Colonel Ruby Bradley, an army nurse who was one of America's most decorated female veterans and a Japanese prisoner of war, has died at age 94.

At a Japanese camp, Bradley went hungry and, giving most of her food to children being held captive. She and other nurses set up a clinic to care for the sick and wounded and to comfort the dying.

Speaking earlier this year she said she would never forget the night a US army tank crashed the camp's gates at the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila, Philippines, freeing her after three years of captivity. ''We had heard rumours that American soldiers were close by,'' she said. ''Then, that tank came through. It was the best Saturday night performance I've ever seen.''

A native of Spencer, West

Virginia, Bradley became a nurse in 1933 after a stint as a teacher, and joined the Army Nurse Corps as a surgical nurse in 1934.

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, she was a 34-year-old administrator serving in the Philippines at Camp John Hay. She was captured three weeks later.

Bradley was moved to Santo Tomas in Manila on September 23, 1943. She was among a group of imprisoned nurses known as the Angels in Fatigues. Not only did they provide medical treatment for prisoners, but they were adept at stashing food for the children. ''I was a pretty good thief,'' she once said. ''I would take food and put it in my pockets for the children.''

Bradley weighed about 80lbs when the American troops arrived on February 3, 1945. She said she never missed another meal.

For the next five years, Bradley enjoyed peace. Then came the Korean War, in which she worked as a combat nurse in evacuation hospitals.

In all, Bradley received 34 medals, including two Legion of Merit medals, two Bronze Stars, and the International Red Cross's prestigious nursing honour, the

Florence Nightingale Medal.