Frances Slanger (1913-1944) was the first American nurse in the European Theater to be killed in combat during World War II. A U.S. Army nurse with the 45th field hospital, she landed in Normandy with the first hospital platoon on June 9, 1944. She is also remembered for the eloquence of a letter she wrote to the Stars and Stripes the day before she died praising the rank-and-file American GI. At age seven, Slanger had emigrated with her family to the U.S. from Lodz, Poland. They settled in the South End where she worked with her father peddling fruits and vegetables while attending school. She then graduated from Boston’s High School of Practical Arts and the Boston City Hospital School of Nursing.
