WW2 Military Hospitals
General Introduction

Valley Forge General Hospital, at Phoenixville, Pa., one of the 'named' Hospitals. Designated US Army Gen Hosp by WDGO 64, dated 24 Nov 42. The construction consisted of a two-story high semi-permanent brick building, with an authorized bed capacity of 2,509. First patients were received as from 12 Mar 43. Medical specialties were plastic surgery, ophthalmologic surgery, and blind psychiatry.

| Background Information | Types of Hospitals | Miscellaneous Hospitals |

Background Information:

In time of war Hospitalization and Evacuation are essential to the Armed Forces. Military Hospitals are provided for the treatment of military personnel while being sick or injured. Casualties were given emergency treatment at a series of medical installations established in the forward areas of combat zones. In order to furnish as near to the front lines as possible, a higher type of medical treatment than first aid or emergency medical care, Hospitals, either ‘fixed’ or designed for easy movement, i.e. ‘mobile’ (or semi-mobile) Hospitals were established. Mobile Hospitals, such as Surgical, Evacuation, and Convalescent Hospitals were usually assigned to field Divisions and Armies. All Hospitals in Theaters of Operations (i.e. overseas) were designated by numbers rather than by name and location (limited to ZI).

In war, ‘mobile’ Hospitals formed a constituent part of the mobile forces and were equipped with sufficient tentage for sheltering patients; nevertheless, advantage was taken of any opportunity to occupy and utilize existing buildings. These Hospitals were established in the combat zone and comprised Convalescent Hospitals, Evacuation Hospitals, Surgical Hospitals, but also Clearing Stations operated by the Clearing Companies of Medical Battalions. The ‘fixed’ military Hospitals, identical in time of war or peace, served for definitive treatment of patients. They were established in the Zone of Interior and in the Communications Zones. Those set up in the Communications Zones (ComZ) included General Hospitals, Station Hospitals, Hospital Centers, Convalescent Camps, and Field Hospitals. Whenever practicable, three or more General Hospitals were grouped at one place into a single administrative and clinical organization known as a Hospital Center (usually with an attached Convalescent Camp).

Types of Hospitals:

Convalescent Camps were located in the vicinity of and were part of the Hospital Centers. They relieved the General Hospitals of the necessity for caring for patients who no longer required hospital treatment, but who were not yet fit for duty. In practice, such camps were equipped to accommodate 20% of the total capacity of the Hospital to which they belonged.

Convalescent Hospitals were included in the organization of a type Army. They were designed to care for cases who would probably fully recover and be ready for duty within the limit set by the Theater Surgeon (120 to 180 days), and who required little or no medical treatment other than observation and rehabilitation. The Hospital received its patients from the Evacuation Hospitals and Clearing Stations, and subsequently transferred them to a Replacement Center or returned them to an Evacuation Hospital. Normal capacity was 3,000 patients, but if necessary, installations could be expanded to accommodate 5,000 patients for a short period.

Evacuation Hospitals were mobile units designed to provide, near the front, facilities for major medical and surgical treatment of casualties, received from Division, Corps, and Army Clearing Stations. Their task was to combine and concentrate the evacuees in such numbers and at such location that mass evacuation by common carrier could be undertaken economically. They also provided the opportunity and facilities for the beginning of a definitive treatment, the sorting of casualties, the return of those men soon fit for duty, and for extended evacuation of certain patients to General Hospitals at some distance to the rear. Patients were supposed to be retained in the hospital from a few hours to a few weeks depending on the rate of admission, necessity for movement, available bed-capacity, and the overall tactical situation. Evacuation Hospitals were of two types: 400-bed semi-mobile and 750-bed mobile.

The Field Hospital was another type of medical installation. It was the last and largest divisional unit of the Medical Department in the chain of evacuation. It received casualties from the dressing station, and utilized all measures possible, under varying conditions, to best fit them for continued evacuation, usually to Evacuation Hospitals. Field Hospitals were usually located from 3 to 8 miles from the front line, depending upon such factors as the enemy range of fire, the roads, the fuel, the water, the presence of buildings, and the location of Evacuation Hospitals. Whenever possible, they were grouped in a village or at the confluence of roads from the sector served, for convenience both in the interchange of patients and for the ambulances. Distinctive features were their mobility and ability to operate three separate Hospital units (or Platoons), if necessary, at widely separated places. When operating separately, these Platoons each formed a complete small hospital.

Hospital Construction, somewhere in the ZI, 1943. Solid construction methods employed prefabricated concrete roof trusses. Major projects always involved Corps of Engineers personnel.

General Hospitals were standard establishments with a normal capacity of 1,000 patients (with expansion possibilities in case of emergency to 1,500 or 2,000) equipped to give definitive medical and surgical treatment to all cases. Once located, a General Hospital usually remained in that place throughout the period of operations (depending on the evolution of field and combat operations). These numbered Hospitals received their patients from Evacuation Hospitals located in the combat zone, who arrived by train, ambulance, or airplane. General Hospitals performed the most difficult and specialized procedures, and therefore had the most elaborate equipment in the Theater of Operations.

Hospital Centers were particularly advantageous because they permitted economy in MD personnel, simplified supply and evacuation problems and facilitated overall administration. These Centers consisted of a Headquarters and Service Company, a Central Laboratory, a Convalescent Camp, and a number of General Hospital units assigned to the group, all housed in permanent or temporary buildings or floored (concrete) tents with adequate sewage, water, and electrical facilities.

Station Hospitals rendered general medical and surgical treatment for those areas where there were sufficient military populations to justify their maintenance, but not sufficient to justify General Hospitals. They were usually located at most Posts, Camps, and Stations for hospitalization of local personnel. In the Zone of Interior, such Hospitals were housed in buildings and received names, while in the Communications Zone, they were set up in tentage or improvised housing, and here they were numbered. Bed capacities varied from 25 to 900.

Surgical Hospitals were mobile units designed primarily to furnish, as far forward as practicable, facilities for major surgical procedures for a limited number of serious injury cases, and to relieve Clearing Stations of non-transportable casualties. They even served as a substitute for Evacuation Hospitals in cases of emergency. Their operating teams were often used to reinforce other medical units.

Miscellaneous Hospitals

All-Negro Hospitals:
Since the Surgeon General was opposed to integration of African-American doctors and nurses with white professionals, there was no other option but to establish all-black wards in some hospitals, such as Ft. Bragg, N.C. and Cp. Livingston, La. These medical installations would only care for African-American patients. The Medical Department mostly employed its limited complement of African-American staff in the black wards of white Station Hospitals, while the majority of Negro personnel either served in Ambulance and Sanitary Companies, or in the Medical Detachments attached to segregated combat and support units!
In 1942, two all-Black Hospitals were operating, one at Ft. Huachuca, Ariz., run by the Army, and another at Tuskegee, Ala., run by the Air Corps. Nevertheless, in view of the need for more medical personnel, African-Americans were to serve in other hospitals too. Under pressure from groups and associations advocating more use of Black manpower, Army Service Forces Headquarters directed the Surgeon General to procure additional Negro personnel. From there on, African-American medical personnel were used on a non-segregated basis in 4 General Hospitals, 3 Regional Hospitals, and 9 Station Hospitals in the ZI, be it still under white command! Overseas, the 335th Station Hospital (CBI), the 268th Station Hospital (SWP), the 355th and 383d Station Hospitals (CBI and Philippines), and the 25th Station Hospital (Liberia), as well as the 168th Station Hospital (England) had their complement of Black nurses. By the end of 1944, the Medical Department employed 342 African-American Officers and 19,587 Enlisted Men and Women.

Army Hospitals for Civilians:
Towards the end of 1942, when the Ordnance Department established Storage Depots of explosives in isolated places, the overall lack of hospitals or sufficient medical facilities retarded civilian employee procurement and also increased absenteeism of the labour force! The failure to provide prompt medical care and treatment often resulted in prolonged illness. In February 1943, the Secretary of War, upon proposal of The Surgeon General, decided to finance construction of 6 Army Hospitals, under Service Command supervision, with a minimum of military personnel, in order to provide family medical care, additional gynaecologic and obstetric services, and requiring payment for services rendered. The system proved successful!

Aerial view of Ft. Davis and Station Hospital (in fact no more than a Dispensary), in the Panama Canal Zone, 1942. Before WW2 (1940), the Department operated 6 small Hospitals and 4 Dispensaries, which provided the necessary medical service. The very first permanent Army Hospitals only opened in September 1943 - in total only 3 new Hospitals were ever built, and temporary installations had to tackle any peak loads of patients.

Prisoner of War Hospitals:
Based on the Geneva Convention, basic policies for medical treatment of enemy PWs were jointly discussed and set up by the Provost Marshal General and the Surgeon General. Hospital accommodations and medical care for Prisoners of War were to be equal to those offered to United States troops, and enemy medical personnel or PW volunteers were invited to assist in the care of their fellow compatriots. For separate PW Camps in the ZI, the Army constructed Hospitals with beds for 4% of the inmates. For PWs held at Army Posts, hospital wards were to be surrounded by barbed wire fences. Such Prisoner of War Hospitals operated under Service Command supervision, and were very much similar to other Service Command Hospitals, except for the use of captured enemy medical personnel, and the use of enhanced security measures.

Port and Debarkation Hospitals:
Hospital installations were badly needed near Ports for the large numbers of transients: troops awaiting shipment overseas, or returning from overseas, as well as patients being returned to General Hospitals in the Zone of Interior for further treatment, and Port personnel. During 1942, and also in 1943, special Port Staging Area Hospitals were constructed for the care of transient troops and local personnel. These medical installations differed mainly from local Station Hospitals, because of their limited personnel and services, such as surgery, which was only set up to cope with possible emergencies.

WAAC / WAC Hospitals:
Certain Army Hospitals held ‘special’ wards reserved for hospitalization of service women. The expansion of female volunteers in May 1942, destined for the WAAC (or later WAC), and other Branches and Services, called for procurement of limited numbers of female physicians, contract surgeons, and commissioned staff to serve in hospitals where the WAAC (or other) patient load was expected to be high. As a result 3 Army Hospitals were chiefly occupied by female patients; they were Ft. Des Moines, Iowa – Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia – and Daytona Beach, Florida, all located near or at WAAC Training Centers.
In May 1943, the Surgeon General assigned a woman Medical Corps Officer to his Office to supervise the handling of medical problems peculiar to female personnel.