Rest In Peace, Forgotten Angel

In 1921 a child was born in the Belgian Congo. The child was a girl; her name was Augusta Chiwy.  She was the daughter of a Belgian veterinarian and his wife, who was native Congolese.

At age 9, Chiwy moved to Belgium with her family – to Bastogne, her father’s hometown. In 1940, she turned 19. She went to the town of Leuven, and studied nursing.

She was living in Belgium on 16 December 1944. She returned to Bastogne to be with her family during the Chiristmas holidays.

Some would say that wasn’t the best choice she could have made given later circumstances. However, a number of US GIs would disagree.

We all know what happened at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. However, what’s not as well known is what happened in one of their medical stations – specifically, that of the 20th Armored Infantry Battalion, 10th Armored Division.

That aid station was commanded by John Prior. It was critically short of medical personnel.

Ms. Chiwy had been attending wounded civilian and military personnel with her uncle, a Belgian doctor. However, on 21 December she and a friend, Renée Lemaire, volunteered to serve at the 20th Armored Infantry’s aid station. She treated numerous wounded, and reportedly wore the US Army’s uniform and assisted in retrieving wounded from the field.

Because of her race, some US soldiers were reluctant to allow Chiwy to provide them treatment. Indeed, Army regulations of the time actually forbid treatment of white soldiers by black nurses. (Yeah, that’s pretty stupid – but 1944 was a different, more prejudiced time.) The aid station commander put a stop to that nonsense; he told any troops who objected that Chiwy was a volunteer, and that their choices were “You either let her treat you or you die.”

On 24 December, a German 500lb bomb hit the aid station. Chiwey and her friend were both working there at the time.

Lemaire was killed; so were 30 wounded troops. Lemaire became widely known afterwards as the “Angel of Bastogne”.

Chiwy was working with Lemaire in the same building, but was blown through a wall by the force of the explosion vice being killed. She was not seriously hurt. She returned to duty and continued to serve in the Battalion’s aid station until the Siege of Bastogne was lifted.

It’s estimated that Chiwy’s care was instrumental in saving the lives of more than 100 US soldiers.

Later, Chiwy continued her career in nursing. She worked at a hospital specializing in spinal injuries. She married a Belgian soldier. They had two children.

Chiwy was reluctant to speak of her wartime experiences. She was thought by many who knew of her wartime service to have died in Bastogne. While researching a related project, British historian Martin King heard of her.

He located her in a nursing home IVO Brussels. After extensive cross-checking with Prior’s wartime diaries, King confirmed that she was indeed the same lady who’d served with him at Bastogne.

In 2011, the Army presented Chiwy the Department of the Army Civilian Award for Humanitarian Service. Earlier that year, she had been knighted by Belgium’s King Albert II.

Augusta Chiwy died on 23 August 2015, aged 94. She was laid to rest this past Saturday. I’m guessing she was indeed in heaven well before the Devil knew she was dead.

Rest in peace, angel. You certainly deserve that.

 

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/26/world/europe/augusta-chiwy-forgotten-wartime-nurse-dies-at-94.html

http://www.stripes.com/news/army-honors-wwii-nurse-for-aiding-u-s-troops-during-battle-of-the-bulge-1.163301

http://www.newser.com/article/04abf43f14ea45e3bff7bdcc2342392b/belgium-lays-to-rest-heroic-nurse-who-saved-countless-american-lives-in-battle-of-the-bulge.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta_Chiwy

http://www.syracuse.com/kirst/index.ssf/2015/08/augusta_chiwy_dies_legendary_nurse_helped_syracuse_doctor_tend_wounded_at_the_bu.html

A documentary film about Chiwy based on King’s research and efforts to find her can be viewed on YouTube.

Category: Blue Skies, Historical