Trincheras de cable

In June 1917, General John Pershing arrived in France with the goal of establishing American forces in Europe. He quickly discovered that communicating with the troops stationed on the battlefield was impossible. He needed operators capable of managing connections quickly and accurately, who spoke French and English perfectly, who maintained their composure in case of coming under enemy fire, and who were totally discreet, since the communications contained classified information. More than 7,600 women responded to the ad, including Grace Banker, who worked at AT&T teaching switchboard management courses; Marie Miossec, French opera singer; and twenty-year-old Valerie DeSmedt, an operator at Pacific Telephone and determined to fight for her home country of Belgium. All three were among the first women to pledge allegiance to the United States Army. The male soldiers they replaced needed a minute to connect a call. The switchboard soldiers did it in just ten seconds. Sometimes derided as "hello girls," the women of the US Army Signal Corps served with honor and played an essential role in achieving Allied victory. The risk of death was real -they worked while bombs rained down all around them- as was the threat of a deadly new disease: the Spanish flu. Not all telephone operators would manage to survive. Her story had never been the focus of a novel...until now.