The Secret Rescue (46 page)

8. tried… to get in touch with Brodie
Ibid.; Brodie, “The Rescue of American Nurses from Albania,” 28.

9. crew made their way toward Albania
Brodie, “The Rescue of American Nurses from Albania,” 28.

10. signal fires
Ibid.; Hayes, interview.

11. last two to leave the shore
Hayes, interview.

12. two fifteen
Smith, “Report on Mission of Evacuation.”

13. one nurse was seasick
Agnes Jensen Mangerich,
Albanian Escape
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999), 197.

14. Hayes and Wolf boarded
Hayes, interview.

15. “it’s time to splice the main brace!”
Ibid.

16. “How about giving me your jacket?”
Ibid.

17. “Give it to him.”
Ibid.

18. McKnight… photographers
Ibid.; photos from 15th Air Force (USAAF), AFHRA, Roll A6544.

19. 26th General Hospital
Hayes, interview; photos from 15th Air Force (USAAF), AFHRA, Roll A6544.

20. open since December 4
Charles M. Wiltsie,
The Medical Department: Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters
(Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1965), 333.

21. equipment for the hospital
Ibid.

22. being detained
Hayes, interview; Colonel C. A. Young to Brigadier General Lauris Norstad, memo, Roll A6544, AFHRA.

23. signed papers
Hayes, interview; William Eldridge personnel file, NPRC.

24. half the party
Hayes, interview.

25. Late Arrivals Club
Ibid.; Lawrence O. Abbott,
Out of Albania,
ed. Clinton W. Abbott (Lulu Press, 2010), 181;
Air Forces Escape and Evasion Society
(New York: Turner Publishing, 1992), 6.

26. President Roosevelt
Hayes, interview; Jon Naar, interview at his home in New Jersey, March 7, 2012; David Smiley,
Albanian Assignment
(London: Sphere Books, 1984), 106; Mangerich,
Albanian Escape,
200–201. Though no historical documents confirming FDR’s involvement in the story could be found at the NACP, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, NY, the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, KS, or the U.S. Army Military History Institute in Carlisle, PA, Naar reported that Roosevelt called the Cairo SOE office to find out why it was taking the SOE so long to get the nurses out of Albania. In his book, Smiley wrote of FDR’s interest, Hayes was told at his debriefing, and Mangerich wrote in her book of Donovan’s telling Smith he would update FDR.

27. [Donovan and Smith]
Mangerich,
Albanian Escape,
200–201; Douglas Waller,
Wild Bill Donovan
(New York: Free Press, 2011), 226. Waller confirmed that Donovan spent much of January “hopping in the Mediterranean.”

28. remained hospitalized
“[807th] War Diary for January 1944,” Roll A0323, AFHRA.

29. “What are you doing in here?”
Hayes, interview.

30. celebrated
Untitled and undated account, Roll A0323, AFHRA.

31. [status of personnel]
“[807th] War Diary for January 1944,” Roll A0323, AFHRA.

32. Morocco
Hayes, interview.

Chapter 16

1. [three nurses in home in Berat]
Wilma Dale Lytle Gibson, “World War II Story of Escape from Germans,”
Falmouth Outlook,
May 18, 1964; Koli Karaja, telephone interview through translator Albana Droboniku, December 22, 2012; Koli Karaja, interviews by Ajet Nallbani in Berat on behalf of the author, December 2012.

2. Victor Smith and Alan Palmer
“Honours and Awards,” TNA, HS 7/70.

3. major
Lloyd Smith, “Evacuation of Three American Nurses from Albania,” March 29, 1944, RG 226, entry 154, box 6, folder 105, NACP; Hayes, interview; “Promotion of Officer,” RG 226, entry 92A, box 7, folder 92, NACP. Smith signed his evacuation report as “Major,” thinking his promotion was official, as he’d been told, but on May 4, 1944, Colonel C. C. Carter wrote a memo asking for the promotion to be handled quickly as Smith was under the assumption that he had already been promoted to the rank of major.

4. Grama Bay
Roderick Bailey,
The Wildest Province
(London: Jonathan Cape, 2008), 206.

5. “The situation was rather critical”
Smith, “Evacuation of Three American Nurses from Albania.”

6. McAdoo and Orahood
Bailey,
The Wildest Province,
215.

7. three Italians drowned
Ibid., 212.

8. “several members of their organization”
Smith, “Evacuation of Three American Nurses from Albania.”

9. Tare Shyti
Leka Bezhani, e-mail interviews, December 2012; Vojsava Bezhani, telephone interview through translator Albana Droboniku, December 22, 2012.

10. “We always tell our women”
Smith, “Evacuation of Three American Nurses from Albania.”

11. “[Meto] wanted to know”
Ibid.

12. “If my cousin does not”
Ibid.

13. By this time
Letter from Lloyd Smith, March 12, 1944, RG 226, entry 92A, box 7, folder 92, NACP.

14. Kadre Çakrani
Gibson, “World War II Story of Escape from Germans”; Smith, “Evacuation of Three American Nurses from Albania.”

15. Goni bought the material
Gibson, “World War II Story of Escape from Germans.”

16. given a rifle
Ibid.; Diane Burke Fessler,
No Time for Fear
(East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996), 146.

17. “See, God——, Major”
Smith, “Evacuation of Three American Nurses from Albania.”

Epilogue

1. Smith … Distinguished Service Cross
RG 226, entry 92A, box 7, folder 92, NACP.

2. Duffy… Military Cross
“Honours and Awards,” TNA, HS 7/70.

3. “For the party in general”
Gavan Duffy, “Report on Evacuation of American Party from Albania,” TNA, HS 5/124.

4. Bell… Military Medal
“Honours and Awards,” TNA, HS 7/70.

5. Brodie … Legion of Merit
RG 226, entry 225, box 81, David Brodie personnel file, NACP.

6. Smith… Palmer… Mention in Despatches
“Honours and Awards,” TNA, HS 7/70.

7. [what happened to Nicholls and a captain]
E. W. (“Trotsky”) Davies,
Illyrian Venture
(London: Bodley Head, 1952), 226–227; Roderick Bailey,
The Wildest Province
(London: Jonathan Cape, 2008), 123–126.

8. “was more than half-starved”
Bailey,
The Wildest Province,
124.

9. [what happened to major, sergeant, and Davies]
Davies,
Illyrian Venture,
154–227.

10. final draft
Ibid., 9.

11. Prisoner of War Office
Hayes, interview.

12. Duffy’s interview
“13 U.S. Nurses Dare Nazis’ Guns, Planes, Wilds—Escape!” NPN, February 15, 1943, newspaper article, Harold Hayes papers; “Chutist Leads Adams, Mates Through Nazi Balkan Lines,” NPN, February 16, 1943, newspaper article, Harold Hayes papers.

13. Boyle’s story
Hal Boyle, “U.S. Nurses Tell of 60-Day Trek Across Nazi-Held Land,”
Bee
(Danville, VA), February 17, 1944 (delayed from January 9).

14. Kopsco [interview]
“Guerrillas Save 12 Army Nurses Lost in Albania,”
Memphis Press-Scimitar,
February 17, 1944.

15. Hayes [interview]
“Iowa Soldier’s Own Story of Escape from Nazis,”
Des Moines Tribune,
February 17, 1944.

16. Watson… again sent overseas
World War II Flight Nurses Association,
The Story of Air Evacuation 1942–1989
(Dallas: Taylor Publishing, 1989), 142.

17. instructors
Ibid., 19.

18. Hayes’s [service]
Hayes, interview.

19. [draft of nurses]
Jill Elaine Hasday, “Fighting Women: The Military, Sex, and Extrajudicial Constitutional Change,” Georgetown Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 1260756, 2008, http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/450; Doris Weatherford,
American Women During World War II: An Encyclopedia
(New York: Routledge, 2010), 20.

20. reunion
Hayes, interview.

21. [Thrasher told Jens]
Agnes Jensen Mangerich,
Albanian Escape
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999), 212.

22. [Stefa’s family learns of execution]
Ibid., 212–213; Stefa family, written statement delivered to the author in person in Berat, March 20, 2012; Kostaq Stefa (grandson), e-mail interview, December 31, 2012.

23. Gina was helping the Americans
Marjola Llogoni, e-mail interview, February 21, 2013.

24. Smith… return to Albania
Mangerich,
Albanian Escape,
213.

25. American Embassy
U.S. Embassy to Qani Siqeca, letter, November 8, 1996, Harold Hayes papers.

26. exchanged letters
Copies of letters, Harold Hayes papers.

27. many items he carried with him
Hayes, interview.