Today in World War II History—February 7, 1944

US 56th Evacuation Hospital after an air raid, 1944 (US Army Medical Department)

80 Years Ago—Feb. 7, 1944: US secures Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

At Anzio, Italy, US 95th Evacuation Hospital is accidentally bombed when a German fighter pilot jettisons bombs under Allied fighter attack; 28 hospital personnel and patients killed, including 3 nurses and the first female American Red Cross worker to be killed in action in WWII; the German pilot is shot down and treated in the same hospital. Read more: “Courage under Fire – US Army Hospitals at Anzio.”

John Hersey’s best-selling novel A Bell for Adano is published; it will win the Pulitzer Prize.

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