The Rochambelles: Ambulance Drivers of Fighting France 1943–1945

Florence Conrad, a wealthy American who had served as a nurse during the Great War, formed an ambulance unit in 1943. With funds she raised, she purchased nineteen Dodge vehicles and recruited the first volunteers in New York. These women, sometimes very young, were determined to liberate France and shrank from nothing.

In 1943, the Rochambelles — who took this nickname from their medical unit Rochambeau, in memory of the count of that name, companion of Lafayette — brushed aside mockery and sought to assert themselves in a man's world. They were incorporated into General Leclerc's 2nd Armoured Division (DB) at Rabat and quickly learned to master mechanics, detect mines, and apply tourniquets.

On 30 May 1944, the 39 Rochambelles embarked for Liverpool. In August, they landed on the sands of Utah Beach in Normandy with the mission of evacuating casualties from combat zones to triage posts. They reached Paris on 25 August 1944 and took part in the hard Alsace campaign and the capture of Berchtesgaden. Two of them lost their lives in the fighting they conducted unarmed.

Drawing on their moving testimonies, Ellen Hampton recounts in a gripping narrative the epic of these courageous and idealistic ambulance drivers, guided by their patriotic instinct.