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Ten hours after the devastating attack on
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese planes launched the
first in a deadly series of attacks on the Philippine Islands,
bombing and strafing airfields in and around Manila, and two days
later later at the Cavite Navy Yard south of Manila. Even before
the enemy planes had taken off, three Japanese convoys were
steaming south, two headed for Luzon with thousands of combat
forces to whom would fall the task of defeating the Philippine
forces and their few American counterparts.
The first Japanese forces landed at Legaspi
at the southern tip of Luzon on December 11, far enough removed
from Manila to not immediately become a major concern. When, on
December 22, the 43,110 men of General Homma's 14th Army entered
Luzon's Lingayen Gulf and embarked with artillery and 100 tanks at
three points, the already badly war-damaged Philippine capitol was
caught in a deadly crossfire.
On Christmas Eve, General MacArthur and his
staff departed Manila for the Island fortress at Corregidor. Two
days later, in an effort to spare Manila further damage and loss
of civilian life, it was declared an open city. (A city that
is declared demilitarized during a war, thus gaining immunity from
attack under international law.) On New Years Day, 1942, the
last official American military presence in Manila departed, and
on January 2 the Japanese entered and gained control of the city.
Among the American forces departing Manila
in that tragic first week of 1942 was Miss Ann A. Bernatitus. The
29-year nurse from Exeter, PA, held the relative rank of Lieutenant
(j.g.) in the Navy Nurse Corps, in which she had already served
for five years. Captain (Retired) Bernatitus recalled in a 1994
interview, "I always wanted to be a nurse. There was
nothing else for girls to do in those days but be a school teacher
or a nurse. My parents couldn't afford to send me to college. My
school friend, whose mother was a widow, told my mother, who was
also a widow, to let me go for training. My mother then decided to
let me go for training locally."
If Ann Bernatitus felt options for a young
woman were limited beyond nursing, she soon learned that things
were little better in the Navy. Women in the Navy were addressed
as "Miss", and held no formal rank. Ann recalled, "In
those days we were neither fish nor fowl. We were not officers and
we were not enlisted. We were in between. We did not get the pay
of an officer but we got more than the enlisted."
In 1940 Lieutenant (j.g.) Bernatitus
accepted an assignment in the Philippine Islands and arrived at
the Navy Hospital at Canaco in July. Eighteen months later in the
pre-dawn hours of December 8 (December 7 on the other side of the
International Date Line), she and the other nurses were awakened
with the news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. They
immediately reported to duty, fully aware that the Philippine
Islands would most likely be the next target. That attack came
before he morning shift was completed.
Ambulatory patients were quickly
returned to duty, and on December 9 the more serious cases were
sent to Manila to what had been a dependents ward at the Sternberg
Army Hospital. Ann Bernatitus was one of two nurses sent to Manila
with the latter, working long hours caring for the many wounded by
the relentless bombing and strafing in and around Manila. When all
hope for defending Manila was gone, on the same day General
MacArthur departed Manila for Corregidor, Lieutenant (j.g.)
Bernatitus joined 25 Army and 25 Filipino nurses on a dangerous
convoy to the Bataan Peninsula. The Far East Air Force had been
bombed and strafed into virtual non-existence, and the convoy was
forced to dodge unfettered attack from Japanese aircraft. Ann's
friends, left behind in Manila, were subsequently interred with
American Prisoners of War when the Japanese entered and took
control of the city on January 2, 1942. Lieutenant (j.g.)
Bernatitus was destined to become the ONLY Navy nurse stationed in
the Philippines to avoid capture.
For three month she continued to work long
hours on the deadly and dangerous front lines of Bataan. assisting
the surgeons on the deadly front lines of Bataan. Her duty was
initially at Hospital Number 1 at Camp Limay, and then on January
23 the hospital was moved to Little Baguio, farther down the
peninsula. Seven days later the Japanese bombed the hospital.
Working conditions were the worst
imaginable. Casualties streamed through the doors of the spartan
concrete-floored hospital with a tin-roof. Ann Bernatitus
recalled, "Every operating table would be filled. They
would come in from the field all dirty. You did what you could
There were lice; I kept my hair covered all the time. He (Dr.
Cary Smith) did a lot of leg amputations because we had a lot
of gas gangrene out there. I remember one patient we were
operating on. Dr. Smith didn't want to sew him back up. He had
died. I remember telling him that I didn't want him to do that if
anything happened to me. He said, 'I'll sew him up just to shut
you up.' We were washing the dirty dressings that they used during
an operation. We would wash them out and refold and sterilized
them and use them again."
 On
April 7, Hospital Number 1 was again bombed by the Japanese, this
time making a direct hit on one of the wards and killing many
already seriously wounded soldiers. In the midst of all the hell,
filled with death, dying, and the ever-present threat of her own
mortality, the lone Navy nurse continued to dedicate herself to
saving others. On the day after that second bombing the front
lines on Bataan collapsed, and Nurse Bernatitus and the Army
nurses on Bataan were driven to Mariveles via had a road they
called the Zig Zag trail, with a drop-off on both sides. At
Mariveles they boarded a small ferry for the 3-mile trip to Corregidor.
The following day the American commander on Bataan, Major General
Edward King, sadly concluded he had no alternative to surrender.
The 79,000 troops under his command were soon to be subjected to
the infamous Death March.
With Bataan firmly under their control, the
Japanese turned the full weight of their military forces to
bombarding the the small six-square mile island fortress of
Corregidor. From within the confines of the Malinta Tunnel, Nurse
Bernatitus continued to push aside her own fears and care for
others. Under orders from President Roosevelt, General MacArthur
left Corregidor on April 11, in a daring breakout engineered by
P.T. Boat Commander John Duncan Bulkeley. When Bulkeley's PT-41
pulled away from the island, those left behind had little to be
envious of. With Japanese planes scouring the area for any sign of
an escape attempt, with enemy sea patrols increased to all-time
highs around the islands, and with a destroyer division steaming
towards Manila, many at Corregidor set MacArthur's chances of
escape at fifty-to-one. There was little hope for anyone to
successfully break out of the steel vise Japan had thrown around
the Philippine Islands, thus when General Jonathan Wainwright
surrendered the last remaining American forces at Corregidor on
May 6, 1942, it was assumed that Lieutenant (j.g.) Bernatitus was
among the missing that had vanished into the tragedy of the
valiant but futile Philippine Defense.
In fact, on May 3 Lieutenant (j.g.)
Bernatitus was selected to join eleven Army nurses, one civilian
woman, six Army officers, and six Navy officers, to be among the
last Americans to escape Corregidor. Slipping silently out of
Manila Bay beneath the wave in the submarine U.S.S. Spearfish,
when she arrived in Australia, she had the unique distinction of
being the ONLY Navy nurse stationed in the Philippines to escape
the Japanese.
| Of 99
nurses known to have served in or at Bataan, 22
escaped before the final fall of the Philippine
Islands. The remaining 77, the largest group of
women Prisoners of War in American history, were
repatriated in 1945. Through four years of
deprivation, cruelty, and constant death, they
valiantly served to save others. To the men with
which they served, and to whom they ministered, they
became known as the Angels of Bataan. |
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The photo above shows Vice Admiral Kinkaid welcoming
home 11 Navy nurses (and 3 civilian nurses) who had
served with Lieutenant (j.g.) Bernatitus at Canacao.
The fourteen were rescued from captivity on February
23, 1945, when American paratroopers and Filipino
guerillas subdued the prison garrison where they had
been held for 37 months. They are wearing dresses
they made for themselves while in captivity. The
eleven Navy nurses were awarded the the Bronze Star
by the U.S. Army, and a Gold Star in lieu of a
Second Bronze Star by the Navy.
They are: Lieutenant Commander
Laura M. Cobb (Wichita, KS), Lieuenant Mary C. Hays
(Chicago, IL), Lieutenant Bertha R. Evans (Portland,
OR), Lieutenant Helen C. Gorzelanski (Omaha, NE),
Lieutenant Mary H. Nelson (Elk Point, S.D.),
Lieutenant Margaret A. Nash (Wilkes-Barre, PA),
Lieutenant Goldia O. Merrill (Hayfield, MN),
Lieutenant Eldene E. Paige (Lomita, CA), Lieutenant
Susie Pitcher (Des Moines, IA), Lieutenant Dorothy
Still (Long Beach, CA), and Lieutenant C. Edwina
Todd (Pomona, CA).
The
three civilian nurses each received the Bronze Star
from the Navy. They are Miss Helen C. Grant
(Glasgow, Scotland), Miss Maureen Davis (Northridge,
CA), and Mrs. Basilia T. Steward (Fairfield, TX). |
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Following her escape to Australia,
Lieutenant (j.g.) Bernatitus returned home in time for the
President's dedication of the new Naval Medical Center at
Bethesda, Maryland, on August 13, 1942. While continuing to serve
at Bethesda, she also gave of her time to speak for important war
bond drives
On July 20, 1942, Public Law No. 671
established a new award for members of the Armed Forces, as well
as to personnel of the armed forces of friendly foreign nations, Who
 have
distinguished themselves by exceptionally meritorious conduct in
the performance of outstanding service." The LEGION OF
MERIT was thus the FIRST American military medal authorized for
presentation to members of foreign allied nations, as well as to
members of the United States Military.
In October the Legion of Merit was presented
for the first time when it was awarded to Brigadier General Amaro
Scares Bittencourt, onetime Brazilian military attaché in
Washington, D.C. The following week the Legion of Merit was
presented a second time--this time to a member of the United
States Military service. Rear Admiral Randall Jacobs, Chief of
Naval Personnel noted when he presented the award to Lieutenant
(j.g.) Ann A. Bernatitus, "Your excellent service in a
time of stress and under such dangerous conditions is worthy of
the distinction shown you in becoming the FIRST PERSON IN THE
UNITED STATES NAVAL SERVICE TO BE SO DECORATED."
Following service at Bethesda, Ann
Bernatitus served as assistant chief nurse at the Naval Hospital
Great Lakes. In November 1944 she returned to the field, this time
as Chief Nurse on the hospital ship U.S.S. Relief (AH-1). It
was in that capacity that she continued her dedicated service to
those wounded in combat for the entirety of the Okinawa campaign.
Ann Bernatitus, the first American of any branch
of service in history to be awarded the Legion of Merit retired from
the Navy as a Captain in 1959. She passed away in March 2003 at age
91.
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