Celebrations of Second World War nurses as virtuous, angelic heroines have elided the complex realities of nurses’ lives during this time of extreme social upheaval. Nurses’ sexuality has remained a taboo subject in scholarly examinations of their wartime service, while the pregnancies of nurses – who were not allowed to marry – were intentionally omitted from the official military record. This article significantly revises our understanding of Second World War nursing by examining the letters of two American women who embarked on romantic relationships that resulted in pregnancy and their subsequent discharge from the US Army. Through critical feminist analysis, it investigates how both women navigated their personal lives and shifting gender roles during and post-war. An examination of their radical choices and experiences discloses the hidden history of unmarried, pregnant nurses returning from the Second World War and how the US military dealt with those nurses and their children.

在极端社会动荡时期，庆祝第二次世界大战护士成为贤惠，天使般的女主人公，已经消除了护士生活的复杂现实。在对战时服务的学术检查中，护士的性取向一直是禁忌话题，而不允许结婚的护士的怀孕则有意从官方军事记录中删除。本文通过考察两位美国妇女的来信，极大地改变了我们对第二次世界大战护理的理解，这两位美国妇女开始恋爱，导致怀孕并随后从美国陆军退伍。通过批判性的女权主义分析，它研究了在战后和战后两个妇女如何驾驭自己的个人生活并改变性别角色。