Frances Slanger

Frances Y. Slanger (born Friedel Yachet Schlanger, 1913 – October 21, 1944) was an American military nurse of Polish Jewish birth.

The only American nurse to die due to enemy fire in the European theatre of World War II, she gained posthumous recognition for a letter she had written regarding the sacrifices of American soldiers which was published as an editorial in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes.

[2] Her father had already emigrated shortly before she was born;[3] he was a fruit peddler, and she assisted him in his business while attending high school.

[5] On October 21, 1944, Slanger submitted a letter to Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper: It is 0200, and I have been lying awake for an hour listening to the steady breathing of the other three nurses in the tent, thinking about some of the things we had discussed during the day.

The wind is howling, the tent waving precariously, the rain beating down, the guns firing, and me with ta flashlight writing.

Yes, this time we are handing out the bouquets – but after taking care of some of your buddies, comforting them when they are brought in, bloody, dirty with the earth, mud and grime, and most of them so tired.

Somebody's brothers, somebody's fathers, somebody's sons, seeing them gradually brought back to life, to consciousness, and their lips separate into a grin when they first welcome you.

It quickly found popularity, proving so inspirational that many readers, military and civilian alike, wrote to her to thank her for her sentiments.

[2] But Slanger never saw the acclaim her letter received; hours after writing it, she was killed by a barrage of artillery in the field, becoming the only American nurse to fall to enemy action in the European theater of the war.

[9] She is the subject of a book, American Nightingale: The Story of Frances Slanger, Forgotten Heroine of Normandy, by journalist Bob Welch.