Albanian Escape: The True Story of U.S. Army Nurses Behind Enemy Lines

1. Crash Landing

t Crash Landing 8 November 1943, Monday-0745: Catania, Sicily A cold drizzle was falling when the jeeps carrying thirteen U.S. Army nurses and twelve medical technical sergeants of the 807th Medical Air Evacuation Squad (MAES), plus one young corporal with the 802d MAES who was catching a ride back to his assigned base, pulled onto the apron of a runway at Catania Main Airfield in Sicily. They stopped alongside a C-53, one of the three aircraft that would make up the flight scheduled to carry them the 260 miles to Bari, Italy, to pick up wounded and fly them to hospitals farther behind the lines. WInter weather in the Mediterranean was frequently dangerous , and bad weather had canceled the flight twice in the last two days. Today's weather report was predicting a serious storm moving in from the north, but all reasonable calculations said the flight would be in Bari at least two hours before the storm struck along their flight path. Second Lieutenant Agnes A. Jensen was the first to board the plane. She walked forward, placed her musette bag in the first bucket seat and sat down in the second. The first seat on the right-hand side was not a good place to sit because several knobs connected to the radio protruded into the space at head level. The other twelve nurses piled their gear in the front seat and sat down on the same side ofthe plane. Sergeant Paul Allen, a medic from her unit, sat opposite Lieutenant Jensen, and a young corporal she did not recognize took the seat diagonally across from her. The rest of the men filled in. 10 Albanian Escape The pilots stepped through the door and stopped to talk with Captain Robert Simpson, a squadron doctor who had accompanied the nurses to the plane. Simpson was waiting for final word concerning the weather before he and the jeeps returned to the 807th billeting area. In the two months the 807th had been overseas, they had flown with different pilots, on any plane they could catch, on their way to pick up wounded GIs. Medical Air Evacuation was so new that no planes were actually assigned to the medical squadrons. The 314th Troop Carrier Group ferried troops, medical personnel, and patients around the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, and within the group the Fifty-second Troop Carrier Wing made frequent trips through Catania Main to various locations in Italy. Nurses and medical technicians caught rides to collecting areas where they would be split into teams and assigned to various planes carrying patients to hospitals in the theater. Lieutenant Jensen registered the fact that she and her squad had not previously flown with either of the two pilots standing in the aisle of the C-53. The senior pilot, a slim, dark-haired first lieutenant , was speaking to Captain Simpson. "The weather report says there's a cold front moving down from Naples, but we should be in Bari hours ahead of it. So, we're on our way." He and the copilot, a second lieutenant with reddish blond hair, walked up the aisle and disappeared into the cockpit. Jensen and the other nurses were getting magazines and hometown newspapers from coat pockets and fastening their seat belts when Captain Simpson paused at the door of the plane and called, "Good luck, gang!" With a playful smile he added, "Any last words, kids? Any messages you want sent home?" Everyone laughed and someone called back, "Just spread the word-keep 'em flying!" The door of the plane closed and it taxied to the runway. It was 0815 hours as the plane left the ground and began the journey that would carry those on board into one of the most remarkable experiences of World War II. Lieutenant Jensen loved being an army flight nurse. Takeoff Crash Landing 11 was especially exciting to her. She liked the roar of the engines as the plane actually lifted offthe runway and the ground slipped away beneath them. It was as if she were being freed from earthly matters and everyday routine. She watched out a window as the rugged Sicilian terrain flattened and was replaced by the Mediterranean Sea. But the usually brilliant blue water was an ominous dark green, flecked everywhere with frothy white. Ugly dark clouds loomed off to the left, and the air was becoming rougher with each passing...