At Switchboard, Left to Right: Miss Laborde Miss Fairbrother Miss Dickerson Miss Blanc Miss Knall Miss Honey and Grande-Matre Miss Sage (supervisor), Miss Snow, Chief Operator at Desk at the End of the Room. Their story has never been the focus of a novel…until now. Signal Corps Telephone Exchange Switchboard at Bordeaux, Gironde, France. Army Signal Corps served with honor and played an essential role in achieving the Allied victory. The switchboard soldiers could do it in ten seconds.ĭeployed throughout France, including near the front lines, the operators endured hardships and risked death or injury from gunfire, bombardments, and the Spanish Flu. 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 telephone 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. Chiaverini weaves the intersecting threads of these brave women’s lives together, highlighting their deep sense of pride and duty.”- Kirkus Reviews “An eye-opening and detailed novel about remarkable female soldiers. Army Signal Corps, who broke down gender barriers in the military and battled a pandemic as they helped lead the Allies to victory. This month we will be reading and discussing Switchboard Soldiers by Jennifer Chivarinniįrom New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini, a bold, revelatory novel about one of the great untold stories of World War I-the women of the U.S. Join us IN PERSON as we discuss some great books each month!

Switchboard soldiers