We're in this War, Too: World War II Letters from American Women in Uniform

Book Overview

Veterans' Day, 1993. The Vietnam memorial, Washington, D.C. Tearful thousands gather for the unveiling of a new monument, a long-overdue tribute to the women who served in Southeast Asia. The event was a powerful reminder of the importance of women in the war--and of its emotional role in their own lives. Yet Vietnam was not the first war in which American women enlisted alongside men. Fifty years ago, an even greater conflict engulfed the lives of tens of thousands of women as they joined the Second World War. Now Judy Barrett Litoff and David C. Smith recapture their experiences in the most direct way possible--through the words of the women themselves.
In We're in This War Too, Litoff and Smith draw upon their archive of 30,000 wartime letters--the product of a decade-long, nationwide search--to provide an immediate sense of the lives of women in every branch of the armed forces. From the military build-up in Hawaii in the months prior to Pearl Harbor to the agonizing and horrific final days of hostilities, uniformed women played an integral role in the war effort--a role vividly captured here. Letters from Army nurses describe the devastating events of December 7, 1941. A member of the first WAAC officer class describes her immense pride in being a member of "the pioneer 440." A Red Cross worker reports on the challenges she faced when setting up a "tent club" in a remote province of China. Here are eyewitness accounts of the fierce fighting at Anzio and the Battle of the Bulge, wrenching commentary on caring for the wounded and the victims of concentration camps, and poignant reflections on the larger meaning of the war. Here, too, are the trials of military service in the 1940s: a WAVE reports on how it felt to be the only Jewish servicewoman in Yeoman school, and an African-American WAC writes of the descrimination and prejudice she encountered while traveling by train through the southern United States.
The Second World War was the greatest conflagration to overtake our nation in living memory, producing a vast body of literature--yet the role of women in the contest has been sadly neglected. We're in This War Too is the first comprehensive account of uniformed women in the war ever published, capturing the essence of their experience in all its complexity. It provides a view of the Second World War that has been missing from the pages of history for far too long.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195075048
• ISBN13: 9780195075045
• Release Date: July 1994
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.1" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

Brings a new dimension to World War II

From the training camps of Texas to the insect invested jungles of the far flung Pacific and from the Red Cross Clubmobiles in the UK to occupied Japan, this book really tells through carefully collected correspondance what the women did "over there." Theirs was an important contribution to the huge war effort and was the foundation of the feminist movement of the sixties. While these normal and healthy young women bemoaned the lack of and longed for hot showers, beauty salons and the latest fashions, not one let their vanity get in the way of their work. They did it all on the war front. Cared for the sick, organized and ordered supplies, and delivered new planes. These were the women of the Army Nurse Corps, the Navy Nurses, the WAVES, WACS and SPARS. The women of the American Red Cross were just as important and I was fascinated to learn that they too were taught how to handle firearms and themselves in all wartime situations.Through the words of these women, we hear about their friends, love life, battles, air raids and typical military humor. Their thoughts always strayed toward home, but they were all in agreement about one thing. They would not trade places. Each knew that this experience would change them forever. I am sure it did. Their successful work during that time certainly changed the roles of all women forever.