Angels of Bataan

Angels of Bataan and Corregidor
Liberated Nurses, February 12, 1945
Active	December 1941-March 1945
Country	United States of America
Allegiance	United States of America
Branch	United States Army; United States Navy
Type	Nurse Corps
Size	78 nurses
Nickname(s)	Battling Belles of Bataan
Engagements	Battle of Bataan Battle of Corregidor World War II Philippines Campaign
Commanders
Notable commanders	Capt. Maude C. Davison (US Army); Lt. Laura M. Cobb (US Navy)

Capt. Maude C. Davison (US Army);

The Angels of Bataan (also known as the "Angels of Bataan and Corregidor" and "The Battling Belles of Bataan") were the members of the United States Army Nurse Corps and the United States Navy Nurse Corps who were stationed in the Philippines at the outset of the Pacific War and served during the Battle of the Philippines (1941–42). When Bataan and Corregidor fell, 11 Navy nurses, 66 army nurses, and 1 nurse-anesthetist were captured and imprisoned in and around Manila. They continued to serve as a nursing unit throughout their status as prisoners of war. After years of hardship, they were finally liberated in February 1945.

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 and 2nd Lt. Josephine Nesbit, together with Navy nurse Bernatitus, escaped from Manila and went on to serve in the Battle of Bataan and the Battle of Corregidor.