Hometown: Glenwood City, WI
Branch: U.S. Army
Unit: 56th Evacuation Hospital, Army Nurse Corps
Military Honors: Silver Star, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: February 16, 1944 - KIA at Anzio, Lazio, Italy
Age: 24 
Conflict: World War II, 1939-1945

Born March 9, 1919, on the Ainsworth family farm near Menomonie, Wisconsin, Ellen Ainsworth was the youngest of three siblings. In 1923, the bank foreclosed on their homestead—forcing the Ainsworth family to move to Glenwood City, Wisconsin, where her father found employment.

She attended Eitel Hospital School of Nursing in Minneapolis, graduating in 1941. Rather than becoming a nurse at a private hospital, she signed up for the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in 1942.

Ainsworth longed to see the world, and the Army gave her the opportunity. After training at Station Hospital at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas, she was assigned to the 56th Evacuation Hospital at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.

Her medical unit was sent first to Morocco, then Tunisia, then to Salerno, Italy in September 1943. In late January 1944, she was sent to the beachhead at Anzio, Italy, where the Allied forces would fight one of the fiercest battles of World War II (1939-1945).

During a four-month period at Anzio, the canvas-tent hospital came under constant bombardment from German artillery, and earned the nickname “Hell’s Half Acre.” Medical personnel would care for more than 33,000 patients, including nearly 11,000 who suffered battle wounds. Dozens of patients, physicians, and medics were killed—including six Army nurses.

When the Army made noise about evacuating the nurses, the women made even more noise. They insisted on staying with their patients, and the Army relented.

The nurses learned the “Anzio Shuffle,” a duck walk to stay low and avoid shell fragments. They leaped into slit trenches half full of water during air raids. They lived—and often slept—with their helmets on. And they cared for their patients, performing surgery while bombs fell.

On February 10, 1944, the 56th Evacuation Hospital came under attack by heavy enemy bombardment. As some nurses rushed patients into nearby bunkers, some medical personnel remained in the tents to take care of those too injured to be moved. Lt. Ellen Ainsworth chose to stay.

Eyewitness accounts say Ainsworth calmly directed the placing of 42 patients on the ground to avoid further injury, saving their lives. On February 12, Lt. Ainsworth was mortally wounded when a German artillery round exploded just outside of her ward tent. After four days, she succumbed to her injuries on February 16, 1944, at the age of 24.

On March 9, 1944—what would have been Ainsworth’s 25th birthday—her family back in Glenwood City received a telegram informing them of her death.

Lt. Ellen Ainsworth was posthumously awarded the Silver Star medal, the third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. Her citation reads:

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Second Lieutenant Ellen G. Ainsworth (ASN: N-732770), United States Army, 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 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. 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, his unit, and the United States Army.

Second Lieutenant Ellen Gertrude Ainsworth was laid to rest along with 7,844 of her fellow American servicemembers at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy (Plot C, Row 11, Grave 22).

One of Lt. Ainsworth’s close friends and fellow Army nurses, Avis (Dagit) Schorer, recounts the story of the 56th Evacuation Hospital tents on the Anzio beachhead in her book, A Half Acre of Hell.

Sources
Details submitted by the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center
Military Times, Hall of Valor Project: Ellen G. Ainsworth
The National Gold Star Family Registry: 2 LT Ellen G. Ainsworth
Traces of War: Ainsworth, Ellen Gertrude
Fold3: Ellen G Ainsworth
American Battle Monuments Commission: Ellen G. Ainsworth
Burial Site: Find a Grave