Foreword
Improvements in medical practice and in standards of living in the
U.S. Army in World War II meant for the American soldier better medical
service than during
treatment
of wounds and in the prevention and cure of disease went far toward pre-
serving
the
lives
and
bodies
of
Army
fighting
fronts and in the bases and lines of communication that led to them. The
author in this volume tells first about the medical provisions for the Atlantic
outposts of the United States established before the substantial deployment
and engagement of Army forces in Mediterranean and European areas, and
then devotes major attention to the Army medical service in the Mediter-
ranean campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, the mainland of Italy, and southern
France.
An
man and American practice during the war.
The book is a natural sequel to one published in this series in 1956
entitled,
The
Evacuation, Zone
of Interior, and is to be followed by two dealing with medical service in the
European Theater
volumes are being published in the series, "Medical Department United
States
World
account both practical lessons
was
adequate-
ly given to those who fought in the largest of American wars.
Washington, D.C. HAL C. PATTISON
23 September 1963 Brigadier General, USA
Chief of Military History
Powers, and so the
beaches of Algeria and Morocco, the barren hills and dry wadies of Tunisia,
became the
proving grounds
fo r equipment, fo r tactics, and for men. From
North Africa the
battle line moved
France, but for the Medical Department the Mediterranean remained a
"pilot"
theater
other
fronts. Medical units that had served well in the static warfare of
World
War I were modified or discarded on the basis of their performance
in the
Mediterranean. New techniques, such as the treatment of psychiatric cas-
ualties in the combat zone, and the use of penicillin in forward
surgery,
evacuation
hospitals be-
came the workhorses of the theater. Jeeps fitted with litter racks served as
front-line
forward airfields, were pressed into service to
evacuate
the
wounded.
In the grand strategy of the war the bloody Italian campaign was a di-
version, to engage as many enemy troops as
possible
This
meant, for the combat troops,
being always outnumbered. It meant over and again, for medical and
line
exchange for willing but untried replacements. In physical terms the
theater imposed the extremes of desert, marsh, and mountain barrier; of
exposed
plains
crossed
by
swollen
sleet and mud, each demanding of the supporting medical complements
revised techniques and new expedients. In no other American
combat zone
desert warfare of Tunisia, to the long
martyrdom
ridge-by-ridge encounters of the
described in these pages
to the very limit of its means, yet
nowhere did the Medical Department attain a higher level of effectiveness.
The author of Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor The-
aters,
Charles M. Wiltse, is a graduate of West Virginia University, earned
his Ph. D. at Cornell, and holds an honorary Litt. D.
from Marshall
versity. In addition to numerous articles, essays, reviews, and government
reports,
 
John
C. Calhoun,
completed with the aid of two Guggenheim Fellowships; of a volume in
the "Making of
America" series, The New Nation: 1800—1845; and is co-
author of the official War
Production
The Surgeon General
of the
will
against
China-Burma-India Theaters.
volumes differ from the more extensive clinical series, separately published
by
the
Office
of The Surgeon General, in that they are concerned primarily
with th e support given by the Medical Department to the
actual
combat
operations:
the
collection
with
the
enemy
of interior;
and the methods and problems of medical supply in the field. Clinical mat-
ters, such as the
of disease, the types of wounds predominating,
and problems of sanitation, are subordinated to the less technical story of
the
history
told
elsewhere
IN WORLD WAR II and to the medical
story proper
recorded in the 40-odd volumes of the clinical series appearing under
the
are complemented by
terior; and by four functional volumes, being published by the
Office
of
Training, and
The manuscript of this volume was submitted in draft form
to a sub-
actions
described.
Col. Richard T. Arnest, MC, USA (Ret.) ; Col. Rollin L.
Bauchspies,
MC,
M.D.; Lt. Col. Stephen
Col.
O. Bruce, MC;
Col.
Joseph
Carmack,
Brig.
Gen.
Henry
C.
Dooling,
Holmes
M.D; Col. John
A. Isherwood, MC; Maurice M. Kane, M.D.; Col. Paul A. Keeney, MC,
USA (Ret.); Col.
MC, USA (Ret.); Col.
MC, USA
USA (Ret.);
(Ret.); Charles
Maj. Gen. Mor-
(Ret.); William
Sward,
MC, USA
(Ret.); Brig.
Gen. Lynn H. Tingay, DC, USA (Ret . ) ; Col. Hall G. Van Vlack, MC, USA
(Ret . ) ; Col.
(Ret.);
and
Thomas
G. Ward,
M.D. To each of these the author wishes to express his thanks. Without
their considerable help much authenticity would be lacking.
Sections of the volume dealing with strictly military events were checked
by knowledgeable members of the Office of the
Chief
Robert
Ross
Smith.
it is through no fault of these conscientious
reviewers.
Wagner,
former
Army Medical Service
in 1960; by Col. John Boyd
Coates, Jr., Director of The Historical Unit ; and by Dr. Stetson Conn, Chief
Historian, Office of the Chief of Military History. Each of these critics
offered pertinent and valuable suggestions for improvement.
Mr. William K. Daum did much of the
research
both.
For expert and unfailing aid in locating and procuring the thousands
of documentary sources
on which the
the author makes
special acknowledgment to Mrs. Josephine P. Kyle, former chief of the
General Reference and Research Branch of The Historical Unit, and to
her assistant, the late Mrs. Eleanor
Alfonso,
whose cheerful willingness never
faultered despite the constant presence of fatal illness. Mrs. Kyle's suc-
cessors, Maj. Albert
not
vision, but
time and
expert knowledge.
The author is also indebted to the Medical Statistics Division, Office of
The
a veteran of the Mediterranean campaigns—who
verified figures
and tabu-
Historical Unit, USAMEDS, and the
final publications editing by Miss
Mary Ann Bacon of OCMH. Copy editor for the volume was Mrs. Marion
P. Grimes. The book is undoubtedly the better for having passed through
the capable hands of these three editors.
The excellent medical situation
Elizabeth P
Unit, USAMEDS. The photographs
I. MEDICAL SERVICE IN THE ATLANTIC DEFEN SE AREAS . . 7
Th e Atlantic
U.S. Army Forces in the Azores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
U.S. Army
..............
II.
EAST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6
The Beginnings of
Active Theater of Operations, 1942-43 ... 60
The Middle East as a Supply and
Service Theater, 1944-45 . . . . . 80
III.
108
Medical Support of II Corps in the Tunisia Campaign ......... 121
Evacuation From II Corps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Medical
Professional Services ....................................... 142
IV . SICILY A N D T H E MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Medical Preparations
Medical
Hospitalization and
Evacuation ............................. 163
Medical Supplies
Medical Support in the Seizure of Sardinia and Corsica ........ 174
xvii
Medical Plans for AVALANCHE ............................ 223
Medical
Southern
Professional Services in the
Combat Medical Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Professional Services
ARNO . . . . . . . . . 289
Preparations for
Evacuation From Fifth Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Medical Supplies and Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Professional Services in the Army Area ......................
314
I.. THE ITALIAN COMMUNICATIONS ZONE: SOUTHERN
PHASE
Medical Support of
xviii
Evacuation From Seventh Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 9 5
Extension of the Communications
Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 0 4
Services in Southern France .................... . . 408
XI. THE NORTHERN A P E N N I N E S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Preparations for the Offensive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Combat Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1 9
Medical Support in the
Professional Services in the Army Area .......................
449
XII. ADVANCE T O T H E ALPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5 7
Preparations for the Final Drive ............................. 457
The Po Valley Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
Hospitalization in the
Evacuation From
Fifth Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
NORTHERN
486
.................
XIV. CONTRACTION A N D REDEPLOYMENT . . . . . . . . . 5 2 1
Redeployment Policies and Plans .......................... . .
Hospitalization an d
X V . THE MEDITERRANEAN IN
RETROSPECT . . . . . . . . .
1941-December 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
2. Fixed Beds and Bed Ratios, Africa and the Middle East
(Includes Persian Gulf
b e r 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 2
3. Bed Strength and Bed Occupancy, North African Com-
munications
Zone,
November
August 1943-April 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6 5
5. Bed Strength and Bed Occupancy, Italian Communications
Zone, October 1943-September 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
6. Fixed Bed Strength and Bed Occupancy, Mediterranean
Theater, November 1942-September 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
B. PRINCIPAL MEDICAL
R A N E A N THEATER OF
OPERATIONS,
C. OBSERVATIONS ON HOSPITALIZATION AND EVACUA-
TION SYSTEM, FRENCH
D. THE GERMAN MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2 1
GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
May
1943
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
2. Air Evacuation From Tunisia, 16 January-23 May 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
3. Intratheater Evacuation by Air, North Africa, 16 January-23 May 1943. . 205
4. U.S.Army Patients Evacuated by Sea From
North
Africa
1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 0
Fifth
Thousand
tember 1943-April 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5 9
8. Disposition of Patients, Fifth Army Venereal Disease Diagnostic and
Treatment
9. Dental Service in Fifth Army, September 1943-April 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
10. Disposition of Problem
1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 8 5
Fifth
May-August
13. Evacuation From Fifth Army to PBS
Hospitals,
17.
1943-31
August
1944
. . . . . . . . 338
18. Disposition of Patients in PBS Hospitals, 14 October 1943-31 August
1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3 8
September 1943-21 January
. . . . . . . .
344
21 . Evacuation From the Mediterranean to the Zone of Interior, January-
August 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4 4
22. Venereal Disease
August-29 September 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 9 4
25 . Air Evacuation From Seventh Army
and Delta Base Section, 22 Au-
gust-7 November 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
26. Summary of Evacuation to the Communications Zone, 15 August-
3 November 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Africa, Italy, and Corsica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Medical Composite
Battalion, September-
November 1944
xxi
1944-
March
1944-March 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . 454
33. Wounded in
15 May 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 68
34. Evacuation
April
September 1944-April 1945
Depots,
1945
Maps
1.
U.S. Army Hospitals Supporting North Atlantic Bases, 1 June 1943. . 13
2. U.S.
3.
4. U.S. Army Hospitals
5.
1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
8. Medical Support
14 February 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
April
1943
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
14. Seventh Army Hospitals, 16 July 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
15. Seventh Army Hospitals, 26 July 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
16. Seventh A rmy Hospitals, 5 August 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
17. Seventh Army Hospitals,
Africa,
No. Page
20. Fixed Hospitals and Base Medical Supply Depots on Sardinia and
Corsica, November 1943-May 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0 0
21. Fifth Army
22. Fifth Army Hospitals and
Medical Supply Dumps,
15 November 1943. . 236
2 . Fifth Army Hospitals and Medical Supply Dumps, 15 February 1944 . . 242
2 4 . Anzio Beachhead a nd Surrounding Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 6 9
25. Fifth Army Hospitals and Medical Supply Dumps on the Cassino
Front, 1 1 M a y 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 9 0
26. Fifth Army Hospitals and Medical Supply
Dumps, 10 June 1944 . . . . . . 305
27. Fifth
1944 . . . . . . 308
28. Fifth Army Hospitals a d Medical Supply Dumps, 15 August 1944 . . . . . 309
29.
Fixed Hospitals in Southern Italy, October 1943-October 1947 . . . . . . . 330
30. Seventh Army Hospitals and Medical Supply Dumps, 20 August 1944. . 378
31. Seventh Army
32. Seventh Army Hospitals and Medical Supply Dumps, 15 September
1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 9 0
1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 9 1
MTO to
. 403
35. Fifth Army Hospitals and Medical Supply Dumps, 18 September 1944. . 436
36. Fifth Army Hospitals and Medical Supply Dumps
Supporting
II
Corps, 25 October 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
37. Fifth Army Hospitals and Medical Supply Dumps on the IV Corps
and 92d Division Fronts, 15 January 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
38.
Fifth Army Hospitals and Medical Supply Dumps on the II Corps
Front, January 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Army
Offensive, 18 April 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
40. Fifth Army Hospitals and Medical Supply Dumps, 26 April 1945 . . . . . . 472
41
43. Medical Installations Supporting Fifth
Army,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Frontispiece
167th Station
Hospital, Iceland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Newfoundland
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
xxiii
Col. Gordon G .
Col.
Col. Crawford
DC-3
Over
70
Hospital
72
Loading a Patient by Fork Lift,
Casablanca
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Brig. Gen. Albert W. Kenner and General George C. Marshall . . . . . . . . . . . . .
106
Mobile Surgical Truck, Tunisia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Wrecked Ambulance, Tunisia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 7
2d Lt.
Medical Supplies on Beach, Algeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., and Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. . . . . . 148
Col. Daniel Franklin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 5 0
Col. L. Holmes
Sicily . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Holding Hospital, Termini Airfield, Sicily . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Forward Surgical Unit, Sicily . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Brig. Gen. Frederick
A . Blesse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
26th General Hospital Near Constantine, Algeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Aerial View of Hospital Groupment, Algeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Prison Stockade of the
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
xxiv
212
Brig.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 4
Litter Bearers Wading t o Landing Craft , Salerno . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 8
Planners of the
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Casualties From Rapido Crossing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 4 6
A id
Col. Rollin L. Bauchspies .
Brig. Gen. Frederick
Blesse . . . . . . . .
278
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
56th Evacuation Hospital After Bombing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Treating Casualty
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Half-Track Ambulance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 9 7
German P O W Giving First A id
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Administering
Institute of the
Good Shepherd, Rome
Col. Charles F . Shook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Medical Section of NATOUSA at Caserta, 26 July 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Medical Center a t Mostra Fairgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 8
Repatriating Wounded German POW's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
41st Hospital Train . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4 5
Storing Medical Supplies
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Delousing Station, Naples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 6 4
Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch and Col. Frank B. Berry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Lt. Col. Robert Goldson, Col. Myron R. Rudolph, and Col. Joseph Rich ... 370
Medics on Beach, Southern France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Ambulance in Wrecked Village
 
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Last Stages of Whole Blood Pipeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
General Martin Receiving OBE From Gen.Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander. . 416
Collecting Point, M t. Altuzzo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2 0
317th
Medical
Battalion
Collecting
38th
Brazilian
Nurses
Ambulance on Icy Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 46
Treating a Wounded Mule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Truscott,
Medics Evacuating Wounded by Jeep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
Medics a t Pianoro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6 7
German Receiving
Ambulances Fording Reno
12th General Hospital, Leghorn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Italian Partisans a t
Bari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 9 7
Storage
Captured Horse
a t
7029th Station Hospital
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
German P O W Ward Tents,
Ghedi
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Readying Medical
Col.
Earle Standlee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4 8
All photographs are from the Department of Defense files except the
Frontispiece, which
is an adaptation of a painting by Joseph Hirsch in the Abbott
Collection and was drawn especially
for
this
of battle, if his
in
hours,
ceives
that
succor,
is
ical Service, still called
in World War II
tal may be saved if the flow of blood is
quickly stanched, the onset of infection
halted, the effects of
but gently moved to a place of
safety
fall within the medical mission.
Each has
functioning organizations ever devised.
So well did the
wounded, only 4,000 died.
wounded man, or by a
fellow soldier
mark
ficially
casualty is conscious and has some mo-
bility, he may help himself with anti-
septics from his own first aid packet, or
perhaps a
torn
the tide of
A company aidman will
marker such as a rifle stuck upright in
the
branch, or by
instinct sharpened through
which
the
wound
wounded
fade.
be found in ten to thirty
minutes,
de-
pending
battle,
1
action, 20,000 taken prisoner, nor some 9,000
missing. All of these, by definition, were "battle
casualties," but did not
2
M E D I T E R R A N E A N AND MINOR THEATERS
the terrain, and similar factors. The aid-
man (there were normally two
such
men
attached
technician. He has earned by repeated
demonstrations
company is a morale builder, because
the men know that as long as "Doc" is
there, they
casualty
sta-
protection are available. Although he
carries morphine,
because
with him, which
if it seems necessary, and perhaps adding
tape to make transportation easier.
He
(EMT),
copying
dicating the nature of the
wound,
the
and will go with him along the whole
chain of evacuation.
save strength, courage, and dedication
beyond
protection
they move among fighting men and
whining shells on the battlefield, con-
cerned only for the safety and comfort
of the man
a
back
security—for the
return at once to the
battlefield.
At
the
battalion
aid
station,
the
wounded
first time
th e battalion surgeon. Perhaps an hour
has now passed since the wound was
inflicted. The man is still
alive, thanks
he will not be for long without extensive
surgery.
not,
casualties at the aid station, brought in
from the various
that
serious, and so receives the immediate
attention of the battalion
nonmed-
aid, but will be primarily to
keep
the
wounded
or
back
so plentiful that it can be dissipated by
 
dition to the litter bearers,
there will
be a
duties
the field
medical service.
as they are today. There is a job to be
done, and quickly,
considering,
with
surgeon
dressings the company aidman has ap-
plied,
and perhaps morphine if the man
shows
signs
location permits to minimize the shock
of further transportation, additional en-
tries will be made on the EMT, and the
patient will be speeded on the next
stage of his journey. His destination now
will
the front, and the
aid station he
ond
echelon
casualty,
other overseas theaters in World War II,
each
bodies of medical troops. Up to this
point we have been
medical detachment of an
32
officers,
including
a medical officer, with
ment, each division had an
organic
a clearing company. The collecting com-
panies,
ambulance and litter-bearer units. The
clearing company, on the
and sometimes not so
packed and
the
collecting station, set up by the appro-
priate collecting company. In Italy,
where the
Ambulances, or jeeps fitted
talion aid stations, or if these
were not
ing posts within reasonable litter carry
of
station
serve two aid stations, or
three
again sorted—the
4
M E D I T E R R A N E A N AND MINOR THEATERS
still
wounds
referred
the aid
than his bodily
be
medical
station was
ing the
disease
1943 was to set up as close as possible to
each division
ties in need of immediate surgery. The
field hospital
100-bed
hospitals.
but the deficiencies were
sur-
ized, but each a
own
personnel.
whose progress
we are
following along
loading post that might be only 300 or
400 yards away as the crow flies, but half
to three-quarters of a mile by the nar-
row,
winding
The
tedious
the clearing station along with other
wounded men of his regiment in a mat-
ter of
more since he received his wound, but
he is still
good, for he is only moments away from
the finest in
earth floor, heated if necessary by oil
stoves and
it
fine modern hos-
in the
who with tw o enlisted technicians mak e
up a surgical team, it is as good or
better.
tient
possibly as much as a week. If the front
advances significantly in that time, an-
other field hospital platoon will set up
adjacent to the new site of the division
clearing station, leaving the old hospital
or a detachment from it to operate
where it is until all its patients are trans-
portable. Our casualty, along with other
holdovers,
evacuation
under
can-
Organization
400-
bed
organic transportation, and a 750-bed
hospital in which mobility was sacrificed
for somewhat more complete facilities.
Ideally one 400-bed "evac" backed up
each division, some
5
all casualties. They were staffed and
equipped, that is, to do whatever might
be necessary for the recovery of the pa-
tient.
hospitals of the communications zone
was their proximity to the f ront lines.
For that
length of time. As a
rule only those who
could be returned to duty wi th in a week
or two or,
longer in need of constant medical or
surgical care
served both professional and combat
manpower by operating with a low ratio
of
medical
taining
indefinitely in the complex machinery
of the replacement
munications
zone.
he will be a transient at the evac, on his
way
the evacuation hospital he
chain
of
evacuation.
He
will
lecting company,
battalion
tion, but in this case assigned to army
and under control of the
army surgeon.
echelon of the
for an
ambulance run.
hospital, with a fresh dressing on his
wound and a new
nearby
rearward by
In Italy,
to
air evacuation transport squadron.
would
have
rested
with
ranean with a base section. This
particular casualty will require
relative-
is
indicated.
or in a
2,000 beds, wi th many specialties repre-
sented on its
6
M E D I T E R R A N E A N
AND
case than the one we are following might
go
perform most of the
a general
hospital—but
hospital had anywhere from 25 to 900
beds; in the
Mediterranean most were
normally
more serious cases to a
general
hospital,
indistinguishable from the
patients were apt to be service or other
rear echelon troops. In both types medi-
cal cases usually outnumbered surgical.
In the
general hospital
eration, but this will depend on the
probable length of his stay, which will
be determined by the
med-
evacuation
of
Theater varied
for most of the time it was 90. This
meant that if a patient admitted to a
communications zone hospital would in
the
opinion
in 90 days or less he would be retained
and treated, being returned to his unit
or sent to a
other
were
he could safely be moved so great a dis-
tance.
evacuation
policy
the
be kept in the theater for future combat
operations. It is the
th e
Full recovery, in the case we are fol-
lowing, will take months or possibly
years of prolonged and specialized
treat-
stay long at the general hospital, but will
be sent
quickly as possible. When he boards
hospital ship or plane, according to the
availability of transportation and the
urgency of his case, he
will enter the
evacuation. Thus it may well be that
tw o weeks
particular soldier will be admitted to
Walter Reed
named
done. If his doc-
attention,
Veterans' Administration hospital. He
citizenship. That
the dedication and skill of the men and
women who make up the medical serv-
ice of the U.S. Army.
 
Defense
Areas
the invasion of North Africa on 8 No-
vember 1942, could
never have been
East were
in the Panama
bases stretching
Azores.
1
The
area
involved
is
tremendous,
and
Army troops served had its own special
problems, but there was a common pat-
tern.
Together,
of defensive outposts.
air routes, and some had
additional
future operations.
of detailed
ern Hemisphere that would include out-
posts far from the shores of the American
1
western Canada, which
ton, 1950);
(3)
Ray
S.
Matloff an d Edwin M .
Snell, Strategic Planning for
(5) Stetson Conn and
Byron Fairchild, The Frame-
Byron
Fairchild,
posts (Washington, 1963). Also valuable
fo
back-
ground
vol. I, The Battle of the
Atlantic,
volumes from "The
Wesley Frank
published
(1949), an d vol. VII,
Services Around the World
change fifty
and the Atlantic. The agreement cov-
ered Army,
in the Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua, St.
Lucia,
Trinidad,
time the right
Newfoundland
base
Africa. Studies
the fall of 1940 and early the next
year
In mid-1941 American
after
diplomatic
the absorption of his
Indies,
of
routes across both the North and the
South Atlantic led to
other service personnel
During the period
was built up in Panama and Puerto
Rico, and the number of in the
newly acquired bases increased
Navy
the
estimates
maintain the security of the Atlantic
were
conditions. Expansion continued, but at
a
relatively
U.S. troops in the defensive bases along
the eastern coasts of North and
South
America
Africa.
ican strength in the United Kingdom
at that time, and was half of the U.S.
Army strength in the
building, so that the over-all figure
never
The peak month was May 1942,
when
181,867
lantic bases.
organizations,
a hostile landing
early stages
Naval forces were
under the pre-existing
Transport Command. In the North At-
lantic, however, the various major bases
were
Atlantic bases
In
Army's peacetime establishment. War-
were in
bases,
part, buildings
neers, whose troops generally preceded
both ground and air personnel. Indeed,
the engineers often supplied medical
service
as
well
To care
various
airfield
new bases,
A. Fox.
rived at a base, the engineers had in
operation an infirmary or small hospital,
which served
some bases co-existed with the Army
medical and at others merged
with
Army medical facilities and installations
were
transferred
States, but in
tail.
Initially,
hospital
care
the provisional hospitals
the fall of 1941 that the first numbered
hospital units activated
in the United
Iceland.
Be-
such units in the Atlantic
defense areas
tals, 45 numbered
varying sizes, and 10 or more dispen-
saries equipped to
Organization
(T/O)
bed
strength
beds
Armfield, "Medical Department,
comparisons,
Department,
United
(Washington, 1963), ch. XL
no special problems were
man occupation, the British in May 1940
sent troops to garrison Iceland. By the
spring of 1941, however,
power on a purely defensive situation.
After
landers felt there would be less risk in
being occupied by a
garrison with American
landed in
followed on 6 August by the 33d Pursuit
Squadron, whose P-40's were flown in
from an aircraft carrier. The first incre-
ment of ground troops—some 6,000 offi-
cers and men of the 5th Division-
arrived on 15 September. The Iceland
Base Command (IBC) was established
as the British garrison was
relieved,
and
atlantic air transport and ferry routes
and the vital sea lanes to the British
Isles,
6
camps
lay
north
centering around Alafoss. Eighty
tered at isolated airfields and radar sta-
tions
around
The IBC reached peak strength in
May 1943
in size only by the Panama Canal Zone
among Atlantic defense areas.
Division.
Air
as suitable fields could be made avail-
able, by the 9th
port Command, whose home base, shared
with the bombers, was Meeks Field near
Keflavik
the
threat
of
son
the entire 5th Division was withdrawn.
Thereafter,
strength
brought
5
United States and Its Outposts, chs. XVIII, XIX;
(2) Narrative Hist,
Alert, 16 Sep 41-1 Dec 45, MS, OCMH files; (3)
Lt. Col. William L. Thorkelson, The Occupation
of Iceland during World War II, MA Thesis, Syra-
cuse
University,
Div, 1942-43; (6)
Sta Hosps, 1941-43; (8) Annual Rpts, 14th, 15th,
49th, 72d, 192d Sta Hosps, 1942,1943; (9) Annual
Rpts, 92d Sta Hosp, 1942-45; (10) Annual Rpts,
365th
366th
Sta
Sep 41-Jun 44, AAF, N Atl Wing, ATC, app. F;
(13) Med Hist Rcd, Oct 44-Dec 44, app. E, AAF,
N Atl Wing, ATC; (14) Hist of Med Dept, ATC,
May 41-Dec 44; (15) Ltr, Col Charles H.
Beasley
(Ret)
volume.
COLONEL BEASLEY
nel.
The
The Air Transport
war was over,
1 January 1946.
rose from 749 at the end of 1941 to
2,959 a year later. By the end of 1943
the total number of officers,
nurses, and
429
strength went through a
declining to 400 by the middle of
1944.
(later Col.) Charles H. Beasley, who had
accompanied the initial Marine contin-
gent
returned to
F.
Lieberman.
ian of the health of the U.S. troops in
the command, the base surgeon's
office
people. Army hospitals treated
been
camps, and also cared for civilians who
were
struck
ated
freely
with
ed their
tended
Army
medical
Cross
contributed
office
re-
volved
around
related
will be
the
sional medical service, which operated
 
12
M E D I T E R R A N E A N
AND
Battalion
battalion also operated a dispensary for
th e port of Reykjavík and ran a provi-
sional hospital in the Keflavik area
until
ment
own
medical
detachments,
but
anything
of a serious or complicated nature w e n t
to Marine and later to Army
instal-
lations.
dictated by the combinat ion of moun-
tains, lava beds, and glaciers that circum-
scribed roads and airfields, and by the
rugged coast line, turbulent seas, and
icebergs
that
bulk of the beds were in the Reykjavík-
Alafoss
tration of troops, it was still necessary
to supply hospital
the main body of troops in
mid-Septem-
168th
formerly used by a British hospital. The
main
hospital up to its
and 167th Station Hospitals, both 250-
bed units, which had arrived in Iceland
at the same time as the
168th, were at-
could be prepared. The 11th
Station
Helgafell, some ten miles north of
Reykjavík .
and one general hospital arrived on the
island to
States. The 1,000-bed 208th General
Hospital came in March and began oper-
ating before the end of the month at
Camp Helgafell, where it shared
quar-
the U.S. 11thStation Hospital. The 11th
moved in June to Kaldadharnes, some
twenty-five miles southeast of Reykjavík,
where
The British hospital
the hospital plant.
Hospitals
tember
Ice-
of
until
then changes
hospital
13
MAP 1—U.S. Army Hospitals Supporting North Atlantic Bases, 1 June 1943
at Borgarnes unnecessary, and the unit
was moved
later in
Iceland
tion the same month. The
14th
taken over from the British near Akure-
yri on the north coast, the
second
largest
ber, began operating at Budhareyri,
about forty miles south of the 14th, in
November .
 
used
to
January
1943.
tion at Reykjavík, all
Even with prefabricated buildings, how-
ever, construction was difficult. Materials
for drains, plumbing, and electrical
fix-
tures
were
daylight were
miles
an
vicinity of Alafoss natural hot springs
were
in
sonnel in the command,
Red Cross and for U.S. civil service em-
ployees. They also treated
THE ATLANTIC D E F E N S E AREAS
15
casualties
haps. However,
command.
Iceland faded during 1943, the with-
drawal of
th e
Reykjavík area, where most of its per-
sonnel
15th Station,
Akureyri, and the 92d Station, including
patients, was
transferred from
was disbanded
and its
which
General
from 1,000 to 750 beds, and the 168th
Station in Reykjavík was expanded from
250 to 500 beds, in preparation for a
mission elsewhere.
A few
Station Hospital, without change
49th Station closed at
later sailed for the United Kingdom. It
was followed by the
to
replace
the 72d Station on 19 August. Two
days later the 92d Station
Hospital
Meeks
Transport Command.
force troops
Seydhisfjordhur
the Reykjavík area. It remained only to
consolidate
tion
of the remaining hospitals was effected
on 6 December 1943. The 11th and 72d
Station Hospitals were
366th
Stations were combined at
with a T/O of 500 beds. At the end of
1943 only the 92d, 365th, and 366th Sta-
tion Hospitals remained
months earlier there
had been one
as a
on a
Station transferred to the
dom on 26 June 1944. On the first of that
month
halved. The 366th was
 
along with the
to
the
at Camp Helgafell, by ambulance from
station hospitals in the western part of
Iceland, by sea or air from those
in more
isolated areas.
parts of the command except during the
long winter
quently used
from Iceland to the United States proved
to be
water transportation were used. In either
case, patients
to be
ing as a general. Although th e number of
evacuees was not
of
of proper facilities, especially for neuro-
psychiatric and other
56 percent in 1944.
the extent needed, to care for 19,589
transient patients who were flown from
the ETO to the zone of interior by
way of Iceland between 1 January 1944
and 1 July 1945. To accommodate these,
an unnumbered holding
cases
If a plane were held because of poor
fly-
ing
conditions,
their journey. The
made
it
unsafe
bodied men from the ETO who passed
through Iceland between June
Medical
Supplies
Command were handled
package storage depot in the Alafoss
area.
houses
more
than
11,000
square
storage;
the
subdepot,
in
age space; and the
cal units
being held
depots held a 120-day supply
by the end
authorized for operation of the medical
supply system in Iceland, but this num-
ber was never reached.
45 respectively before the end of 1942.
The supply system was
ganized
function,
organ-
supply teams, officer
and 27 enlisted men.
whole were
as the strength of the command declined.
During
2,325,000 pounds of excess U.S. medical
supplies
Kingdom. The year's end still found the
depots bulging with supplies for 60
days
certain
during 1944 to a 30-day operating and
30-day maintenance level.
Professional Services—In
spite of un-
U.S. troops in Iceland was exceptionally
low. There were no
of any
Half of all hospital admissions in
1942
respiratory disease rate was 190 per 1,000
per annum, including mild cases
treated
down to 95. The
after the arrival of each new
troop
con-
tingent,
1942
number of cases climbed to 661,drop-
ping to 170 in July and
only
month period was 1,320. There were
no
deaths
ined,
but
There
tions. All but 7 of the 1,320 men who
came down
with jaundice
of vaccine before
measures. Only 128 sporadic cases were
reported. Venereal disease, scourge of the
Mediterranean and
European theaters,
most total absence. Venereal
per annum in 1942; 5.3 in 1943; and 6.2
in 1944. Only mental disorders showed a
significant rise as time
problems, and a feeling of contributing
little to the war effort
combined to pro-
U.S. troops
in Iceland,
effective rate
in 1943 it was only 25.37; and in 1944 it
was a
relatively low.
Command encountered no unusual dif-
ficulties. Dispersal of troops made
it
rather than
most
of the local authorities. From
their
arrival
personnel worked with
of
Departments
agreed
would be needed for hemisphere defense,
and that in view of the Monroe Doctrine
the
later, on 9
State signed
security
construct, maintain, and
sailed
anchored off Narsarssuak on the south-
west
6
Great Brit-
water and
on an air
planes to
move from
American factories
of
electrolyte in the production of alumi-
num; and it was the gathering point for
the storms that would influence air and
naval activity
of obtaining weather data in Greenland
and had established
6
man,
and
Cate,
Ford, Below
flin Company, 1944); (4) Annual
Rpts, M ed Dept
nual Rpt, Base Hosp, Greenland Base Comd, 1946;
(6) ETMD's (Essential Technical
with
with
Annual Rpts, 188th,
Sta
Hosp,
1943;
(11)
Med
Wing, ATC; (12) Ltr , Norman L. Heminway to
Col Goriup, 16 Aug 59; (13) Ltr , John R.
McBride
to Goriup, 28 Jul 59. Both letters comment on pre-
liminary dra f t of this
volume.
operation. This was located and de-
stroyed
weather reports from a submarine kept
in the area for that purpose.
In addition to its responsibility for the
health
of
Army
Guard, and
craft.
Department officers
sarssuak, where
August 1941 th e medical detachment
set up a 10-bed field-type tent hos-
pital, which operated for two months be-
fore
nected
by
corridor, opposite the clinic and
hospital
when
sur-
Dor-
WEST 1,
that two
expanding capacity to approximately
established
Strømfjord on the
as
mand
(later
Col.)
geon. BLUIE WEST 8 included civilian
construction workers, who had been
there since September,
dash, was responsible for the health of
the civilians. The first hospital set up on
the post, an engineer unit available to
all, opened
coast of
post was called, was primarily a weather
and communications station. It included
a medical officer and an engineer dis-
pensary operated by civilians. In March
1942
a
post
100 air miles west
June a small building had been
erected
surgeon for the whole command, how-
ever,
until
November
that
March 1943by Maj. (later Col.) Norman
L. Heminway, commanding officer of the
188th Station
Hospital and surgeon of
the B L U I E WEST 1 base. In December
Colonel
Heminway
R. Hill.
Under War
20
M E D I T E R R A N E A N
AND MINOR THEATERS
May
construction
in
right
foreground.
bered
station
drawn from Medical
operating the existing hospitals and dis-
pensaries
that
were
pitals of 250, 200, 150, and 25 beds, fo r
BW-1, BW-8, BE-2, and BW-7 re-
spectively.
Construction
th e
late months
year, when the troop build-up reached
its maximum
due in
labor
importing all building
t ion, opened at BLUIE WEST 1 in its new
buildings in December 1943. One of the
finest examples of an
type buildings on 22.5 acres
were
con-
Central heating, electricity, running hot
and cold water, and a modern
sewage
188th Station,
cases being evacuated to the United
States.
made conditions less crowded,
been anticipated. The190th Station
bed unit, was reduced to a 50-bed hospi-
tal by the time it
moved into its
The 191st Station at BLUIE EAST 2
also
original authorization had been for 150
beds. The smallest of the four Green-
land
hospitals,
7, remained
period of operation. At none of the four
post
ously interrupted during the
new was functioning. Such unavoidable
curtailment of minor services as occurred
was compensated for by treating as many
cases as possible on a "quarters" basis.
During the greater part
four main Army bases in Greenland had
to be largely self-sufficient
no handicap as supplies for the base com-
mand as a whole were more than
ample
selves, there were a dozen or more
weather observation and radio posts
operating out of one or
another
partment enlisted man could be spared.
Although the climate was much more
severe and the setting far more
bleak
perienced, there were
no adverse effects
diseases.
between
the
natives
ard. The only venereal cases
were among
Greenland. Respiratory diseases made
disease cate-
most
the incidence of
ship loading and unloading, and
con-
number of patients admitted to
hospitals,
quarter
second
zone
about
18
per-
environment, combined with
social
contacts.
"The Arctic Stare," developed in a ma-
jority
island.
chiatric cases constituted only about 4
percent of hospital admissions.
sions
hospital
during
1944.
7
Evacuation
of
patients
main bases, where the permanent hospi-
tals were established, and thence, if more
elaborate treatment
Station
Hos-
188th from other parts
BW-1 came in by bus or ambulance.
Most
zone
of
went
—which prevented the
15 to 25 patients a month to the United
States for general hospital treatment. Be-
ginning in 1944 the personnel of the
188th Station Hospital and the Air
Transport
the United States. From May to October,
471 such cases passed through
the com-
hospitalized.
force
units
service
tect the
cryolite mine
at Ivigtut
tion Hospital, which
was located there,
ceeded as post surgeon and commanding
officer, 188th Station Hospital, by Capt.
(later Maj.)
possible. Excess
Greenland Base
center
on the island in January
1946. Only the
tive
the great
and air lanes and blocking the mouth of
the St. Lawrence. Its strategic import-
ance had
7
the hospitals of
Station
survey party arrived on the island on 13
October. The first of the garrison troops
followed late in January 1941 when the
21,000-ton USAT Edmund B. Alex-
ander, ship of her size to attempt
the narrow, rocky entrance to the harbor,
anchored at St. John's. The transport car-
ried 58 officers and 919 enlisted men,
including personnel to
Fort Pepperrell, was not yet ready to
receive either troops
ander served
the
loaded, but needed items were procured
ashore. Civilian hospitals in St. John's
cared
for
when an engineer
medical officer arrived
hospital, opened 16
shipboard
quarters
loaded from the transport, but could not
be uncrated until covered storage space
was found.
ber another move put the hospital, then
known as Station Hospital, Newfound-
land Base Command, into a
newly
Designed to accommodate 125 men, the
building was
ing.  (See Map I
Daniel J.
land Base Command surgeon.
been established at Newfoundland Air
Base
near
units of the Royal Canadian Air Force,
was one of the
officially U.S. Army Air Base, Newfound-
land, but unofficially known as Gander
Field,
was
occupied
bed
hospital
acti-
ing
rell, 250 miles away by rail but only half
of that
ber 1942
beds.
originally as a 25-bed dispensary in Janu-
ary 1942 at Fort McAndrew, near the
naval base
Engelman,
States and Its Outposts, ch. XIV; (2) Chief
of Staff, pp. 479-81; (3) Annual Rpt, Sta Hosp,
Newfoundland Base Command, 1941; (4) Annual
Rpt, Med Activities, Newfoundland Comd, 1942;
(5)
Med
Bases
in
Newfoundland
Annual Rpt, Sta
Sta
1944; (9) Annual
N Atl Wing, ATC,
foundland Base
Col Daniel J. Berry (Ret) to Col
Goriup,
5 Aug 59; (14) Ltr, Gunnar Linner to Goriup, 10
Aug 59.
basement,
shown rising above ground level, was a completely self-contained bombproof
unit to which
ground handled
hospital was formally activated in May
and opened in June 1942, eventually ab-
sorbing the engineer unit. Last of the
U.S.
western coast of
enlisted
U.S. bases,
the medical detachment.
designated
time the base
Station Hospital with a Table of
Organ-
com-
since
Eklund.
special needs.
concrete slab. The
complete
facilities,
plant. It could be completely sealed and
supplied with
contamination canisters. Patients could
hospital in a matter of minutes. Located
at
port of
by transfer from the smaller and less
well-equipped units and processed all
patients being evacuated to the United
States.
The
post
at Gander Field,
strength of 450 was
approxi-
mately
but
9,000
to the juris-
in September but continued to report to
the base surgeon until
to
port Command.
the air route to Europe. Lt. Col. Emmett
L. Kehoe, who had relieved
Colonel
pital
in
March,
Station was reduced to 150 beds and the
309th
duced to 25
never
owing to the virtual absence of roads.
Gander and Harmon Fields were con-
nected with St. John's by railroad but
the
distances
from Harmon—and the service in winter
was
falls. Air evacuation was faster, but it
was even more subject to the hazards of
unpredictable weather.
average
was
began
June 1944, Harmon Field
built to accommodate these
post hospital of 75-bed capacity, com-
pleted in
Medical
of Interior, UNITED
WAR II (Washington, 1956),  pp.
lit-
the planes. Plasma and whole blood
were
Presque
uees
was good. The climate was relatively
mild, resembling that of northern New
England. Although the
with
a
pene-
seldom dropped below zero.
m u m . In
immunization.
hood
excessive by Medical Department offi-
cers in
the
local health
problem was
Newfoundlanders and
thus constituted
never seriously
storage
themselves.
After
returned to the United States during
1944. The base medical depot at Fort
Pepperrell was discontinued late in
1943,
Hospital.
Bermuda
near the
of an arc shielding the Atlantic coast of
North America whose ends are New-
foundland and Trinidad. Only
engineer
medical
shipboard
bour Hotel some two miles across the
water from the
1
10
Engelman, and Fairchild, Guarding the United
States and Its Outposts, ch.
XIV;
D E F E N S E AREAS
C O N V A L E S C E N T
PATIENTS ON THE S U N D E C K OF THE
221ST STATION HOSPITAL,
the original troop complement and es-
tablished itself in the headquarters
hotel,
ground, mezzanine,
second, and
23 April.
sponsible for the health of all Army
troops, including
and for the
of its own at the naval base and air sta-
tion
Sound at the western end of the main
island.
muda
Base
45; (5) Hist
Monograph, U.S. A r m y Base, Bermuda, by N Atl
Div, CE, OCMH files; (6) Hist of Preventive Medi-
cine in World War II,
Eastern Defense Comd, Tab:
Dec 1944,
app. L,
ATC; (8) Ltr,
Col. E. M. P. Sward (Ret) to Col Goriup, 27 Jul
59; (9) Ltr, Col Paul A. Keeney
(Ret) to Col John
chapter.
28
M E D I T E R R A N E A N A N D
M I N O R THEATERS
On 1
Hos-
Army medical personnel in Bermuda at
this time numbered 29 officers and 137
enlisted men; troop strength in the
islands was approximately 4,000 climb-
ing to a peak of about 4,500 in March
1943.
Harbour Hotel on 1 May 1943 to a new,
modern building of concrete and
coral
Transport Command terminal
can air base that was the principal in-
stallation
of
closed, but the hospital continued to
maintain other dispensaries wherever
the troop population warranted.
were
hospital
during the summer, and in September
1943 th e naval hospital transferred all
patients to the 221st Station, preparatory
to closing. Thereafter all Navy personnel
requiring more
Col. Paul A. Keeney was hospital com-
mander and base surgeon.
ciably before
strength standing at 2,800 in November.
As of 1 June 1944, with
less than 2,300
221st Station
strength was then below 2,000. On1
January 1946 th e hospital passed to con-
trol of the Air Transport Command.
Evacuat ion
to the
patients
were
evacuated
sometimes exceeded, and the 221st
found it
stop on one of the main air evacuation
routes from Europe, Africa,
men was stationed at Kindley Field to
rotate with personnel of incoming planes
of the
treating them where necessary,
reduced to 150 beds before this time,
ample accommodations were available.
USAHS St. Mihiel ran
than 500 patients of the hospital ship for
two weeks. From September 1944 until
several months after the end of the war,
well over
peak
 
units
the occupation of the Portuguese Azores
by a U.S. military
force, but the project
British
quent conquest
Azores as a link in a new
central
Atlantic
route
to
Europe,
the
islands for military purposes under
the
base
Terceira Island, were quickly estab-
lished, and in December American per-
sonnel began to share the airfield with
the British. This joint occupancy con-
tinued until
States permission to establish an exclu-
sively American base on Santa Maria
Island,
African theater,
designation U.S. Army Forces in the
Azores, jurisdiction over
Division
interests in
the Azores.
few days' confinement. By February 1944
the dispensary had grown until it occu-
pied several Nissen huts. Other prefab-
ricated
service. In addition, another 35 or 40
beds were available to
medical installation was requested by
the Azores Base Command, but no such
unit was established there
Department began operating
September 1944. During the remainder
of the year the Medical Department on
the island acquired frame buildings and
tentage to maintain a 120-bed dispensary.
The
dispensaries
on
Terceira
and
Santa
the end of the war and into the postwar
12
Snell, Strategic Planning
Dec 44; (3) Arctic
44, AAF,
N Atl Wing, ATC, pt. I, pp. 40-43, pt. II, pp.
1-5,
and app. L; (4) Med Hist Rcd Oct 44-Dec 44,
AAF, N Atl Div, ATC, pt. I, pp. 30-35, pt. II, pp.
2-6, and
Dept Activities, Base Hosp,
 
became a 50-bed hospital. Both installa-
tions had been in effect hospitals from
the start, but continued to be called dis-
pensaries because of the reluctance of
the
Medical
that averaged about
serious
medical
occurred sporadically
inoculation of plague vaccine before
departure from the United States and
another after arriving in the islands. The
Medical Department
in the
Azores con-
the Army. Not a single
case
of
plague
North Atlantic bases, respiratory diseases
and injuries accounted for the majority
of cases requiring hospitalization.
through
the
Azores
Allied hands,
it was
the United States. By the end of 1944 a
winter evacuation route using the Azores
rather than Iceland was adopted, thus
offsetting the disadvantages of cold
weather operations in northern latitudes
and reducing evacuation time from
France
Azores during the
in
eastern
and
central
Kingdom—first lend-lease planes for the
hard-pressed Royal
The
quickest,
its
bases close
the range of fighter craft, and adequate
weather information.
foundland
to
Scotland
best.
way was cleared for its use in the
spring
designated for
General
Staff.
13
13
 Principal
the
1947), 213-22; Craven Cate,
Colonel Stanley W. Dziuban, Military Relations
Between the United
States and Canada,
(Washington, 1959);
Wing, ATC, pt. I, chs. 1
and 2, and apps. D, G, H, and K; (6) Med Hist
 
Maine, to Prestwick, Scotland, was well
along by the end of 1941.The
first
hop
alternatively, because of crowding at
Gander, to Goose Bay, Labrador, where
the
Canadian
Greenland, under construction since
stop,
and
tances
miles from Goose Bay to BLUIE WEST 1,
another 775 miles to Iceland, and the
final and longest hop of 840 miles from
Reykjavík to Prestwick. Fighter
but they
isher Bay on
to
designated respectively CRYSTAL 1, CRYS-
TAL 2, and
ational when the whole
The enlarged project was known as
CRIMSON. Entry of the United States
into
get planes to the British Isles, and the
entire Eighth Air Force was to be flown
to its British base. The new plan in no
way canceled out the
would tap the
west
central
Manitoba,
Churchill
th e Arctic Circle, and
thence
to
BLUIE
base, and on to Iceland and Scotland.
Additional airfields were to be
located
of St. Lawrence, about
weather
bisher Bay.Nine
the
supplemented
before the winter of 1942-43 closed in,
nearly 900 planes of the Eighth Air
Force were flown to Scotland by one or
another of these
more than 17,000 in August, then
dropped abruptly to
strength was about 1,350. By that
date
the
United
States
D, G, and J; (7) ETMD's, USAFCC, Oct 43-Sep
45, and
Rpt,
1943;
(11)
Jul 43.
Wing
organization,
tember, but
doubled as Commanding
the
eastern or
stations
permanent
Forces medical
fields along this route, only
Goose Bay
A 25-bed dispensary was set up at Coral
Harbour,
Southampton
Hospital,
of
November, and two days later the 4th
Station, also a
Q. Hancock, was based at the Winni-
peg headquarters of the U.S. Army
Forces in Central Canada, where a
one-man dispensary supplemented the
weather observation posts, each in charge
of a noncommissioned
men, relied on the skills of medical en-
listed men. Emergencies
until one of the theater's 4 medical offi-
could
marine menace virtually eliminated and
good alternative air routes to share the
load, the air ferry route through central
Canada declined in importance. The two
hospitals were inactivated in December
and moved from the theater, each
being
replaced
Alien G. Thurmond succeeded Hancock
as theater surgeon, and was
relieved
in
merly
end of the year. The dispensaries at
Churchill and The Pas were both inacti-
vated
in
July,
Coral Harbour
itself
Goose Bay in April 1943. In the same
month two 50-bed units were opened
farther north—the
In August a
Bay. The 6th
Station, meanwhile, had
bed strength of the 133d and
134th
maintained
on
in
October did not
Goose
exclusively supplied by the North Atlan-
tic
Wing,
Bulla,
throughout the life of USAFEC.
The problems faced by the
Medical
familiar and often
originally issued quickly proved inade-
quate,
long
in
moccasins, or the heavy felt shoes sold
by the Hudson Bay Company as prefer-
able to the shoes
other problem. The 4th Station
Hospital
window ledges through which snow sift-
ed. A modern, completely insulated hos-
pital plant, with
constructed, but owing to
inactivated.
In
addition
Forces personnel, all the Army hospitals
treated civilian
construction workers.
local
Royal Canadian
Once the difficulties of adjustment
were overcome, the health
rarity, upper respiratory diseases
venereal diseases, though by no means
unknown, were largely the result of ex-
posures outside of the theater.
Even
posts
mote areas
such as
ation was always by plane if feasible. In
Manitoba
days from
34
M E D I T E R R A N E A N A N D M I N O R THEATERS
COLONEL BULLA
A
hospitals and dispensaries was normally
direct to
Army hospitals
always available in
up and eventually had to be returned to
supply depots in the United States.
The Caribbean Defense
January 1941,w as officially activated the
following month, but its organization was
not completed until 29 May 1941. It in-
cluded the existing Panama Canal and
Puerto
tral America, the British and Dutch
West
Indies,
with three main
June 1943. The top command and its
administrative divisions supplemented
the
when
Morrison
geon, but
Panama Canal
bean Defense Command, informal ly since
the activation of the command. General
Stayer was succeeded in both capacities
1March 1944 by Brig. Gen. Henry C.
Dooling.
therefore one of the well-established,
permanent garrisons of the U.S. Army.
Army
 
TH ATLANTIC D E F E N S E A R E A S
35
GENERAL
STAYER
fenses. Indeed, as early as 1938 the Chief
of Staff had sought to
increase
the
area
in
enemy commandos or saboteurs. The
better to carry out this mission, the juris-
diction of the Panama Canal Department
was
Central America and the Pacific slope of
South America as it became necessary
for U.S. forces, primarily Air Corps and
Engineer
viding proper defenses also involved the
expansion
mained at a fairly constant level in the
first
half
decade
troops.
to about 14,000, where
service. In 1939 there
usually in post administrative buildings,
which were
pensaries, which provided beds for less
than 2 percent of the command, the
14
 General
sources
Conn,
States and Its Outposts, ch X; (2) Caribbean De-
fense Comd, Organizat ion, Development and Reor-
ganization, MS, OCMH files;
(3 ) Hist of the
Canal
Dept,
Plans and
Rpt of TSG,
U.S. Army, 1940; (7) A Hist of Med Dept Act iv i t ies
in the Caribbean Defense Comd
in World War II,
Canal Dept, 1940-45; (9)
in Panama,
Comd, 1943-44; (11) ETMD's, Caribbean Defense
Comd,
Oct 43-Dec 45; (12) A n n u a l Rpts, 218th
Gen Hosp,
1941-42; (13)
Rpt of Med Activities, Pan
American
30 Jun 43; (18) Ltr, Brig Gen Henry C. Dooling
(Ret) to Col Goriup, 5 Aug 59; (19) Ltr, Col John
W. Sherwood (Ret) to Col Goriup, 2 Aug 59. Both
letters comment
 
THE ATLANTIC D E F E N S E AREAS
37
Panama
Canal
Health
availa-
Gorgas Hospital—for
inadequate
Canal Health Department hospitals con-
tinued during the war,but with the
allotment reduced to 250
Canal
John W. Sherwood, who was succeeded
in May 1943 by Col.Wesley C. Cox.
A plan for the construction of per-
manent Army
the Panama Canal
eral
on the Pacific side of the canal, a 401-bed
hospital at Fort Gulick on the Atlantic
side, and a 60-bed
hospital for the com-
Field in the Pacific sector.
Funds for the
materialize until a
by
ical Department was not satisfied that
the program as approved was adequate;
the of the Zone thought
th e
funds
heavy
partment had
ready insufficient number.
sentatives
expedient,
temporary
station
cal facilities. In general, expansion of the
department dictated that hospitals be
operated
at
nearly
all
posts
lick and Fort Clayton,
doubled their
dispensary through the war years. The
maximum strength of the Army in
Pan-
th e completion
of the permanent
cared for the peak loads of patients. With
the
occupied by the end of the summer of
1943, the other
ment had an
beds
avail-
The Medical Department units that
operated the major hospitals
designation, because of construction de-
lays
and
reorganizations.
pitals, arrived in Panama in January
1942.
Gulick, the site of the new permanent
hospital then still in the
process
pleted. Its personnel was thereupon
split up and dispersed on temporary
duty mainly to post hospitals at Fort
Amador
and
Fort
numbers
pending the completion of the Fort Clay-
ton hospital.
1943,
Fort Clayton hospital.
333d Station
Hospital, as it was then called, ran the
Fort Clayton hospital for the remainder
of the
the canal, the 210th General
Hospital,
post in September 1943. This general
hospital was
operating at Fort
further
reduced
Canal Zone followed the pattern of the
Gorgas Hospital, that is, tropical con-
struction of reinforced concrete, with
broad overhanging eaves on each floor
for protection
and
satisfied
the
needs
In the Central American and South
American countries under the
small hospitals and dispensaries under
control of the Sixth Air Force or the
Corps of Engineers. During 1942 hos-
pitals with capacities of 25 beds
each
were
Panama;
1,000
Ocean, protecting
hospitals were constructed as tempo-
 
construction, having 10 beds each, were
built
Repub-
the
hospital
and Peru became
erating by
tals
through the greater part of the year.
Still another Army group maintained a
medical service in the area: the Corps of
Engineers, who were
December 1942 and
January 1943 medi-
pensaries at
Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa
tween 1,500 and 2,500 American work-
ers and technicians employed on the
highway,
sands of local laborers was the chief con-
cern of the Pan American Highway
medical service, under the direction of
Lt. Col. E. T. Norman. At the end of
August 1943
cers,
technicians,
these
admission rate per
steadily thereafter,
ment of antiaircraft batteries in remote
jungle areas; and the removal of
troops from screened barracks in sani-
tated zones to tent
amounting to 71.7 per thousand per year
in
1940
were
that time. The malaria and venereal
disease control programs were operated
under the guidance of the Medical De-
partment in co-operation with civil
health authorities, but basically
bility in these matters consisted of thor-
oughly indoctrinating their personnel.
military strength
duction
for delay in the delivery of others. By
1943, however, shortages in medical sup-
plies had disappeared. The system of
automatic
prevailed during the early
40
M E D I T E R R A N E A N AND MINOR THEATERS
LOADING A SICK SOLDIER ONTO A SMALL PLANE in Darien Province,
Panama, for
discontinued in
which was shipped back to the United
States in 1943 and 1944. Because of the
high humidity, certain medical supplies,
notably metal
cal
moisture
much
uation
from
Panama
high
level.
number
of
cases that would have
the modern general
patients when necessary. A 90-day hos-
pitalization policy existed in the early
 
part of the war, but by 1943 it had in-
creased to a 120-day
eral, only
terior. Within the Canal Zone the
Medical
Department
moved
most instances this
evac-
from installations around Gatun Lake
and from otherwise inaccessible locations
in the interior of Panama. The
Panama
patients requiring movement from one
end of the canal to the other. The air
bases
Central and South
ZI patients to New Orleans by ship,
but a small number of
cases made the
latter
method
specialized
The U.S. Army had maintained a
garrison
on
American War. In the period before
World War II
ment
Virgin Islands as a territorial depart-
ment
named,
most advanced U.S. possession from
which American sea and land operations
could
be
After
defenses
the Caribbean, providing at the same
time
from
United
on and leased from the
Dutch Government.
Guianas and in Cuba, while U.S. soldiers
remained for a considerable time in
Venezuela, on training mission. The
Puerto Rican Department, renamed the
Antilles Department
the course of the war.
15
15
sphere Defense, ch. X. (2) War Plans and Defense
Measures [Caribbean
Rpts,
Medical Dept Activ-
nual Rpt, Med
Dept Activities, British Guiana
Rpts, Sta Hosps, Borinquen Field,
P.R.,Losey Field,
P.R., Ft.
(11) Annual Rpt, 161st Gen Hosp, Ft. Brooke, San
Juan,
tivities, U.S. Army
 
42
M E D I T E R R A N E A N AND MINOR THEATERS
Puerto Rico eventually had the
largest concentration of U.S.Army troops
in the Caribbean, outside the Panama
Canal Zone. When formed as a territo-
rial department
listed men, serving at the
main post
By
2,913 and continued upward through
1940, reaching
cember of that year. troops were
divided among six posts in Puerto Rico
and one in the Virgin Islands. Army
strength in the Puerto Rican Depart-
ment continued to enlarge beyond any
legitimate mili tary need, mainly
because
the Army than could be used elsewhere.
Military strength doubled in 1941 over
that of the previous year and doubled
again during 1942. At the time of the
formation
50,000.
It
reached
a
peak
the maximum strength attained by the
Panama Canal Department.
at
Spanish
Government
War II, approximately a million dollars
was spent to modernize and
improve
the
the hospital had a capacity of about 600
beds and
At
Fort Buchanan
(See Map 2.)
Puerto
the
September 1939. In May 1941,a 150-bed
station hospital began operating at the
field. Another airfield, known s Losey
Field, situated near Ponce in the south
central part of the island, was the
loca-
post
Fort
Brooke
was established for the
tober of 1941 it had a capacity of 55 beds.
Most troops stationed at Camp Tortu-
guero,
a
post
medical and sur-
Medical
Department
had
chapter.
nel. There were less
ment in the
Walter P. Davenport was the surgeon of
the Puerto Rican Department.
Rico in 1942 resulted
cal Department had little
installations had to be
existed.
temporary, wooden, theater-of-opera-
lation, as in the case of Borinquen Field,
hospital construction was
creased its
all
increased their
during the year, began serving the troops
stationed at Camp
the
dispensary that
land of St. Croix became a 25-bed
hos-
Medical service
in the
southern half
Curaçao, British Guiana, and Dutch
Guiana, did not
Rico until
area
were
Sector and Base Command, of which Col.
Dean M. Walker was surgeon. American
troops moved into Trinidad, southern
anchor
Newfoundland and Bermuda, in May
1941, but for several months had no med-
ical support other than
December
to house a 500-bed station
hospital
at
island, but it was September 1942 before
the hospital opened. By that date an ad-
ditional temporary hospital plant was
under construction
evacuate substantial numbers of casual-
ties from the forthcoming invasion of
North
porary
meanwhile
General Hospi-
capacity
of
1,000
beds.
The
Isherwood.
 
44
M E D I T E R R A N E A N AND MINOR THEATERS
regional unit
Caribbean and the
early
1942 by a
1943. Both Trinidad hospitals were con-
structed of wood and regarded as semi-
permanent
structures.
St.
Lucia
began operating in November 1942. n
the two Dutch islands of Aruba and
Curaçao, the Army maintained station
hospitals of 75 beds each beginning in
early 1942. The base in British Guiana
had a 50-bed permanent-type station hos-
pital located at Atkinson Field, near
Georgetown. Two station hospitals op-
erated at
bed unit at Paramaribo and a 25-bed
hospital at nearby Zanderij Field. (See
Map 2.)
Antilles Department
were activated as numbered
hospital at
capacity
294th
hospital
In Puerto Rico the 295th Station Hos-
pital,
Tortuguero hospital was
Buchanan the 297th Station
bed hospital at
with a T/O of 250 beds. Two new sta-
tion hospitals were also established in
Cuba supplanting earlier installations:
the 300th (50 beds) at Batista Field.
Most important
Hospital
with
was th e
operations there in
Another group of
in-
150-bed 330th Station
Hospital; the 41st
Station Hospital with
Zanderij Field, Surinam (352d Station,
25 beds) ; Atkinson Field, British Guiana
(353d Station,
Lucia, British West
Indies (355th Sta-
West
Indies
Station, 50 beds).
the Western
Puerto Rico and other
 
THE ATLANTIC D E F E N S E A R E A S
45
the
Trini-
Antilles Department, with Col. Clyde C.
Johnston as its surgeon. There were at
this
listed men serving in medical installa-
tions
war.
The
1944,
dispensary status, or disbanded
nine
hospitals
161st General Hospital in San Juan, with
600 beds, accounted for almost half of
the total. Outside Puerto
Jamaica, the
Panama
Canal
only a
hospital, usually by ambulance but oc-
casionally by air in the
case
of
isolated
larger hos-
ship,
although
air
great distances were involved.
fairly def ini t ive care to most serious ill-
nesses, and
need fo r evacuation to the zone of inte-
rior. About half of the patients moreover,
were Puerto Ricans, and so would not
normally have been
supply in the Antil les proved similar to
those in Panama, but tended to be
some-
what
days. The
beginning
extreme
dispersion
Antil les were important factors in creat-
in g supply problems. The
absence
scarcity
two major health problems throughout
the Antil les Department
the answer was
84
per thousand per annum in 1941 and
88 in 1942 to 37 in 1943, 12 in 1944, and
9 in
ciding, drainage, use of
parasite on shade
46
M E D I T E R R A N E A N A N D M I N O R THEATERS
COLONEL LEONE
against
with the establishment of well-located
prophylactic stations and
ure of control. The
venereal rate was re-
duced from 81 per thousand per annum
in 1942 to 72 in 1943, 47 in 1944, and 31
in 1945.
only the United States could provide the
forces necessary to defend the Brazilian
bulge in the event of an attack from
Africa,
South Atlantic. Military planning in
both
though Brazil accepted
it with reluc-
the subsequent control of French West
Africa by the collaborationist Vichy
re-
most
Army and
THE
ATLANTIC D E F E N S E A R E A S
47
agreement between the two
ways undertook
Fortaleza, Nata l , Recife, Maceio,
and
bases in the
ened sector.
under way before Pan American, at the
request of the U.S. Government and with
Brazilian concurrence, undertook to
in the
Plans
war on Germany and
tion in late June 1942, under the aegis of
the South
Maj. (later Col.)
cember after formal
on
the Air Transport Command had estab-
lished its own headquarters at
Natal ,
but
gether by having the same
commander.
as did
relieved Walsh
in May
Transport
Command.
General
Wooten
th e other hand, was replaced as ATC
Atlant ic Wing
post
United States long enough to attend the
School of Aviat ion Medicine at Ran-
dolph
as a flight surgeon. Throughout th e life
of the theater close liaison was main-
tained
with
Fourth
colonel at this time,
tion, particularly as to the incidence of
malaria an d venereal disease, was se-
cured from the two
16
Watson, Chief of Staff, ch. IV; (2) Conn and Fair-
child,
Framework
XII; (3 ) His t , USAFSA, MS, OCMH files; (4) Of-
ficial Hist of the S Atl Div, ATC, MS, O C M H files;
(5) M ed Hist ,
World War II, USAFSA; (6) An-
n u a l Rpts, M ed Dept Act iv i t ies ,
USAFSA, 1942-44;
(7 )
A n n u a l Rpt , M ed Dept Activit ies, S Atl Div,
ATC, 1944; (8 ) Annua l R p t , Surgeon, Composite
Force 8012,
Ascension Is land, 1943; (9 ) A n n u a l
Rpt s , 175th Sta Hosp, 1943 and 1945; 193d Sta
Hosp, 1943-45; 194th
1943-45; an d 200th
Sta Hosp, 1943-45. (10)
ETMD's, USAFSA, Ju l
44-Oct 45; (11) A Med Hist of the Brazil ian Ex-
pedi t ionary Force in Brazil , by Maj R. H. Lackay;
(12) Ltr , Col
 
48
M E D I T E R R A N E A N AND MINOR
THEATERS
MAP
Lt.
Francis
successful invasion
against the South American
stopping
points
Brazil until after activation of the the-
ater.
Patients
formed in
Colonel
hospitals in
bases
49
Hospital (100 beds)
to
had been completed at the time the units
arrived, but by May and early June all
began operating. The 175th Station Hos-
pital (150 beds), arrived on
Ascension
th e creation of the South Atlantic the-
ater. The
with
from
attack
under
the island.  (Map
United States. The use of local materials,
especially hollow tile blocks, which were
stuccoed on the outside and plastered on
the inside, and red
tals.
The
Amazon River, was situated in a tropical
location almost on the equator. It
fur-
received
and weather at Clevelândia and
Camocim.
ian coastal "hump," the 194th Station
Hospital
Fortaleza, Fernando
de Noronha
Natal
route from other theaters to the United
States. It was a very active unit because
of
daily landings and
th e city of
in
medical installations
in the
200 th made trips to other stations in the
theater where they consulted on patients
who could not be
mented to
Sta-
newly
providing medical care for
sisted of wood-frame
dispensary
existed on the
strength of the
lantic theater maintained itself with a
minimum of personnel, but
 
50
M E D I T E R R A N E A N AND MINOR THEATERS
well as to members of the
U.S. Navy and
were approximately
time,
in fixed hospitals.
when
cension was reduced to
tion at Recife was
station hospitals, dispensaries
Luis,
Except
marily to provide medical care to U.S.
personnel
pensary could not be justified, Medical
Department enlisted men
Middle
Burma-India theater before the begin-
ning of
by way of
basis
extent
British Guiana
corded. As the war in the Mediterranean
spread during 1943 from
to
1944. All
South
the zone of interior in
1943,
except
the
whose condition
200th
120
days
seemed
able, patients usually traveled to the
United States by plane. A smaller num-
ber, notably
1943
the
number
189,
of
were
were 64 by sea and 151 by
air,
exceeded
10,000
months
stantial increase
Brazilian
Force for Italy in July-November 1944,
but neither time nor facilities were avail-
able to do a completely
satisfactory
job.
sick and wounded members of the Brazil-
ian
enced some
cumulated
to
meet
the
needs
medical supplies for the entire theater
and distributed them to the widely sepa-
rated medical installations
quantity of drugs from Brazilian dealers.
Before the
Recife depot
supplies
sence of
land combat
in the
factory
difficulties.
The
operation
of
medical
in-
emphasis on the control of venereal and
tropical diseases. Patients stayed in the
hosp