worked in
advisory capacities in scores of Army messes throughout
France, Belgium and Germany.
When Germany collapsed, additional personnel were
assigned to headquarters of armies and to reinforcement
jobs designed to speed redeployment.
V-E Day brought a pause in the long grind. On
May 14, 1945, Wacs and Allied service women stationed
in Paris observed the third anniversary of the Women's
Army Corps. Led by Maj. Mary Moynahan, San
Antonio, Tex., approximately 2000 Wacs paraded down
the Champs Elysees to the Place de la Concorde as
they were reviewed by Lt. Gen. John C. H. Lee, CG,
Communications Zone The colorful spectacle followed
a simple ceremony at which Lt. Col. Wilson
placed a floral wrath on the tomb of France's Unknown
Soldier.
Similar observances were held at WAC installations
in Belgium, Germany and England. Her Majesty,
Queen Elizabeth of England, visited Wacs in London
and at 8th Air Force Headquarters.
Gen. Eisenhower, in tribute, cabled Col. Oveta Culp
Hobby, then WAC Director:
During the time I have had Wacs under my command,
they have met every test and task assigned them.
I have seen them work in Africa, Italy, England, here
in France -- at Army installations throughout the
European Theater. Their contribution in efficiency,
skill, spirit, and determination is immeasurable. In
three years the Women's Army Corps has built for
itself an impressive record of conduct and of service,
and given the womanhood of America every right to be
proud of their accomplishments.
Gen. Carl A Spaatz, CG, USSTAF, echoed Gen.
Eisenhower: "The Women's Army Corps has been
of inestimable value to our Air Forces operating against
Germany. Its members have worked devotedly,
undertaking arduous tasks requiring exceptional
performance. Their success as a part of the team is a matter
of pride to all of us."
Shortly after V-E Day it was revealed that 3000
Wacs had 44 discharge points or more. In July, the
first group having upwards of 70 points was flown
to the States to be discharged.
Those remaining in the ETO carried on. In Berlin,
a detachment of secretaries, typists, telephone and
teletype operators became part of headquarters personnel
administering the American occupied section of the
city. The detachment formerly was assigned to the
First Allied Airborne Army.
When Pres. Truman, Prime Minister Churchill and
Marshal Stalin met at Potsdam in mid-July, 1945,
27 Wac telephone operators of the %3341st Signal
Service Bn. were assigned to handle the multitude
of telephone calls. S/Sgt. Edith Royer, Library, Pa.,
was chief operator.
Lt. Col. Anna W. Wilson left the Theater July 8
for an assignment with the War Department and Lt.
Col. Mary A. Hallaren, became Theater WAC Staff
Director.
The record of the Women's Army Corps in the ETO
is not one of any single branch of service or special
group. It is a story of all the Wacs who wear the patch
of the Ground Forces, the star of the Services of Supply,
the wings of the Air Force.
Wherever the armies went the Wacs went with them -- London,
Marseilles, Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt. Wacs
lived in villages, in camps, woods and fields, witnessed
the devastation of war. They shared in the hardships
of the soldier, rejoiced in his advances against a stubborn,
fanatical foe. Theirs was a stirring story of American
women who worked to help fighting men achieve a
complete and smashing victory in Europe. They
accomplished their mission.
THE TEAM --
Wacs in the ETO have served or are on duty
with the following:
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