Reba Whittle: POW who will not be forgotten | VAntage Point

fter achieving the rank of second lieutenant, Whittle served as a general duty ward nurse in the Kirtland Air Force Base station hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Later, she transferred to Mather Field in Sacramento, California.

The Army Air Forces School of Air Evacuation approved Whittle as a flight nurse in August 1943. In September of that year, she started classes at Bowman Field High School in Bowman Field, Kentucky, for a six-week course intended to prepare nurses to be mostly self-sufficient during a flight. They were trained to handle discomfort, bleeding and shock for their patients in the absence of a physician.

Whittle graduated with distinction in November 1943. In January 1944, she boarded the Royal Mail Ship Queen Mary with 25 other flight nurses from the 813th Emergency Air Evacuation Transport Squadron to travel to England. The squadron first deployed to the Royal Air Force (RAF) Balderton in Nottinghamshire and then to RAF Grove in Oxfordshire.

Whittle flew 40 missions between January and September 1944, logging over 500 hours of flight time.

In September 1944, she set out from England on a mission to collect casualties from St. Trond, Belgium’s Advanced Landing Ground A-92. However, her C-47 aircraft was struck by German flak and crashed south of Aachen, Germany. Her surgical technician and one of the pilots were wounded in the crash, and the other pilot was killed. Whittle sustained multiple injuries, including a concussion and lacerations on her face and back. German soldiers captured the crew as they crawled from the burning wreckage.

The crew members were taken as prisoners of war (POWs) to Auswertestelle West – also known as the Evaluation Office West – which was the main Luftwaffe interrogation center in Oberursel, Germany. Whittle was separated from the rest of her crew and transferred to Hohemark Hospital, which was part of Auswertestelle West. She was tasked with providing emergency medical assistance to injured prisoners.

In October 1944, Whittle was assigned to Reserve Lazarett IX-C(a) at Obermassfeld, Germany. As part of Stalag IX-C, the field hospital was operated by British medical personnel for Allied POWs. Whittle was soon relocated to IX-C(b), a POW hospital in Meiningen, Germany, where she worked with burn victims and in an amputee rehabilitation facility.

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross notified the U.S. Department of State that Whittle was being held as a POW and negotiations for her release began. Accompanied by members of the German Red Cross, she was released in January 1945 and transported to Switzerland by train with other POWs released for medical or psychiatric purposes. She was then repatriated along with 109 other American POWs before she flew back to the United States.

In February 1945, Whittle was awarded the Purple Heart for her injuries sustained in the collision, as well as the Air Medal. Her citation reads, “For meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flights… in unarmed and unarmored aircraft.”
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Our women served in WWII, sometimes behind the lines, trying to care for our personnel. Thank you and your efforts will not be forgotten

None should be forgotten.

A tough woman!