Farther from the fighting and closer to home...
Planning for D-Day, June 6, 1944, began in the spring of 1942. Amphibious assaults require tremendous resources and complicated coordination including preparation for anticipated heavy casualties. Approximately160,000 Allied troops landed in Normandy on D-Day. Over 10,300 men were killed, wounded, or reported missing.
Members of the medical corps faced scores of challenges including:
locating and training doctors, nurses, and orderlies;
acquiring specialized diagnostic and therapeutic equipment and supplies;
finding or building treatment facilities;
replenishing of supplies; and
resources to evacuate the wounded.
Hospital trains were vital for treating horrific injuries and evacuating injured troops to safety.
Beginning in spring of 1943, the British Ministry of War Transport assembled a total of 39 hospital trains from existing stock for U.S. Army use in Britain. Hospital trains also operated in France, Italy, and within the U.S. The trains, painted olive drab, prominently displayed the large Red Cross symbol on roofs and sides. During WWII, hospital trains transported the wounded from evacuation hospitals to general hospitals and later to hospital ships that would return patients to the U.S.
European hospital trains generally had a capacity for 256 litter patients and consisted of 16 ward cars, a utility car, an officer personnel car, two cars for orderlies, and kitchen, dining, and pharmacy cars. Separate quarters with bunks, latrine and shower facilities accommodated officers, nurses, and enlisted men.
Stocked with pajamas, sheets, pillows, blankets, food trays, bedpans, and litters, each ward car also contained a complete case of medical instruments and medicine cabinets. Only U.S. medical personnel staffed the trains—four physicians, six nurses, and 33 enlisted men.
Beginning on D-Day, American naval craft and British hospital carriers evacuated casualties of the Normandy invasion to the southern shores of England. Ambulances met the ships and moved patients to nearby receiving hospitals. These eleven hospitals could process 1000 patients every 24 hours. After 24 hours, patients who could handle 12 or more hours of travel boarded hospital trains that took them to general hospitals further inland. The U.S. Army hastily constructed many of these hospitals on the grounds of country homes and estates. (The series Downtown Abbey depicted similar scenes from WWI.) From June 6 - 27, 1944, hospital trains moved 22,925 patients across the United Kingdom.
The trains were not comfortable and often lacked heat or ventilation. Some ward cars, converted from baggage cars, lacked windows. A gasoline burner with a small overhead cold water tank provided the only hot water available. Litter patients had extremely rough journeys lying on stretchers without padding, and hard bucket seats were uncomfortable for the ambulatory patients. Only the bunk-type cars had beds with springs. But. . .each uncomfortable mile took men farther from the fighting and closer to home.
In my historical novel, Dear Nora, neuropsychiatric nurse Nora writes home from her first UK hospital post at an estate in Wales:
August 13, 1944: “Big news—this place is being turned into a hospital for German prisoners. They won’t have neuro for the Germans, so I am being transferred. My new hospital is on an estate farther east. Many nurses who will stay are nervous or outright resentful about having to care for the enemy. They came over here to help American boys, after all.”
Featured Photo: German prisoners of war arrive by hospital train at Malpas railway station in Wales, bound for the 82nd General Hospital at Iscoyd Park, Wales. After October 1, 1944, the hospital was tasked with housing and treatment of enemy patients.
Oct. 14, 1944—Nora writes from her 2nd hospital posting at the estate of Nocton Park: “We were swamped on the 10th when 273 patients arrived by hospital train, 55 of them as litter cases. I was excited to be assigned to the advance medical team. We met the hospital train around 1630 and began assigning patients to the ward they would be on when they reached the hospital. Ambulances went back and forth from the station to the hospital until all the patients were unloaded and settled. They have a good setup on the hospital train. Boy, do those nurses work hard. The patients had a lot of tales to tell. One talked about women snipers, another said he was in wet shoes for 17 days, and many showed me their German souvenirs. It was nearly midnight before we got them all fed and settled in their beds. We couldn’t fill these boys up! Second and third servings disappeared like magic. The poor guys had eaten C rations for so long they seemed unable to get enough real food.”
WWII ETO hospital trains are the subject of this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqAMTJyEtdM
Many returning soldiers expressed sincere gratitude and respect for the care they received from selfless and compassionate medical personnel, from front line medics to staff at forward aid stations, field hospitals, evac hospitals, general hospitals, and on hospital trains, planes, and ships.