by Mehlo, Noel
Figure 324: 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion, B Company Sick Log Book, September 1944 (NARA) A real lead to his history came after submitting a request for his records through National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). Although his Military personnel records burned in the 1973 fire in St. Lois, NARA was able to assist to recreate his medical records from an outside source and these records fully document his injuries, medical treatment and recovery. Expanding on this, I sent away to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for his VA medical records. These records contained additional information not contained in his reconstructed medical records held by NPRC. The VA records were a little more bureaucratic to obtain, as they are held in federal archival storage, but with the help of the Cleveland Ohio VA Office, Mr. Derrick Brown of the VA Records Management Center in St. Louis and Mr. Tom Reed of the Dayton Federal Records Center, I was able to obtain the records, and they are a gem in terms of what happened and when.
The 5th RN BN had medics attached to the unit. These men made up the Medical Detachment assigned to the 5th RN BN, Headquarters Company. Once the battle progressed enough that S/Sgt Hull and the other men who had been pinned down were able to be reached, it would have been some of these men who would have begun the process of treating and evacuating him, the other three wounded, and two dead Rangers. According to conversations with Major General John C. Raaen, Jr. (ret.), during this campaign, the 5th RN BN would have evacuated the wounded men immediately to a Battalion Aid Station attached to the 29th Infantry Division. They were attached to the 29th Infantry Division, and the 29th Infantry Division to VIII Corps. All Ranger casualties were processed through the medical units supporting the 29th. (Raaen, correspondence) From that point, the men would have been treated and processed in the Army medical system as appropriate.
The Company Morning Reports for 2 SEP 44 and 4 SEP 44 respectively list S/Sgt Hull. As indicated in earlier chapters, the Morning Report explains the happenings for a given unit within a given day. The report for 2 SEP 44 shows that S/Sgt Hull was wounded in action and was changed from being on duty to being listed as lightly wounded in action (LWA) in the hospital and not having been dropped from assignment. Upon having his battlefield wounds stabilized enough for transportation on 2 SEP 44, he was sent to the 108th Evacuation Hospital (EH) according to his actual medical records. The Morning Report infers that the medics and Aid Station medical personnel did not at first realize the extent of the wounds that he had suffered by listing him as LWA on 2 SEP 44. This might have been due to a lack of communication between the medical personnel back to the unit. This was reported to me by former 5th RN BN medic, Richard “Doc” Felix in spring of 2012 as being something that routinely happened. By 4 SEP 44, the damage done to his knee had become more fully diagnosed and a decision was made to evacuate him from France to England, and his medical records indicate that he was treated with penicillin and sulfa on 4 SEP 44. Another consideration in the time delay for actual treatment is found in the overall situation regarding the Brest campaign. As you recall, the 29th Infantry Division was engaged in Divisional action that was decimating their ranks. The sheer amount of casualties incurred by them would have rendered what on the surface looked like a simple knee wound with much less attention than those men more severely wounded. Think of the old television show, M*A*S*H. The World War II equivalent to the Korean War M.A.S.H unit was the evacuation hospital. The triage system often seen on that show was based on real life battlefield medicine. This explains why the family knowledge of laying on the battlefield for three days and the knee becoming gangrene originated.
It is for the reason of more fully assessing and diagnosing his wounds that the Morning Report for 4 SEP 44 lists him as dropped from assignment. The term dropped from assignment means dropped from the 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion. This chain of events is extremely important to note here, as it ultimately lead to his being lost from the unit history of the 5th RN BN. Nothing was done improperly, as everything had been documented in accordance with all appropriate U.S. Army regulation and guidance. As per regulation on 4 SEP 44, he was transferred from the Rangers to the various units of the U.S. Army Medical Corps and this ultimately resulted in his discharge reading “5th Ranger Battalion, unassigned”. Anyone wishing to see Company Morning Reports for themselves or loved ones need to set an appointment and travel to NARA, St. Louis, in the microfilm research room and view the appropriate unit in the World War 2 Records.
Figure 325: Circle showing possible location of 108th Evacuation Hospital in Lannilis France, Sep 44 The 108th Evacuation Hospital (EH), attached to the Third United States Army, left Rennes on 22 August 1944 in order to provide proper medical support for the siege of Brest and took up a new station at a spot of land overlooking a river, just outside of the town of Lanillis, France (Figure 325). Lanillis is about nine miles north of Brest. The 108th remained in Brittany so long that the rapidly moving Third Army left them in their wake. The 108th EH was transferred to the Ninth United States Army and remained under its jurisdiction to the war’s end. Lannilis, France was located approximately 20 miles by ambulance from the Fort de Toulbroch area. It is unknown where the airfield was that supported the 108th EH, but it had to be close-by. As the battle for Brest waged to the south, the wounded came pouring in to the unit. The Army had positioned the 108th EH several miles close to the front lines than were other similar units in the area. The result of this was that many of the most seriously wounded men were transported there to avoid longer ambulance rides to other units. This spared the wounded additional pain, and actually began to form the understanding of what now is commonly referred to as the “Golden Hour” in terms of emergency medicine today.
Figure 326: Patients are brought to the 108th Evacuation Hospital by WC54 Ambulances. (NARA) The medical staff of the 108th EH worked at breakneck speed and often worked much more than twelve hour days. Many of the skilled physicians, surgeons and other medical staff had come from the private medical sector in the States, and some from the best hospitals in the nation. The hospital was so close to the front lines, that the thunderous sound artillery could be heard as the adversaries waged an unrelenting artillery duel against each other for the control of Brest. The bombers could actually be seen dropping bombs on the points south. The Germans had burrowed into the ground, and had carved out caves for living quarters, hospitals and supply depots. They used extensive defensive works such as the forts and pillboxes and other casements that required the use of extensive bombing to ferret out. This bombing was all visible from the 108th EH.1 They applied a plaster cast and prepared Hull to move. He would have been moved by WC 54 Ambulances like the ones seen in Figure 326.
During my research I found an outstanding resource for understanding the military medical establishment. I would recommend anyone interested in learning more as to how it worked during World War II to study it at the World War 2 (WW2) U.S. Medical Research Centre.1 An extensive description of the 108th Evacuation Hospital may be found there. This excellent resource is the private and loving work of two European historians Alain S. Batens and Ben C. Major. They collaborated with me on much of the unit information in this chapter. These guys are amazing, and their website is a must see for anyone interested in World War II.
Figure 327: Wounded being loaded for transport for evacuation to England (NARA photo) Further medical treatment including debridement at the 108th Evacuation Hospital led to S/Sgt Hull being transported by air to the 94th General Hospital located in Tortworth Court, Falfield, Gloucestershire, England (north of Bristol), APO 508. Figure 327 illustrates transfer of a patient to air transport during the war. Debridement is the medical removal of dead, damaged, or infected tissue to improve the healing potential of the remaining healthy tissue. Removal may be surgical, mechanical, chemical, autolytic (self-digestion), and by maggot therapy, where certain species of live maggots selectively eat only necrotic tissue.2 It is a very painful treatment. He had to endure multiple treatment sessions of this through September. They treated the gangr
ene through the use of antibiotics and Sulfa. Had the extent of his wounds not been more thoroughly evaluated and treated he would have likely developed full gangrene with the removal of his leg or worse.
It is important to understand the medical system in World War II. What has been discussed up to now entailed his treatment in the First, Second and Third Echelons of U.S. Army medical care. The 94th and 74th General Hospitals in England as well as transport on the HMS Queen Mary discussed later represent care in the Fourth Echelon. Then finally, his treatment at Halloran, O’Reilly and Percy Jones General Hospitals represent care in the Fifth Echelon of the U.S. Army medical care establishment.
The United States Army 94th General Hospital (GH) was a hospital in operation in the European Theatre of Operations (EUTOSA) during World War 2. For the period covering fall 1944, the unit was headquartered at Tortworth Court, Falfield, Gloucestershire, England located some 18 miles northeast of Bristol. When I began my research, I found that a prepared unit history for the 94th was not readily accessible online. This unit proved to be the most challenging military unit to uncover details regarding this body of research. I actually began to correspond with the authors of the website referenced earlier in the chapter,
Figure 328: Flowchart of U.S. medical establishment, War Department
(courtesy of WW2 U.S. Medical Research Centre and Olive-Drab World War II Research websites) The U.S. military in World War II had an organized, structured system for evacuation and treatment of casualties that stretched from frontline foxholes to hospitals in the United States homeland, based on medical care echelons. Sick or wounded individuals would be transported from one echelon to another as rapidly and efficiently as possible, subject to conditions which often prevented optimal handling, to optimize their care and potential to return to duty. This is illustrated above. The ability of the American military system to provide medical aid and treatment to its personnel was a source of strength and increased morale, an important factor in ultimate victory.3
Doctrine of Medical Treatment in World War II
Governing all WW II medical planning were a series of general doctrinal rules, most of which remained valid long after 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;
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.3
Figure 329: Location of 94th General Hospital located at Tortworth Court, UK. (A Vision of Britain Through Time – Public Domain)5 The first clues as to the whereabouts of the 94th GH came from anecdotal reference through the AMEDD website. Further investigation of the unit yielded an important clue in the form of an obituary for a gentleman named Roscoe Ray Giessey, 92, of Kalispell, Montana, who died on October 2, 2011. His passing was reported in the Daily Interlake.com newspaper. He served as a medical and surgical technician in the 94th General Hospital during the period that Herbert Hull would have been treated at the facility. This valuable clue provided a basis and a geographic location to continue searching for additional information regarding the history of the unit. Additional evidence of the location came from an internet piece that chronicles a gentleman by the name of Wayne Baker, who was reported wounded in the Ruhr Valley in Germany in March of 1945 and was reportedly “taken to the 94th General Hospital, 18 miles from Bristol.”4 Finally, when I travelled to NARA Archives II at College Park, MD, I was able to find and capture some of the Unit records which yielded valuable information as to location and actions of the unit. I subsequently shared this with my new friends at AMEDD for them to share with others. I wanted to add this brief discussion because it was amongst the most challenging of information to find. I had to find it as an important puzzle piece. The way that research for this went was that I had to find some small clue or piece that would lead me to another piece, leading to another clue, etc., and it was rather tedious. During the development of the information, I found the probable location by using period maps at a website called visionofbritain.org.uk.5
One challenge with the website is that you have to go and find the actual location that you are looking for by hand for any readers that care to do it. Many hours were spent researching the unit using the internet in many different ways, eventually coming across this photo below. The 120th Station Hospital was a unit that predated the 94th General Hospital in operation at this site. The photo is important because it gives great geographical clues as to location in the form of the manor house in the background, which stands today. From there, I was able to use Google Map to locate the place, and it turns out that the former site if the hospital is now a British low-security prison called HM Prison Leyhill.
When war broke out in 1938, the court was used instead by the British Navy in 1940. Tortworth Court was commandeered by the Government during the Second World War as a naval establishment. Alterations were made and the house became a training establishment for coding and signals. The Navy called it a ‘Stone Frigate’ and it was named HMS Cabbala. Incidentally the ceremony of the flag took place daily where Reception is now sited in the main hall. This was done inside the building to avoid drawing attention to what was, at the time, top-secret premises. It was left to Mr Diment to arrange for all the furniture in the Court to be put in store. At the end of the war the contents were sold at auction.
In 1942 HMS Cabbala moved to Warrington and Tortworth Court became home to American servicemen. A hospital was built on the grounds in the park, and the doctors and nursing staff lived in the house. On the 26th November 1943 the 91st and 128th Evacuating Hospital Units arrived with hundreds of wounded from the North African Campaign. Trains would arrive at Charfield and Thornbury full of wounded Americans. From June 1944 until March 1945 other American General Hospital units, including 224th and 225th, were temporarily stationed in Tortworth Court looking after American Service personnel. After the war, the buildings constructed for the hospital and, for a time the house itself, became H.M. Leyhill Open Prison. Tortworth Court was then used as a training school for prison officers. Now, after a devastating fire and then extensive refurbishment some five years ago, it is a luxury hotel. The arboretum is open to public, and the beautiful Tortworth Lake hiding serenely in woodland on the estate, opens on the first Sunday of the month from February to October.
Figure 330: Unit Crest of 94th General Hospital (USACMH) As to the care given at the 94th General Hospital, this is the location where S/Sgt Hull’s leg and life were saved, as he got sicker before he got better. The motto of the unit was to aid, comfort and heal as noted on their Unit Crest (Figure 330). He arrived to the unit on 7 SEP 44 as his medical records indicate where he was evaluated and assigned to Ward 16 with a diagnosis of having a penetrating wound to his left knee. Originally, he had been listed as having shrapnel wounds to his left knee and arm and right hand. By this point, I assumed that the other two wounds were treated and well on their way to healing. The hospital facilities are sho
wn in Figure 331.
Figure 331: The 94th GH took over the facilities of the 120th GH, located at Tortworth Courts, Falfield, Somerset, England, showing castle in distance. August 5, 1943 photo. (NARA photo) By 11 SEP 44, his knee started to cause him considerable pain and he was treated until an operation to remove a considerable piece of shrapnel from his knee was performed on 30 OCT 44. X-rays revealed that he also had a fracture in the bones surrounding his knee as well. After this second surgery, the first having been done in France, his body began to be able to properly heal. It was his medical records which actually gave proof of his injury and ultimately were able to lead me, with the family oral history and with considerable help from Major General John C. Raaen, Jr., (ret), and later, Randall Ching to be able to place him on the battlefield in the earlier chapter.
The record in Figure 332 presents his final diagnosis as of 9 SEP 44. With this information, the official story was laid out for the family for first time. The medical story is accurate; however, the record indicated that a German grenade hit him while assaulting a German pillbox. In later records, this was revised to consistently indicate a German landmine.
Figure 332: Example of S/Sgt Hull medical records provided by Department of Veterans Affairs. Sometime between his surgery on 30 OCT 44 and 14 DEC 44, a medical decision was made to evacuate Hull from Europe to the USA for care in the Fifth Echelon of the medical system. He was transferred from the 94th General Hospital in Falfield to the 74th General Hospital in Tyntesfield Park, Wraxall, England located southwest of Bristol. He arrived at the hospital on 16 DEC 44. By this time in the war the 74th General Hospital had converted from a major general hospital to that of a hospital dedicated to preparing wounded troops for movement overseas and back to the USA. The following photos provide the location and give example of the surroundings there. Figure 333 shows the 74th General Hospital.
