Muriel Engleman: World War II nurse at the Battle of the Bulge
Muriel Engleman claims that before the war she led a completely normal life in Meriden, Connecticut. From a young age, she had a passion for helping the wounded, always bringing in stray dogs and cats and nursing them back to health. Muriel says she was predestined to be a nurse, finding inspiration from her grandmother who was a nurse in Russia when she was a child.
Muriel Engelman served as an Army nurse behind the front lines at the Battle of the Bulge. A 1st Lieutenant, ANC, Muriel was a staff member of the 16th General Hospital, Liege Belgium, 1944 to 1945, and was awarded the European Theatre Medal with three Battle Stars and the Belgian Fourragere. The 16th General Hospital was under experiment by the U.S War Department to place a general hospital with a triage system in tents as close to the fighting lines as possible.
The hospital was ravaged by buzz bombs, each carrying 2000 pounds of explosive, which fell every 12-15 minutes, 24 hours a day, for 2 ½ months, destroying hospital tents and inflicting heavy casualties. On Christmas Eve, Germans strafed and bombed the
hospital, killing and wounding scores of patients and staff. The enemy had surrounded Bastogne.
As they approached Liege, nurses were told to be ready to move out within minutes and expect capture by the Germans. Muriel wore dog tags with an H for Hebrew. After
Germany surrendered, in May of 1945, the hospital treated casualties in Liege another five weeks before Engelman relocated to France. She shipped home in November of 1945. At the age of 94, she is still telling her story.