Red Cross Armband

Hundreds of thousands of Axis and Allied soldiers, and civilians were casualties in the fighting in 1944. Civilians sometimes volunteered to help the army medics care for the wounded. To insure that those giving medical assistance on the battlefield would not be targeted, army medics and nurses, as well as their civilian helpers, wore armbands with the Red Cross emblem. For the most part, those who wore the symbol were not shot at by either side. The Red Cross was also an international organization that promoted the humane treatment of the wounded as well as prisoners-of-war. A French woman who volunteered as a civilian nurse wore this Red Cross armband in Normandy in 1944.