In Manila
At the outset of World War II, US Army and US Navy nurses were stationed at Sternberg General Hospital in Manila, and other military hospitals around Manila. During the Battle of the Philippines (1941–42), eighty-eight US Army nurses escaped, in the last week of December 1941, to Corregidor and Bataan.
Two Army nurses, Lt. Floramund A. Fellmeth and Lt. Florence MacDonald, accompanied severely wounded patients from Sternberg aboard the improvised hospital ship Mactan that departed Manila shortly after midnight of the New Year of 1942 for Australia.
The navy nurses, under the command of Lt. Laura M. Cobb, stayed behind in Manila during the initial invasion to support the patients there. One of them, Ann A. Bernatitus, escaped from Manila to Bataan just before Manila fell. The remaining 11 navy nurses were captured upon the fall of Manila and interned by the Japanese at Santo Tomas.
The Army nurses, under the command of Capt. Maude Davison, together with Navy nurse Bernatitus, escaped from Manila and went on to serve in the Battle of Bataan and the Battle of Corregidor.
Read more about this topic: Angels Of Bataan