---
product_id: 1705933
title: "We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of the American Women Trapped on Bataan"
brand: "elizabeth norman"
price: "198 Lei"
currency: RON
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.ro/products/1705933-we-band-of-angels-the-untold-story-of-the-american
store_origin: RO
region: Romania
---

# We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of the American Women Trapped on Bataan

**Brand:** elizabeth norman
**Price:** 198 Lei
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of the American Women Trapped on Bataan by elizabeth norman
- **How much does it cost?** 198 Lei with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ro](https://www.desertcart.ro/products/1705933-we-band-of-angels-the-untold-story-of-the-american)

## Best For

- elizabeth norman enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted elizabeth norman brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

Full description not available

## Images

![We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of the American Women Trapped on Bataan - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81HE81Z0yzL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    women of WWII
  

*by C***A on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 23, 2018*

Mention Bataan to anyone familiar with the WWII Pacific battleground and the reaction is likely to be one of pain. Unspeakable misery was inflicted in what became known as the Bataan Death March. The much lesser known story but no less compelling is the story of the Band of Angels: the 100 Army and Navy nurses stationed in the Phillipines when it was attacked by the Japanese Imperial Army. This is the story of the military nurses who were surrendered by their government and taken prisoner in December 1941 until the Phillipines were liberated in 1945.These women came to military nursing service from all walks of life and all parts of the country. As professionals they each embodied a passion for nurturing and protecting others. For some, the military afforded them the opportunity for a good education, worthy occupational training, and to experience life outside the confines of their humble daily existence. Life working in a tropical military hospital had its advantages. Exotic location, regular hours, and a congenial social life. Combat duty was the farthest thing from their minds. In an instant, everything changed once the bombs started flying. War is hell, and these women were suddenly tossed in the middle of it. They were there to heal, not to fight. But in order to survive while attending to the rapidly mounting casualties they had to do both.They organized themselves into a team across the normal boundaries of Military unit command. They improvised as resources became strained. They tended to the weakest, the maimed, the injured, the suffering. They built, organized, and managed hospital units spread out on the jungle floor. They slept on bamboo cots, worked nonstop shifts, and lived by their wits. And then they were captured by (arguably surrendered by their own government to) the Japanese and sent off to prison camps. Everything gets worse!!Eventually they are liberated and not a moment too soon. By this time the nurses are somehow still upright but just barely. They carried on their nursing duties while being imprisoned, and were subjected to the same inhumane treatment as other prisoners. At the time of their liberation they were suffering from dysentery, dengue fever, and all the other gruesome physical and mental effects of starvation and isolation. They were quickly flung back into life in the US and paraded around and, being women, objectified as fragile heroes. But when the military honors and medals were passed out, despite their remarkable resiliency and heroism and service to their country, their government could barely see fit to bestow a form of military honor below what their rank or service deserved.We follow these women, who became known as The Band of Angels, through their reintegration into post-war life in the States right up until their last breath.It is a remarkable story expertly told at the hands of a careful, thoughtful, and empathetic writer. It is a story that will break your heart a few dozen times and leave you in awe of what these women accomplished, and what humans are capable of doing, good and bad. After reading this I will never ever forget the story of these amazing women, thrown together by chance to endure one of the most horrific experiences in history.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 3.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Interesting, but ...
  

*by M***  on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 1, 2019*

The book is obviously the product of a boatload of research and features solid wordsmithing. The topic was fascinating and, X decades after the fact, little covered and thus unique. So We Band of Angels should have been a great read, especially for this WWII junkie. While it certainly held my interest, I finished with a feeling of disappointment. My main gripe is that I didn’t really get to know the characters, and thus had little emotional investment in them. Perhaps the author might have made them more “real” if she had focused on fewer of them? Perhaps Norman’s choice of an objective reporting style (to differentiate herself from the reporters who propagandized about the nurses in the immediate aftermath of their release?) interfered with character development? At the same time, Norman had no problem straying from objectivity when deploring the fact that the military brass failed to give the nurses what she considered proper recognition, even if many of the angels did indeed receive this medal and that.The author’s focus seemed blurred at times, not least of all when selecting data meant to convey the deprivation and sacrifice experienced by the nurses. In two different portions of the book, for example, Norman, in an obvious effort to illustrate emaciation, tells us that one 5’6” nurse weighed just 118 pounds toward the end of her imprisonment. As someone standing one inch taller and weighing several pounds less for much of her perfectly healthy adult life, I was underwhelmed. Norman speculates in one of those citations that some of those 118 pounds were from the horrible edema of beri-beri, but the effect is already lost. Surely, Norman could have found a better statistic more clearly conveying the dramatic weight loss from a starvation diet. Yet she chose this statistic and mentioned it not once, but twice.The lack of focus on the nurses’ Japanese captors was also troubling. Was this an attempt to sanitize the Japanese, our current allies? We learn that the captors did not sexually assault the nurses and that the commander of the compound was indifferent to pleas for more food. There were a few mentions of the show of obeisance demanded of the prisoners. But otherwise there was no discussion of interaction between guards and prisoners, nor any focus on the women’s emotional reaction to their captors (resentment? fear? hatred? frustration? glimmers of some human connection with the enemy?) This lack sometimes makes it difficult to remember that the nurses were indeed prisoners. I doubt the women themselves ever forgot that harsh reality.I enjoyed the follow-up on the lives of several of the nurses, decades later. It was interesting to see how all those years of captivity affected their lives. It was inspiring to learn that those experiences did not prevent many of the survivors from leading productive lives, however scarred. But those chapters also felt choppy, like addenda tacked onto the end of the story, with little flow back to the original narrative. It didn’t help that one of the survivors featured in these ex post facto interviews was not mentioned in the earlier narrative, apparently because the author didn’t “discover” her until much later. As painful and labor-intensive as rewrites are, a rewrite integrating “Millie” into the main story might have produced a more sympathetic book.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Excellent, Informative and Heartwarming Book
  

*by K***R on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 3, 2022*

What a forgotten story.  Thank you to the author for bringing this back to the fore.  Over one hundred nurses based in the Philippines prior to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and Manila did their jobs during the rout of Bataan and Corregidor.  After treating thousands of casualties under constant fire and explosions, they were captured and imprisoned.  For almost three years, they then survived near starvation and severe living conditions in prison camps while still maintaining military discipline as they treated and comforted the sick and the dying.  A few evacuated to safety in Australia but the rest lived to tell a different tale.  Stateside they were touted as heroes but then quickly forgotten in the annals of history.  The author did painstaking research and met with many of the surviving nurses, forming ongoing friendships with some until their death.  An exciting read and addition to WWII literature.  My only criticism is to question mosquitos having teeth.😲😲

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.ro/products/1705933-we-band-of-angels-the-untold-story-of-the-american](https://www.desertcart.ro/products/1705933-we-band-of-angels-the-untold-story-of-the-american)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Romania*
*Store origin: RO*
*Last updated: 2026-03-09*