The one thing that you can say about Switchboard Soldiers is that it did not lack research. ©2022 Jennifer Chiaverini (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers Their story has never been the focus of a novel…until now. Army Signal Corps served with honor and played an essential role in achieving the Allied victory. Sometimes mocked as the “hello girls,” the women of the U.S. Not all of the telephone operators would survive. The risk of death was real-the women worked as bombs fell around them-as was the threat of a deadly new disease: the Spanish Flu. The switchboard soldiers could do it in ten seconds. The male soldiers they had replaced had needed one minute to connect each call. They were among the first women sworn into the U.S. More than 7,600 women responded, including Grace Banker of New Jersey, a switchboard instructor with AT&T and an alumna of Barnard College Marie Miossec, a Frenchwoman and aspiring opera singer and Valerie DeSmedt, a twenty-year-old Pacific Telephone operator from Los Angeles, determined to strike a blow for her native Belgium. Army Signal Corps promptly began recruiting them. Pershing needed operators who could swiftly and accurately connect multiple calls, speak fluent French and English, remain steady under fire, and be utterly discreet, since the calls often conveyed classified information.Īt the time, nearly all well-trained American telephone operators were women-but women were not permitted to enlist, or even to vote in most states. He immediately found himself unable to communicate with troops in the field. In June 1917, General John Pershing arrived in France to establish American forces in Europe. Army Signal Corps, who broke down gender barriers in the military, smashed the workplace glass ceiling, and battled a pandemic as they helped lead the Allies to victory. From 'New York Times' best-selling author Jennifer Chiaverini, a bold, revelatory novel about one of the great untold stories of World War I - the women of the U.S.

Switchboard soldiers