F. Dewitt Collection

Details

Who's responsible?: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (Repository)
How much has been digitized?: This collection has been digitized in its entirety.
What's in the full collection?: In the diary Dewitt discusses training and preparations for her departure to Casablanca; her voyage sailing overseas on the ship the Louis Pasteur; living conditions in Casablanca and the Mateur Airfield in Tunisia; her experiences in the military hospitals there; her interactions with German and Italian prisoners of war; and her social activities.
Full biography: F. Dewitt joined the the Army Nurse Corps in June 1942 and was stationed at Sheppard Field, Texas. She was stationed at Camp Rucker, Alabama, in early 1943 when she received orders for Camp Shanks, New York. There, she prepared for overseas duty, and departed May 4 for Morocco aboard the Louis Pasteur. Dewitt primarily worked at a station hospital in Casablanca until January 1944, when she was transferred to the 8th Evacuation Hospital in Caserta, Italy.
Topics: Women's History
Military
Branch of service: Army -- Army Nurse Corps
Conflict: World War II era (1940-1946)
Subject headings: World War, 1939-1945
United States. Army--Women
Contributing Institution: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries

: Diary of F. Dewitt; F. Dewitt was a nurse in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during the Second World War. She served in North Africa during the Allied invasion of Italy. Her diary details her service in Morocco and Tunisia (where she worked as an emergency nurse in several combat hospitals), gives extensive details of the traumas of wartime nursing, describes surprise German air raids, discusses the treatment of axis prisoners of war, and provides a vivid picture of war torn North Africa and Italy. Events detailed in her dairy include a dangerous voyage from New York City to Morocco aboard the without the protection of an armed naval escort, Dewitt's attachment to the Sixth General Hospital in Casablanca, Morocco, her transfer to a hospital in Tunisia, a lengthy train journey through devastated regions of North Africa, the capitulation of Axis Italy, and her redeployment to the Eighth Evacuation Hospital. Details of her romantic and social life are also included.

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