Across the Minefields Read online

  Dedication

  To my husband, Sandy Wilson,

  who is the reader in my head and in my heart

  Maps

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Maps

  Chapter 1: The Siege

  Chapter 2: A Country at War

  Chapter 3: Getting to the Front Lines

  Chapter 4: Looking for Action

  Chapter 5: Finally at the Battlefront

  Chapter 6: A New Boss

  Chapter 7: On the Road to Bir Hakeim

  Chapter 8: A Dreadful Oven of a Place

  Chapter 9: Outnumbered Ten to One

  Chapter 10: An Appointment With Honor

  Chapter 11: More Work Still to Do

  Author’s Note

  Select Bibliography

  About the Author

  Back Ad

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Chapter 1

  The Siege

  Bir Hakeim, Libya—June 8, 1942

  Susan Travers heard the whine of the approaching planes. She put on her helmet and kneeled on the floor of her dugout, waiting for the next German air raid to start.

  Imagine you’re in a deep underground bunker, she told herself. Imagine your helmet is a huge metal umbrella that bombs bounce off of, like hailstones from a roof.

  She knew in reality that the helmet would not protect her if a bomb hit, but it was better than nothing. She had lived in a tent at other military camps, but that would have been too dangerous in this Free French outpost in the Libyan Desert. Her home here was a narrow trench dug into the sand. It was ten feet long, four feet wide, and waist deep—big enough to hold a camp bed, a little folding chair with an attached table, and her suitcase. The walls were reinforced with sandbags to keep them from collapsing, and a thin piece of sand-colored canvas stretched over the top to protect her from the sun during the day. But it wouldn’t protect her from a bomb any more than her helmet would.

  Right now, as she waited for another wave of the German dive-bombers, called Stukas, to attack, she thought it looked more like a shallow grave than a refuge.

  Susan could hear the Stukas now, droning in the distance like a vast swarm of bees headed toward Bir Hakeim. They were the worst part of the German attacks, in her opinion. As the sound grew nearer, she felt her heart pound and her legs tremble. It seemed like the bombers’ humming was inside her head.

  Abruptly, the sound changed into high-pitched screams, followed by silence as the planes dived toward the earth and released their bombs. The silence was almost worse than any of the noises. Five long seconds of quiet as bombs fell toward their targets on the ground.

  Susan counted the seconds in her head, the way she had when she was a little girl waiting for the lightning after a clap of thunder. One, two, three, four, five—

  The shells hit the ground right on time, exploding with a blinding flash. The earth shuddered. Then debris and dust filled the air.

  “Please let it be over,” she whispered.

  Susan knew the siege would have to end soon. General Koenig, the commander of the besieged French forces, had refused to surrender to German commander Erwin Rommel. This meant Rommel would have to come in after them. The French troops couldn’t hold out much longer. Susan’s garrison was running out of food, water, and ammunition. Soon they would have no choice but to give up.

  When the war with Nazi Germany began three years earlier, Susan had eagerly volunteered to help her beloved France, first as a nurse and then as a driver. But she had never imagined that she would end up in Africa with the First Free French Brigade, fighting to keep the Germans out of Africa.

  Susan and the Free French forces under the command of General Marie-Pierre Koenig had arrived at Bir Hakeim on February 14, 1942. After nearly four months in the desert, most of the soldiers wanted nothing more than to leave. But not this way. Not in defeat.

  Their job was to help stop the German army from advancing into Egypt. Bir Hakeim was the most remote Allied post, but now, suddenly, their encampment was the focus of Rommel’s Afrika Korps. Susan’s garrison went from being the least important to one of the most crucial of the war.

  The shift happened in late May. Commander Rommel ordered his army to march in a different direction and head straight for Bir Hakeim. For almost two weeks since, the Afrika Korps had rained down artillery shells on the outpost. The Germans had help as well. They had allied with the Italians, who had sent soldiers, tanks, and other equipment.

  Susan and her fellow soldiers were surrounded first by a no-man’s-land of barbed wire and anti-tank minefields, and beyond that, the German and Italian forces. Air raids battered the French camp day and night. The fighting stopped only when a sandstorm rolled in from the desert, making it impossible to see either friend or foe.

  The French also had another enemy: the desert. Bir Hakeim was an old fort on a sand-blown plateau, a flat area only slightly higher than the land around it. There was no shade, and sometimes, even now in June, the temperature reached as high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. At night, when the sun went down, the temperature fell below freezing, and the soldiers shivered in their dugouts.

  Now, when the dust from the air raid settled, Susan looked out of her dugout to see where the bombs had fallen. The mobile van that served as the general’s headquarters was untouched. So was the officers’ kitchen, which was only halfway underground.

  The general’s cook poked his head out of the kitchen tent. He looked up at the sky, listening for the sound of returning Stukas. When it seemed to be all clear, he hurried toward Susan with a small box in his hands.

  “For you.” He thrust the box at her. “The general asked me to give you some of his special rations. No sense leaving good food for the Germans.”

  He hurried back to the kitchen, without waiting for Susan to say thank you.

  Susan took a quick peek. Canned asparagus and sardines! That would be a nice change from tack biscuits and the canned corned beef the soldiers called “bully beef.”

  Susan looked at the sky the same way the cook had. She wondered if she still had time before the Stukas came back.

  No sign of them yet, she thought.

  Susan crawled out of her dugout and ran to the large sloping pit where she kept General Koenig’s car. As the general’s driver she had her own important job to do: Make sure the car was always ready to go. While gunfire roared on the camp’s perimeter, she dug the car out of the sand with her hands, started it, and let it run for a few minutes.

  Over the sound of the car engine, Susan heard the Stukas again. “Back already?” she muttered. She shut off the car and ran for her dugout. Once there, she kneeled on the floor again and whispered the Travers family motto as the hum of the Stukas came closer: Nec temere nec timide. “Neither afraid nor timid.” She’d learned the motto from her father, who had served in World War I, and she had always been determined to live up to it, no matter what. It was thanks to her commitment to the motto that she’d wound up in Africa in the first place. Whenever possible, she had chosen to move toward service in action, even if that meant danger instead of safety.

  THE AXIS VS. THE ALLIES

  The nations that fought in World War II (1939–1945) were divided into two groups. Germany, Italy, and Japan formed the Axis powers. All three countries wanted to expand their power. Germany wanted to control all the European countries in which German-speaking people lived. Italy wanted new colonies in Africa. Japan wanted to build an empire in Asia. As the war went on, some people from countries conquered by the Axis powers fought on their side, including Vichy France.

  The other side, known as the Allies, was made up of countries that wanted to defend themselves against Axis expansion. At the beginning of the war, Britain, the countries of the British Empire (including India, Canada, and Australia), and France led the war against the Axis powers. As Germany conquered more of Europe, different groups of European refugees—including Poles, Dutch, and the Free French—joined the war on the side of the Allies. China was also an important member of the Allies in the war in Asia. The United States joined the war on the side of the Allies in December 1941.

  The Soviet Union signed a treaty with Germany shortly before the war began. The two countries promised not to attack each other and divided Europe into separate spheres of influence. In June 1941, Hitler broke his treaty promises and launched a massive invasion into Soviet territory. The Soviet Union then joined the Allies.

  The United States entered the war on the side of the Allies after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, a US naval base in Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.

  Chapter 2

  A Country at War

  France, June 1939—Three years earlier

  Susan could not believe what Agnes was telling her. Conditions in Vienna must have gotten worse in the fifteen months since the Nazi army marched across the Austrian border. Susan read the letter again.

  Dear Susan,

  You know I’d love to see you, but this year it’s just too dangerous. Austria isn’t the same anymore. The German flag with its swastika hangs everywhere, even in the window of our favorite café. The one that had those delicious pastries, back before butter and flour were rationed. These days we are lucky to get coarse bread to eat with thin soup.

  The Gestapo is in charge here now. The Nazis do what they please, take what they please. People are snatched from their homes and never seen again. Not only the Jews, but anyone w
ho disagrees with the Nazis. Even writing this to you is risky.

  Everyone says things will get worse if Hitler invades Poland. And it is just a matter of time before he does. We are thinking about leaving while we still can.

  Love,

  Agnes

  Susan put down the letter and stared out her hotel window, at the Paris street below. It all looked so normal. People were hurrying through the streets on their daily errands as if there were no threat of war. But her friends were all in agreement—and afraid. They’d written from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, warning her not to come for her annual visits. They were probably right.

  So what do I do? she wondered.

  Susan had planned to spend the summer of 1939 the same way she had spent the last few summers: traveling across Europe, visiting friends, and playing in tennis tournaments. It didn’t look like that was an option this year, now that Hitler was in power.

  I could go back to England, she thought. She could stay with her parents in the country house, where she visited them every year for a few difficult weeks at Christmas.

  Not a good choice.

  Or better yet, she could stay with Aunt Hilda in London. She always had a good time with Hilda. But Hilda’s apartment was small. She couldn’t stay there for very long.

  Besides, England wasn’t really her home anymore, no matter what it said on her passport. She had lived in France on and off since she was twelve, when her parents had moved there for several years. When they went back to England, she stayed. France was the home of her heart.

  Susan picked up an unanswered invitation. Gladys Ashe, a wealthy American friend, had invited Susan to spend the summer in her chateau near Poitiers in western France.

  There’s my answer, Susan thought. Poitiers it would be.

  On the surface, life in Poitiers that summer looked like all the other summers Susan had spent in Europe. Gladys threw tennis and hunting parties during the day and extravagant dinners and balls at night. Susan enjoyed them all. But underneath the parties lay the simmering threat of war. It was all anyone talked about.

  Susan’s friends wrote about the prospect of war with certainty and fear. Gladys and most of her guests knew that war was possible, but they didn’t believe it would last more than a few months or that it would affect them directly.

  “Honey,” Gladys said whenever they discussed the subject, “I’m staying put. We’ll be safe in France.”

  Susan wasn’t so sure.

  Then on September 1, 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland. Two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany.

  Over the next few weeks, life in Poitiers changed dramatically. Young men joined the army. Young women volunteered to work with the Croix Rouge, the French Red Cross.

  Susan knew her carefree summer had come to an end. She wanted to be part of the war effort now. But she didn’t want to be a nurse, working in a hospital. She wanted to be on the front lines, where she believed she could make the most difference.

  When she thought about it, she had three practical skills that might get her a military job. She was able to shoot a rifle well enough to bring down a bird on the fly—like waltzing, shooting was a basic social skill many privileged young people learned in the 1920s. And, thanks to her father, who taught her to drive the summer she turned seventeen, she was an excellent driver. She could also make basic repairs to a car, like changing the oil and replacing a tire.

  Maybe I could drive an ambulance, Susan thought.

  But becoming an ambulance driver wasn’t as easy as she’d hoped. When she went to the French Red Cross office in Poitiers to volunteer, the woman at the desk told her she would need a nursing certificate first.

  “But I’m an experienced driver,” Susan argued.

  “You have to be trained as a nurse,” the woman insisted. “What if you need to give emergency medical help to wounded soldiers? You won’t be any good to us, or to them, if all you can do is drive.”

  “Fine,” Susan agreed. “Sign me up.”

  THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN WORLD WAR II

  Women were as important to the war effort in World War II as their male counterparts.

  At the start of the war, most women who wanted to volunteer became nurses, either as part of a military nursing corps or through the Red Cross.

  But as the war went on, new jobs opened up to women because the armies needed more soldiers. There just weren’t enough men to do all the jobs.

  In the United States and Great Britain, women joined their own branches of the military. They did not take part in combat, but they did everything else. They worked as radio operators, mechanics, drivers, and air traffic controllers. They helped break enemy codes. One unit of Black American women had the job of sorting through two years’ worth of undelivered mail and getting it to the soldiers. It took them three months, but they got the job done. In Great Britain, women helped defend their country as part of antiaircraft units.

  In the United States, women who were already pilots served with the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). They tested new planes and flew them from factories to military airfields. They towed targets behind their planes so airplane gunners could practice shooting at them. Some women taught men to be military pilots. In Britain, women pilots performed similar jobs as part of the civilian Air Transport Auxiliary.

  The Soviet Union used as many as one million women in its military, and it was the only country to send women into combat. Some became snipers; others were tank drivers. Soviet women also flew military aircraft, becoming the world’s first women to see combat in an airplane.

  In countries occupied by Germany, women also served as spies and were an important part of the resistance movement.

  Away from the fighting, women worked in factories of all kinds, doing jobs once done only by men. In the United States, the name “Rosie the Riveter” was given to women who helped build planes and other military equipment.

  Susan quickly discovered she didn’t have a natural talent for nursing. She had little patience for cleaning floors and washing linens, and even less confidence in her ability to take care of people who were ill or injured.

  This is not how I can be most helpful to the war effort, she thought more than once during her three-month training period.

  Worst of all, she was terrified of giving a patient the wrong medication. Once during a surgical operation, Susan was so afraid to give a patient too much anesthetic that she didn’t give him enough. He woke up halfway through the operation, waving his arms in distress!

  Susan panicked and jumped back from the machine.

  “What are you doing?” the doctor shouted at her. He increased the anesthetic himself until the patient went back under.

  “I’m so sorry—” Susan gasped.

  “Someone get this girl out of my operating room!” the doctor yelled.

  For the rest of the class, the head nurse called Susan “the Public Danger.”

  But despite all this, to Susan’s surprise, she passed the class. With her nursing certificate in hand, she was eager to find the work she wanted—in the middle of the action.

  Susan hurried to the French Red Cross office in Poitiers. She had heard the ambulance service was sending a team to Finland to support the small Finnish army, which had been fighting Soviet Russia’s much larger Red Army, which at the time was allied with Germany.

  When she arrived at the office, she found a line that started at the clerk’s desk, went across the room, and ended down the hallway!

  Susan took her place at the end of the line behind a grand lady in a fur coat, a chic suit, and a very fancy hat.

  She doesn’t look like an ambulance driver, Susan thought. Then she saw her own reflection in a window, and she started to laugh. She was wearing an equally fancy suit and an expensive hat that she had bought in Paris that spring.

  Finally Susan reached the front of the line. “I’m here to volunteer to go to Finland as an ambulance driver.”

  “You and everyone else.” The Red Cross clerk scowled at her hat.

  “I’m qualified.” She pulled her nursing certificate out of her purse and pushed it across the desk. “I did the nursing training. And I’ve been driving since I was seventeen.”