First WACs reach France to work 20 miles from front
Group carries shovels to dig foxholes ion case of air raids by Germans
Somewhere on the Cherbourg Peninsula, France (UP) – (July 16, delayed)
The first WACs landed in France on Bastille Day, July 14, and have gone to work with a forward communications unit 20 miles behind the battlefront, it was disclosed today.
Trained, as one WAC put it, “to shoot sort of mildly” and carrying shovels to dig foxholes in event of enemy raids, the group of 49 enlisted girls and six officers arrived on a troop transport.
The group is under command of Capt. Isabel B. Kane of Tacoma, Washington, a former dancing teacher.
The first to set foot on French soil was Sgt. Nancy Carter of Charlottesville, Virginia.
‘Morale builders’
The G.I.’s greeted the WACs with cries of “here come the morale builders” and French villagers cheered as they drove through flag-decorated streets.
The girls have three ambitions, Sgt. Claire E. Dickman of San Francisco, said. She said:
We want to help until the war is over and then we want to buy a Paris dress and a bottle of French perfume.
The girls bivouacked in parks and were warned against picking roses or knocking at strange doors as a precaution against booby traps.
Practice shooting
They practiced shooting in case of emergency, but they were not equipped with firearms.
All are clerks or secretaries with the exception of one jeep driver, Sgt. Lee Boyman of College Point, New York, and Capt. Selma Herbert of New York City, who is the only WAC attached to civil training.
Cpl. Aurelie Durkin of New York City is the only one who had visited France before, but nearly all of the girls have been taking French lessons.