Slinging Doughnuts for the Boys : An American Woman in World War II

Elizabeth Richardson was a Red Cross volunteer who worked as a Clubmobile hostess during World War II until her death in a plane crash in July 1945.

Her job was to provide free doughnuts and coffee, cigarettes and gum to American soldiers on duty in England, and later in France.

More importantly, she and her colleagues provided a slice of home.

They were American girls with whom soldiers could talk, flirt, dance, and perhaps find companionship.

For the most part, the job was not hazardous - except when V-1 rockets rained down on London - but it required physical endurance as well as the honed skills of a counselor.

Liz Richardson was a witty writer and astute observer.

Her letters and diaries reveal an intelligent, independent, and personable woman.

In his commentary, James H. Madison provides information about her life, the activities of the Red Cross Clubmobiles, and the war.

This book is an exceptional window into a past that is all too quickly fading from memory.