WARRINGTON'S connection with the US during the Second World War in relation to Burtonwood is very well known.

But how many readers were aware of the story of the 63 African American nurses stationed at the 168th Station Military Hospital in Appleton – the first African American nurses from the US Nursing Corps to be assigned anywhere in Europe.

At the start of the Second World War the United States had less than 2,000 Army and Navy nurses which was obviously not nearly enough to support the massive military operation they were mounting on multiple fronts. To remedy this shortage the U.S. Army Nurse Corp began a huge recruitment drive in co-operation with the Red Cross.

While the recruitment drive was designed to be quick and effective the Corps maintained their strict entry requirements, only accepting unmarried women aged between 22 and 30 who had civilian nursing training. There was, however, one additional and largely unspoken requirement – U.S. Army Nursing Corps recruits had to be white.

Thousands of trained black nurses in America,wanting to serve their country, filled out applications to enlist in the US Army Nurse Corps and they all received the same letter in response:

“Your application to the Army Nurse Corps cannot be given favourable consideration as there are no provisions in Army regulations for the appointment of coloured nurses in the Corps.”

Even appeals to the American Nursing Association fell on deaf ears as the Association didn’t accept black nurses as members, but the rival National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) challenged the rejection letters. With the Association’s support, in addition to political pressure from civil rights groups and the media, 56 black nurses were finally admitted into the US Army Nurse Corps in 1941.

By 1944 there were over 40,000 nurses in the U.S. Army Corps but less than 0.8% – only around 300 of them were black – . The 10,000 nurses assigned to the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) were even less diverse – there were only 63 African American Army Nurses in Europe and they were all assigned to a single location – the 168th Station Military Hospital at Appleton Hall in Stretton

In July 1944 it was selected by random from all the similarly sized hospital units in Britain to become the first Prisoner of War hospital in Europe to be staffed by African American nurses. These were the first female African-American military personnel to be stationed in Britain, arriving 6 months before their colleagues in the Women’s Army Corps.

Despite the objections of the existing staff on August 4 the military authorities started transferring the first of the 731 American patients at the 168th unit elsewhere to make apace for German Prisoners of War. Shortly afterwards, following a short three week training course, 63 African-American nurses arrived in Warrington to serve at the medical unit.

To many of the newly arrived nurses, their assignment was deeply troubling. They had volunteered to serve wounded American soldiers, not the enemy. It had taken decades for them to be admitted into the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, and to be given the task of caring for soldiers in Hitler’s army felt like a betrayal.

The nurses soon discovered that the Warrington area was not segregated and the Red Cross nursing clubs, restaurants and even schools that would have been barred to them in the United States were open to persons of colour in Britain. They were therefore able to enjoy more freedom than their colleagues in the states.

By the end of December 1944 the 168th Station Military Hospital had transferred the prisoners of war to 82nd General Hospital and its 1431 beds were occupied by American casualties.

The 63 African-American nurses stationed at Appleton represented around an eighth of the total number of nurses that served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during the Second World War.