Medics – History of Sorts

Medical Care World War II

During World War II, many medical advances were made. Surgery techniques such as removing dead tissue resulted in fewer amputations than at any time. The treatment of bacterial infections with penicillin or streptomycin was administered for the first time in large-scale combat. In the beginning, plasma was available as a substitute for blood. By 1945, serum albumin had been developed, which is whole blood, rich in the red blood cells that carry oxygen and is considerably more effective than plasma alone.

The photographs above and below: Wounded American soldiers receiving blood plasma alongside a road in Normandy while awaiting transport to hospitals behind the lines. Major General H.W. Kenner, Chief Medical Officer at Allied Supreme Headquarters, disclosed on 5 August 1944 that 97 out of every 100 Allied soldiers wounded in France survived because of the speedy handling of injuries.

Allied casualties in Normandy were 30 per cent less than expected. Blood transfusions are credited with saving thousands of lives, with blood plasma being carried in each soldier’s kit and whole blood being administered at field hospitals. U.S. service men and women stationed in Great Britain set up a blood donors’ centre at a U.S. Army hospital to donate blood to the wounded in France. With a speedy process of handling—blood flowed into the veins of an injured soldier in France within a few hours after it was taken from the arm of a buddy in England.

Sources

https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/story/Article/2115192/medical-improvements-saved-many-lives-during-world-war-ii/#:~:text=During%20the%20war%2C%20surgery%20techniques,time%20in%20large%2Dscale%20combat.

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=august%205&rows=1&page=1

The Journey Home

One thing about World War II I often wondered about was the transporting of injured troops back to the United States.

The photo above shows the first American casualties from the Battle of Normandy arriving in the Eastern U.S. on 29 June 1944, after a 19-hour plane trip from the British Isles. The wounded—a U.S. Army officer, 12 enlisted men and one U.S. Navy Seabee—were flown across the Atlantic to their homeland on a C-54 transport plane. Waiting ambulances carried them to hospitals. Several men were part of the first Allied assault wave to strike the northern French beaches with overwhelming force on 6 June. One was a paratrooper who broke his leg when he hit the ground behind German lines in the successful Allied thrust to cut off the German forces in Cherbourg, the strategic deep-water French port liberated on 26 June 1944.

Above is a photograph of ambulances backing up to a specifically designed ramp to transfer wounded men. That ramp guaranteed minimal discomfort for the wounded as they boarded the Air Transport Command C-54 Skymaster. The ramp would quickly move aside as the plane was warming up. Once loaded, it taxied down the field for take off for the flight across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States.

An American Red Cross aid distributes books and magazines for wounded American soldiers before boarding the C-54. The photo shows the Skymaster hospital plane at an Air Transport Command base in the United Kingdom. The soldiers were flown to a U.S. military airport and then to hospitals near their homes.

Above is a photo of a wounded soldier on a stretcher on the gangplank of an Allied landing craft which had brought military supplies and men for the fighting fronts in France. The wounded were brought to the beaches in ambulances and jeeps and transferred to ships for transportation to hospitals in England. More seriously injured were flown back in hospital planes.

source

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=Transport%20gewonden&rows=1&page=4

Medical Heroes

france-ww2

The one group that often gets overseen in WWII stories are the medics. There are some books and movies about them, but if you put in the bigger scheme of WWII things it is a small percentage.

Yet they are the ones who would run into the battlefield, sometimes unarmed, to pick up the wounded.

1944-rescue

combat-medics

They were also the ones who, after the dust cleared, had to deal with the aftermath of battle. It is one thing seeing your brother in arms being blown to smithereens, but due to the adrenaline and the instinct to survive, it keeps the other emotions at check. You just get on with it, but afterwards when things have settled the emotions start flowing. The medical teams had to deal with these emotions and at the same time try to save lives.

Like here where surgeons work on the leg amputation of an injured solider at 46th Portable Surgical Hospital in Tinkhawk Sakan, Burma during World War II. 1944.

Sometimes in makeshift field hospitals Like in the picture below where an American Army doctor operates in an underground bunker surgery room behind the front lines in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea during World War II. The injured soldier had been wounded by a Japanese sniper. 1943.

surgery

It wasn’t only men ,Navy Flight Nurse Jane Kendiegh feeds an injured solider on a return trip from the battle of Iwo Jima.

flight-nurse

An American medic works with two Army nurses to administer blood plasma to a patient who was critically wounded by shell fragments at the Battle of Anzio in Italy

hand-comfort

American Captain Clarence Brott applies a cast to the leg of a soldier with a deep wound in his thigh inflicted by a shell fragment.

soldier-cast

Picture source: National Library of Medicine and National Archives

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Medical Troops in WWII

We often hear the stories of the special forces during WWII and without a shadow of a doubt they were all heroes.

However the heroes that are often forgotten are those of the Medical Corps, while being shot at they ran into the battlefield to attend the wounded. The red cross often functioned as a target for snipers. More then anyone else they put their lives at risk.

Even those who didn’t see action on the battlefields they still had to deal with the aftermath of the battles and the horrors they witnessed would often haunt them for the rest of their lives.

The pictures below are a tribute to the male and female Heroes of the Medical Corps, I salute you.