When We Had Wings

When We Had Wings

Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris, and Susan Meissner

Publication Date: October 18, 2022 by Harper Muse

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: 5 👢👢👢👢👢

Summary: From three bestselling authors comes an interwoven tale about a trio of World War II nurses stationed in the South Pacific who wage their own battle for freedom and survival.

The Philippines, 1941. When U.S. Navy nurse Eleanor Lindstrom, U.S. Army nurse Penny Franklin, and Filipina nurse Lita Capel forge a friendship at the Army Navy Club in Manila, they believe they’re living a paradise assignment. All three are seeking a way to escape their pasts, but soon the beauty and promise of their surroundings give way to the heavy mantle of war.

Caught in the crosshairs of a fight between the U.S. military and the Imperial Japanese Army for control of the Philippine Islands, the nurses are forced to serve under combat conditions and, ultimately, endure captivity as the first female prisoners of the Second World War. As their resiliency is tested in the face of squalid living arrangements, food shortages, and the enemy’s blatant disregard for the articles of the Geneva Convention, the women strive to keep their hope— and their fellow inmates—alive, though not without great cost.

In this sweeping story based on the true experiences of nurses dubbed “the Angels of Bataan,” three women shift in and out of each other’s lives through the darkest days of the war, buoyed by their unwavering friendship and distant dreams of liberation.

My thoughts: "Here is the truth: General Douglas MacArthur allowed these women to be taken captive."

Let that sink in for a minute. Add that to the fact that almost no one knows about their sacrifices and you have a travesty. 

Lawhon, McMorris, and Meissner have given readers a gift with this collaboration. This book brings awareness to the oft overlooked and forgotten sacrifices and heroism of the women (and men) who served in the South Pacific during WWII. While the authors chose to use fictional characters to portray the struggles of the nurses stationed in the Philippines, their experiences were based on real women. 

Nurses chose to serve in the Navy for various reasons. They were from all walks of life. This story gives us three women who were looking to find answers on how to move forward. Each had suffered a heartbreak. Upon meeting they discovered how powerful friends could be in times of difficulty. When war came to their door, the need for friends became all that more important as they struggled to find hope and courage to beat the odds. 

This book was both heartbreaking and inspiring. It was surreal learning the extent of what happened to those nurses. Despite MacArthur's choices and the depravity each was forced to endure EVERY SINGLE NURSE survived the war and made it home. 

I received a copy of this title via NetGalley.