Ellen Gertrude Ainsworth, an army nurse, was the only woman from Wisconsin killed by enemy fire in WW2[i] and was one of the first four women in the Army to receive the Silver Star.[ii] She was just 24 years old when she gave her life saving lives.

HER EARLY YEARS

Ellen Gertrude Ainsworth was born in Dunn[iii], WI, on March 9, 1919 to farmer Guy Henry Ainsworth and his wife, Emma Matilda Moyle Ainsworth, a homemaker. Her mother was born in 1875 in Yorkville, WI. Her father was born in 1885 in Angelica[iv], WI.

Sometime in the 1930s, the family moved from Dunn to Glenwood City, WI and her father, formerly a farmer, changed occupations to decorator in the home and buildings industry[v] but by 1940, he owned his own business as a painter[vi] in the home decorating industry.[vii] She had one sister, Lydia Ainsworth, 10 years older, and one brother, William Moyle Ainsworth, seven years older.[viii]

Growing up in Glenwood City, her friends and family knew her as a caring girl who loved to sing and had a beautiful voice.[ix] A classmate recalled her as being a leader, friendly, kind, dedicated to her studies and a young woman who wanted to be where the action was.[x]

At Glenwood City High School, she was a member of the Orchestra[xi], Library and Debate clubs.[xii]

“A friendly timidity, quiet attractiveness and a subtle charm” were the attributes escribed to Ellen Ainsworth, known as “Ainie” in her 1936 high school yearbook “The Messenger.”[xiii] She wrote in a friend’s yearbook “When you make the football team, I’m going to be in the front row cheering you on.”[xiv]

She graduated from Minneapolis Eitel Hospital School of Nursing in 1941.[xv] Her fellow nurses described her as outgoing and a fun-loving individual. She was not only the life of the party but someone who tried to make every situation better, such as later organizing the singing of Christmas Carols over the public address system at the hospital.[xvi] A cousin described her as funny with a tremendous sense of humor and said she wasn’t afraid to have a drink or get into a bit of mischief, they recalled.[xvii]

HER MILITARY STORY

Second Lieutenant Ellen G. Ainsworth served in the U. S. Army Evacuation Hospital, General orders no. 72. Service number N-732770.

In March of 1942, she entered the U.S. Army Nurses Corps. Ellen served at the Station Hospital at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas. A mate at Camp Chaffee recalls her as having a unique personality to whom everything was exciting and challenging. She was very outgoing and fun-loving.[xviii]

At the end of the year she was assigned to Fort Sam's 56th Evacuation Hospital in Houston, Texas. The hospital was soon sent to Bizerte, Tunisia, located in North Africa, and several weeks later was relocated to Anzio, Italy,[xix] where it was nicknamed “A Half Acre of Hell.”[xx] Anzio was where the American and British troops had made a surprise landing behind the German lines.[xxi] The fighting was fierce along the frontlines which were so close to the hospital that the wounded troops could walk there if they were able.[xxii] The nurses were responsible for observing patients, looking for changes and administering the necessary medical care.[xxiii]

In the winter of 1943, Ainsworth sent home a Christmas poem that was published in the Glenwood City Tribune, her hometown newspaper.[xxiv]

CHRISTMAS GREETING POEM BY LT. ELLEN G. AINSWORTH[xxv]

My home is a tent,

I sleep on a cot,

You have snow

But we have not.

This note brings greetings,

From far to near.

To all those beings

That I hold dear.

Season’s greetings through the year.

And, contrary to custom,

I’m glad you’re not here.”

At one point, Ellen wrote home to her sister, Lydia, sharing about the suffering of “her boys.” In a speech, Lydia shared part of that letter stating that her sister wished she could do more to protect them, ease and comfort their pain or halt their deaths but there was so little she could do.[xxvi]

Anzio was a battle that was only expected to take a couple of weeks and ended up taking several months and Anzio would see some of the most savage fighting of World War II. Over the four-month period, the nurses and medical personnel at Anzio would care for more than 33,000 including 10,800 who had suffered battle wounds.[xxvii]

While serving at the 56th Evacuation Hospital in Anzio, on February 10[xxviii], 1944, Ainsworth, serving as an army medical surgical nurse[xxix], began to move wounded soldiers to safety, as German bombs fell during the Battle of Anzio[xxx], Citta Metropolitana di Roma Capitale, Lizio, Italy[xxxi]. Three shells, presumably 88 mm, hit the 56th area and another shell hit their generator starting a fire. The 56th acted as a rescue station, sending teams to the scene.[xxxii]

When air sirens sounded, the patients that were able to crawl got under their cots to avoid flying shrapnel.[xxxiii] The staff would shelter in what was little more than a large foxhole covered by timbers.[xxxiv] The nurses and corpsmen would lift the others to the ground and stayed with those who could not be moved, according to an official history of the Army Nurse Corps.[xxxv]

"Second Lieutenant Ainsworth was on duty in a hospital ward, while the area was being subjected to heavy enemy artillery shelling. One shell dropped within a few feet of the ward, its fragments piercing the tent in numerous places. Despite the extreme danger, she calmly directed the placing of (42) surgical patients on the ground to lessen the danger of further injury. By her disregard for her own safety and her calm assurance, she instilled confidence in her assistants and her patients, thereby preventing serious panic and injury," according to her award citations.[xxxvi]

Another attack came two days later. [xxxvii] At 1900 hours, the enemy unleashed the heaviest air raid over Anzio. It lasted 1½ hours.[xxxviii] The nurses rushed patients to nearby bunkers during a massive artillery bombardment. Ainsworth realized that some medical personnel needed to remain behind at the hospital tent to care for the wounded, so she chose to stay.[xxxix] A German artillery round landed just outside the tent. She was wounded that day, February 12th, by bomb fragments.[xl] A piece of shrapnel pierced her chest.[xli] Even though she was wounded, Ainsworth continued to treat her patients.[xlii] While being evacuated due to her wound, she made a cheeky comment to her fellow nurses that was something like, “Nothing these Krauts can do to scare {us} at this point.”[xliii]

Four days later, February 16, 1944, she died from her wounds.[xliv]

Fellow nurses and friends gathered on the beachhead in Anzio and listened as a Protestant minister said a few words and a bugler played taps. Ainsworth was described by another nurse as being strong and sure of herself. As the mourners listened, a fleet of American bombers flew overhead and dropped their payloads on the surrounding German positions.[xlv]

The news, by telegram, reached her family in Wisconsin on March 9th, 1944, on what would have been her 25th birthday.[xlvi]

Ainsworth’s mother received a letter following the death from U.S. Army Nurse Corps Superintendent Col. Florence Blanchfield. She wrote that Ainsworth “typifies the very finest in American womanhood. Had she known that it was to be thus, she would still have said, ‘I must go. It is my duty. The nurses are like that in this war. They fear nothing. They beg to go forward as far as possible because they feel they are needed so urgently.”[xlvii]

Both her father and her mother attended a ceremony to accept her silver star medal.[xlviii]

COMMENDATIONS

Silver Star: Second Lieutenant Ellen G. Ainsworth, United States Army, was awarded the Silver Star (Posthumously) for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy while serving with the 56th Evacuation Hospital, in action at Anzio, Italy, on 10 February 1944. Second Lieutenant Ainsworth's gallant actions and dedicated devotion to duty, without regard for her own life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon herself, her unit, and the United States Army.[xlix]

Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster

Red Cross Bronze Medal[l]

Other commendations: Nurse Corps Badge, World War II Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal, Army Presidential Unit Citation, Army Good Conduct Medal, and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign.[li]

MEMORIALS

The American Legion Post #168, Curry-Ainsworth[lii], in Glenwood City carries her name.[liii]

An inscribed bench was placed at Glenwood City High School, the school she attended, in Glenwood City, Wisconsin.[liv]

1976: The United States Army Health Clinic at Fort Hamilton, New York, was dedicated to 2d Lt. Ellen G. Ainsworth.[lv]

1980; A conference room, used by the Secretary of the Army and named for her,[lvi] and her portrait[lvii] can be found at The Pentagon in Washington, D.C.[lviii]

1993: Ainsworth Hall, a resident building at Wisconsin Veterans Home at King, Wisconsin, was named in honor of Second Lieutenant Nurse Ellen G. Ainsworth. The four-floor building contains 205 beds, a designated Alzheimer’s/dementia unit with an enclosed courtyard.[lix]

2016: The United States Postal Service honored Ainsworth by renaming the Glenwood City Post Office, in Glenwood, WI, as the Second Lieutenant Ellen G. Ainsworth Post Office. At the dedication ceremony, a plaque was unveiled by U. S. Senator Ron Johnson and U.S. Representative Sean Duffy.[lx]

Ellen Ainsworth’s army bedroll and knapsack are displayed at the Glenwood City Historical Society. Glenwood, WI.[lxi]

HER GRAVE

Ellen Ainsworth’s grave is in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial, Nettuno, Rome Province, Lazio Region, Italy.[lxii]

A visitors’ center at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy honors eight Armed Service members who lost their lives in Italy including Ellen Ainsworth.[lxiii] Six women of the U.S. Army Nurse Corp were killed at Anzio.[lxiv]

ABOUT THIS STORY

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.