From the Roer to the Elbe

With the 1st Medical Group:

Medical Support of the

Deliberate River Crossing

by

Captain Donald E. Hall

-

N,
FOREWORD

Casualties are an inevitable consequence of battle, and they are commonly

listed at the end of historical accounts as figures for dead and wounded. The

assumption, on reading these numbers, is that the dead were at some point,

during or after the battle, collected and the wounded treated. Rarely do battle

analysts devote more than passing attention to the medical support provided

these combatants.

Captain Donald E. Hall, in his special study on the 1st Medical Group in

World War II, reminds us that procedures for treating the wounded have evolved

considerably since those days when death or amputation seemed the foregone

alternatives for a serious wound to an appendage. By World War II, medical

support provided by the U.S. Army in combat had modified extensively and

employed multiple echelons of health care. Advances in medicine, medical

science, and medical treatment also had improved the care of soldiers wounded

under the dangerous and unpredictble conditions of the modern battlefield.

Captain Hall describes for us the difficulties confronted in river-crossing

operations, where the removal and flow of casualties runs counter to the general

flow of traffic to the front. Hall's study is timely and properly emphasizes the

necessity for including medical support in meaningful battle analyses.

January 1992 Roger J. Spiller

Director

Combat Studies Institute

CSI publications cover a variety of military history topics. The views expressed

herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Department of

the Army or the Department of Defense.

l - ·I
From the Roer to the Elbe

With the 1st Medical Group:

Medical Support of the

Deliberate River Crossing

by

Captain Donald E. Hall

U.S. Army Command and General Staff College

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 66027-6900

I r _ _ _
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hall, Donald E. (Donald Edward), 1959-

From the Roer to the Elbe with the 1st Medical Group: medical

support of the deliberate river crossing / by Donald E. Hall.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

1. United States. Army. Medical Corps. Medical Group, 1stHistory. 2. World War, 1939-1945-Regimental histories-United

States. 3. World War, 1939-1945-Medical care-United States.

4. World War, 1939-1945-Medical care-Germany. 5. World War,

1939-1945-Campaigns-Germany. 6. Stream crossing, MilitaryHistory-20th century. I. Title.

D807.U6H35 1992

940.54'7573-dc20 91-30329

CIP

I I
The smallest detail, taken from actual incident in

war, is more instructive to me, a soldier, than all the

Thiers and Jominis in the world.

- ARDANT DU PICQ

Battle Studies

CONTENTS

Illustrations ................................................. vii

Preface . ............................................. . ix

I. Introduction ............................................ 1

II. Operation Grenade, the Roer River Crossing ........... 17

III. The Rhine River Crossing ............................. 41

IV. The Rest of the Story .................................. 51

V. Conclusions .................................... ....... 59

Appendix. Chain of Casualty Evacuation ................ 61

N otes ....................................................... 65

Glossary . ............................................ . 77

v

I ·

ILLUSTRATIONS

Task organization, 1st

Task organization, 1st

Task organization, 1st

Task organization, 1st

Figures

Medical Group, 1 February 1945 . 23

Medical Group, 1 March 1945 .... 31

Medical Group, 24 March 1945 ... 44

Medical Group, 1 May 1945 ...... 54

Maps

Operation Grenade, 23 February-11 March 1945 ........ 25

The expansion beyond the Rhine bridgehead ............ 43

vii

1.

2.

3.

4.

1.

2.

PREFACE

The seeds of this paper were first planted in early 1986 by

Colonel Henry J. Waters, Medical Service Corps (MSC), and the

late Lieutenant Colonel Harold G. Block, MSC, then commander

and executive officer of the 1st Medical Group, Fort Hood, Texas.

Both suggested that I do some work on the group's history;

they said that it might be fun. In line with these suggestions, I

hope eventually to expand my work to include a complete

history of the 1st Medical Regiment-lst Medical Group from 1917

to 1945.

This current study was prepared while I was holding the

fellowship in military medical history at the Uniformed Services

University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, from

August 1988 to August 1989. I am grateful to Dr. Robert J. T.

Joy, M.D. (Col., Medical Corps, USA, ret.), chairman of the

Section of Medical History at the university, for support, advice,

and editorial review.

This paper relies rather heavily on primary source material,

and several persons greatly assisted me in accessing archival

sources. Of most help was Mr. Richard Boylan, chief of the

Modern Military Records Branch of the National Archives, in

the Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland.

His detailed knowledge of records relating to the Army Medical

Department and its field units during the war uncovered several

key documents for me that I might not otherwise have found.

On several occasions, Albert E. Cowdrey, Ph.D., chief of the

Special Histories Branch of the Center of Military History, U.S.

Army, made documents filed in his office available to me.

Richard J. Sommers, Ph.D., and his staff in the archives of the

U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks,

Pennsylvania (housed, interestingly enough, in the former classroom building of the Medical Field Service School), were most

helpful during my review of the William E. Shambora and Paul

R. Hawley Papers in their holdings.

Several veterans of the 1st Medical Regiment and the 1st

Medical Group were also of assistance. Al Gruenberg and

Harold Schroeder provided me with membership rosters of the

1st Medical Regiment Association. Thomas S. Prideaux, Harry

L. Gans (Col., MSC, USA, ret.), and Malcolm D. Blankenship

all answered questions on their experiences in the 1st Medical

ix
Group during the war. Louis H. Veigel and Judith (Veigel) Hall,

brother and daughter of the late Colonel Lester P. Veigel, provided information on him otherwise no longer obtainable.

Dale C. Smith, Ph.D., and the late Dr. Peter D. Olch, M.D.,

of the Section of Medical History, Uniformed Services University

of the Health Sciences; Major David W. Cannon, MSC, formerly

of the Academy of Health Sciences, U.S. Army; and Captain

Karin E. Neergaard, MSC, of the Walter Reed Army Institute

of Research are all now more thoroughly knowledgeable of the

history of the 1st Medical Regiment than they ever cared to be.

Their interest in this project and their willingness to listen to

my occasionally incoherent ramblings helped me to focus my

thoughts on this project and eliminated the need for several

preliminary drafts of this paper that might otherwise have been

necessary.

Most of the sources referenced in this paper are primary

sources-documents generated by the 1st Medical Group or some

other agency during the war. Copies of a number of the sources

are found in more than one location. For example, copies of the

Period Report of Medical Activities, 1st Semi-Annual-1945, 1st

Medical Group are located in the unit historical files of the 1st

Medical Group, Fort Hood, Texas; the Special Histories Branch,

U.S. Army Center of Military History, Washington, DC; and in

Record Groups 112 and 407 of the National Archives. This is

typical of many of the documents referenced in this study. In

cases such as this, my policy was, first, to cite the most complete existing copy; second, if several copies were equally complete, to cite the original or most legible copy (since these

documents were generated in the days before the advent of

photocopy machines, some carbon copies were nearly illegible);

and finally, if several copies were equally complete and legible,

to cite the most readily accessible copy. Monthly after-action

reports that I have cited were normally found as enclosures to

annual historical reports; in these cases, the base document is

not cited, only the after-action report. In all cases, enough information is provided to assist the interested reader in locating

the report.

x
I. INTRODUCTION

The deliberate river-crossing operation is one of the most

difficult tasks facing a ground combat commander. Forcing his

way across a formidable natural barrier, expanding a bridgehead, and moving additional combat forces and their logistical

support into the bridgehead for subsequent breakout-all

compete for a commander's attention.1 The medical planner also

faces special problems in securing the movement of casualties

from the bridgehead to treatment facilities. Yet little if any

attention is devoted to these operations in Army Medical Department doctrinal literature or training courses. This leaves the

modern health-services support planner only one place to turn

for guidance-the past. In this paper, I shall examine the

experiences of the U.S. 1st Medical Group and the support it

provided to the XIII Corps in its crossing of the Roer River in

late February 1945 and the XVI Corps in its crossing of the

Rhine River in March 1945.

Background

The 1st Medical Group was originally organized in France

in 1917 as the 1st Sanitary Train and provided division-level healthservices support to the 1st Division. After participating in six

campaigns with the division during the war2 and in the occupation of Germany following the armistice, the unit returned to

the United States on 25 August 1919. On 10 February 1921, the

unit was reorganized and redesignated the 1st Medical Regiment.

When the units of the 1st Division were scattered to posts along

the eastern seaboard, the regiment was ordered to Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, where it served as the demonstration unit

for the newly established Medical Field Service School. 3 The

regiment would remain there until 15 June 1940, when it moved

to Camp Ord, California.4 To serve with the regiment while it

was at Carlisle Barracks was considered one of the most desirable assignments in the Medical Department, and many of the

senior Medical Department officers during World War II had

served in the 1st Medical Regiment, including virtually the entire

medical chain of supervision of the 1st Medical Group in Europe.

The regiment had always trained hard. It had participated

in the First Army maneuvers at Pine Camp, New York, in 1935;

in the First Army maneuvers in August 1939; and in the Third

Army maneuvers in Texas and Louisiana in April through June

1
2

The Medical Field Service School, Carlisle Barracks, 1940

1940. In the Texas-Louisiana maneuvers, the regiment completed

the 2,900-mile round-trip from Carlisle Barracks to Texas and

back a mere eleven days before departing on its permanent

change of station move to Camp Ord, California.5

While the 1st Medical Regiment was continuing its training,

the headquarters of the Army Ground Forces-responsible for

organizing, equipping, and training units for their deployment

overseas-was planning substantial changes in the organization

of corps and field armies. The organization of these units would

no longer be a fixed one, with a set number of divisions per

corps, corps per field army, and a fixed support organization

organic to the field army. Rather, organizations would become

flexible, with units attached or detached as required to support

tactical operations. All fixed nondivisional units-until then

primarily regiments and separate battalions-were replaced with

a building-block concept: separate battalions of the combat arms

and separate companies of the combat support and combat

service support branches would be task organized under separate

group and battalion headquarters. Planners believed this would

allow for the most efficient use of assets and provide greater

flexibility to the ground combat commander. 6

In accordance with this reorganization, the 1st Medical Regiment was broken up on 1 September 1943. The Headquarters

and Service Company was reorganized and redesignated as the

Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 1st Medical Group,

and its subordinate companies were reorganized and redesignated as separate medical companies. 7 Although the reorganiza-
3

Colonel William E. Shambora, U.S.

Ninth Army Surgeon

tion was not accepted wholeheartedly by the entire Army

Medical Department, the 1st Medical Group, while in Europe,

would serve under the Ninth Army Surgeon, Colonel William

E. Shambora. Colonel Shambora had been the Army Ground

Forces Surgeon at the time of the reorganization and supported

the reorganization. He had, in fact, requested reassignment from

the Army Ground Forces to a field army headquarters so that

he could see for himself how well the system worked-and he

was quite pleased with the results.8

Shambora had entered the Army Medical Department in

1925, shortly after receiving his M.D. degree from Georgetown

University. After completing an internship at Fitzsimmons

General Hospital, he held a variety of assignments, including

tours as a company commander in the 1st and 12th Medical

Regiments and as executive officer, S3, and adjutant of the 2d

Medical Regiment at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. From 1937 to

1941, when he was reassigned to the Office of the Army Ground

Forces Surgeon, he served as an instructor at the Medical Field

Service School, first in the Department of Military Arts and

later as both director of the Department of Logistics and as

commander of the 32d Medical Battalion, the unit that had

replaced the 1st Medical Regiment as the demonstration unit

for the school. He completed the two-year course at the U.S.

Army Command and General Staff School in 1935 and the

Army War College in 1938. 9 He was probably well known to

_ _ __ _ _ _ _s_ _  I
4

Maj. Gen. Paul R. Hawley, Surgeon

of the European Theater of Operations

lllslllgllllllsllI~a~-· --~--·1---~-1

the Surgeon of the European Theater of Operations, Major

General Paul R. Hawley. Hawley's tour as a student at the

Command and General Staff School had overlapped the second

year of Shambora's, and Hawley had served as commander of

the 1st Medical Regiment, director of the Department of Administration, and assistant commandant of the Medical Field Service

School during Shambora's tenure as an instructor and department director at Carlisle. 10

The group continued to train, supporting a number of largescale exercises that required the headquarters to make a permanent change of station to Camp Carson, Colorado, and later to

Fort Riley, Kansas. When the headquarters finally received

orders to move overseas, the news was well received, according

to one informal history of the group:

The morale was better than it had ever been, lifted above "excellent"

by the realization that at last the unit was moving toward the

service for which it had been training at Fort Ord, Camp White,

Oregon, Camp Carson, Colorado, and Camp Funston [on the Fort

Riley reservation], Kansas. "I'd begun to think the old 1st Medical

Regiment's marching song, you know, the part that said 'we train, we train, and then we train some more,' was going to be our motto

for life," one sergeant said, "Now, it's just to [sic] blamed good to

be true that we're on our way. " l l

-·ILU I- ---- 5117-111
5

The group moved to the Boston Port of Embarkation and

on 7 October 1944 sailed for France aboard the transport Mount

Vernon. 12 About two weeks prior to their departure, the group

staff had been informed that they would be assigned to the

U.S. Ninth Army, already in Europe. 13 While the word of their

assignment was spread among the officers, the men had no idea

of their destination:

Rumors were in spite of all directives to the contrary, sending

the unit to all parts of the globe. It was going "direct to India via

the Mediterranean", "to Britain to re-stage", "to Britain for

immediate shipment to France", "direct to France", "direct to

Southern France for incorporation with a new army now forming".

It was rumored that "trade goods" should fill all optional space in

luggage since money meant nothing over there. Special emphasis was placed on liquor (worth a hundred dollars a bottle), "Soap" is a universal bartering item, and lipstick runs a close second to silk

stockings, as an international currency.14

Since the 1st Medical Group had spent several years on the

West Coast, and all of the other units that had been part of

the 1st Medical Regiment had been deployed to the southwest

Pacific, the rumors concerning its varied destinations were

probably inevitable.

Arriving in England on 15 October 1944,15 the headquarters

was loaded onto the South African liner Llangibby Castle and

The men of the 1st Medical Group set up pup tents on their initial

entrance into France
6

Surgeon Jonathan Letterman, medical

director of the Army of the Potomac

during the Civil War

N _1 

sailed for France on 17 October, 1 6 landing on Omaha Beach on

18 October, where "Lt Col Veigel [the group commander], near

the bow [of the landing craft transporting them to shore from

the Llangibby Castle] for the privilege, was the first of the

detachment to go ashore. He'd brought with him the descendants

of the 1st Sanitary Train, that had evacuated the 1st Division

in World War One."17 After a long period in the arrival staging

area, uneventful save for the loss of the officers' footlockers,

the 1st Medical Group moved into the Ninth Army zone. There,

it was committed in support of the XIII Corps on 25 November

1944.18 The oldest color-bearing unit in the Army Medical

Department was again, at last, at war.

Health Services Support Doctrine-1945

While the medical support system used by the United States

Army in 1945 was, as it is today, basically a modification of

the system originally developed by Surgeon Jonathan Letterman,

medical director of the Army of the Potomac in 1863,19 there

were a number of significant differences from the system used

today. To place the 1st Medical Group's operations in the proper

context, a review of the system in use in 1945 is presented here.

The health-services support system in 1945 was, as it is

today, divided into five levels of care, called echelons. The first

echelon of care, then as today, was unit-level health-services support. It began at the site of injury or illness and included self/

buddy aid, treatment by the company aidman, and treatment

~,I~ - - ---- · L--- I'I Ilk"·l 
7

at the battalion or regimental aid station (see appendix for the

chain of casualty evacuation). 20 In the infantry regiment, this

echelon of care was provided by a regimental medical detachment of 10 officers and 126 enlisted men. The section was

divided into a headquarters section, which operated the regimental aid station, and three battalion sections, each of which

provided a battalion aid station, litter bearers, and company

aidmen to one of the battalions organic to the regiment. 21 The

regimental aid station was organized in much the same manner

as the battalion aid stations, with the addition of two Dental

Corps officers. Because its capabilities and level of care were

the same as that found in the battalion aid station, patients

would not normally be evacuated from the battalion aid station

to the regimental aid station. Rather, patients would be evacuated from the battalion aid station to the division collecting

company, while the regimental aid station would provide care

for personnel in the regimental rear area. 22 In the other

branches of the combat arms, these functions were performed

by battalion medical detachments. Many of the units in the

combat support branches also had organic medical detachments.23 As World War II went on, it was found that the dental

officers in the infantry regiments were underutilized and in

many cases, they were removed from the regiments and used to

form roving dental teams that provided dental care for a geographic area, rather than for specific units. 24

The second echelon of support, division-level health-services

support, was provided in the infantry and armored division by

the division's organic medical battalion. The battalion had two

types of companies-collecting companies and clearing

companies. Organic to the battalion were three collecting companies and a clearing company. The collecting companies had

ambulance and litter-bearer sections and were responsible for

evacuating casualties from the regiments to the division clearing

station.2 5 Normally, patients were evacuated by ambulance from

the battalion aid stations, but if the terrain or the tactical situation would not permit this, they would be transported by the

litter-bearer section from the battalion aid station to a collecting

station established by the collecting company. There, they would

be inspected by a Medical Corps officer, given emergency treatment if required, and then placed on ambulances for transport

to the division clearing station. 26 At the clearing station

established by the clearing company, patients were triaged (or

sorted), and those who required care beyond the capabilities of

the clearing station were prepared for transport to third-echelon
8

treatment facilities, with emergency resuscitative care provided

as required. Patients who would be returned to duty in a short

period of time-usually a few hours-would be held at the

station until released.27 This system is similar to the forwardsupport/main-support medical company concept we currently

employ.

Second-echelon care for nondivisional troops assigned or

attached to a corps was provided by a separate medical battalion assigned to the corps, which also provided first-echelon

care to those units that lacked an organic medical detachment.

In the army area, first- and second-echelon care was provided

to units without an organic capability to provide such care by

one of the medical groups assigned to the army.

The third echelon of medical support in World War II was

the equivalent of what we today would call corps-level medical

support but was provided during the war by the field army.

This was because the corps, as employed in World War II,

served only as a tactical headquarters, with little or no logistic

or administrative capability. There was no overall medical command and control headquarters at this echelon. All third-echelon

medical units were under the direct command of the army commander and under the technical supervision of the army

surgeon.2 8 In the Ninth Army, of which the 1st Medical Group

was a component, Colonel Shambora was delegated to command

all army medical units not placed under the control of a

subordinate command of the army. 29 The third echelon of

health-services support had three major missions. The first of

these missions was to provide first- and second-echelon healthservices support to those units in the army area that lacked

organic medical assets. The second mission was evacuation of

patients from second-echelon treatment facilities, and the third

mission was hospitalization.

To provide for the first mission, the field army had assigned

to it separate, numbered clearing and collecting companies. (See

the glossary for the functions of various medical components of

the Ninth Army.) The separate medical clearing company provided clearing support for up to 15,000 troops or support or

reinforcement to divisional clearing elements. The basis of allocation for this unit was one company per supported division. 30

The mission of the separate medical collecting company was

essentially the same as its divisional counterpart: to collect

patients by litter or ambulance from first-echelon treatment

facilities, provide them with needed stabilizing treatment at the
9

collecting station, and then transport them by ambulance to a

supporting clearing company. In addition to collecting patients

in the corps or army area, the company could also be used to

support a divisional medical battalion with additional collecting

assets. The normal basis of allocation was one company per

supported division. 31

To accomplish the second third-echelon mission-evacuation

from second-echelon treatment facilities-the army used

separate, numbered motor-ambulance companies. The motorambulance company's mission was to evacuate patients from

second-echelon medical facilities belonging to divisional medical

battalions or nondivisional clearing or collecting companies to

third-echelon hospitals belonging to the field army. The basis

of allocation of this unit was one company per 12,000 supported

troops.3 2 These separate collecting, clearing, and motorambulance companies would be organized under separate

medical battalions, which were in turn organized under a medical group headquarters, generally on the basis of one medical

group per corps supported by the army.

The medical group and separate battalion headquarters were

similar in organization and function. The group headquarters

was composed of ten officers and twenty-four enlisted men. The

commander (a colonel) and the executive officer (a lieutenant

colonel) were both Medical Corps officers; the rest of the officers

in the headquarters were Medical Administrative Corps officers.

The headquarters provided command and control for six to eight

subordinate battalions, companies, or separate units. 33

The separate medical battalion headquarters was composed

of six officers, one warrant officer, and twenty-two enlisted men.

With the exception of the commander and executive officer (who

were Medical Corps officers) and the personnel-services warrant

officer, all officers of the headquarters were Medical Administrative Corps officers. The battalion provided command and

control for three to six subordinate medical companies and provided maintenance and personnel-services support to its subordinate units through sections formed by attaching mechanics and

clerks to the battalion from companies under its control. 34

The final service provided by third-echelon health-services

support was hospitalization. To provide this service, the field

army used three types of hospitals: the 750-bed evacuation

hospital, the 400-bed evacuation hospital (semimobile), and the

field hospital. The evacuation hospital had almost no mobility

through its organic transportation assets, nor was its staff
10

An evacuation hospital in France (World War II)

trained in unit movements. It was essentially a fixed medical

installation designed to be moved infrequently. 35

The evacuation hospital (semimobile) was a 400-bed facility

with the same mission as the 750-bed evacuation hospital. 36 One

important difference between the two was that the semimobile

evacuation hospital was equipped with more trucks than the

evacuation hospital, making it about 25 percent mobile in

organic transportation assets. Additionally, the staff was trained

in moving the facility and could move in eight to ten hours

(after all patients had been removed) and could reestablish the

facility in four to six hours after arriving at a new location.37

The field hospital was especially valuable, as it could be

established as a single 400-bed facility or as three 100-bed facilities, which gave the army surgeon a great deal of flexibility in

providing needed health-services support. 38 The field hospital

was considered a semimobile station hospital designed to provide

"definitive surgical and medical treatment to troops in the

theater of operations where fixed facilities [did] not exist, and

where construction of fixed facilities [was] undesirable."3 9

In practice, the hospital units of the field hospital were often

employed in close proximity to a division clearing station, where

they could provide more definitive care than that available in
11

the division-much the same way in which mobile army surgical

hospitals would be employed in Korea a few years later. The

lack of sufficient surgeons and nurses in the hospital units of

the field hospital was, in fact, one of several factors leading to

the development of the mobile army surgical hospital after the

war.40

A hodgepodge of additional units, serving directly under the

army surgeon, provided medical logistics, laboratory, veterinary,

and other ancillary services to the army.41 The most important

of these units was probably the medical depot company. Commanded by a lieutenant colonel, the company-with 13 officers,

1 warrant officer, and 136 enlisted men organized into a headquarters, a maintenance platoon, and 3 storage platoons-was

the equivalent of the modern medical-supply, optical, and maintenance (MEDSOM) battalion. The three storage and issue

platoons gave the company the ability to provide continuous

support while displacing over large lateral distances. The

company's mission was to provide third- and fourth-level medical

maintenance of medical equipment; to replace and repair spectacles and dental prosthetic appliances; and to receive, store,

and issue medical supplies in support of 125,000 combat-zone

troops.42

Also found in the field army, and helping to partially

counteract the lack of physicians in the field hospital, was an

assortment of surgical augmentation teams. There were seven

types of surgical teams in World War II, all organized under

the blanket Table of Organization and Equipment 8-55, Professional Services. These included team EA, general surgery; team

EB, orthopedic surgery; team ED, maxillofacial surgery; team

A field hospital in the Mediterranean theater (World War I!)
12

In World War II, general hospitals were sometimes set up in tents

(example from Constantine, Algeria)

EE, neurosurgery; and team EF, thoracic surgery-each of the

above with three officers, one nurse, and three enlisted men.

There were also team EC, shock treatment, with one officer,

one nurse, and three enlisted men, and team EG, gas treatment,

with one officer and three enlisted men. The EA through EF

teams provided, in effect, additional staffed operating tables for

the facilities to which they were attached, while team EG

provided oxygen therapy for lung-irritant casualties. The teams

were organized under a headquarters to form an auxiliary

surgical group; the Fifth Auxiliary Surgical Group supported the

Ninth Army.

The fourth echelon of care corresponded to what we today

would call communications zone-or echelons above corpsmedical support. It was provided in 1,000-bed or larger general

hospitals, usually grouped together in hospital centers, station

hospitals, and convalescent centers. With an evacuation policy

sometimes as long as 120 days, this echelon of care was

designed to return the maximum number of patients to duty

within the theater.4 3

The fifth echelon of care formed the hospital base in the

United States. A patient returned from an overseas theater

would receive care in one of sixty-six named general hospitals,44

numerous station hospitals, convalescent centers, or in Veterans

Administration facilities. As a general rule, a patient would not

be evacuated to the United States unless his injuries required

an extremely long convalescent period, the equipment or facili-
13

ties were not available to treat his injuries in theater, or his

injuries would result in his being medically discharged upon

recovery. 4 5

Governing all medical planning were a series of general doctrinal rules, most of which are as valid today as they were in

1945:

1. Commanders of all echelons are responsible for the provision of

adequate and proper medical care for all noneffectives [persons whose

medical condition prevents them from performing their military duties] of their command.

2. Medical service is continuous.

3. Sick or injured individuals go no farther to the rear than their

condition or the medical situation warrants.

4. Sorting of the fit from the unfit takes place at each medical

installation in the chain of evacuation.

5. Casualties in the combat zone are collected at medical installations along the general axis of advance of the units to which

they pertain.

6. Medical units must possess and retain tactical mobility to permit

them to move to positions on the battlefield and enable them to move in support of combat elements.

An example of a general hospital in a fully established site (at Pistoia, Italy)
14

7. Mobility of medical installations in the combat zone is dependent

upon prompt and continuous evacuation by higher medical echelons.

8. The size of medical installations increases and the necessity and

ability to move decreases the farther from the front lines these units

are located.

9. Medical units must be disposed so as to render the greatest service to the greatest number. 4 6

These doctrinal statements should be kept in mind by the reader

during the discussion of medical support that follows.

Command and Control

One problem with the medical organization used in World

War II was the lack of an overall medical command and control

headquarters at the third and fourth echelons of health-services

support-a problem not completely and adequately addressed by

the Medical Department until well into the 1960s.4 7 In support

of a typical corps was a separate medical battalion-under the

command of the corps commander and the technical supervision

of the corps surgeon-which provided second-echelon care to nondivisional units assigned or attached to the corps. Patients were

evacuated from the corps' divisions and from its attached

medical battalion by a medical group of the field army-in this

case, under the command of the army commander and the

technical supervision of the army surgeon. The medical group

also provided second-echelon health-services support to the

units of the army operating in the corps area but not attached

to the corps. The group evacuated patients to the evacuation

hospitals of the field army, again under the command of the

army commander and the technical supervision of his surgeon.

This meant that health-services support for the corps was provided, for the most part, by units not under the control of the

corps. In turn, the medical groups evacuated casualties to hospitals not under their control-hospitals that sometimes received

patients from more than one corps. A lack of close coordination

at any point could have created disastrous results for the

wounded.

To prevent such problems in the Ninth Army, Colonel

Shambora held weekly meetings at the army headquarters with

his corps surgeons, hospital commanders, and medical group commanders, where he discussed problem areas and support of

future operations (with occasional additional meetings as

required by the circumstances). 4 8 The XIII Corps Surgeon,

Colonel Dean Schamber, held similar weekly meetings at his
15

office with his division surgeons, his medical battalion commander, and the "supporting medical group commander" 4 9

-as

did the XVI Corps Surgeon, Colonel Thomas Furlong. 50 A review

of unit and staff section journals for these headquarters shows

a constant flow of visitors (commanders, staff officers, and

liaison officers) among the headquarters involved. While

problems would still occur, most notably during the Roer River

crossings, this coordination no doubt prevented many problems

before they could affect patient care.

II. OPERATION GRENADE,

THE ROER RIVER CROSSING

As it had since 28 November 1944, the Ninth Army, on 1

February 1945, stood poised on the banks of the Roer River.

Most of the Ninth's divisions had been transferred to the First

Army to allow it to counterattack the German offensive effort

in the Ardennes. 51 This offensive, along with greater than anticipated resistance by the Germans during the Ninth Army's advance to the Roer, had prevented the assault on the Roer from

being a continuation of the army's November offensive. One

major obstacle still remained-the Roer River dams. These dams,

and in particular the concrete Urft dam near Gemeund and the

earthen Schwammenauel dam near Hasenfeld-both in the First

Army's area of operations-were of particular concern to planners, for if these dams were destroyed while a friendly force

remained on the east bank of the Roer, the resulting floods would

wash out any tactical bridges supporting the force, allowing it

to be defeated in detail. 52 The Ninth Army engineer estimated

that, in the worst case, destruction of the dams would make

the Roer impassable in the Ninth Army's zone for in excess of

fourteen days. 53 This fact was well known to both the Allies

and the Germans, and the Allies had repeatedly attempted either

to destroy the dams by bombardment or to capture them intactall to no avail. Finally, early on 10 February 1945, the First

Army captured the dams, only to find that the retreating Germans had destroyed the discharge valves allowing water to flow

through the dams uncontrolled.54 Fortunately for the Ninth Army,

Lieutenant General William H. Simpson, Ninth Army commander,

had on 9 February postponed the attack scheduled for 0530 on

the 10th. Had the attack taken place as scheduled, the assault

forces would have been trapped on the far side of the river. 55

The flood caused by the damaged dams resulted in the river

rising an average of 5 feet and increasing in width, depending

on the terrain, to between 400 and 1,200 yards. The river's velocity increased to an average speed of ten and a half feet per

second-all of which made rafting operations virtually impossible.5 6 The resultant delay, while disappointing, allowed the

army staff to refine their plans and to increase their stockpiles

of supplies and ammunition.

On 1 February 1945, the medical situation in the Ninth Army

was well in hand. Because of a disagreement over a hospital

location the previous December, the Ninth Army Surgeon, Colonel

17
18

The Schwammenauel dam on the Roer River posed a threat to U.S. troops

and the tactical bridges they built to ford the river

Shambora, had obtained an agreement from General Simpson

that medical units would have priority in choosing their sites

whenever army units displaced. 57 Evacuation of casualties was

proceeding without problems, and the army and corps surgeons'

staffs were busily preparing for the support of the Roer crossing.

The Roer River crossing, in addition to being a major problem,

had added significance for future operations. The army staff,

from General Simpson on down, saw the real obstacle as the

Rhine River crossing and the subsequent advance to the Elbe.

Because of this, they viewed the Roer crossing and the advance

to the Rhine as their last opportunity to streamline their operations plan for the Rhine River crossing-almost as though the

Roer River crossing were a giant dress rehearsal. 58

The 1st Medical Group continued to operate smoothly, as it

had for the most part since the unit was committed on 25 November 1944. 59 The group's staff had been working together as

a team for over a year and a half, as had most of the enlisted

men assigned to the headquarters, and this no doubt contributed

to the smoothness with which they operated.

The group's commander, Colonel Lester P. Veigel, was a

native of Dickinson, North Dakota, who had joined the Medical
19

Corps in 1932 after receiving his M.D. from Northwestern University in 1931.60 His assignments included a two-year tour at

Carlisle Barracks, after which he attended the Medical Corps'

Officer Basic Course in 1934. Following completion of the course,

he spent three years at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and Fort

Meade, South Dakota, before being assigned to the Philippines

in 1937. Upon his return to the United States in 1940, he was

assigned to Fort Lewis, Washington. 61 On 7 August 1943, he

assumed command of the 1st Medical Regiment 62 and remained

in command of the group when the regiment was broken up

the next month. He was promoted to colonel on 19 January

1945, after the 1st Medical Group arrived in Europe.

The group S1 and S2, Major William A. Kran, was a Regular

Army master sergeant who had his reserve commission (awarded

in 1931) activated on 4 June 1941. He became adjutant of the

1st Medical Regiment in September 1941 and continued in that

capacity with the 1st Medical Group. The S4, Major Reuben B.

("Ben") Golub, was a civilian pharmacist in San Diego when

he was commissioned in the Medical Administrative Corps and

joined the 1st Medical Regiment in 1941 as regimental supply

officer; members of the regiment quickly learned that his ire

could quickly be raised by asking him: "Why do pharmacists

Lt. Gen. William H. Simpson, commander of U.S. Ninth Army

IIL  IIL C i-e

, - s
20

The commander and staff of the 1st Medical Group: left to right, front rowMaj. William A. Kran (S1 and S2), Col. Lester P. Veigel (commander), and Lt.

Col. John D. Dupre (XO); second row-Maj. Reuben B. Golub (S4), Maj. Thomas

S. Prideaux (S3), and Chaplain Boldt; third row-Capt. Harry L. Gans (asst.

S4, detachment commander), Cpt. Robert Montgomery (asst. S3), 1st Lt. Lester

L. Soberg (A&R), and Capt. Kenneth M. Manning (asst. S3 orientation)

charge a dollar for a five-cent prescription?" He and Major Kran

must certainly have kept the headquarters lively, for

How it all began, nobody knows; but for three years Kran and Golub

have maintained their private but goodnatured feud, complete with

raillery, shouts, and openhanded fisticuffs. The feud notwithstanding,

the two were inseparable; and, as a matter of fact, were styled the

"Gold-Leaf Twins" when they received their majorities on the same

day. 63
21

The S3, Major Thomas S. Prideaux, had been a banker in

Portland, Oregon, before joining the Army in March 1941. Three

months later, he was a sergeant and attending the officer candidate school at Carlisle Barracks. After his commissioning, he

was sent to Camp Robinson, Arkansas, as an instructor and

joined the group headquarters at the Bend, Oregon, maneuver

area on 9 October 1943. He, too, must have helped to keep the

headquarters lively, as he was "known as a wit, quick on the

'retort terrible,' but withal able to laugh at his own expense when the occasion arises. Although one of his colleagues once

said of him 'Prideaux has no milk of human kindness,' that

isn't quite true; the milk is only slightly curdled." 64

While he left the United States a captain, Prideaux arrived

in Europe a major, for on 6 October 1944, while on board the

Mount Vernon, an impromptu ceremony was held for him:

A transportation officer came to the Prideaux-Manning stateroom

late this evening asking for Captain Prideaux. He brought with him

the news, considered urgent enough to wake the sleeping captain, that he was now Major with date of rank of 28 Sept 1944. The

message had been relayed by Lt Col Veigel through the Transportation Corps channels. The promotion caught Major Prideaux

without the necessary gold leaves to indicate the new rank so another

bit of promotion persuaded two majors in an adjacent stateroom to

part with the necessary number for one set. 65

The group executive officer, Lieutenant Colonel John D.

Dupre, a reserve Medical Corps officer, was a latecomer to the

headquarters. He had replaced the previous executive officer,

Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin K. Woro, when the latter was

reassigned as commander of the 187th Medical Battalion (then the separate medical battalion for XVIII Airborne Corps) on 7

January 1945. Prior to assuming his duties as group executive

The Mount Vernon, the 1st Medical Group's ship on its voyage to France
22

officer, Lieutenant Colonel Dupre had served as medical inspector

of the 84th Infantry Division from 24 September 1942 to 20 July

1943 and as division surgeon of that organization from 21 July

1943 to 13 December 1944.66

The staff had made some changes in the internal organization of the headquarters from that authorized in their table

of organization and equipment. The table called for one officer

to serve as both Si and S4 and a second to serve as S2 and

liaison officer. In field exercises shortly after the 1943 reorganization, the staff found that the work loads of the S1 and

S4 resulted in the swamping of that officer, while the S2 duties

kept his associate only lightly employed. Accordingly, Colonel

Veigel directed that the S1 and S2 duties be combined and the

S4 would deal strictly with logistics. 67 January had been a relatively slow month for the 1st Medical Group, with only 1,835

patients transported between facilities,68 as compared to the 3,948

patients transported during the month of December 69 and the

1,598 patients transported during the 5 days in which the group

was operational in November.70 This gave the staff ample time

to plan adequately for the crossings of the Roer and Rhine

Rivers.

The organization of the 1st Medical Group on 1 February

1945 was the smallest since it had been committed, as several

of its companies had been transferred to other armies to support

the Ardennes counteroffensive and had not yet been replaced

for the support of the Roer River crossing. The 183d Medical

Battalion was composed of the 442d Medical Collecting Company,

the 472d Motor Ambulance Company, and the 626th Medical

Clearing Company. The group's other medical battalion, the

430th, was composed of the 462d Medical Collecting Company

and the 488th Motor Ambulance Company (see figure 1).71

The 1st Medical Group headquarters was located in the Sisters of St. Joseph Sanitorium in Heerlen, Holland, where it had

moved on 12 December 1944 from Valkenburg, Holland, "in order

to be better situated, tactically." 72 Living conditions were pleasant. In the words of one unknown member of the headquarters:

Living conditions were far better than could be expected. We lived

in one wing of a sanitorium operated by Catholic Sisters. The men

were very satisfied with their quarters and all available means of

entertainment were utilized. Radio in sleeping quarters; radio in offices; the Detachment held a dance and party on every second Friday

in each month and each party raised morale higher and higher.

The men enjoyed these parties as means of relaxiation [sic] and
23

0

c

o

7U

00

LO

(0

CU

C.

en

V- a)

c

CL

»-. -- dC.

0 Uo_

0

+.

e1

C+DN

O C

C CU CO CU c0

o

E v

U )

I-

._ +.7

) LL

O

0(

a)

o

u

(NI-M

lq
24

some of the fellows became well acquainted with some of the local

girls of HEERLEN. They visited Dutch homes and gradually learned

the customs, and even some, the language of Holland. 73

The sisters and the sanitorium also provided laundry service

to the members of the headquarters,7 4 as well as straw mattresses

for the men75 and-perhaps most important of all to the headquarters-access to indoor plumbing for the first time since the

group's arrival in France.7 6 The code name Cozy assigned to

the 1st Medical Group by the Ninth Army appeared to be quite

appropriate. All was not always pleasant, however, as on several

occasions, the town of Heerlen came under bombing attack by

the Luftwaffe. 77 In fact, "1945 started off with a bang, punctuated

precisely at the stroke of midnight by the Luftwaffe bombing

of the CP [command post] town of HEERLEN, HOLLAND."78

The mission assigned to the 1st Medical Group by Colonel

Shambora was fairly straightforward. It was to

a. Provide medical service for army units or separate task forces.

b. Provide Third Echelon Evacuation for all units and Fourth Echelon Evacuation for Field Hospital Units.

c. Maintain courier service between Army Surgeon's Office and

Division, Corps, and Army Medical Installations.

d. Reinforce Evacuation Hospitals with medical personnel.79

While the 1st Medical Group provided these services in the

XIII Corps zone, similar services were provided by the 31st

Medical Group in the zone of the XIX Corps and by the 30th

Medical Group in the army rear.80 When the XVI Corps became

operational, the 30th Medical Group also assumed responsibility

for its support.8 1 While the 1st Medical Group's mission statement

was not overly detailed, it fit with Colonel Shambora's belief

that his subordinate commanders should be given broad guidance

and then left to develop their own plans; to use a modern term,

he provided "mission-type orders." 82 The group performed its

missions, while its staff, the staffs of the Ninth Army, and the

XIII Corps completed their plans for the crossing of the Roer

River.

The plan, as finally envisioned, called for a night attack

simultaneously by two of the Ninth Army's three corps and one

of the First Army's corps-following a massive 45-minute artillery

barrage (see map 1). By attacking before the river had completely

returned to normal, General Simpson expected-and achieveda degree of tactical surprise. After crossing the river, the XIII and

XIX Corps would wheel to the north and attack along a corridor

between the city of Miinchen-Gladbach and the Erft River, allow-
25

Map 1. Operation Grenade, 23 February-11 March 1945
26

U.S. troops approaching German positions along the Roer plain

ing the army to outflank the enemy, move swiftly into his rear

areas, and pursue him to the Rhine-hopefully capturing one or

more bridges across the river intact. After the initial assaults

by the XIII and XIX Corps, the XVI Corps would make an

unopposed river crossing and serve as the pursuit force. Although

enemy resistance was expected to be light to moderate, a contingency plan was developed to provide for unexpectedly heavy

resistance. The VII Corps, First Army, would attack simultaneously with the Ninth Army to secure the army's southern

flank. 8 3

During the war, neither the Ninth Army Surgeon nor the

1st Medical Group's commander issued many formal written

orders. While this may seem unusual, it was considered quite

appropriate behavior at the time. The 5 March 1941 edition of

FM 8-55, Reference Data, for example, stated:

Orders frequently are issued in fragmentary form as the situation

develops and supplemental decisions are made. Such fragmentary

orders may be extracts from a complete order, or they may cover

various phases of an operation successively. A medical battalion or

regiment rarely will be able to issue a complete formal order prior

to initiating operations. A series of fragmentary orders will be the

rule.84

Instead, each medical group in the army and each battalion

within the 1st Medical Group was given a mission statement

and a zone of operations. As supported units entered or left the

zone, the proper headquarters was so informed by a fragmentary
27

order. This allowed the units involved to react quickly to rapidly

changing situations with a minimum of turbulence. The group

also attempted to reduce turbulence by moving its headquarters

in echelons. Before closing at one location, the group would

become operational via a forward echelon at its new location

before informing supported and subordinate units of the move.

With the exception of one or two instances when phone service

at the new location was inadvertently delayed, the system seemed

to work well.85

Hospitalization was more complex. Since Colonel Shambora

did not like the 750-bed evacuation hospital due to its lack of

mobility, the types of hospitals in the Ninth Army zone were

limited to field hospitals and 400-bed evacuation hospitals (semimobile). The Army Ground Forces Surgeon, Colonel Shambora,

once wrote an associate:

Relative to Evacuation Hospitals, we have but two more 750-bed

Evacuation Hospitals left and have not recommended that any more

be authorized on the troop basis. I have always visualized them as

being too large and cumbersome to be of the greatest value. I am

enclosing a T/O [table of organization] and T/E [table of equipment;

in World War II they were published as two separate documents]

for the 400-bed Evacuation Hospital which you can look over. There

is only sufficient transportation allotted to carry organic loads. The

unit should be moved by shuttle, part equipment and part personnel,

depending upon the situation. 8 6

Colonel Shambora often went to great lengths to avoid

having 750-bed evacuation hospitals assigned to the Ninth Army.

On one of the few occasions when he could not avoid having

one attached from the European Theater Services of Supply, he

managed to delay the attachment until just before he knew the

army would be displacing its rear area forward. Then, as the

army displaced, he called the surgeon of the Services of Supply

and had the attachment canceled, as the hospital was now in

the Services of Supply's support area, not his, and he had no

way to move the facility forward to support the army.8 7

The 95th Medical Gas Treatment Battalion, lacking a mission

unless the Germans used chemical agents, had its companies

employed to provide a combat exhaustion center and a VD treatment center for the army. Combat exhaustion casualties averaged

10 percent of the admissions to division clearing stations, and

before the use of the 95th as a combat exhaustion center, 60

percent of them were being evacuated from the army area. Use

of the battalion as an exhaustion center and more careful

screening in the division area reduced the number of such casu-
28

alties to 30 percent, or 3 percent of the total admissions to the

division clearing stations. In the rapid advances from the Roer

to the Rhine, returns to duty within the division of sufferers

from combat exhaustion decreased because the clearing stations

were displacing so frequently that they were unable to hold

patients until they could be returned to duty. However, as those

patients who would have been returned to duty within the division were evacuated to the 95th Medical Gas Treatment Battalion, the battalion showed a proportionate increase in the return

to duty rates of its patients, causing the total number of combat

exhaustion cases being evacuated from the army to remain the

same during the Roer and Rhine River crossings. 88 The 8th

Convalescent Center completed the hospitalization assets available in the Ninth Army.

The two types of hospitals used in the Ninth Army were

employed in vastly different ways. First, the field hospitals,

which were being used to provide close support for the divisions

(as discussed earlier), were usually placed under the operational

control of the medical group in whose operational area they were

employed. This was a deviation from doctrine, which saw the

medical groups providing the functions originally planned for

the medical regiment-collection, clearance, and evacuation-but

the system worked well, nonetheless. Coordination with the army

surgeon was required to ensure that additional hospital units

were available to leapfrog over one another as the supported

divisions advanced. One problem encountered with the field hospitals during the rapid advances from the Roer to the Rhine

was that not all the hospitalization units of the field hospital

could be moved simultaneously on organic transportation assets,

so vehicles had to be provided by other medical units to assist

their moves. 89

Coordination with the evacuation hospitals was more complex, since they were not under the control of the groups that

evacuated patients to them. Patient flow into the hospitals was

controlled by placing a hospital in support of (but not under

the control of) one of the groups. In the event that a hospital

could not be placed in support of only one group, bed credits

were issued to each supported group. A bed credit was a bed in

a hospital dedicated to the support of one unit. As patients filled

beds, the beds available to the group decreased, and increased

again as patients were discharged, died, or transferred to another

facility. In theory, when all the beds in a hospital dedicated to

support a group were filled, a group sent its patients to another
29

hospital. In units subordinate to the 1st Medical Group, evacuation was controlled using evacuation ratios; units would send

patients to one facility in direct proportion to the number sent

to another facility-the proportion (or ratio) being specified by

the group headquarters. The ratio appears to have been selected

based on the tactical situation and the beds available in supporting hospitals and was changed as frequently as the situation

dictated to avoid overtaxing the supporting medical facilities.

While the unit journals of the 1st Medical Group and its subordinate units show how the system was used within the group,

it is not known if this system was in use throughout the Ninth

Army or if it was unique to the 1st Medical Group. 90

As might be expected, this system worked well when patient

admission rates were low, but it had to be monitored very carefully as patient admission rates increased. During periods of

heavy combat, the system tended to break down almost completely, as the surgical backlog became the dominant factor over

beds available in deciding which facilities could accept patients. 91

Surgical backlog is defined as the period, generally measured

in hours, between the time a patient is delivered to a facility

and the time that patient enters an operating room. Obviously,

with a fixed number of operating tables in a hospital, if patients

arrive at a facility faster than surgery can be completed, the

surgical backlog will increase. The situation, in fact, prompted

the author of the group's after-action report for February 1945

(written shortly after the Roer River crossing) to comment:

In present and previous operations, bed status of Evac Hospitals

never approached capacity; but surgical backlog required constant

checking by Group that patients might be dispatched to the quickest

available surgery. For this reason, Group CP's should be as far forward as wire communications with Evacuation Hospitals will permit;

because adjustment of flow must be made at the source (Division

Clearing Elements) by personal contact. Furthermore, constant personal contact should be maintained with Div Clr Elms to anticipate

and regulate casualty flow during periods of great activity.92

The 1st Medical Group also found that the hospitals supporting them (again, not under Colonel Veigel's command or

control) often used different methods of computing surgical backlog-an administrative matter which may have affected patient

care. As the group noted after the Roer River crossing:

If one hospital includes shock treatment and x-ray in its backlog, it

may claim a greater backlog than another hospital which does not

include these factors but which actually has more surgery to perform.

This situation makes a difference to the wounded man; because Group
30

sends him where lowest backlog is claimed; and, in the case cited,

he may have to wait longer for treatment than if bothe [sic] hospitals

used identical systems of computation.

Take, for example, a recent situation: A hospital called Group and

announced a twenty-four hour backlog. Group immediately shifted

evacuation to hospitals having about twelve hours. An officer was

sent to investigate, however; and in forty-five minutes he discovered

that the hospital in question actually had reduced its surgery to

eight hours-a reduction of sixteen hours in forty-five minutes! Meanwhile the wounded had been routed to hospitals having twelve hours

and had lost four hours prior to time of surgical treatment. 93

While it is impossible to attribute deaths in hospitals directly

to surgical backlog, it should be intuitively obvious that a delay

in sending a wounded soldier into surgery would increase patient

morbidity and mortality. The problem in the 1st Medical Group

appeared to have been caused by how the hospital staffs computed surgical backlog, which, as can be seen by this example,

can have a significant impact on how long a patient waits before

entering surgery. After the Roer crossing, the group recommended

that "surgical backlog should be expressed in terms of total

patient operating hours divided by the number of operating tables

in use." 94

By the morning of 23 February, the day the attack was

scheduled to start, the 1st Medical Group was still composed of

two medical battalions, the 183d and 430th. A third, the 188th

Medical Battalion, joined the group on the 24th, the day following the start of the attack (see figure 2). 95 At 0245 on 23

February, the fires of over 1,000 pieces of artillery announced

to the Germans that the long-awaited assault was about to

begin. 96 Despite the anticipated problems encountered in getting

assault bridges across the turbulent river and in moving followup forces while under enemy fire, the initial assaults went well,

and by the end of the first day, all four of the assaulting divisions had advanced several miles inland. While strong defensive

positions had been prepared by the Germans, many of the German troops who were to man them had been diverted to defend

against the Canadian First Army, which had launched an offensive of its own on 8 February 1945. 97 By 25 February, the

U.S Ninth Army had consolidated the divisional bridgeheads

and had made contact with the VII Corps to the south.98 General

Simpson ordered a breakthrough attempt, and enemy defenses

continued to crumble. The XIII Corps bypassed MiinchenGladbach and by 3 March had reached Krefeld and the banks

of the Rhine. 99
31

a)

0

C t

3O

.)

E

0

C

:3

.0

00

0 LO

nli

3 (d 0) 3,

C '50

O XCD cX

L) N

(L) 8

CY) ~~~~~(n

L0)

C 0)

L-,~ ~ LL cu

U)

0

a)

0_

'a

CM

0)

o

04
32

Miinchen-Gladbach, which it was feared would be fiercely

defended by the enemy, was captured by a single regiment on

1 March, the largest German metropolitan area to be captured

in the west to that point in the war. 100 The enemy attempted

an orderly withdrawal across bridges at Wesel and Rheinberg.

By 11 March, all enemy resistance west of the Rhine in the

Ninth Army zone had been eliminated, but despite several attempts to seize intact bridges across the Rhine River, all had

been destroyed by the advancing Germans-one while Ninth

Army forces were attempting to cross it.101

By rapidly maneuvering against enemy weaknesses and

exploiting successes, the Ninth Army now stood on the banks

of the Rhine, historically the last defense of Germany from

enemies in the west. Plans progressed rapidly to effect a crossing

and the capture of the Ruhr industrial region beyond.

While the 1st Medical Group did not issue extensive written

operations plans, it by no means operated in a vacuum. The

group commander, Colonel Veigel, and his S3, Major Prideaux,

made frequent coordination trips to the Ninth Army Surgeon's

office, the XIII Corps Surgeon's office, and the surgeons and

medical battalion commanders of the divisions they would be

supporting to ensure that all their plans were in agreement and

mutually supporting. They also coordinated laterally with the

30th and 31st Medical Groups, which were supporting the other

corps of the army. Finally, they met frequently with the commanders and staffs of their subordinate units to ensure that

they knew the plans and were carrying them out properly. If

they had any control over the matter, they would ensure that

there would be few surprises in this operation.10 2

The group had anticipated that there would be heavy casualties in the 102d Infantry Division zone during the initial assault,

and their planning for it paid off. During the entire month of

February 1945, the group transported 4,951 patients, and of these,

3,296, or 67 percent of the total, were moved between 23 and 28

February. A total of 704 patients were moved the first day of

the assault, with 395 of them, or 56 percent of the total, coming

from the 102d Infantry Division. 103

The group's plan for that anticipated problem called for some

patients from the 102d Division to be evacuated from the division's collecting companies directly to the evacuation hospitals

supporting the group. This was possible for several reasons. First,

the evacuation hospitals had been established close to the Roer

to reduce evacuation distances during the assault so that patients
33

only had to be evacuated about fourteen miles from the collecting

companies. Second, the roads were in good condition, so patients

could be moved quickly to the evacuation hospitals-the average

evacuation time being less than thirty minutes from the time a

patient left the collecting company until he arrived at an evacuation hospital. Finally, less severely injured patients could be

evacuated to the 327th Medical Battalion's clearing station for

treatment, and the more severely injured would be stabilized at

the clearing station before further movement to the evacuation

hospitals. All in all, 120 patients were evacuated directly from

the collecting companies, while another 275 were evacuated from

the divisional clearing company-most in the first 8 hours of

the assault.104

This plan had several immediately apparent advantages.

First, it reduced the number of patients passing through the

clearing company, preventing degradation of patient care there.

Second, since the thirty ambulances of the 498th Motor Ambulance Company were added to those of the division-normally

the only assets evacuating the collecting companies-patients

were evacuated quickly from the collecting stations, preventing

those facilities from becoming overloaded, thus allowing them

to provide a higher quality of care. And finally, as already

mentioned, this allowed the most seriously injured patients to

be seen at an evacuation hospital within thirty minutes after

leaving the collecting companies.10 5 Similar reasons are given

today when discussing the use of air ambulances to move patients directly from the site of injury to the hospital best suited

to provide them treatment, thus bypassing facilities in the normal

chain of evacuation.

This system would not have worked without proper control

of the ambulances providing evacuation. To provide this control,

the 430th Medical Battalion established an ambulance regulation

point behind the 102d Infantry Division. This control point was

in telephonic contact with the group headquarters, which allowed

the group to change the evacuation ratios rapidly as bed spaces

decreased and surgical backlog increased in the evacuation hospitals supporting the group. 1 06

Fortunately, the 1st Medical Group had made plans to control

patient flow, for the surgical backlog at the hospitals increased

rapidly. By 1100 on the 23d, the 91st Evacuation Hospital was

reporting a surgical backlog of six hours, having admitted "approximately 77" patients. By 1300, the 41st Evacuation Hospital

was reporting a backlog of eighteen hours.' 07 This continued
34

throughout the night, and by 1300 on 24 February, the 100th

Evacuation Hospital reported that its surgical backlog had increased from two hours to nine hours in the short period between

1700 and 1800 and by 2015 was reporting a surgical backlog of

eighty patients and fifteen hours.1 08 This problem with surgical

backlog appears to have been much more serious than had been

anticipated by the group before the operation, as they commented

extensively on it in their monthly after-action report. 10 9 The

medical situation in the 102d Infantry Division improved after

the army's engineers installed bridges at Linnich and armored

forces could be committed to the bridgehead. 110 The bridges allowed ambulances to proceed across the river to pick up patients,

while the commitment of armored forces started a breakout that

in turn led to lower casualty rates.

During the advance from the Roer to the Rhine, the rapidly

changing situation, as the troops continually moved forward,

required frequent moves on the part of the medical units supporting the maneuver forces, including command and control

elements. The 1st Medical Group headquarters moved four times

during the advance: on 27 February to Beggendorf, Germany;

on 1 March to Rurich, Germany, on the east side of the Roer;

on 2 March to Hardt, Germany; and on 4 March to Viersen,

Germany.111 In all cases, the headquarters established itself in

to

>I

3

1

>. 6

3

a

->

The 1st Medical Group's command post, Hardt, Germany, 2-4 March 1945
35

The Roer River crossing site at Linnich

fixed facilities, although some were heavily damaged and required

some repair before being occupied. 112

While the group sent out advance parties and then moved

its headquarters as a whole, the 430th Medical Battalion took a

different approach to the requirement for rapid movement: it

split its headquarters into two echelons. The forward section

contained the commander, most of the S3 section, and the battalion message center, while the rear echelon was composed of

the remainder of the headquarters. The forward section could

be ready to displace in a matter of minutes and functioned well

as an ambulance regulating point or liaison team, often, in fact,

collocating with the clearing company of one of its supported

divisions. The rear echelon, on the other hand, could move at a

more leisurely pace, allowing it to select better sites for the battalion command post, which the forward echelon would rejoin

once a crisis had passed. Like the 1st Medical Group headquarters, the battalion headquarters of the 430th moved four

times during the advance from the Roer,ll 3 while the 188th Medical Battalion headquarters moved five times between 27 February

and 10 March 1945.114 The 183d Medical Battalion, with its mission to provide support to army units in the 1st Medical Group's

zone rather than to committed divisions, moved only once, on

10 March 1945.115
36

After the initial crossings on 23 February, activities within

the units of the group returned to a normal, if somewhat hectic,

pace. The group found that, as the pace of the advance increased

due to the crumbling German resistance, the number of casualties

requiring evacuation decreased, while the distance each individual

casualty had to travel increased. This caused total patient-miles

traveled to remain constant. Thus, while individual patients traveled farther-potentially increasing patient morbidity-the smaller

number of patients meant that the total number of miles traveled

by the ambulances of the group, as a whole, remained about

the same. The group also found that the best way to manage

hospitalization assets was to try to keep the surgical backlog

and the number of beds occupied as constant as possible among

the hospitals to which they evacuated. This kept the staff at

any one facility from being overloaded (if at all possible). The

group found that field hospital units, when employed to support

divisions moving on the same axis of advance, were best utilized

when centrally located, rather than when placed in direct support of any one division.116

One other entry the group made in their after-action report

concerned the use of collecting companies. The 1st Medical Group

discovered that while clearing companies and ambulance companies were employed in platoons or sections, the collecting comWounded being evacuated in a half-track by medics in Germany (World War II)
37

pany was often employed in piecemeal fashion. To quote from

the group's after-action report:

As part of the army medical service, separate collecting companies

are often scattered to the four winds with the litter platoon reinforcing an evacuation hospital, the station platoon running dispensaries or aid stations, and the ambulance platoon committed piecemeal over a wide area. In this connection the following principle

should be set down: Collecting companies should be used, where

possible, as a single element or in as large an element as possible

to ship [toward the front?] [.] [The advantages to this] are immeasurable; greatest advantage should be taken of such tactical situations

as river-crossings or attacks of fortified positions to utilize separate

collecting companies as units in augmenting corps and division

medical service.1 17

For example, during the period 9-28 February, the 442d

Medical Collecting Company (attached to the 183d Medical Battalion) was employed as follows. First, the company headquarters

was established in Valkenburg, Holland. One Medical Corps officer and three enlisted men operated an aid station near the

town. The rest of the station platoon, the litter-bearer platoon,

and two ambulances from the ambulance platoon supported the

91st Evacuation Hospital; three ambulances supported one of

the clearing platoons of the 626th Medical Clearing Company;

two ambulances supported the 111th Evacuation Hospital; one

ambulance supported an aid station near Heerlen; one ambulance

supported an aid station near Valkenburg; and the last ambulance supported an aid station of the 36th Reinforcement Battalion. 1 18 While the support to the 91st Evacuation Hospital was

not defined, it probably meant that the enlisted men of the 442d

were used to provide additional staffing on the wards of the

hospital.

While the XIII and XVI Corps were advancing to the Rhine,

their axes of advance crossed one another. In order to simplify

support relationships and to avoid moving many supporting medical units, the Ninth Army Surgeon directed that the medical

groups supporting the two corps would exchange missions, so

on 9 March 1945, the 1st Medical Group assumed the support

of XVI Corps, while the 30th Medical Group, which had been

supporting the XVI Corps, assumed the mission of supporting

XIII Corps.119 The transition went smoothly, even to the extent

that Colonel Veigel took the commander of the 30th Medical

Group to meet the surgeons of the various units the 30th Medical

Group would now be supporting.1 20
38

Maj. Gen. Alvan C. Gillem, Jr., commander of U.S. XIII Corps

Maj. Gen. John B. Anderson, commander of U.S. XVI Corps

I ,-·

.L-- L I Ir - -I

_ i LI

I 1 1 1 i 1 111 1 ··I
39

This new mission required the 1st Medical Group headquarters, as well as several of its subordinate units, to move

again to provide better control over units in its new zone of

operations. The group moved to Brockhuysen, Germany, on 9

March. The site it chose, however, was in an area being turned

over to the British Second Army, so the 1st Medical Group headquarters moved to Aldenkirk, Germany, the next day (allegedly

at the request of Field Marshal Montgomery of the British forces).

On the 19th, the headquarters moved again, this time to Lintfort,

Germany, "in order to be better situated tactically for the contemplated RHINE RIVER crossing." 121

While waiting for forces to be assembled for the assault crossing of the Rhine, the 1st Medical Group put its time to good

use refining plans and ensuring that the units it now supported,

as well as the hospitals supporting the group, understood and

would adhere to its plans.1 22 Meanwhile, subordinate units refined

their supporting plans and ensured that necessary maintenance

was performed. They also conducted chemical warfare refresher

training-not because they feared that the Germans would use

chemicals but because Allied artillery and air attacks might

release dangerous industrial chemicals stockpiled in the Ruhr

industrial area. 123

This is the first mention of chemical-defense preparations

in the records of the 1st Medical Group since it had departed

for France aboard the Mount Vernon-and even then the men's

primary concern was whether their impermeable uniforms (protected against chemicals) had to be carried in their backpacks,

their duffel bags, or their footlockers. 12 4

The crossing of the Roer had been the first major operation

for the 1st Medical Group, and despite all their years of training

in the United States, they were not quite ready for it. It was,

in the words of one member of the unit, "sorta 'touch and go'

but not as bad as some had it."125 But the staff learned quickly

from their mistakes (most noticeably the problems encountered

with surgical backlog) and prepared to ensure that similar problems did not occur during the next river crossing. Soon, the

Rhine River would be crossed, and the war in Europe would

near its end.

III. THE RHINE RIVER CROSSING

Once the Roer River had been crossed, there remained only

one real barrier between the Allied armies in the west and the

heart of Germany: the Rhine River. For hundreds of years, the

Rhine had been recognized by the German people as their final

protective barrier against invasion from the west. In the summer

of 1944, following the Normandy invasion, the German commanders in the west had repeatedly asked Hitler's permission

to withdraw behind the Rhine. This, they felt, was their only

hope of stopping the Allied advance. Hitler repeatedly refused,

ordering his commanders to contest every inch of ground in

front of the Allies. Thus, by the time the Germans abandoned

the western bank of the Rhine in March of 1945, the force that

might have been able to prevent an Allied crossing of the river

had been crippled: mauled on the beaches, decimated in the

withdrawal through France, and crushed in the last, desperate

battle of the Ardennes. While the forces opposing the U.S. Ninth

Army on the Rhine were still formidable, they were not as

powerful as they would have been had the Germans withdrawn

to the Rhine earlier.12 6

General Eisenhower and his staff had decided early in the

planning for the invasion of Europe that the main effort in the

Rhine River crossing would be in the north, in the 21st Army

Group zone. They had two reasons for doing so. First, although

later rendered less significant by the Yalta Conference's agreement on the limits of the Allied advance into Germany, a crossing in the northern sector would leave the Allies in the west

much better situated for a final drive to the German capital,

Berlin, than would crossings in either the central or southern

sectors of the front. Second, and perhaps of greater operational

significance, was that a crossing in the north would lead to the

capture of the great German industrial region along the Ruhr

River. This region, extending for fifty miles along the eastern

bank of the Rhine and sixty miles to the east on both sides of

the Ruhr, produced 65 percent of the steel and 56 percent of

the coal used in Germany before the war. Additionally, with

the fall of the Saar industrial region to the Americans farther

south and Silesia to the Russians, the Ruhr was the only major

source of electrical power for Germany. A crossing of the Rhine

in the north, with the subsequent reduction of the Ruhr, would

all but ensure a rapid Allied victory. 127

41
42

The Ninth Army plan called for the XVI Corps to make an

assault crossing at Rheinberg. Once this bridgehead was enlarged

sufficiently, the XIX Corps would also be committed east of the

Rhine. The XIII Corps would continue to secure the west bank

of the Rhine. After being relieved of its mission to secure the

west bank by the Fifteenth Army, which was acting as an army

of occupation behind the Ninth Army, the XIII Corps would

join the XVI and XIX Corps west of the Rhine. Once across

the river, the army would drive east toward the industrial city

of Hamm, and from there to the Elbe River. The XVI Corps,

after securing the initial bridgehead, would wheel south to link

up with the First Army, encircling the Ruhr industrial region. 128

The XVI Corps' plan called for two infantry divisions, the

30th and 79th, to cross the river simultaneously at Mehrum and

Milchplatz. After the bridgehead was expanded, the 35th and

75th Infantry Divisions would be committed (see map 2). The

8th Armored Division, as the corps reserve, would be held west

of the Rhine until the battle for the far shore was developed

enough to show where it could be employed best.1 29

In order to achieve tactical surprise, the army implemented

a deception plan during the buildup of forces on the west bank

of the Rhine. Medical units were not excluded from this plan,

and all units were required to remove red crosses from vehicles

and equipment. Ambulances moved in ones and twos, by infiltration rather than in convoys and, when not in use, were kept

under overhead cover. In order to make the Germans believe

that the XVI Corps' main effort would be in the southern portion

of the army zone, a medical clearing company was set up across

the river from Duisburg and provided with extra tentage. Ambulance traffic was continued to and from the facility to make

it appear as though the unit was still engaged in its medicalsupport mission.1 30 On at least one occasion, the 1st Medical

Group's S3 flew over the group's area to observe how well camouflage was being maintained and to report to the group's subordinate units on its effectiveness. 131 Of course, once the attack

commenced, the requirement for camouflaging medical facilities

came to an end. 132

By 24 March 1945, the day the attack began, the 1st Medical

Group was composed of the 20th Field Hospital and two medical

battalions, the 188th and 430th. The group's third medical battalion, the 183d, had been removed from the group on 15 March

1945133 to provide medical support to the XVIII Airborne Corps

under the direct control of the Ninth Army Surgeon's office (see

figure 3).134
43

z

UJ

C

0

I-I

C

j * CX '"

a)

CD

c

ocCo

0

,0

0

(D

--Cod

C

ci

o*

a

(0

2

coi

0. xp

0)

E

!i~iEDiS iiiiiR

Q)

L

'"

c
44

0

c

.Q

E E

a)

C

..r

-a0

o

o

N(0

^t

Cu

Q)

0

I

u)

ULO

0ts

0

i_

TOO

.ti

N

ci

0

(u

C(

I_

0

c6cu

cm

0)

0

0

c

'n

E

N

(0

11t
45

While doctrine called for the supporting medical group to

reinforce divisions of the corps while the corps' attached medical

battalion provided care for corps troops in the rear area, the

XVI Corps Surgeon, Colonel Harold L. Furlong, adopted a different concept for the actual crossing. Under his plan, he

suggested

reinforcement of division medical service from corps medical battalion, using special equipment on near and far shore and on the

water, with reinforcement of corps medical battalion from Army to

insure rapid evacuation of casualties from across the river, and

conservation of critical medical supplies and personnel for more

advantageous use later. 135

This plan covered only the initial assault crossings and the

establishment of the bridgehead, after which the corps would

return to a doctrinal support concept.

This plan, Furlong and his staff believed, offered a number

of advantages over the other options that they considered. It

made maximum use of divisional and corps medical personnel

while ensuring that the medical treatment facilities provided by

the corps would allow continuous support by leapfrogging

second-echelon facilities past each other as the supported divisions began their advance from the far shore. The one disadvantage they saw in the plan-that corps and army personnel

on the near shore would be mixed and that army and corps

medical-treatment facilities would both be providing care to corps

troops-could "readily be overcome by careful coordination and

command and control."1 36

At 0200 on 24 March 1945, the 30th Infantry Division began

its assault across the Rhine following a massive one-hour barrage

from the collected artillery of all three corps of the Ninth Army.

An hour later, following another hour-long artillery barrage, the

79th Infantry Division began its crossing farther to the south

in the corps' sector. The British had also begun their crossings

at 0200, and at 1000, the XVIII Corps conducted an airborne

assault. Resistance was initially light but increased as the forces

of the corps moved inland. Nonetheless, by 25 March, the corps

was twenty-four to forty-eight hours ahead of schedule in its

advance.1 37 While the capture of a partially intact bridge at

Remagen in the First Army zone on 7 March meant that the

Ninth Army would not be the first American army across the

Rhine, General Eisenhower decided to stay with his original plan

to place the main effort of the Allies in the 21st Army Group's

zone. While the First Army was getting all the publicity in the
46

U.S. troops crossing the Rhine under fire

stateside press, the Ninth Army was bringing the war that much

closer to its conclusion. 138 By 26 March, the 35th Infantry Division had crossed the Rhine and was assembling on the eastern

shore, while the XIII Corps assumed control of the west bank

of the river and the XIX Corps prepared to be committed to the

east. 139 By the 29th, the 8th Armored Division cleared Dortsten

and Feldhausen, while the 35th Infantry Division cleared the

city of Gladbach, and the 79th Infantry Division advanced to

within a mile of the Rhein-Herne Canall. 40

On 30 March, the corps continued to advance, clearing the

towns of Rurhassel, Polsum, Bottrop, and Buer. The north bank

of the Rhein-Herne Canal was reached. Meanwhile, the XIX

Corps launched its first attack east of the Rhine. On the 31st,

the 2d Armored Division achieved a breakthrough in the XIX

Corps' zone and advanced thirty-five miles, while the XVI Corps

cleared more of the banks of the Rhein-Herne Canal.T 4 1 The end

was now only a matter of time.

Although the 1st Medical Group would have preferred to place

its hospital units along a single axis where they could support

both divisions, the distance between the two division axes prevented this. Therefore, the 1st placed a hospital unit in support

of each division, with a third held in reserve. It did this because
47

it expected a greater number of casualties than in the Roer

crossing and because of the limited objectives of the assault.

When the first clearing company from the 30th Medical Battalion

established itself on the east bank of the Rhine, the group

established a hospital unit of the 48th Field Hospital in support

of it, where it received the corps' first nontransportable

patients. 142 To assist in the treatment of these patients, two

auxiliary surgical teams and two shock teams were attached to

the 1st Medical Group from the 5th Auxiliary Surgical Group

and were further attached by the group to the field hospitals.143

As the divisional clearing companies moved forward, the hospital

units of the 20th Field Hospital were left in place and were

replaced with hospital units of the 48th Field Hospital, while

those of the 20th reverted to field army control.1 44 The army had placed five evacuation hospitals-the 100th, 105th, 108th,

111th, and 119th--in support of the XVI Corps (and the 1st Medical Group) at the start of the assault, while another evacuation

hospital, the 91st, was loaded on its vehicles and prepared to

displace forward, which it did on 30 March, establishing itself

in the vicinity of Vorde, on the east bank of the Rhine. 14 5

In the 430th Medical Battalion, the 488th Motor Ambulance

Company provided evacuation for the 79th Infantry Division,

The Ludendorff railroad bridge (called the Remagen bridge) across the

Rhine River, a lucky acquisition from the Germans
48

The 1st Medical Group crossing the Rhine River, May 1945

while the 489th Motor Ambulance Company evacuated the 35th

Division and various corps units. The 462d Medical Collecting

Company was one of the units providing support to corps units

and was responsible for providing collecting support to engineer

units constructing bridges in the northern portion of the corps'

zone. While the litter-bearer platoon provided aidmen at the

bridging sites and the collecting station platoon established their

collecting stations nearby, the ambulance platoon provided

evacuation support to various engineer, artillery, and antiaircraft

artillery units in the area. The 430th Medical Battalion's fourth

company, the 415th Medical Collecting Company, was established

at Repelen, Germany, to serve as a holding area for casualties

should the need arise, while its litter-bearer platoon augmented

the 79th Infantry Division during the initial crossing.l 46 Units

of the 183d Medical Battalion provided similar services to engineer units, probably in the southern portion of the corps' zone.147

The assault crossings of the Rhine River went much easier

for the 1st Medical Group than did the crossing of the Roer a

few weeks earlier. There appear to be several reasons for this.

First, the massive preassault artillery barrage, the deception plan,

and the rapidly crumbling German defenses all helped to produce

fewer casualties than had been anticipated. Moreover, hospitals
49

were placed closer to the river line, and more important, the

group was initially supported by five semimobile evacuation

hospitals-with a total of 2,000 beds-rather than the three

hospitals and 1,200 beds it had shared with the 30th Medical

Group during the Roer crossings. But most important, the group

had used the Roer crossings as what physicians call "a good

teaching case." Like all good soldiers, the 1st Medical Group

had learned from its mistakes and implemented proceduresmost notably a standard method of calculating surgical

backlog-in cooperation with its supported and supporting units.

With the greater number of hospitals, coupled with standardized

procedures, surgical backlog became so minimal as to escape

comment in the group's unit journal-a vastly different situation

than that following the Roer crossing.148

On 26 March, the 430th Medical Battalion moved to Rheinberg to establish an ambulance control point but found that

the need that had required one the previous month did not exist,

so it was discontinued. On 29 March, the battalion crossed the

Rhine and established its headquarters in Stockum, Germany.

The battalion moved again before the end of the month, this

time to Dinslakenerbruck to better support the corps' turn to

the south to encircle the Ruhr.14 9 On 28 March, the group headquarters crossed the Rhine, setting up in Letkampshof, where it

would remain until 6 April 1945.150

· _·I I U

IV. THE REST OF THE STORY

By mid-April, the war was all but over for the XVI Corps,

if not for the 1st Medical Group. On 12 April, the 2d Armored

Division of the XIX Corps established a bridgehead over the

Elbe River, followed a day later with a second bridgehead by

the 83d Infantry Division. In the XVI Corps, Duisburg was taken

on 13 April, and by the 14th, the corps had eliminated all resistance in its zone of the Ruhr pocket. On the 17th, the Ruhr

pocket was completely eliminated as the First Army cleared its

zone of the pocket. While the XIII and XIX Corps continued to

clear their zones, the XVI Corps turned its attention to occupation duties. On 30 April, the XIX Corps' 113th Cavalry Group

made contact with Russian forces advancing toward the Elbe.

Finally, on 7 May 1945, the Germans surrendered to the Allied

High Command. The war in Europe would end on 8 May 1945.151

The 1st Medical Group's mission changed in the month of

April from that of providing third-echelon medical support to

the XVI Corps to "supervising and operating hospitals for PWs

[prisoners of war], liberated allied PWs, and for Displaced persons of allied nations." 15 2 Colonel Veigel had anticipated this

mission early in his planning and had alerted his subordinate

commanders to watch carefully for overrun PW camps and

hospitals.1 53 This warning paid off; on 1 April 1945, an ambulance platoon leader from the 430th Medical Battalion reported

that the 35th Infantry Division had overrun a German general

hospital. The 430th Medical Battalion's S2 and S3 investigated

the hospital and found it contained German military patients

and civilian patients of several nationalities but no Allied

patients.1 54 The procedures for the control of "uncovered"* German military hospitals, published that same day by the Ninth

Army Surgeon's Office, directed that each medical group place

the responsibility for all uncovered German military hospitals

in its zone under the supervision of one of its subordinate medical battalion commanders. 155 This mission was assigned to the

430th Medical Battalion by the 1st Medical Group headquarters.

At the same time, the 430th was relieved of its tactical support

mission. 156

*The term "uncovered" was used by Ninth Army's medical personnel to

mean discovered.

51
52

U.S. infantrymen aboard an armored car on the way to the Elbe

Following the discovery of the first German hospital, several

more were rapidly uncovered in Ahlen, Munster, "Gr. Reckum"

[sic], Velen, and Coesfeld. These uncovered hospitals operated a
53

total of 5,409 beds; the battalion operated an additional 700 beds

in a hospital for displaced persons in Recklinghausen. To supervise the operation of the hospitals, the battalion used portions

of the 415th, 462d, and 481st Medical Collecting Companies and

the 666th Medical Clearing Company; the displaced persons

hospital was operated by the 95th Medical Gas Treatment Battalion, which had been placed under the operational control of

the 430th Medical Battalion. 157

When the Ruhr pocket was reduced in mid-April, the tactical

medical support mission for the 1st Medical Group came to an

end. The group and its subordinate elements had transported

6,063 patients between various medical facilities in the XVI Corps

area,1 58 but now, the real work of the month was beginning.

All elements of the group turned their attention to the care of

patients found in uncovered hospitals. By 30 April, the group

was caring for 34,116 PWs, 3,294 liberated Allied PWs, and 972

German civilians-a total of 39,404 patients.1 59 The 1st Medical

Group was simultaneously reorganizing these facilities to provide

an additional 11,200 beds for patients still being uncovered.1 60

To provide this care, the 1st Medical Group had available

to it the 48th Field Hospital and three medical battalions-the

183d, 185th, and 430th.161 The total strength of the group was

92 officers, 18 nurses, and 984 enlisted men. An additional 365

officers, 1,112 nurses, and 1,228 enlisted personnel were available

from "not US" sources-presumably captured German military

and civilian medical personnel (see figure 4).162

But what level of care do these numbers equate to? According

to the group's after-action report, if care were provided to U.S.

standards, 99 semimobile (400-bed) evacuation hospitals would

be required, with a total staff of 29,205. The staff available to

the 1st Medical Group amounted to 13 percent of that number.

Further problems were caused by the need to segregate patients

into proper categories and to ensure that Allied patients were

given the level of care that they required-which was often far

higher than that provided by the Germans before the facilities

came under the control of the U.S. Ninth Army.1 63

One example (perhaps, an extreme case) from the 430th

Medical Battalion serves to illustrate the problems encountered

by the 1st Medical Group in supporting its new mission. Stalag

VI, a German PW camp holding 24,000 Russian prisoners, was

uncovered in Hemer, Germany. Of the prisoners, 8,000 required

hospitalization, half of them for tuberculosis. The battalion had

no available hospitalization facilities, yet it needed to get the
54

Russians under medical supervision quickly, for they were dying

at a rate in excess of sixty per day. Fortunately, the battalion

had at its disposal a substantial number of German medical

personnel, and the 75th Infantry Division was able to make

available a former German barracks in its area which, though

bomb damaged, would make an adequate hospital facility. The

German staff and captured medical supplies were moved into

the facility, American cots and blankets were added, and a

3,000-bed hospital was operational within 48 hours. Some PW

facilities were overloaded to clear beds in several other facilities,

and care was quickly provided to the Russians. The next problem

the 430th Medical Battalion encountered, which was eventually

resolved, was language difficulties, as it was difficult to convince

the Russians that they would now be treated to American standards, if possible, rather than the level of care the Germans

had provided to them in the past.164

The 1st Medical Group continued its mission throughout the

month of May. The greatest problem for the group was sorting

patients by nationality and status and segregating them into

hospitals based on those criteria. Allied patients also had to be

transported to better facilities than those in which the Germans

had been treating them. By 11 May, the group had finished the

sorting process, having reached a census of 48,531 patients in

149 facilities. 1 65 The 1st Medical Group found the Germans used

to staff the facilities to be, in general, cooperative. Two areas

were occasionally troublesome but were, for the most part, easily

corrected. First, the German medical personnel tended to leave

German PW patients in facilities longer than they should rather

than transfer them to Allied PW camps. Second, the Germans

sometimes tended not to provide as high a level of care for

Allied patients as had been directed. Both of these problems

were easily corrected with proper supervision.1 66

Supply was an additional problem. As might be expected,

supplying all these facilities was a massive job, and between

15 and 27 May 1945, the 1st Medical Group distributed, among

other items, 9,000 blankets; 3,000 cots; 5,000 pants, shirts,

drawers, and pajamas; 110 gallons of DDT; 6,539 pounds of

chlorinated lime; 57,500 pounds of laundry soap; and 17,350 rolls

of toilet paper.1 67 Class I supply was on a similar scale, and

difficulties were expected in drawing rations for such large

numbers.1 68 The personnel of the group were also spread thin

among the facilities. Since the Ninth Army required that an

American be placed in command of each facility, the large
55

0)

.O

LO

CD C _ > <D n C I 8 1'

WUIE

0 I I I

a)

m Lc

0

cu

0 -

C)

00 C

T- N

(0 HaI wh

c

I .. .

+1

Lu

in

Tc

a)

EL

m a)X.

0

C) CY)

00

Rt
56

The Medical corps stockpiled supplies in huge concentrations during

World War II (example, Naples Medical Center)

number of facilities in relation to the group's strength sometimes

meant that a private or junior noncommissioned officer would

be placed in "command" of some of the smaller facilities, often

as the only American present. 169

While the war with Germany had come to an end, the war

with Japan had not. Plans had been prepared for the redeployment of medical units from Europe to the Pacific following the

German surrender. These plans were now accelerated, and some

units scheduled to redeploy up to three months after the German

capitulation redeployed as early as 10 June 1945-barely one

month after the surrender.170 Fortunately, the 1st Medical Group

headquarters had more than the forty-eight hours' notice that

some of its units had to redeploy.

On 24 May 1945, the 1st Medical Group was informed that

the XVI Corps sector would be turned over to the British as

part of the agreement covering zones of occupation.1 71 On 28
57

May, the group headquarters was relieved of its attachments,

entered an inactive status, and began to prepare for overseas

movement. 172 By that date, the group's patient census had declined from its high of 48,531 to 36,000. 173 On 7 June, the group

headquarters, accompanied by the 472d, 488th, and 489th Motor

Ambulance Companies, departed for Camp Twenty Grand, a

redeployment staging area outside the port of Le Havre,

France, 174 arriving there on 11 June. 17 5 Staging at Camp Twenty

Grand, the group boarded the Army transport Sea Owl (a liberty

ship much like the countless others sailing the globe at that

time) at noon on 17 June. 176 On the 18th, they left the ship,

which could not sail due to engine problems (noted the war diary,

"Morale: rather low"). 1 77 Four days later, the group again

boarded the Sea Owl, and this time they successfully left port

("Morale: excellent"). 178

Eight days later, the detachment arrived at Camp Shanks,

New York, where it was assigned to the Second Army. 179 While

Members of Headquarters Detachment, 1st Medical Group: left to right in

front row-Cpl. J. i. Kitchens, Pfc. Hartman, Cpl. Altman, Pfc. Dambra, Sgt.

Malcolm D. Blankenship, Cpl. Arbruster, and Cpl. Driesel; second row-Pfc.

Garner, Sgt. Jack Cole, Cpl. Elmer Harelson, Capt. Harry L. Gans, Cpl. Cohen,

Sgt. Leance, M. Sgt. John H. Conley, and Cpl. Barrett; third row-Pfc. Carr,

Sgt. Brown, Cpl. Hosick, Pfc. Puckett, and Pfc. Baumunk; back row (alone)-

Cpl. Audrey Hysell (picture taken outside the monastery in Heerlen, Holland,

25 February 1945, where the group was billeted)
58

the executive officer, Lieutenant Colonel Dupre, and the personnel

sergeant, Staff Sergeant Blankenship, went to Fort Benning,

Georgia, to prepare for the reception of the rest of the headquarters,180 the rest of the headquarters went on thirty days'

leave before reporting to Fort Benning for preparation for shipment to the Pacific.181 But while they were on leave, the situation

in the Pacific changed much faster than expected. After the

dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the

entry of Russia into the war, Japan surrendered. The headquarters finally reassembled on 16 August and continued their

preparations for redeployment. 1 82 Finally, on 1 September 1945,

the movement-alert notification for the 1st Medical Group was

canceled. 183 The war was indeed over at last.

But things were not quite over for the group yet. As members

of the headquarters were discharged or transferred to other

organizations, the headquarters shrank rapidly in size. On 16

October 1945, Captain Harry L. Gans assumed command of the

group from Colonel Veigel. Captain Gans had served throughout

the war as the group's assistant S4 and headquarters detachment

commander and now commanded the remaining three officers

and ten enlisted men of the headquarters. 18 4 On 8 November

1945, the First Army published orders announcing that the group

would be inactivated on 12 November 1945.185 The oldest active

color-bearing unit in the Army Medical Department would soon

be no more.

On the morning of the 12th, Captain Gans reported to his

headquarters. There, he proceeded to file his last morning report

and packed the group colors for shipment to the Army's flag

repository in Indianapolis. Then, he transferred himself to the

488th Motor Ambulance Company, where he assumed command.

There was no inactivation ceremony, for there was no one left

in the unit, and in Captain Gans' words, "there was no senior

headquarters interested in what happened to the Group." 186
V. CONCLUSIONS

The eight months that the 1st Medical Group spent in combat

in the European theater in 1944 and 1945 were a learning experience for the officers and men of the headquarters. Although

the group had been functioning together as a team for longer

than many of their subordinate units had been in existence,

and although they had frequently participated in field exercises

prior to deployment that allowed the staff to practice the skills

necessary for them to operate in support of combat operations,

they still experienced several surprises. First, they learned that

medical command and control units must maintain their mobility

at all times. The 1st Medical Group, supporting two different

corps predominantly composed of light infantry, relocated nine

times in the period between 23 February-when the Ninth Army

launched its assault crossing of the Roer-and 9 April.18 7 But

this does not tell the entire story of their movements, as there

was a two-week lull in the battle for northern Germany as the

Ninth Army prepared for its assault crossing of the Rhine.

Rather, they moved five times in the twelve days between 27

February and 11 March 1945-an average of one movement every

two to five days.188

Second, they found that the bed status of a facility (the

percentage of available beds filled) was not as important as the

length of surgical backlog at the facility (the time between the

arrival of a patient at a medical treatment facility and the time

he entered the operating room for surgical treatment) when deciding where patients should be sent for treatment.18 9

Additionally, a standard method of reporting surgical backlog

within the hospitals of its command was necessary to ensure

an accurate portrayal of the backlog throughout the command.

Because the flow of patients was best controlled at the sourcethe divisional medical treatment facilities-close coordination had

to be established between the group and those facilities. That

ensured that patients being evacuated from the divisions would

be transported to the facilities where they would receive the most

rapid treatment and that ebbs and flows in casualty flow could

be anticipated by the group headquarters.

Third, the staff of the 1st Medical Group learned from experience that when supporting divisions in combat, the identification of specific hospitals to support specific divisions only led

59
60

to "confusion, misunderstanding, and delay"190 in the treatment

of casualties. Rather, Colonel Veigel felt that he should have

control over where casualties were sent in his support area.

Because he controlled the evacuation assets to move patients

to, from, and between hospitals and because he had the staff

and assets to keep track of the ongoing battle so as to best be

able to predict future areas of patient density, he could best

ensure that patients were sent to facilities that were best able

to treat the patient in the shortest amount of time.

The most significant conclusion is that the key to successful

health-services support operations-as exemplified by the performance of the 1st Medical Group in the campaign under studyis flexibility. This element of medical support is mentioned

repeatedly in the materials used in this research. It is further

reflected in the after-action reports of the 31st Medical Group,

also a part of the Ninth Army, and the 68th Medical Group, a

part of the First Army.191 While basic operational principles were

based on those for the employment of the medical regiment, in

actual practice, there were probably as many different concepts

for the employment of medical groups as there were medical

group commanders.* Whether we use the World War II term

"flexibility" or the AirLand Battle test of "agility," the key to

successful health-services support operations on the battlefield

is the ability to quickly make the best use of available assets

to support a rapidly changing tactical situation.1 92

*No field manual detailing the use of the medical group in combat was

published until after the start of the Korean War.
APPENDIX

Chain of Casualty Evacuation

BATTLE CASUALTIES OF THE FRONT LINE

Normal sick and injured in unit areas of

battalions, regiments, divisions, corps, armies,

and GHQ.

I MEDICAL SERVICE: TO EVACUATED BY: FUNCTION OF:

WALKING ATTACHED MEDICAL

FIRST AID STATIONS AND UNIT MANUAL TRANSPORT PERSONNEL OF

ECHELON DISPENSARIES LITTER BEARERS EVERY UNIT OF

AMBULANCES COMMAND. BATTALION

l«_ _ \^~ .~ L I~ l MOTOR VEHICLES TO GHQ

>? ....-....... ............ . ....................

COLLECTING STATIONS

/ I WALKING DIVISION, CORPS. ARMY. AND

SECOND CLEAING w STMANUAL TRANSPORT GHQ MEDICAL BATTALIONS, SECOND CLLITTER LITTER BEARING BEARERSGIMENTS. STATIONS 

ECHELON AMBULANCES COLLECTING, AMBULANCE, I__ «l | MOTOR VEHICLES AND CLEARING ELEMENTS

SURICAL

J . I -*....*. - -- -- - * *--*-*- . ..- .* .. *---*-.. ....--.-.-.-

/

/

THIRD

ECHELON

I --- --- - I

x .

%

' ._..L.. . . . ._._._._. ._.

,RI RAI

GENERAL HOSPITALS RAIL MEDICAL SERVICE FOURiTH HOSPITAL CENTERS WATER TRANSPORT OF THE THEATER

ECHELON STATION HOSPITALS AMBULANCE OF OPERATIONS

AIRPLANE

/

FIFTH IHOSPITALS IN THE ZONE WATER TRANSPORT MEDICAL SERVICE OF THE

ECEFIFTH HELON / OF THE INTERIOR AIRPLANE GHQ AND ZONE OF THE

AULANCE INTERIOR

Source: The Medical Manual (Harrisburg, PA: The Military Service Publishing Company, 1942).

Figure 1. Classification of field medical service by echelons (schematic)

61
62

Source: The Medical Manual (Harrisburg, PA: The Military Service Publishing Company, 1942).

Figure 2. Deployment of an infantry regiment for attack, showing frontages, depth,

and positions of the regimental medical detachment
63

X|X

B+T COLL

RELAY POINT

10 11 x

LEGEND

[^^ Infantry (bn or regt)

W Field artillery unit

X X Attached medical

+ units in operation

E -- Attached medical

unit in reserve

1" Division

medical

. -- installations

+ HQ & units

+ Det (med bn)

+-

Source: The Medical Manual (Harrisburg, PA: The Military Service Publishing Company, 1942).

Figure 3. Medical support of infantry division in combat (schematic)

( *,j) 10 RAILHEAD

10 RAILHEAD I I
I
NOTES

1. U.S. Department of the Army, FM 90-13, River Crossing Operations (Washington, DC, 1986), 1-1.

2. Lorraine, Montdider-Noyon, Picardy, Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel, and MeuseArgonne. War Department General Order 24, 10 June 1922, 8. For a more

detailed account of the activities of the 1st Sanitary Train in World War

I, see Society of the First Division, History of the First Division During

the World War 1917-1919 (Philadelphia, PA: The John C. Winston Company, 1922); and Charles Lynch, Joseph H. Ford, and Frank W. Weed,

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War,

volume VIII, Field Operations (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing

Office, 1925).

3. History of the First Medical Regiment, compiled February 1941 (hereafter

cited as History), unit historical files, 1st Medical Group, Fort Hood, Texas,

12-13.

4. John B. Coates, Jr., "Thirty-One Hundred Miles with the First Medical

Regiment," Military Surgeon 88 (1941):587-97.

5. History, note 3, 13.

6. Kent Roberts Greenfield, Robert R. Palmer, and Bell I. Wiley, The Army

Ground Forces-The Organization of Ground Combat Troops (Washington,

DC: Historical Division, United States Army, 1947), 351-73.

7. AG 321-Med (12 Aug 43), OB-GNGCT-M (Washington, DC: Organizational

History Branch, U.S. Army Center of Military History, 14 August 1943).

The separate companies resulting from the reorganization were the 407th

through 412th Collecting Companies (Separate) and the 603d and 604th

Clearing Companies (Separate). Additionally, the 605th Clearing Company

(Separate) was activated from the assets of the 603d and 604th Clearing

Companies, and the headquarters and headquarters detachments of the

163d and 164th Medical Battalions (Separate) were activated from the

assets of the regimental headquarters and service company.

8. Interview with Maj. Gen. William E. Shambora, USA (Ret), formerly Surgeon, Ninth U.S. Army, Regarding His Experiences in the European Theater

of Operations-8 October 1962, Present: Maj. Gen. William E. Shambora,

USA (Ret); Maj. Gen. Alvin L. Gorby; Col. John Boyd Coates, Jr., MC;

Dr. Charles M. Wiltse (hereafter cited as Shambora Interview), 13-18.

This interview was conducted by the Army Medical Department Historical

Unit as background for a yet to be published operational history of medical

support in the European Theater of Operations in World War II. A copy

is located in the Oral Histories Collection, U.S. Army Military History

Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

9. Historical Documentation Card, William E. Shambora (Washington, DC:

Special Histories Branch, U.S. Army Center of Military History).

10. Roderick M. Engbert, "A Concise Biography of Major General Paul R.

Hawley." This biography was prepared by the Army Medical Department

65
66

Historical Unit in March 1966, Paul R. Hawley Papers, U.S. Army Military

History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

11. History of the 1st Medical Group from 23 September 1944 (hereafter cited

as History from 23 Sep 44), National Archives (NA), Records Group (RG)

407 (Records of the Office of the Adjutant General, 1917- ), entry 427, box

21662, in Washington National Records Center (WNRC), 2.

12. Annual Report-Medical Department Activities, 1st Medical Group, 1944,

21 January 1945 (hereafter cited as Annual Report-1944), unit historical

files, 1st Medical Group, Fort Hood, Texas, 3.

13. Harry L. Gans (Col., MSC, USA, ret.), letter to author, 16 January 1989

(hereafter cited as Gans letter), 2.

14. History from 23 Sep 44, 8.

15. Ibid., 16.

16. Ibid., 20.

17. Ibid., 21.

18. Annual Report-1944, 4.

19. Jonathan Letterman, Medical Recollections of the Army of the Potomac

(New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1866), 162-70.

20. Military Medical Manual, 6th Edition, revised October 1944 (Harrisburg,

PA: Military Services Publishing Company, 1945) (hereafter cited as Military Medical Manual), 545-46.

21. Ibid., 562.

22. Ibid., 561-62.

23. Ibid., 567-68.

24. Journal, Surgeon's Section, Headquarters, Ninth U.S. Army, William E.

Shambora Papers, U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks,

Pennsylvania (hereafter cited as Surgeon's Journal). Numerous entries in

the journal discuss the dental officer shortage in the Ninth Army and the

subsequent organization of mobile dental teams as a partial solution to

the problem. The originals of about one-third of the journals are located

in the Special Histories Branch, U.S. Army Center of Military History,

Washington, DC, and carbon copies of all journals, less enclosures, are

located in the Shambora Papers at Carlisle Barracks.

25. Military Medical Manual, 546-47.

26. Ibid., 583-86.

27. Ibid., 601-2.

28. Ibid., 614-17.

29. Headquarters, Ninth U.S. Army Periodic Report of Medical Department

Activities, 1945 1st Semi Annual (hereafter cited as Surgeon's Report, 1945),

NA, RG 112 (Records of the Office of the Surgeon General [Army]), entry

54a, box 338, WNRC, section I, 3.
67

30. Military Medical Manual, 807. The separate medical clearing company was

composed of 13 officers and 112 enlisted men organized into a company

headquarters and 2 identical clearing platoons.

31. Ibid., 806. The separate medical collecting company was composed of 5

officers and 105 enlisted men organized into a company headquarters, a

litter-bearer platoon, an ambulance platoon with 10 ambulances, and a

collecting-station platoon.

32. Ibid., 822. The separate motor ambulance company was composed of four

officers (all from the Medical Administrative Corps) and eighty-nine enlisted

men, organized into a company headquarters and three ambulance platoons,

each with ten ambulances, providing a total of thirty ambulances for the

company.

33. Ibid., 804.

34. Ibid., 805.

35. Ibid., 633. The 750-bed evacuation hospital-with 47 commissioned officers,

52 nurses, a dietitian, a warrant officer, and 308 enlisted men-was designed to fulfill several missions, among them to

Provide, as near to the front as practicable, facilities for major

medical and surgical procedures in the care and treatment of all

casualties.

Provide facilities for the concentration of evacuees in such numbers and at such locations that mass evacuation by common carrier

can be undertaken economically.

Provide opportunity and facilities for the beginning of definitive

treatment as early as practicable.

Continue the sorting of casualties, under conditions more favorable for observation, and to remove from the chain of evacuation

such as are, or soon will be, fit for duty.

Prepare evacuees for extended evacuation to general hospitals

at some distance to the rear.

Nurses held "equivalent ranks" to officers until June 1944 when they were

commissioned. Tables of organization listed them separately from officers

and were not corrected to reflect their commissioned status until after the

end of the war. The wartime usage is used throughout this paper.

36. Ibid., 844.

37. Ibid., 632-33.

38. Ibid., 617-18.

39. Ibid., 644-45. The field hospital was staffed with 22 commissioned officers,

18 nurses, and 227 enlisted men organized into a headquarters with 4

commissioned officers, 3 nurses, and 19 enlisted men; it also included 3

identical hospital units, each with 6 commissioned officers, 5 nurses, and

67 enlisted men.

40. Shambora Interview, 51-55. To put the staffing of the field hospital's

hospital unit in perspective, the table of organization for the currently
68

fielded mobile army surgical hospital provides 41 nurses and 16 Medical

Corps officers to staff 60 beds-against the 5 Medical Corps officers and

5 nurses used to staff the 100 beds of the hospital unit of the World War

II field hospital.

41. Military Medical Manual, 641-45.

42. Ibid., 637-41.

43. Ibid., 547.

44. Clarence McKittrick Smith, The Medical Department: Hospitalization and

Evacuation, Zone of the Interior (Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of

Military History, Department of the Army, 1956), 304-13.

45. Military Medical Manual, 547.

46. U.S. War Department, FM 8-10, Medical Service of Field Units (Washington,

DC, 28 March 1942) (hereafter cited as FM 8-10), 2. While this manual

predates the reorganization that replaced medical regiments with groups

(and hence does not discuss their employment), it was not superseded by

a revised edition until 1951.

47. Spurgeon Neel, Medical Support of the U.S. Army in Vietnam, 1965-1970

(Washington, DC: Department of the Army, 1973), 331.

48. Surgeon's Journal, which notes dates and general contents of the meetings.

49. After Action Report, XIII Corps Surgeon, February 1945, NA, RG 407,

entry 427, WNRC. This is a journal similar to the one above, which again

lists attendees and contents of meetings. Colonel Schamber had served in

the 1st Medical Regiment in 1938 and 1939.

50. XVI Corps Surgeon After Action Report 0001 1 March 1945 to 2400 31

March 1945, NA, RG 407, entry 427, WNRC. This is another staff journal

describing the same type of meetings as the ones above.

51. Conquer: The Story of Ninth Army 1943-1945 (Washington, DC: Infantry

Journal Press, 1947) (hereafter cited as Conquer), 117-19.

52. Charles B. MacDonald, The Last Offensive (Washington, DC: U.S. Army

Center of Military History, 1973) (hereafter cited as Offensive), 70.

53. Conquer, 161-63.

54. Offensive, 81-83.

55. Thomas R. Stone, "1630 Comes Early on the Roer," Military Review 53

(October 1973):3-21. A somewhat different version of this article appears

as chapter 4 of Dr. Stone's Ph.D. dissertation.

56. Conquer, 162.

57. Shambora Interview, 24-32. Colonel Shambora relates that in December

1944, the Ninth Army chief of staff asked him to move one of Shambora's

hospitals out of a casern in Bastogne to make room for a corps headquarters. He told the chief of staff that he felt that a hospital should

have priority due to its special requirements, and the chief agreed. Shortly

afterward, he was asked to report to General Simpson, who asked him if

he would move the hospital. Shambora said "no," so Simpson asked him
69

to see if he could find another suitable location. Shambora looked and

was able to find an acceptable, if inferior, site to the one the hospital

was already in-both in physical facilities and proximity to the front.

(Shambora, incidentally, had his jeep stolen in the process.) Shambora

did not like the site as well, but if Simpson told him to move, he would

move. Then, Shambora said:

At this time I think that the important thing that general Simpson

told me, which subsequently stuck throughout the rest of the European war was that, "Bill," he said, "from now on you have first

choice on any building within the whole Army area and nobody

else has first choice-no matter who or what kind of building it is.

Your hospitals will get first choice." "Well," I said, "that's fine."

In the end, all worked out for the best, for two days after the hospital

moved, on 16 December, the Germans bombed the casern heavily, and

the hospital, which was transferred to the First Army at the start of the

Battle of the Bulge, ended up being ideally sited to support the First Army

during the attack and subsequent counteroffensive without having to

displace.

58. William H. Simpson, "Rehearsal for the Rhine," Military Review 25 (October 1945):20-28 (hereafter cited as "Rehearsal").

59. After Action Report, 1st Medical Group, From 1200A 25 November to 2400A

30 November 1944 (hereafter cited as AAR, Nov 1944), unit historical files,

1st Medical Group, Fort Hood, Texas, 1.

60. "Death Notice of Lester P. Veigel," Journal of the American Medical Association 170 (29 August 1959):2, 219.

61. Louis Veigel, telephone interview with author, 31 July 1989. Louis Veigel

is the late Colonel Veigel's brother.

62. General Order 12, 1st Medical Regiment, 7 August 1943, NA, RG 407, entry

427, box 21763, WNRC. After the war, Colonel Veigel transferred to the

U.S. Air Force. He died of a heart attack in 1959 while serving as Surgeon

of the Western Defense Command; he was fifty-four at the time of his

death.

63. Biographical Sketches, 1st Medical Group, NA, RG 407, entry 427, box

21662, WNRC. This file consists of short, one-paragraph biographical

sketches of the officers (except, unfortunately, Colonel Veigel) assigned to

the headquarters of the 1st Medical Group Army Medical Group at the

end of 1944.

64. Ibid. In the author's experience, this appears to be a prerequisite for assignment as the S3 of the 1st Medical Group. After the war, Major Prideaux

returned to Portland and the banking business, eventually becoming a

vice chairman of U.S. Bancorp.

65. History from 23 Sep 44, 11-12.

66. Biographical Data Card, John D. Dupre, Special Histories Branch, U.S.

Center of Military History, Washington, DC.

67. Report of Medical Operations, 1st Medical Group, 1 January 1944, NA,

RG 112, entry 54a, box 42, WNRC, 2-3.
70

68. After Action Report, 1st Medical Group, From OO01A 1 January 1945 to

2400A 31 January 1945, 5 February 1945 (hereafter cited as AAR, Jan

1945), Special Histories Branch, U.S. Army Center of Military History,

Washington, DC, 2.

69. After Action Report, 1st Medical Group, From OO01A 1 December 1944 to

2400A 31 December 1944, 5 January 1945 (hereafter cited as AAR, Dec

1944), unit historical files, 1st Medical Group, Fort Hood, Texas, 2.

70. AAR, Nov 1944, 2.

71. AAR, Jan 1945, 1.

72. Annual Report-1944, 4.

73. "Informal Diary," in War Diary, 1st Medical Regiment/lst Medical Group,

10 March 1942-June 1945, NA, RG 407, entry 427, box 21762, WNRC

(hereafter cited as War Diary). This is a two-page narrative of "a few

points of interest" in January 1945. The diary itself was a book required

whenever a unit was engaged in combat or field training, and it and its

two companion volumes in the National Archives give a moderately detailed account of the activities of the 1st Medical Regiment and 1st Medical

Group from 1922 to 1945. A microfilm copy of the diaries is in the author's

possession.

74. Annual Report-1944, 12.

75. "Informal Diary," in War Diary. Unfortunately, the mattresses were infested with mice, which caused quite a nuisance for three weeks, until

one member of the detachment managed to obtain some mousetraps while

picking up the unit's beer ration.

76. Annual Report-1944, 11-12.

77. War Diary. Several instances of bombardment are noted in the diary.

78. Report of Activities, 1st Medical Group, 1945-1st Semi-annual, 5 June 1945

(hereafter cited as Report of Activities, 1945), Special Histories Branch,

U.S. Army Center of Military History, Washington, DC, 3. While all medical

units were required to make annual reports to the Office of the Surgeon

General, the Surgeon of the European Theater of Operations, Major General

Paul R. Hawley (himself a former commander of the 1st Medical Regiment)

directed that all medical units in the European theater would prepare

semiannual reports using the same format as they had used on the annual

reports before they redeployed to the United States or the Pacific theater.

Since many units failed to prepare annual historical reports when they

were inactivated following the surrender of Japan, this move ensured that

much historical information was saved that might otherwise have been

lost.

79. After Action Report, 1st Medical Group, From 01A 1 February 1945 to

2400A 28 February 1945, 9 March 1945 (hereafter cited as AAR, Feb 1945),

Special Histories Branch, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Washington, DC, 1. Interestingly, the U.S. Third Army required similar reports

from units prior to their deployment for southwest Asia following Operation

Desert Storm.

80. Surgeon's Report, 1945, part III, 9.
71

81. Ibid. Still later, a fourth medical group, the 64th, was added to the army

near the end of the war.

82. Shambora Interview, 47-48.

83. Conquer, 147-51.

84. U.S. War Department, FM 8-55, Reference Data (Washington, DC, 5 March

1941), 21.

85. Comments on operation of the headquarters are based on entries found in

the Unit Journal, HQ 1st Medical Group, 12 November 1944-31 May 1945

(hereafter cited as Unit Journal, with appropriate date of entry), NA, RG

407, entry 427, box 21660-21661, WNRC.

86. Colonel William E. Shambora, letter to Brigadier General Frederick A.

Blesse, 14 April 1943. In the William E. Shambora Papers, U.S. Army

Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. General Blesse

had been Colonel Shambora's immediate predecessor as the Army Ground

Forces Surgeon (as well as a former S3 of the 1st Medical Regiment); the

letter gave him informal information on what had changed in the headquarters since his departure.

87. Shambora Interview, 37-41. Some of the other army surgeons held the

same view; others (most notably Brigadier General Joseph I. Martin of

the U.S. Fifth Army in Italy) did not.

88. Conquer, 106.

89. Unit Journal, assorted entries for 12 November 1944 to 31 May 1945.

90. Ibid., entries for 25 November 1944 through 31 May 1945.

91. Ibid., assorted entries for 1 February through 1 April 1945.

92. AAR, Feb 1945, 3.

93. Ibid., 3.

94. Ibid.

95. Ibid., 1. The 183d Medical Battalion was composed of the 442d and 462d

Medical Collecting Companies and the 626th Medical Clearing Company,

while the 430th was composed of the 415th Medical Collecting Company

and the 488th and 489th Motor Ambulance Companies. The 188th Medical

Battalion was composed of the 463d Medical Collecting Company and the

472d Motor Ambulance Company. For an account of the Roer River crossing at the infantry-company level, see Harold P. Leinbaugh and John D.

Campbell, The Men of Company K (New York: William Morrow and

Company, 1985).

96. Conquer, 169.

97. Offensive, 183-84.

98. "Rehearsal."

99. Conquer, 187-89.

100. Offensive, 172.
72

101. Ibid., 173-78.

102. Unit Journal, entries 1-23 February 1945.

103. AAR, Feb 1945, 2.

104. Ibid.

105. Ibid.

106. Period Report of Medical Department Activities, 430th Medical Battalion,

8 June 1945 (hereafter cited as 430th Med Bn Report), NA, RG 112, entry

54a, box 358, WNRC.

107. Unit Journal, entry for 23 February 1945.

108. Ibid., entry for 24 February 1945.

109. AAR, Feb 1945, 3.

110. 430th Med Bn Report, 4.

111. Report of Activities, 1945, 2.

112. War Diary, entries for 27 February to 4 March 1945.

113. 430th Med Bn Report, 4.

114. Report of Activities from 1 January 1945 to Date, 188th Medical Battalion,

7 June 1945 (hereafter cited as 188th Med Bn Report), NA, RG 112, entry

54a, box 357, WNRC, 3-4.

115. Medical Department Activities Report, 1945-1st Semi-Annual, 183rd Medical Battalion (hereafter cited as 183d Med Bn Report), NA, RG 112, entry

54a, box 357, WNRC, 3.

116. After Action Report, 1st Medical Group, From 0001A 1 March 1945 to

2400A 31 March 1945, 14 April 1945 (hereafter cited as AAR, Mar 1945),

Special Histories Branch, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Washington, DC, 2-3

117. Ibid., 3.

118. After Action Report, 183rd Medical Battalion, February 1945, 5 March 1945,

NA, RG 112, entry 54a, box 357, WNRC, 1.

119. AAR, Mar 1945, 1.

120. Daily Record of Activities of Medical Section, Headquarters XIII Corps

for Month of March 1945, entry for 8 March 1945, NA, RG 407, entry

427, WNRC.

121. Report of Activities, 1945, 2.

122. AAR, Mar 1945, 2.

123. 430th Med Bn Report, 2.

124. History from 23 Sep 1944, 5-10.

125. Malcolm D. Blankenship, letter to author, 4 April 1989. Mr. Blankenship

worked in the S1 section of the group headquarters and ran the group

message center, 5.
73

126. Offensive, 294-95.

127. Ibid., 295-96.

128. Conquer, 226-30.

129. Ibid., 230-33.

130. Ibid., 219. For more on the deception plan, see also Richard W. Stewart,

"Crossing the Rhine and Irrawaddy," Military Review 59 (August 1989):

74-83.

131. Unit Journal, entry for 21 March 1945.

132. Ibid., entry for 24 March 1945.

133. AAR, Mar 1945, 1. The 188th Medical Battalion was composed of the 463d

Medical Collecting Company and the 472d and 565th Motor Ambulance

Companies, while the 430th Medical Battalion was composed of the 462d

Medical Collecting Company and the 488th and 489th Motor Ambulance

Companies. Removed from the group as part of the 183d Medical Battalion

were the 415th and 442d Medical Collecting Companies and the 626th

Medical Clearing Company.

134. After Action Report, 183rd Medical Battalion, March 1945, NA, RG 112,

entry 54a, box 357, WNRC, 1.

135. We Cross the Rhine-Germany, 24th March 1945, Office of the XVI Corps

Surgeon (hereafter cited as We Cross the Rhine), 9. A copy of this report

is located in the Unit Histories Collection of the library of the U.S. Army

Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

136. Ibid., 10-11.

137. Report After Action, Ninth US Army for the Period 16-31 March 1945

(hereafter cited as Ninth Army Report), 2. A copy of this report is located

in the Unit Histories Collection of the library of the U.S. Army Military

History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

138. Offensive, 208-35.

139. Ninth Army Report, 2-3.

140. Ibid., 3.

141. Ibid., 3-4.

142. AAR, Mar 1945, 2.

143. We Cross the Rhine, 29.

144. After Action Report, 1st Medical Group, From 0001A 1 April 1945 to 2400A

30 April 1945, 5 May 1945 (hereafter cited as AAR, Apr 1945), files of the

Special Histories Branch, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Washington, DC, 1.

145. We Cross the Rhine, 29-30.

146. 430th Med Bn Report, 5.

147. 183d Med Bn Report, 4.
74

148. Unit Journal, entries for 23 to 31 March 1945.

149. 430th Med Bn Report, 5.

150. Report of Activities, 1945, 2.

151. Conquer, 269-305.

152. AAR, Apr 1945, 2.

153. 430th Med Bn Report, 5.

154. Ibid., 2-3.

155. Book Message No. 117-0 & T, Procedure for Control of Uncovered German

Military Hospitals, 1 April 1945, copy included in Surgeon's Journal, entry

for 1 April 1945, 1.

156. AAR, Apr 1945, 2.

157. Ibid., 2.

158. Ibid., 5.

159. Ibid., 3.

160. Ibid.

161. Ibid. The 183d Medical Battalion was composed of the 442d and 463d

Medical Collecting Companies and the 626th Medical Clearing Company,

while the 185th was composed of the 627th Medical Clearing Company

and the ambulance platoon of the 445th Medical Collecting Company. The

430th Medical Battalion was composed of the 415th, 462d, and 481st Medical Collecting Companies; the 488th Motor Ambulance Company; and the

666th Medical Clearing Company.

162. Ibid., 3-4.

163. Ibid., 4.

164. 430th Med Bn Report, 6-7.

165. After Action Report, 1st Medical Group, From 0001A 1 May 1945 to 2400A

31 May 1945, 3 June 1945 (hereafter cited as AAR, May 1945), files of

Special Histories Branch, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Washington, DC, 2.

166. 430th Med Bn Report, 7.

167. AAR, May 1945, 2.

168. Ibid., 3.

169. Shambora Interview, 66-69.

170. Surgeon's Report, 1945, section I, 3.

171. War Diary, entry for 24 May 1945.

172. Ibid., entry for 28 May 1945.

173. AAR, May 1945, 2.
75

War Diary, entry for 7 June 1945.

Ibid., entry for 11 June 1945.

Ibid., entry for 17 June 1945.

Ibid., entry for 18 June 1945.

Ibid.

Ibid., entry for 1 July 1945.

Malcolm D. Blankenship, letter to author, 4 April 1989.

War Diary, entry for 2 July 1945.

Ibid., entry for 16 August 1945.

Ibid., entry for 1 September 1945.

Gans letter, 1.

General Order 29, Special Troops, U.S. First Army, 8 November 1945. There

is no indication of when the group transferred from the control of the

U.S. Second Army to the control of the First Army, although it most likely

occurred in conjunction with the move to Fort Benning.

Gans letter, 2.

Report of Activities, 1945, 2-3.

War Diary. See the daily entries during the time periods specified, which

listed not only the movements of the group headquarters but the movements of many of the units subordinate to the group as well.

eb 1945, 3.

War Diary. Entries in the War Diary include regimental and group operations orders, administrative-logistics orders, and other documents and descriptive notes of the exercises in which the regiment and group participated

prior to its deployment to Europe. Annual Report of Medical Department

Activities, Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 31st Medical Group,

Period 1 January 1945 to 31 May 1945, 26 June 1945, files of Special

Histories Branch, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Washington, DC,

1-9; Francis P. Kintz and John Edgar, "Medical Groups (T/O 8-22) of

First U.S. Army in the European Campaign," Military Surgeon 106 (1950):

34-40, 139-47, 187-92. Colonel Kintz served as commander and Major

Edgar as adjutant of the 68th Medical Group throughout the European

campaign.

192. FM 8-10, 28 March 1942, 16; and FM 8-55, Planning for Health Service

Support (Washington, DC: Department of the Army, February 1985), 1-2,

1-4.

174.

175.

176.

177.

178.

179.

180.

181.

182.

183.

184.

185.

186.

187.

188.

189. AAR, F

190. Ibid., 3.

191.

I I

GLOSSARY

Ambulance control point. The ambulance control point consisted of a soldier

stationed at a crossroads or road junction where ambulances might take one of

two or more directions to reach their destination. The soldier, in communications

with his higher headquarters, directed ambulances to their proper destination.

Battalion aid station. The battalion aid station provided first-echelon medical

care to soldiers of its supported battalion. It was normally located in the battalion combat trains. The battalion aid station had no patient-holding capability,

and patients who could not be treated and returned to duty were evacuated by

one of the divisional collecting companies to the collecting station in support of

the battalion's regiment.

Bed. In Army Medical Department usage, a facility is equipped with "beds" if

it has Army Nurse Corps officers assigned to staff its holding facilities and

"cots" if it does not. Thus, a clearing company had its holding capability expressed in number of cots, while a hospital had it expressed in beds, even though

the patients in both facilities might be resting on the same type of furniture.

Division clearing station. The division clearing station was established by

the clearing company of the division's medical battalion. At the clearing station,

patients were triaged or sorted, and those who required care beyond the capabilities of the clearing station were prepared for transport to third-echelon treatment facilities, while those who could be returned to duty within a relatively

short time, normally a few hours, would be held until released.

Division collecting station. The division collecting stations were established

by the collecting companies of the division, normally with one in support of

each of the division's regiments. Patients were brought to the collecting station

by the soldiers of the company's litter-bearer platoon. At the station, patients

were examined by a Medical Corps officer, given emergency treatment if required,

and then placed on ambulances of the company's ambulance platoon for transport to the division clearing station.

Evacuation hospital. A 750-bed facility of the field army, the evacuation hospital had the mission of providing major medical facilities for the care of all

types of casualties and for preparing them for return to duty or for evacuation

farther to the rear. The evacuation hospital had no mobility using organic transportation assets and was essentially a fixed facility.

Evacuation hospital (semimobile). A 400-bed facility with the same mission

and general capabilities of the 750-bed evacuation hospital, the evacuation hospital (semimobile) was about 25 percent mobile using organic transportation.

With a trained staff, the hospital could be prepared to move within ten hours

after its last patient had left and could be operational within six hours after

arriving at a new location.

Field hospital. The field hospital was a medical unit designed to establish a

single 400-bed hospital or three 100-bed hospitals known as hospital units. Its

mission was to provide definitive surgical and medical treatment to troops in

the theater of operations where fixed facilities did not exist and where the construction of fixed facilities was undesirable.

77
78

General hospital. The general hospital was a 1,000-bed medical facility found

in the area under the control of the Services of Supply. It was designed and

staffed to provide for the return of the maximum number of soldiers to duty

within the evacuation policy established for the theater.

Medical battalion (divisional). The divisional medical battalion was responsible

for providing all second-echelon health-services support to elements of the infantry division. It was organized with a headquarters, one clearing company,

and three collecting companies.

Medical battalion (separate). The separate medical battalion headquarters provided command and control to form three to six subordinate medical companies.

It also provided maintenance and personnel-services support to its attached units

by consolidating company clerks and mechanics from its subordinate companies

at battalion level.

Medical depot company. This unit, assigned to the field army, had the mission

of providing medical supply, medical-equipment maintenance, and dentalappliance fabrication and repair in support of a force of up to 125,000 soldiers.

Motor ambulance company. The motor ambulance company had the mission

of providing patient evacuation. To perform this mission, it was equipped with

thirty ambulances, organized into three platoons of ten each. The designation

"motor" was used to differentiate the company from animal-drawn ambulance

companies, which were still in use by the Army at the start of World War II.

Regimental aid station. Organized much the same as a battalion aid station,

the regimental aid station provided first-echelon medical care to troops located

in the regimental rear area. Using its two assigned Dental Corps officers, it

also provided dental care to all soldiers of the regiment. As it provided the

same level of care as the battalion aid stations in its regiment, it did not normally receive patients from the regiment's battalion aid stations.

Surgeon. The term "surgeon" has two meanings in Army Medical Department

usage. In general usage, and on authorization documents of medical units, the

term surgeon refers to a physician who has had postgraduate training in operative procedures. In nonmedical units, the term surgeon refers to the senior Medical Corps officer in the organization, who serves as a special staff officer to

the commander on matters concerning health-service support. Thus, the senior

officer in a hospital is the commander, but in an infantry regiment, he is the

regimental surgeon.

Surgical backlog. The time, generally measured in hours, from when a patient

arrives at a medical treatment facility until he enters the operating room for

surgery. Large surgical backlogs can result in increased loss of patients' lives

or reduced probability of their early return to duty.

* U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1992-654-001/42054

I · I
-Captain Donald E. Hall -

Captain Donald E. Hall is the executive

officer of the Medical Field Service School, Academy of Health Sciences, U.S. Army, Fort Sam

Houston, Texas. He was commissioned in 1981

after receiving a Bachelor of Science in Nuclear

Engineering from the University of Michigan

and entered active duty in the Medical Service

Corps in 1982 after receiving a Master of Science

in Nuclear Engineering from Iowa State University. Captain Hall's previous assignments

include tours as a nuclear medical science and

field medical support instructor at the Academy

of Health Sciences; as the assistant S3 and S2/3

of the 1st Medical Group, 13th Corps Support

Command, Fort Hood, Texas; and as a fellow

in military medical history at the Uniformed

Services University of Health Sciences, Bethesda,

Maryland. A graduate of the Army Medical

Department Officer Basic and Advanced Courses,

the Combined Arms and Services Staff School,

and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff

School, his paper, "The First Medical Regiment

at the Gettysburg Reunion, 1938," won first

place in the 1988 Military History Writing

Competition of the Center of Military History,

U.S. Army. During Operation Desert Storm,

Captain Hall served as the command historian,

3d Medical Command, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

COMBAT STUDIES INSTITUTE

Missions

The Combat Studies Institute was established on 18 June 1979 as an academic department within the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. CSI has the following missions:

1. Prepare and present instruction in military history at USACGSC and assist

other USACGSC departments in integrating military history into their

instruction.

2. Serve as the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command's executive agent

for the development and coordination of an integrated, progressive program

of military history instruction in the TRADOC service school system.

3. Conduct research on historical topics pertinent to the doctrinal concerns of

the Army and publish the results in a variety of formats for the Active

Army and Reserve Components.

I I _ _______ __
U.S. Army Command and General Staff College

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas