World War II 17

Chapter Two
World War II

Reconstituting the 12th

Despite the country’s desire to avoid involvement in another European war,
the US Army had been gradually expanding in the years before Pearl Harbor,
from 191,450 troops when Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939 to about
1.5 million when the Japanese attacked on December 7, 1941. The National
Guard had been mobilized in 1940, the same year Congress approved a peace-
time draft. Guard units faced several obstacles, however. Industry was not pro-
ducing enough military equipment, and troops had to train with limited quanti-
ties of outdated items. Medical training itself was a bottleneck; for instance, not
enough brick-and-mortar hospitals existed to provide full training for all newly
enlisted men, and courses had to be shortened to ensure at least some hands-on
training for all enlistees.
Unlike in World War I, the draft did not include doctors. This was where the
reserves were supposed to step in. Under the affiliated hospitals program be-
gun in World War I, the Army’s surgeon general, Major General James Magee,
worked with civilian hospitals to recruit doctors and nurses in groups, provid-
ing key staff for hospitals all at once. However, this program (along with other
medical reserve programs) lapsed in the 1920s and 1930s. By the end of the
1930s, and especially in 1940 and 1941, when Germany was conquering much
of Europe, the AMEDD stepped up its work with major civilian hospitals to
recruit medical professionals (and even a few enlisted specialists) into affiliated
reserve units. These volunteers became the professional core, leaving only a few
key officers (a command group and some supply and administrative officers)
plus the bulk of the enlisted men to be provided by the Army. With these Army
personnel added, the medical professionals, already formed into teams, could
continue their work uninterrupted once they stepped into uniform.
The 12th Evacuation Hospital was reconstituted through these efforts, replac-
18 Skilled and Resolute

ing the previous organization set up in Boston under the same name. In World
War I, the German Hospital of New York City had organized a hospital for the
Army; however, it was composed largely of German Americans and was not
sent abroad, and in 1918 the hospital changed its name to Lenox Hill Hospital.
On February 16, 1942, Lenox Hill agreed to recruit an Army evacuation hospi-
tal, and recruiting took place throughout the spring. Reflecting a much different
status in the community since World War I, the hospital organized a send-off
dinner for staff at the posh Hotel Astor on June 19, and the unit was activated
on August 25.
Lenox Hill recruited 32 doctors, 34 nurses, and 10 enlisted men, but the unit
needed 47 officers (including administrative and command personnel), 52 nurs-
es, and 318 enlisted men. To fill the gaps, the Army merged the 12th with the
19th Evacuation Hospital, a training organization with 5 officers and 294 en-
listed men.

Evacuation Hospitals in World War II

Although still providing surgery for wounded soldiers, evacs were not quite
as important in World War II as they had been in World War I. Instead, aug-
mented field hospitals (which in World War I had virtually no surgical ability)
handled the most urgent cases. Located forward of evacuation hospitals, field
hospitals (typically split into three platoons) handled urgent and nontransport-
able patients. With injuries such as perforated abdominal wounds and sucking
chest wounds, 10% to 25% of patients at field hospitals did not survive.
Evacuation hospitals were the vital link in the chain of evacuation; they could
handle major surgical and medical procedures for all casualties. Thus, the evac
handled more specialized cases and had a neurosurgical team, a thoracic sur-
geon for complicated chest cases, and a plastic-maxillofacial team for face and
jaw wounds. There were also three general surgical teams, and splint and shock
teams to handle patients who had not received previous surgery—these teams
could work in the receiving section (equivalent to the World War I triage, or
today’s emergency room) or help out in the operating room if needed.
Each evacuation hospital had 37 doctors (including 11 surgeons, 6 physicians,
and 10 in supporting or command roles); 3 dentists; a quartermaster officer in
charge of nonmedical supplies; a chaplain; and 5 Medical Administrative Corps
(MAC) officers. The MAC augmented the Sanitary Corps and mainly relieved
doctors from doing paperwork. The corps expanded during World War II as the
Army ran short of doctors to handle laboratory and other medical support posi-
tions.
Operationally, evacs were set up about the same as they had been in World War
I. Patients arrived at the receiving section, where they were examined and pri-
oritized; surgical patients would go to the x-ray or shock ward (if needed), then
to the operating room, then to recovery wards. Medical patients went straight
 World War II 19

Figure 2-1. The 1944 evacuation system, from: Evacuation Branch, Office of the Chief Surgeon,
Headquarters European Theater of Operations, US Army, Annual Report, 1944.
Clr: clearing station; COMZ: communications zone; Gen: general hospital; HU: holding unit (any
medical unit with appropriate facilities); Sta: station
Reproduced from: Cosmas G, Cowdrey A. Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations.
Washington, DC: Center of Military History; 1992: 335.

to the wards. Once stabilized, patients were sent to another hospital or back to
duty (about 20% of the 12th’s patients returned directly to duty). To speed treat-
ment, units might set up their tents in a line so patients could be carried straight
through from receiving to the preoperating ward, to the operating room, and on
20 Skilled and Resolute

to the recovery ward. However, commanders arranged their hospitals to fit local
circumstances and their own preferences. Hospital staff working in buildings
might need to climb stairs between wards, substantially increasing the work of
the 38 litter-bearers. Evacs also contained a laboratory, a kitchen detachment
(which prepared meals according to patients’ needs), supply and utility person-
nel, and other administrative sections.
The World War II Army deliberately kept units lean, with essential personnel
and equipment only; nonessential resources were attached. For instance, sepa-
rate tank battalions were attached to infantry divisions as needed. Evacuation
hospitals had no laundry capability or water supply, which proved impractical,
and laundry platoons were often permanently attached to evacs.
Most of the 52 nurses worked on the wards. At the start of the war, the Army
still did not commission nurses, but gave them “relative rank,” making them
theoretically equal to male officers. However, nurses could not issue legal or-
ders and were not paid equally until late 1942. Meanwhile, the Army formed
the Women’s Army Corps, separate from the Army Nurse Corps, which did for-
mally commission women and pay them equally to men, but not until mid-1944.
The Army also struggled to find a nurse’s uniform that was practical, especially
for field conditions, and reasonably feminine. Dresses were acceptable in rear-
area hospitals but not very useful in the field, especially in winter weather. Cot-
ton fatigues were inadequate in colder weather, and women had to wear several
layers (which they called “romance busters”).
Even with relative rank, nurses were in charge of enlisted men on the wards.
The 318 enlisted men ranged from a sergeant major to 85 medical technicians
(with pharmacy, laboratory, dental, and other specialized training), to 29 “ba-
sic” privates, who had no particular training and served largely as a labor sup-
ply. Evacs also took a lone civilian to war: a dietitian to oversee the cooking
of special meals for sick patients. In the civilian world this job was regarded
as “women’s work,” and the Army kept the dietitians (all women) as civilians
until March 31, 1943, when they were commissioned. In 1947 the Women’s
Medical Specialist Corps, which included dietitians, physical therapists, and oc-
cupational therapists, was formed, and the professionals were commissioned as
officers. A few Red Cross workers were also attached to many hospitals to help
the patients write letters home or navigate War Department paperwork.

Training and Deployment

The 12th and 19th Evacuation Hospitals were combined at Fort Horatio G
Wright, on an island in Long Island Sound. After 2 weeks of routine unit training
(during which family members could visit the New Yorkers in the unit), the 12th
entrained for Tennessee. Based at a former Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
campsite near Portland (north of Nashville and close to the Kentucky border),
the 12th supported Second Army units training in the Tennessee Maneuver Area.
CCC buildings were used for the hospital itself, with tents used for living quar-
 World War II 21

ters. In 2 months, the 12th received about 1,000 patients with a range of medical
problems, as well as some trauma and burn cases from the maneuvers. Problems
with the water supply and drainage were readily solved. Training in the field not
only taught the 12th how to work with field equipment, but also gave members
experience working together as a unit. Personnel also had free time for entertain-
ment, such as visits to Mammoth Cave (now a national park). Because of fluc-
tuations in the Army personnel system, the 12th had gone to Tennessee slightly
understrength, but by the end of the year was marginally overstrength.
The 12th left Tennessee on November 12, 1942, traveling by train to Fort
Devens, Massachusetts, about 30 miles west of Boston. There the unit spent 6
weeks training and preparing personal equipment for shipment overseas. Train-
ing included marches and calisthenics for physical fitness, as well as reviewing
medical and administrative problems encountered in Tennessee. On Christmas
day, the 12th learned they had 24 hours to prepare for departure. At 8:45 the next
morning, the 12th was moving to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, an embarkation
camp outside New York City, and on the evening of January 5, the unit boarded
the Queen Elizabeth, which sailed during the night. The Queen Elizabeth sailed
alone, relying on its high speed and zigzag maneuvers to avoid submarine at-
tacks, and arrived safely in Scotland a week later. The crossing was uneventful,
despite crowding among the enlisted men and dissatisfaction with the British
food.

Eighteen Months in England

The first few months in England involved no hospital work. Sent to the south-
west of England (Honiton, in Devonshire), the 12th moved into uncomfortable
British prewar barracks outfitted with wood-plank cots and straw-filled mat-
tresses. With no active hospital nearby, training consisted of physical drill and
classroom instruction. Enlisted men received cross-training on basic patient
care. Most of the officers attended some kind of professional course on top-
ics such as blood transfusions, mess-hall management, dentistry, or general war
medicine. A brief flurry of activity occurred in February as the Allied high com-
mand contemplated an invasion of France in the summer of 1943, called Opera-
tion Bolero. In preparation for the invasion, the 12th was issued equipment and
began establishing a hospital about 40 miles farther east, but the operation was
called off.
In April the 12th was split into two groups to operate two hospitals support-
ing US bomber forces in the east of England; both hospitals served until Oc-
tober 1943. Because evacuation hospitals were designed to work in one place,
cross-training was needed to provide enough men to handle key functions in two
places. This training later proved useful during the high-speed advance across
France. The hospitals operated in Nissen huts: semicircular, galvanized iron
buildings that were cheap, durable, and easy to construct. In the 6 months that
the 12th spent in eastern England, the unit made its bases more comfortable with
22 Skilled and Resolute

clubs, barbershops, and post exchanges. United Service Organizations (USO)

entertainment shows were held nearby, and groups visited neighboring English
cities for dances and movies. A vegetable garden was started to augment the
food supply, and a flower garden was planted as well.
Most of the medical work was routine, consisting of care for outpatients or
sick people. The Eighth Air Force was not yet the “Mighty Eighth,” so battle
casualties were few, outnumbered by bicycle accidents, and once the 12th was
bombed with cans of Spam. Serious injuries were occasionally seen, however.
When a patient injured in the crash-landing of a B-26 bomber developed gas
gangrene after both legs were amputated, doctors had a dose of the new wonder-
drug, penicillin, flown in to stop the infection, and the patient’s life was saved.
Personnel voiced some dissatisfaction. Some Lenox Hill doctors wrote to their
civilian counterparts complaining about the hospital commander, the Regular
Army Colonel Rawley Chambers. Chambers was variously reported as physi-
cally unfit, lacking stamina, having “considerable mental instability,” and gener-
ally lacking character and ability to command. Because the Assistant Secretary
of War, John J McCloy, was a trustee of Lenox Hill Hospital, the New Yorkers
had a potent back channel for communications. McCloy passed these concerns
along to the surgeon general, who passed them to Brigadier General Paul Haw-
ley, the senior Army doctor in England. Hawley arranged for a senior officer to
“drop by” the 12th for an unofficial inspection, which found that Chambers was
training his personnel, including grooming two subordinates for unit command,
and was “intimately familiar” with the junior officers and their capabilities. His
only possible flaws were delegating work to proven subordinates and acting
as an administrator rather than a hands-on doctor. Hawley sent the report back
to Washington, endorsing the findings, and saying not only that he considered
the 12th’s commander as “decidedly above-average,” but also that the whole
episode was “dirty medical politics in an affiliated unit.” His superiors thought
Chambers was an excellent organizer and leader who found “sound solutions to
problems confronting him.” (Chambers went on to command a hospital center
and, after World War II, became a brigadier general.)
Hawley decided to transfer Chambers and promote one of the trained succes-
sors. The Chief of Surgery, Lieutenant Colonel Otto Pickhart (who had served
in Base Hospital 12 in World War I, continued in the National Guard, and orga-
nized the group from Lenox Hill Hospital), took charge after a short time at a
larger hospital. When Pickhart fell ill in the spring of 1944, the Chief of Medi-
cine, Lieutenant Colonel Marshall S Brown, Jr (also from Lenox Hill), became
the new commander.

The Carmarthen Experiment

In October 1943, under Pickhart, the 12th Evacuation Hospital was sent to
an empty cow pasture in southwest Wales near the town of Carmarthen. Its job
 World War II 23

Figure 2-2. Patients at the 12th Evacuation Hospital, Carmarthen, Wales.

Reproduced from: Photo 295259, Record Group 111-SC, National Archives and Records Admin-
istration.

was to set up and operate a station hospital, first working under canvas and
then gradually moving into huts as they were built. This experimental operation
was related to plans for invading the continent: the Army would require station
hospitals in France and needed to know how well these hospitals could function
in tents. Troops called the unit the “guinea pig hospital” in press interviews. In
England, station hospitals handled routine illnesses and injuries for personnel
stationed in a particular area, and later became crucial in caring for the support,
supply, and rear areas of the expeditionary forces on the continent.
Upon arrival in Wales, the 12th faced an empty field with poor drainage, with
fewer men than station hospitals normally had for labor, inadequate equipment
for a bare-field site, and a rigid plan from headquarters for the location of each
tent and building. These conditions were worse than a station hospital would
actually face in France, where units could move their tents to suit local condi-
tions and enlisted men could be relied on to “scrounge” needed equipment, but
24 Skilled and Resolute

Figure 2-3. The main kitchen at the 12th Evacuation Hospital, Carmarthen, Wales.
Reproduced from: Photo 292895, Record Group 111-SC, National Archives and Records Admin-
istration.

in Wales, the 12th was running a test and had strict criteria to meet.
The first few days were spent setting up tents; connecting water pipes, elec-
tricity, and telephones; and building paths and roadways. On October 20 (only
14 days after arrival), the 12th accepted its first patients, and more arrived as
additional ward tents were readied. With the assistance of a detachment from
the 95th Engineers (a black unit with white officers), gravel roads were laid (in
one spot a road needed 6 feet of gravel as a base), concrete pads poured for huts,
gaps bulldozed in hedgerows, and water pipes laid, freeing men from carrying
around cans and buckets. Poured concrete floors also improved sanitation; in the
mess hall, food scraps no longer fell into straw and attracted vermin. By January
1944, huts had been built and the remaining tents had been winterized with ply-
wood and bracing. Experienced personnel who had been through the Tennessee
maneuvers complained less about the living conditions than recent transfers who
had never had to live in “canvas cottages.”
The 12th made the experiment a success through hard work, improvisation,
 World War II 25

Figure 2-4. Eye, ear, nose, and throat clinic of the 12th Evacuation Hospital at Carmarthen, Wales,
December 24, 1943.
Reproduced from: Photo 292893, Record Group 111-SC, National Archives and Records Admin-
istration.

and working around Army supply channels. Many pieces of equipment that
turned out to be important were not authorized, including such ordinary utility
items as latrine buckets, chairs, lanterns, stoves, and tables. Living conditions
started out rough but got better. No baths or showers were available at first,
and laundry was a problem because uniforms got muddy. Until showers were
installed, local civilians allowed nurses to use their bathtubs, while the unit’s
males had a roster to use decontamination showers run by the local police. The
12th also had trouble maintaining the Army’s usual social divide: separate mess-
es and serving lines were established for officers, nurses, and enlisted men, but
only a single kitchen was operated. This created some problems when food for
officers and nurses was carried to their separate mess tents. An Associated Press
reporter visited the 12th several times and filed stories about the time at Carm-
arthen, especially noting how the “girls” were adapting to life in tents, implying
women in uniform were still an oddity for the American public.
26 Skilled and Resolute

Figure 2-5. Nurses’ living conditions, 12th Evacuation Hospital, Carmarthen, Wales.
Reproduced from: Photo 295264, Record Group 111-SC, National Archives and Records Admin-
istration.
 World War II 27

Unit training continued with road marches, French and German language
classes, chemical warfare defense training, and aircraft identification, which
were all courses required in preparation for the invasion. The locals were
friendly, inviting Americans to social functions in town and attending dances
and parties at the unit. The 12th reciprocated with a Christmas party for 400 lo-
cal children. Passes and leave were also available to the 12th (almost everyone
got a chance to travel somewhere in Britain), and there was a library, a movie
theater, and USO sponsorship of tours. The Red Cross workers ran programs for
patients, keeping up their morale. Over the winter, the 12th reorganized slightly,
losing 4 administrative officers and 15 enlisted men as the Army changed the
structure of evacuation hospitals.
On March 25, 1944, the 12th handed the Carmarthen facilities over to the
232d Station Hospital and moved to the northwest of England. Overall, the
field test taught the 12th how to live in the field and how to solve problems for
themselves. The unit did have engineer support, but it was limited and fairly
representative of the engineer support it would have in the future. The assess-
ment in the 1944 annual report stressed the need for engineers to arrive several

Map 2-1. Map of the 12th Evacuation Hospital at Carmarthen, Wales.

Reproduced from: 1944 Annual Report, 12th Evacuation Hospital, Entry 54A (ETO), Record Group
112, National Archives and Records Administration.
28 Skilled and Resolute

weeks ahead of the hospital and prepare the site, followed by an advance party
of hospital staff to erect tents and set up equipment. These were desirable goals,
but not ones the Army could guarantee; if a hospital was needed somewhere
quickly, there was no opportunity to spend 3 or 4 weeks on engineering work.
The report also included comments that nurses are not needed “until proper ac-
commodations, messing facilities and a functional hospital are organized,” and
that women should not be subjected to unnecessary hardships and “unproductive
labor for hard working details.”

Final Months in England

For a month the 12th was billeted in the town of Sale, near Manchester in the
north Midlands. No hospital was set up at Sale, and the commander decided
to give the unit some rest, partly because the 12th did not have enough equip-
ment for a full training program. Mornings were used for training, alternating
road marches with classroom instruction, and afternoons were for athletics and
recreation. The local population organized a “welcome club” as the 12th arrived
and remained hospitable throughout the unit’s stay. Plenty of time was avail-
able for writing home, and the new “V-mail” was operating (letters were written
on a form that was then photographed, reduced to microfilm, flown across the
Atlantic, blown back up and printed, then delivered through the mail). More
news from home was available than in World War I, when only mail and the
Army’s Stars and Stripes newspaper brought news. Now radios were common,
as were the locally published civilian newspapers. It was also possible (although
expensive) to send telegrams home for urgent business or birthday greetings (in
World War I, telegrams were restricted to official use). All letters were subject to
censoring, and vigilant officers checked for any information that might be use-
ful to the enemy (including locations and unit numbers); such information was
marked out or cut out with scissors.
By mid-May, preparations for D-Day, the invasion of Europe, were well ad-
vanced. The 12th moved to Moreton, Dorsetshire, close to the south coast. Plans
called for the 12th and 109th Evacuation Hospitals to serve as transit hospitals
for casualties returning from France, providing treatment and stabilization be-
fore evacuation continued to general hospitals farther north in England, where
patients would receive definitive surgery and recuperate. At Moreton, staff of
the 12th were happy to find level, well-drained ground with hard sod above
gravel, in contrast to the mud at Carmarthen. Although engineers had already
laid out roads, constructed walkways, and poured concrete for tent bases, water
was brought by tank truck from the nearby River Frome, and personnel had to
use the river for bathing. The 12th also adapted to working with limited evacua-
tion hospital equipment instead of the additional items and quantities authorized
for the less mobile station hospitals. Tables, chairs, and benches were made from
shipping crates, and external fuel tanks from damaged aircraft were converted
 World War II 29

into water tanks and hot water pans for the food line.
Shelter trenches were dug to protect against German air raids near the south
coast. However, due to Allied aerial superiority, the German Luftwaffe could
only mount nighttime hit-and-run raids, so personnel saw mostly searchlights
sweeping the sky and tracer fire. As the German raids proved ineffective, the
trenches became simply a hazard for people walking at night.
The 12th was in Moreton about 3 weeks before D-Day. After spending 2
weeks preparing the hospital, personnel waited, played sports, wrote home, and
watched road convoys of troops and vehicles passing by towards embarkation
ports. At about 11:00 on the evening of June 5, hundreds of aircraft passed over-
head, carrying the airborne divisions into Nazi-held France.
The 12th began receiving casualties at midday on June 7, mainly men of the
90th Infantry Division and 101st Airborne Division from Utah Beach. The next
day German prisoners were in the mix. For the first time, the 12th had to work in
full 12-hour shifts as the patients poured in. Between 8 and 30 June, it received
1,309 patients and performed 596 operations, averaging 60 admissions and 27
operations per day. Personnel of the 12th also had to handle evacuation out of
the hospital, borrowing ambulances and using off-duty soldiers to drive patients
to the hospital trains that stopped about 4 miles away.
Some personnel who had volunteered for special duty in April finally learned
their assignment: to operate on landing ships that were bringing casualties back
from the invasion beaches. On each landing ship, an Army surgeon (with two
surgical technicians) performed surgery while two Navy doctors (with two med-
ical corpsmen) handled all the patients on cots. The ten men from the 12th Evac
(four surgeons and six technicians) were detached in May, working in several
surgical hospitals to refresh their skills and build teamwork.
From D+1 (June 7) onwards, the landing ships shuttled across the channel,
carrying invasion forces over and bringing back the wounded. The doctors tried
to avoid performing surgery when possible because of the problems of operat-
ing on a tossing ship with limited supplies. Instead, they spent most of their
time changing dressings, adjusting splints on broken bones, infusing blood and
plasma to keep patients stable, and administering penicillin and sulfa drugs to
prevent infections. Penicillin was still relatively rare, but had been specially
authorized for this mission because it would keep patients alive until they could
receive careful surgery back in England. The roundtrips took 24 to 48 hours, as
the ships landed in France, unloaded their passengers through the bow doors,
loaded for the return trip, and waited for the next high tide to make the trip back.
In England the ships were also beached, unloaded, and reloaded through the bow
doors. Overall, the men from the 12th averaged four roundtrips, and one (Private
Edward R Bloch) was slightly wounded when a naval mine damaged his ship.
Despite his wound, Bloch helped move the wounded to another ship and stayed
with them to provide first aid. He received the Purple Heart, the only member of
the 12th to be awarded the medal during World War II.
30 Skilled and Resolute

On June 30, the 12th closed down as a hospital and began preparing to move
into France. “Show down” inspections ensured all staff had the full set of per-
sonal equipment and no unauthorized items. All personnel, including the nurses,
received emergency firearms training at firing ranges, even though no weapons
were issued. Hospital equipment for the relocation arrived slowly due to severe
(and theater-wide) shortages of some items, which delayed packing. As equip-
ment came in, items were packed into “invasion boxes”: large crates that com-
partmentalized wards or departments to make it easier to locate supplies for the
kitchen, laboratory equipment, or surgical sets on arrival. Throughout July, the
12th overhauled its vehicles and equipment, packed, and completed training.
On July 29, the vehicles and equipment were moved to Southampton. Person-
nel moved the next day, with the men marching 4 miles and nurses riding in
trucks. On the afternoon of the 30th, all staff embarked on a British transport
ship that steamed across the English Channel the next morning. Officers and
enlisted men were fed from different messes, and nurses were assigned cabins
while the men had to find somewhere flat to stretch out during the night. The
trip was uneventful although scenic: the weather was clear and the sea placid as
the ship steamed past Omaha Beach, now cleared of D-Day’s bloody battlefield
to serve as a landing point for troops, vehicles, and supplies, and anchored off
Utah Beach.

In France
The first week in France was quiet. The 12th bivouacked in rear areas, setting
up only administrative tents (a headquarters, the mess, and supply tents), and
sleeping in pup tents. The pup tents were fine in warm weather and for shorter
personnel, but distinctly drafty for tall people. Most of the rear area had been
fought over; villages were damaged and burnt-out vehicles had been pushed off
roads. The 12th set up portable showers, a luxury during the hot August weather.
Red Cross clubs were already nearby, and beaches were open for swimming.
On August 8, Colonel Brown received movement orders from Third Army
headquarters. General Patton had just broken the German lines near Avranches
and was advancing fast. German resistance was patchy, but the Third Army still
needed forward hospitals to avoid long ambulance trips from the front lines.
Within 8 hours of receiving the orders, the 12th was moving on borrowed trans-
portation. It drove past the German counterattack at Mortain, within earshot
of artillery fire, and stopped at a large chateau outside the village of Ernée;
however, the hospital could not be set up because supplies had been shipped
separately and were missing. Ambulances brought in some patients nonetheless,
and doctors did what they could before sending the patients farther back. Several
surgical groups were detached and sent to nearby operational hospitals. Several
German paratroopers were captured nearby, although none endangered the 12th.
Patton’s armored spearheads advanced rapidly across France, and after only
 World War II 31

5 days, the 12th was left too far to the rear. On the 15th a reconnaissance party
scouted a location 123 km east, on the eastern side of Le Mans, where the 12th
again bivouacked on the grounds of a chateau. However, the 12th had to keep
following the fast-moving Third Army and were instructed to find a site near
Chartres. Brown chose the village of Bonneval, another 100 km east. The 12th
tried to borrow trucks from other hospitals to make the move, but it was nearly
a week before enough transportation could be arranged. On August 21 enough
trucks had arrived (borrowed from the 94th Medical Gas Treatment Battalion) to
shuttle the 12th forward to Bonneval. (The Third Army ultimately formed an in-
formal medical transport battalion with trucks taken from various medical units.
It was the only way to move hospitals forward, since the bulk of the Army’s
transportation units were busy hauling other units and supplies.)

In Action at Bonneval

The first party to arrive in Bonneval included a staking team that surveyed the
site and planned the location of tents and facilities. While remaining personnel
and equipment were en route on August 23 (the first time since departing Eng-
land that the transportation system brought the 12th and its equipment together),
orders arrived that the hospital must be ready to receive patients the same after-
noon. In a whirl of activity, supply crates were checked and shortages identified:
a few beds and water cans were missing, but more important were 130 missing
tent poles. One group began setting up tents while others went to a nearby forest
and chopped down young trees as replacement tent poles. With these substi-
tutes, troops worked through afternoon rain showers into the evening. Because
labor was short, the 12th resorted to two expedients: first, they borrowed 40
German prisoners from a nearby stockade for heavy labor and digging; second,
they changed their views on what qualified as “woman’s work” and the nurses
pitched in. The 12th was ready when patients began arriving about 7:30 p.m.
The first patients were mostly transfers from other hospitals that were mov-
ing forward. Few of them needed surgery, but some operations were performed
overnight. By the next day, the 12th was the main operational hospital in the area
and patients flooded in: 439 in the first 24-hour period. Most were enlisted men,
but some were French troops and German prisoners. When the 12th closed down
(late on August 29), it had received 1,260 patients in 6 days.
Several organizational problems were sorted out in this busy week, ones that
had not appeared earlier when the 12th was operating in friendlier circumstances
back in England. Some problems were relatively minor, such as improvising
special diets for patients when the crate of special ration components had been
lost in transit. In response, the cooks mixed and matched items from available
rations and bought items from nearby French farmers. Patients still complained,
expecting better food in a hospital than they got on the front.
Lighting was a bigger problem. The gasoline lanterns clogged up when filled
32 Skilled and Resolute

with leaded gasoline, and the 12th’s electricians had to run cables to each of
the wards for electric lights. Although there was plenty of cable, it was packed
separately from the tents, and it took time for the two electricians to hook up
each ward tent. A partial solution for the future was splitting up the cabling so it
could be installed when each tent was erected. The lack of laundry facilities was
permanently remedied when a platoon from the 452d Quartermaster Laundry
Company was attached to the 12th. The lack of local water supply was solved
by temporarily borrowing water trucks. Extra personnel were borrowed from
two other medical units: an ambulance company and a collecting company. The
Red Cross staff could speak French and helped interpret for the French patients.
Caring for German prisoners of war (POWs) was an unpopular but routine duty.
Overall, patient treatment and evacuation progressed smoothly. When orders
to close down arrived on the 28th, nontransportable patients were transferred to
a holding facility (another medical gas treatment battalion, which acquired vari-
ous functions because no poison gas was used), and an advance party set out for
Donnemaire on the 30th. On its way east, a jeep from Third Army headquarters
overtook the column and gave a new destination: Bergeres-Les-Vertus, 243 km
away and roughly 100 km east of Paris. The advance party arrived at the new
location before dark, quickly surveyed a site, set up their tents, and settled in for
the night.
The Allied advance across France was moving so rapidly that isolated par-
ties of Germans remained behind, and one of them stumbled into the 12th that
night. When challenged, the Germans split up and ran among the tents, and
when a nearby group of French Resistance fighters heard the commotion, shots
were fired around the hospital. A few bullets penetrated a tent, but nobody was
hit except one German soldier, who was then captured. The next morning, the
remaining Germans were rounded up by some nearby quartermaster troops, and
the excitement was over. On the 31st, the second element of the 12th arrived
and more tents were erected, including the main operating sections. But Patton’s
drive across France was still in high gear, and orders arrived on September 1 to
pack up and move to Reims, another 70 km closer to Germany.

Moving Towards Germany

Because the invasion of France had moved faster than planned, the US sup-
ply system was close to collapse. Patton had driven as far and as fast as he
could, keeping the enemy off balance. General Eisenhower, now Supreme Al-
lied Commander in Europe, decided to cross the Rhine (the last major river
where the Germans could form a defensive barrier) farther north instead of
continuing Patton’s advance. Part of the plan was a three-division airborne
drop to seize critical bridges ahead of ground forces. This decision diverted the
transport aircraft that had been providing gasoline for Patton’s forces, and the
Third Army came to a halt.
 World War II 33

Map 2-2. Map of the 12th Evacuation Hospital at Nancy, France.

Reproduced from: 1944 Annual Report, 12th Evacuation Hospital, Entry 54A (ETO), Record Group
112, National Archives and Records Administration.
34 Skilled and Resolute

The halt left the 12th Evac in disarray: lead elements had reached Reims and
begun occupying a civilian hospital; a second group was stranded without trans-
port at Bergeres-Les-Vertus (although some personnel hitched rides into Paris
to see the sights); and some elements remained at Bonneval, 253 km behind by
the shortest roads. The group at Reims realized it was too far behind the front
to function as an evacuation hospital, so it continued cleaning up what the hast-
ily retreating Germans had left behind: bodies still in the morgue, body parts
in the operating room, and food rotting in the kitchens and on trays. Although
the Third Army soon gave the 12th a priority for gasoline, only 50 gallons were
produced. Creative scrounging of gasoline from depots in Normandy provided
enough to fill the trucks and reunite the 12th at Reims on September 4. It must
have seemed routine that as soon as the 12th Evac was reunited, orders arrived
for another move forward, to an area near Verdun called Vadelaincourt, 111 km
to the east.
Previously, the 12th had operated behind the Third Army in an area largely
comprising logistical and support units; now the hospital was moving into a
corps rear area, with reserve combat units and artillery in addition to support
units. The hospital’s new location at Vadelaincourt had been a hospital site in
World War I, already supplied with underground drains and hard-surfaced roads
branching through the area. The troops worked through rain showers to set up
the hospital, which was operational by dusk on September 9. The 12th worked
at Vadelaincourt for almost 3 weeks, handling a steady flow of patients that
kept the receiving section open around the clock. Patients were kept only 2 or 3
days, until they were clearly stabilized. All patients were given a shot of penicil-
lin, now common thanks to increased production. Living conditions were fairly
good at Vadelaincourt, with USO shows, movies, a Red Cross “clubmobile”
coming by to serve coffee and donuts, the Third Army band playing concerts,
and records playing over the public address system. To help with labor, 40 Ger-
man prisoners were assigned, but 41 were returned after a German straggler
slipped into camp looking for meals.
The next move was made on September 29, 141 km south and east to Nancy.
The hospital traveled around its World War I operating area, and again passed
close to the battle lines. The site at Nancy was a French military hospital that had
been used by the Germans, a modern facility with steam heat, piped gas, and hot
and cold running water in all the wards. Initially all the German furniture was
simply moved outside and American equipment set up inside, but as more beds
were needed, the German material was picked over and the better pieces reused.
Most of the unit arrived on September 30th, and the hospital was operational at
noon on October 1; by that evening 312 patients were being treated.
Although the 12th was now close to the front lines and received battle casual-
ties straight from combat, it was also close to various headquarters and treated
many sick-call patients. The hospital was also used for billeting visitors to Pat-
ton’s headquarters. Because of the change in mission from treating battle ca-
 World War II 35

Figure 2-6. General Dwight D Eisenhower awarding the Distinguished Service Cross and Purple
Heart to Colonel Dwight T Colley, November 15, 1944.
Reproduced from: Photo 196643, Record Group 111-SC, National Archives and Records Admin-
istration.

sualties only, the 12th was augmented with other units. Elements of the 59th
Field Hospital expanded the available ward space, a dental prosthetics unit was
36 Skilled and Resolute

attached, and extra doctors and nurses were assigned, including neurosurgical
and ophthalmologic teams for specialized cases. Although psychiatric care was
normally unavailable in evacuation hospitals (care was concentrated farther for-
ward for those who could quickly return to combat or farther back for those
needing longer recovery), neuropsychiatric wards were added to the 12th. An
engineer company helped with maintenance work, a utility officer was assigned,
and French civilians helped with Red Cross activities.
Life was quite comfortable for personnel; not only were German prisoners
used for labor, but French civilians were hired, some of whom staffed a beer
parlor for enlisted men. General Eisenhower stopped by the hospital once to
present a Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart; a congressional del-
egation visited; and a number of two-star generals came and went. There were
exciting moments, such as the night of October 24 when a shell from a German
long-range gun landed between three buildings. Fortunately, it failed to explode

Figure 2-7. General Dwight D Eisenhower and Lieutenant General George Patton visiting patients
at the 12th Evacuation Hospital, November 22, 1944.
Reproduced from: Photo 443101, Record Group 111-SC, National Archives and Records Admin-
istration.
 World War II 37

Figure 2-8. The men who flew into Bastogne with Colonel Brown, shown after receiving their silver
stars. Right to left: Colonel Brown, Captains Zinschlag and Hills, T/3 Donohue, T/4 Rethwisch.
Reproduced from: 1944 Annual Report, 12th Evacuation Hospital, Entry 54A (ETO), Record Group
112, National Archives and Records Administration.

and instead buried itself 33 feet in the ground, requiring 4 days to excavate and
defuse. On October 30, ten enlisted men were issued weapons, the first weapons
issued to the unit.
Casualties dwindled, however, as the Third Army was slowed by continuing
supply problems and the forward hospitals became able to hold patients longer
(up to 3 weeks). Therefore, more troops in the Third Army than in other units
recovered and returned straight to their units, rather than recovering in rear-area
hospitals and being returned to any unit that needed soldiers. By early Decem-
ber, the Allied forces were pushing farther into the German Siegfried Line for-
tifications, and the 12th was scheduled to move forward to Sarralbe, about 60
km closer to the front. While the Allies moved forward, the Germans strongly
resisted and the overall advance was slow. This gave the 12th plenty of time to
organize its move, and engineering repairs were planned ahead of the departure.
38 Skilled and Resolute

Figure 2-9. The interior of the glider ready for the flight to Bastogne, packed with medical supplies.
Reproduced from: 1944 Annual Report, 12th Evacuation Hospital, Entry 54A (ETO), Record Group
112, National Archives and Records Administration.

These plans were disrupted, however, when the Germans launched a major
attack, which became known as the Battle of the Bulge. As the Germans pushed
American units back and surrounded the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne,
Belgium, the Third Army revised its military and medical plans. Instead of con-
tinuing the advance eastward, Patton wheeled a corps north and counterattacked
the Germans. The smaller hospitals followed, because it was easier for them
than for a 750-bed evacuation hospital to pack up and move (and find a site to
operate). Not until the first week of January 1945 did the 12th Evac start moving
north.

The Battle of the Bulge and Winter of 1944–1945

By January 1945, a handful of men from the 12th had already gone into ac-
tion. On Christmas Eve 1944, German forces surrounded American forces cut
 World War II 39

off at the key road junction in Bastogne. Third Army staff called the closest
hospital—the 12th Evac—and asked for a volunteer surgical team, and many
men stepped forward. Four were chosen: two surgeons (captains Henry Hills
and Edward Zinschlag) and two enlisted men (technicians John Donohue and
Lawrence Rethwisch) planned to parachute into the pocket at Bastogne. How-
ever, these men lacked parachute training, so they reached the front by glider on
the afternoon of December 26. After a half-hour flight, they landed by mistake
between the US and German lines, among bursting shells. The sudden arrival of
a glider drew small-arms fire as well. The medical team ran from the glider to the
American lines, and when the firing subsided a bit, they returned to the glider to
unload their medical supplies. Another hour passed before a truck arrived to car-
ry the men and supplies into Bastogne, where there were hundreds of wounded
men (wounded between 2 and 8 days previously) who could not be evacuated
due to the German advance, including 150 seriously wounded, and only four al-
ready exhausted doctors. Arriving in town, the team immediately went to work.
The first 90 minutes were spent triaging the patients, followed by 18 hours of
surgery, including many amputations made necessary by the delay in treatment.
Late on the 26th, US troops broke the German ring around Bastogne and ambu-
lances arrived to remove the wounded and bring in more supplies. After a break,
surgery resumed in shifts for another 24 hours. When a German bomb knocked
out the lamp in the makeshift hospital, operations continued by flashlight. Over-
all, the glider team did 50 major surgeries, and an uncounted number of minor
ones, on men who had lain untreated for days, and lost only three patients. For
these efforts, all the men of the 12th Evac who went into Bastogne were awarded
the Silver Star. In all of 1944, the 12th admitted 18,707 patients; 15,517 of these
were in France. The 12th performed 5,506 surgeries and only 74 patients died.
The rest of the 12th either remained at Nancy until the first week of January
1945 or detached and joined hospitals closer to the front. More hospitals were
needed close to the front lines as the Battle of the Bulge continued and coun-
terattacking Allied troops faced stiff German resistance. The 12th sent scouting
parties to Luxembourg City, where two sites proved inadequate, and the small
town of Mondorf-les-Bains, which was still under mortar fire and also unsuit-
able. On January 8 the 12th had to leave Nancy when the 2d General Hospital ar-
rived to take over the facility and patients. With no new location yet established,
Colonel Brown led another scouting party toward the front.
He found that the Caserne des Volontaires (Volunteers’ Barracks) in Luxem-
bourg City was a good site, with four large buildings plus some small ones, but it
was already crowded with American units, Luxembourg police, the headquarters
of the Luxembourg army (then reforming to fight the Germans), and refugees
who had fled the recent German offensive. Colonel Brown apparently pulled
rank, the 12th took possession of the buildings, and everyone else (including
Prince John of Luxembourg) had to find other quarters in the freezing winter
weather. The changeover took only 4 days, but the 12th had time to adapt the
40 Skilled and Resolute

buildings to hospital use. Hay was cleared from the stables, which became the
enlisted mess hall, and a huge attic was converted into the receiving section,
operating room, and central supply store. Because the buildings were built on
the side of a steep hill and were more vertical than horizontal, special attention
was paid to minimizing the number of times patients had to be carried up and
down stairs. By January 15, the 12th was receiving patients while continuing
to set up wards. On the 15th, 97 patients arrived, followed by 187 the next day,
157 on the 17th, and 213 on the 18th, nearly filling the hospital in only 4 days.
Continued heavy fighting kept admissions high for several more weeks. Staff
detached during the move to Luxembourg City returned to help as operations
were stepped up.
Gradually the 12th made improvements to the facilities, adding wiring and an
internal telephone system, coal-fired stoves, and a snack bar offering soup and
coffee. Twelve-hour shifts were the norm due to the large number of patients,
and the 12th was augmented with surgical teams, litter platoons, and ambu-
lances. Surgeons performed operations while litter teams moved patients around
the hospital (the 12th was authorized only 38 men to transport the 700-plus
patients), and the ambulances took stable patients 40 km back to Thionville to
be loaded onto trains or airplanes for evacuation to other hospitals. The 12th
also hired civilian workers (largely for kitchen work, cleaning, and repairs) and
even brought in some political prisoners for labor duty (Luxembourgers being
punished for collaboration with the Germans). One civilian worker was killed
when a German rocket hit the enlisted quarters.
Because of extensive combat taking place during a bitterly cold winter, all
hospitals were seeing a new category of patients: trench foot cases, caused by
constricted circulation in the feet. The main cause of trench foot was cold, ex-
acerbated by moisture; the leaky standard Army shoe and inability to deliver
dry socks to men on the front pushed the problem to alarming levels. After
only a few days in the line, men might be unable to walk. The only treatment
for trench foot is staying off the feet and allowing the body to heal on its own,
so patients might be hospitalized for weeks, often suffering permanent damage.
Trench foot had been a problem in Italy during the winter of 1943–1944, but
the medical plans for the invasion of France paid little attention to the problem.
The supply situation in France made the problem worse: winter clothing was
deliberately given a low priority in September and October because there was
still a chance of winning the war quickly. By the time warm clothes and shoes
were put into the pipeline, it was too late, and some supplies did not arrive until
warmer weather, when the problems had already passed.
In February the 12th’s radiologist, Captain Charles Huntington, one of the
few board-certified radiologists in the Army (the American Board of Radiology
had been formed in 1934) began performing radiation therapy, then used for a
variety of treatments including plantar warts on the foot. Previously, radiation
therapy patients were evacuated to general hospitals in the rear areas, sometimes
 World War II 41

back to England, which meant they frequently joined replacement depots to fill
the next vacancy rather than returning to their previous units. This unpopular
policy broke up teams and undermined camaraderie. The request to let Hunting-
ton perform radiation therapy went all the way up to the chief surgeon of the
European Theater, but was finally approved. The new policy offered the pos-
sibility of returning patients to duty sooner, with less disruption to the soldier
and the unit.
The 12th spent 2 months in Luxembourg City. Personnel had some recre-
ational opportunities—passes were available to go to Paris (almost all the nurses
got to go, and some of the men as well)—and some long-serving enlisted men
returned to the United States. These men had been in the Army well before the
Lenox Hill contingent was mobilized and had earned enough points to be rotated
home. On March 9, the 12th held a parade for these men, and the Third Army
surgeon presented them with the Meritorious Service Unit Plaque (now the Mer-
itorious Unit Commendation) for their work between September 1 and Novem-
ber 30, 1944, in the advance across France and the fighting at the Siegfried Line.

Into Germany
By mid-March 1945, the Allied advance had regained momentum. The 12th
Evac had been well located to handle casualties from the Battle of the Bulge, but
now the Germans had been pushed about 60 km farther east, and Luxembourg
City was no longer a useful location. It was time for the 12th to move again, and
the Third Army sent them to scout Trier, Germany—the same city where Evacu-
ation Hospital No. 12 had worked for the Third Army in 1919. This time the
war had come right through Trier and most of the city was in rubble; engineers’
bulldozers had cleared only one narrow lane down the streets. The buildings al-
lotted to the 12th had varying degrees of structural damage, including leaking
roofs, and lacked water and electricity. But they were about the best available
in Trier and, after a hundred German prisoners were assigned to help with the
heavy labor, repair work started on March 18. Three days later the last convoy
of personnel and equipment was unloaded. It had taken 144 truckloads plus
some trailers and ambulances to move everything and everyone, including 80
Luxembourg civilian workers assigned to the unit for the rest of the war. After
examining the stacks of equipment, especially furniture that had been made or
acquired along the way and “household equipment” that made life more com-
fortable, Colonel Brown issued orders to get rid of most of it: only folding or
nesting furniture could be kept.
By late March, as German resistance was collapsing, Trier was already left too
far behind the front. Only one day after the last truck had unloaded, word arrived
from Third Army headquarters to stop setting up the hospital. For the next week
staff had little to do except enjoy the spring sunshine and play baseball in a va-
cant lot, but the war intruded when sniper fire broke up a baseball game. Easter
42 Skilled and Resolute

Sunday services were held in the battle-scarred Basilica of St Matthias. On the

28th, Colonel Brown went to Frankfurt and selected a large sports stadium as the
next operating site. A large advance party left Trier on April 2, followed by the
rest of the unit as trucks became available (transportation was again a problem
because Allied units advanced so fast that trucks were needed to supply the ad-
vancing units rather than move support units forward). Despite delays, the 12th
Evac had erected its tents and was accepting patients on April 5.
That month, although committed Nazis fought fiercely in places, German
resistance was patchy and few battle casualties arrived. However, because of
the transportation shortage, few hospitals moved forward, and although it was
many miles in the rear, the 12th received patients straight from the front. There

Figure 2-10. Colonel George McCoy, commander of the 12th Evacuation Hospital, awards the Le-
gion of Merit to Chief Nurse Captain Lillian Carter, July 29, 1945. Her six overseas stripes indicate
3 years of service abroad.
Reproduced from: Photo 435993, Record Group 111-SC, National Archives and Records Admin-
istration.
 World War II 43

were more diseases than surgical cases, with respiratory and venereal diseases
heading the list. Another category of patients began arriving: Allied prisoners
liberated from prison camps. Some were British (including men who had been
captured back in 1940) and some were American; the Americans were a mix of
bomber crews shot down over Germany, soldiers captured in the Battle of the
Bulge, and even soldiers captured in North Africa in 1942. All the former prison-
ers received a check-up and washing, since many had parasitic diseases from the
prison camps. Some were underweight, but few had diseases. As soon as they
were medically cleared to travel they were sent homeward.
With few patients, staff had time for leisure activities. A swimming pool in the
stadium complex was filled and open for men from 8 am to 5 pm (swimming
suits were required only from 1 to 3 pm, when the nurses swam). Movies were
regular, and baseball teams were organized for intra-unit and inter-unit games.
As other hospitals began moving forward, the 12th received even fewer patients
and some staff contended with boredom. Victory in Europe Day, on May 9,
1945, resulted in a brief spurt of injuries from celebratory vehicle accidents
and accidental shootings. The men and women of the 12th, however, had seen
enough of the human cost of war and, while thankful that Germany had sur-
rendered, did little celebrating; instead they held both Protestant and Catholic
memorial services.
Despite the end of the war in Europe, the 12th’s personnel remained in ser-
vice. The Army had to decide who would be discharged, who would be trans-
ferred to the Pacific for the anticipated invasion of Japan, and who would join
occupation forces in Germany. The key factors in this decision were physical
profiles and the Adjusted Service Rating (ASR), a points system that calculated
how long someone had served and how relatively grueling their time had been.
Preparing paperwork for these ratings took only a few duty hours, and service
members filled their time in the Army’s extensive new education and special
service programs, including sports and cultural or sightseeing trips; however,
these diversions failed to distract personnel from thinking about going home.
A few weeks after May 9, the Third Army again sent the 12th on the road, this
time 221 km to Reichelsdorfer Keller, a small town outside Nuremberg. By May
28 the 12th had erected tents for living areas (there was no more need for hospi-
tal wards or treatment areas), and as June began, personnel sunbathed (or swam
in the nearby river), played sports, and performed a minimum of Army duties.
Physical training was required, as were orientation lectures on how to behave in
Germany, how the Army was handling the return from Europe, and other admin-
istrative topics. As a distraction, Colonel Brown arranged regular sightseeing
trips, one into the Alps, one to Berchtesgaden (Hitler’s country retreat, with vil-
las of other high-ranking Nazis), and day trips to nearby medieval cities.
On June 18, the 12th learned that it was in category IV, meaning it was one
of the units scheduled for prompt return to the United States and demobiliza-
tion. This decision was expected because most of the troops had served in the
44 Skilled and Resolute

Army a long time and had high ASR scores; however, 3 days later, the 12th was
changed to category II and scheduled to go to the Pacific; the high-ASR enlisted
men would be exchanged for low-point soldiers from other units, and nobody
was sure what would happen to the officers and nurses. Orders started trickling
in, transferring new men in and experienced ones out, and temporarily attach-
ing some of the clinical personnel to other hospitals to keep their skills fresh.
In mid-July there was massive turnover of the enlisted men as high-point men
were sent to the 34th and 104th Evacuation Hospitals in exchange for low-point
men from those units. It took days to sort out the skills and experience of all the
new personnel so they could be assigned to appropriate duty. Meanwhile, news
arrived that the doctors would be stripped out of the 12th before it went to the
Pacific, to be replaced with a different group there. This may have been because
the 12th was an affiliated hospital, although there had been substantial turnover
of the original doctors from Lenox Hill between 1942 and 1945. Adding to the
turmoil, a new commander, Colonel George McCoy, arrived on July 20. The
12th spent the following days sorting out administrative paperwork, checking
supplies and equipment, continuing the training program, assigning duties to the
new enlisted men, and reorganizing until the news arrived in mid-August that
Japan had surrendered.
The 12th’s routine reports from the middle of 1945 have been lost, but records
show that the unit shipped home from Europe to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, ar-
riving late in 1945 or very early in 1946. Only a few individuals traveled back
as the 12th; most of the wartime 12th Evac had already been assigned to another
unit or were sent home based on their personal point count. The 12th Evacua-
tion Hospital was inactivated at Camp Kilmer on January 6, 1946, and formally
reverted to the reserves.
During its stay in England, the 12th Evacuation Hospital treated about 8,000
patients, and another 26,000 in France, Luxembourg, and Germany. Despite
German shells at Nancy and buzz-bombs at Luxembourg City, despite the risks
of riding landing ships to the Normandy beaches and a glider into Bastogne,
only two personnel from the 12th Evac died in World War II. Both were nurses:
2nd Lieutenant Harriet Beckman died on October 25, 1943, in an automobile
accident, and 1st Lieutenant Louyse Bosworth died as a result of a fall in Lux-
embourg on February 15, 1945.
 World War II 45

Sources

The unit’s annual reports for 1942 through 1945, combined with Hansford T Shack-
lette’s History of the 12th Evacuation Hospital; 25 August 1942 to 25 August 1945 (Nurn-
berg, Germany: Sebaldus-Verlag; 1945) form the basis of this chapter. Tables of Organi-
zation and Equipment provided details. The story of Colonel Chambers and his unhappy
subordinates is told in correspondence between Surgeon General Kirk and Brigadier
General Hawley. The unit newspaper from May 3, 1945, has details, and a letter from
Edward Grant (a World War II veteran) to Colonel (retired) Richard Harder has more.
Third Army headquarters reports have some information on how the unit was employed,
as does the official history, G Cosmas and A Cowdrey’s Medical Service in the European
Theater of Operations (Washington, DC: Center of Military History; 1992). Trench foot
is discussed in JB Coates Jr (ed), Cold Injury, Ground Type (Washington, DC: Office of
the Surgeon General; 1958). Lieutenant Bosworth’s death is explained in “Luxembourg
Nurses Cherish Grave of U.S. Army Nurse in Hamm” (Am J Nursing, 47(4):202). The
Otto Pickhart Papers at the New York Historical Society (New York City, NY) provide
details on Lieutenant Colonel Pickhart’s career, including his correspondence home.
Copies of this material are on file in the historical research collection of the Army
Medical Department Center of History and Heritage, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
46 Skilled and Resolute