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 On October 21, 1944, Frances Y. Slanger, R.N. died in Elsenborn, Belgium, a victim of a German artillery attack. She was the first American nurse to die in Europe after the June 1944 D-Day landings in Normandy. She was 31 years old.
On the night before she died, Slanger had written a letter to the Stars and Stripes military newspaper, on behalf of military nurses, praising American G.I.'s and thanking the wounded for the privilege of easing their pain and sharing some of their hardships. One paragraph of the letter read:
"The wind is howling, the tent waving
precariously, the rain beating down, the guns firing, and me with a
flashlight writing. It all adds up to a feeling of unrealness. Sure we
rough it, but in comparison to the way you men are taking it, we can't
complain nor do we feel that bouquets are due us. But you—the men behind
the guns, the men driving our tanks, flying our planes, sailing our
ships, building bridges—it is to you we doff our helmets. To every GI
wearing the American uniform, for you we have the greatest admiration
and respect."
Featured on the newspaper's editorial page by editors who did not know of her death, Slanger's letter evoked
 a deep response
that was overwhelmingly positive with
hundreds of GIs writing to thank her
However, she did not live to learn about the reaction to
her words, as shortly after writing that letter, she was killed during
an enemy attack.
When the news of her death was published, Stars and Stripes
received an unparalleled outpouring of letters from its moved
readership.
One example of the respect she generated is seen here as nose art
on the aircraft of 2nd Lt Aubrey J. Oldham of Madera, CA.
Four months after her death, on February 13, 1945, a United States Army
hospital ship was commissioned as the "Lt Frances Y. Slanger" in her honor. She was initially buried in Belgium before being
returned to the United States for burial in 1947.
Charles Sawyer, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium speaking of Slanger, said, "if there is in heaven and in our hearts a special shrine for those who have given the most and the best, it is held sacred for the American nurse."
Born in Poland, Slanger had immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts when she was seven years old with her family. She helped her father, a fruit peddler, while she attended high school. She graduated from the Boston City Hospital School of Nursing in 1937 and entered hospital work.
 In 1943, she enlisted in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps and attended the first nursing basic training program
held at Fort Devens,
Massachusetts. In Europe, she worked as part of a surgical team on the front lines.
In June 1945, a cruise ship, refurbished as a hospital ship to return wounded American soldiers from Europe, was commissioned as the Frances Y. Slanger.
 
In November 1947, her body was returned to Boston for reburial. More than a thousand people, including the mayor of Boston, paid their respects when she was laid to rest in
the Independent Pride of Boston Cemetery,
West Roxbury (Suffolk . county), MA
[Much of this material was gleaned from Bob Welch's, "American Nightingale: The Story of Frances Slanger,
Forgotten Heroine of Normandy, New York, 2004]. |
