Navy Medicine July-August 1944
Jennifer Mitchum

In July, the U.S forces continued on toward the Philippines and Tokyo. Army troops landing at several points in New Guinea including Noemfoor Island in the Cape Sansapor area, and on Middleberg and Amsterdam Islands. Meanwhile the Saipan operation which began in June, was winding down with organized resistance ending 9 July. Taking Saipan proved more difficult than planners predicted with 16,525 American casualties.(1)

In addition to treating U.S. servicemen, Navy medical personnel on Saipan had to care for large
numbers of civilians and POWs. About 16,000 Japanese, Korean, Chamorro, and Kanaka natives were interned; 10 percent suffered from wounds and/or illnesses.(2) The death rate was over 30 percent.(3) In a letter to Surgeon General VADM Ross T. McIntire, ADM W. Chambers described the task. "This internees camp was one of the biggest problems from a medical standpoint as limited medical personnel from field units had to be diverted to this work," wrote Chambers. "All of this in addition to caring for our own and enemy prisoners of war wounded," he added.(4)

The Civilian Affairs Unit (CAU), consisting of a surgeon from the public health service and a pharmacist's mate first class, went ashore in June with field medical kits to care for civilians. Because there were so many in need of care, additional medical personnel joined CAU and helped the unit locate Japanese medical supplies that could be used in treating internees. In July, the Army set up a 500-bed hospital in the internment camp, but the facility did not suffice, for internees crowded the sick bay at a rate of 950 per day.(5) Many POWs received treatment aboard ships.

Tinian

On the morning of 24 July, marines on Saipan crossed the narrow strait and landed on the northern end of Tinian. Although met with light rifle and mortar fire, the troops soon established a beachhead. The Japanese had concentrated their defenses around Tinian Town on the southern end of the island. Medical
companies--each equipped with two 1-ton trucks, five jeep ambulances, and a reconnaissance jeep--went ashore and began rendering first-aid, evacuating wounded, and setting up facilities.(6) On 27 July, the Second and Fourth Medical battalions established a 1,250-bed surgical hospital.(7) Moreover, two LSTs (landing ship, tank) served as surgical hospitals until the fourth day.

Evacuation

Initially, Navy medical personnel evacuated casualties from the beach to LCVPs (landing craft, vehicle, personnel) and then to transports which carried them to Saipan. Subsequently, critically wounded were
transferred to the hospital ship USS Relief (AH-1), the hospital transport USS Tryon (APH-1); others were also taken to field hospitals. After the fourth day, high seas threatened seaward evacuation and air evacuation was inaugurated. Approximately 1,500 patients flew from Tinian's Ushi Point airfield to Saipan.(8)

Off-shore Struggle for Tinian

During the initial assault, enemy shore batteries pounded attacking vessels and scored many hits. USS Colorado (BB-45) suffered 22 hits within 15 minutes resulting in 241 casualties, with 43 dead and/or
missing.(9) One hit devastated the sick bay, injuring the senior medical officer.(10)

Crewmembers brought wounded to collecting stations. Many suffered from hemorrhages, compound fractures of the extremities, and soft tissue injuries. Doctors and corpsmen tried to control bleeding, checked

for shock, administered plasma, and splinted fractures. Medical personnel also applied petroleum jelly to burns and dusted lacerated soft tissue wounds with sulfanilamide powder before bandaging them. Subsequently, patients were transferred to emergency wards on the second deck.

Despite turmoil, the ship's crew performed admirably. As testament of their courage, there were reports that men who had had a hand or foot blown off, continued to man their stations instead of seeking medical treatment. Consequently, many of them bled to death.(11) That evening the severely wounded were
transferred to USS Tryon (APH-1) for definitive treatment.

Sanitation and Disease

Because of rapid troop advance and limited supplies and personnel, it was difficult for disease control units to institute effective sanitation measures. Although Tinian was free of malaria and filariasis vectors, the island was infested with flies and other insects. There were such vast hordes of flies that ships, anchored
offshore, reportedly fired directly at them to discourage their activity.(12) Flies preyed on food supplies resulting in the outbreak of suffering enteric diseases

Combat fatigue and other forms of neurosis also claimed many victims. Although he lacked
psychiatric training, Navy doctor Jack Ewing worked with patients on Tinian who had cracked under strain of battle. He commented about the causes of psychoneurosis saying, "There are many casualties in a war that have nothing to do with fighting or a fear of death. Sometimes worry and fear of what is happening at home can be worse than fear of battle."(13) After the war, Dr. Ewing became a psychiatrist and believed the war advanced medical knowledge in many ways. "There were new operational techniques and new medicines," he said adding, "And certainly society's understanding of mental health was advanced by fifty years."(14)

Those suffering from diseases such as dengue, dysentery, and combat fatigue totaled well over a
thousand in both the Fourth and Second Marine Divisions.(15) Moreover, several men had acquired malaria prior to the Tinian operation.

Tinian Secured

By 2 August, Tinian was secured. American casualties were considerably less than on Saipan with 290 killed, 1,515 wounded, and 24 missing. On the other side, 6,050 Japanese were killed and 255 captured. Navy medical casualties were comparable; 52 members of the Fourth Marine Division's medical complement became casualties.(16)

A total of 10,676 civilians were interned.(17) Navy medical personnel, assisted by native nurses, attempted to provide the best possible care with limited supplies and equipment. Thirty-two percent of those treated, however, died mainly from gun shot wounds but also from tuberculosis, eye diseases, helminthic infections, tetanus, pneumonia, gas gangrene, and malnutrition.(18)

Guam

In December 1941, the Japanese had wrested Guam from American control. Thirty-two months later the island would be the first captured U.S. territory liberated from the enemy. One hundred miles south of Saipan and Tinian, Guam was defended by a garrison of 19,000 men concealed in defenses which included dug-in artillery, bunkers, and underwater obstacles. Prior to committing troops, American sea and air forces heavily bombarded Guam.

On 21 July, troops went ashore on the northeast and west coasts of the island. Facing fierce mortar and machine gun fire, casualties piled up quickly. Beach party medical sections rapidly established first-aid and evacuation stations while battalion aid medical personnel set up near command posts, roads, trail, and behind natural barriers. With few jeep ambulances, Navy medical personnel often carried wounded over rugged
terrain to aid stations.

Evacuations

Casualties were transferred from shore activities to hospital ships, transports, LSTs, and other craft. Some LSTs functioned as surgical vessels and had liaison, resuscitation, and surgical teams aboard. Liaison teams communicated with beach dressings stations while the resuscitation teams diagnosed injuries and
dispensed initial shock treatment, and surgical parties rendered definitive treatment. Yet other LSTs, each staffed with a doctor and three corpsmen, operated as medical ships admitting mainly ambulatory, neurotic, and diseased patients.(19) Less than an hour after troops went ashore, casualties were brought aboard
transports.(20)

The hospital transport USS Rixey (APH-3) lay off the coast of Guam serving as a floating field
hospital. The third and last of its class, Rixey was staffed with about 10 medical specialists and over 60
corpsmen. The vessel had several operating rooms including those for orthopedic, general surgery, and ear, nose, and throat procedures. Acute wards were located in the ship's hold and rooms with three to five tiers of bunks served as ambulatory wards. Casualties received definitive treatment aboard the vessel before being transferred to other transports for further evacuation to Saipan.

Despite its unique features, Rixey was no luxury ship and Navy medical personnel worked under strenuous conditions. "The heat was terrible," recalled CDR Anthony De Palma, who was an orthopedic surgeon aboard Rixey. According to De Palma, temperatures sometime reached 106 degrees Fahrenheit down in the hold.

"We used to work in our skivvies...because it was so hot. The sick bay country was just inadequate but still we were taking care of hundreds and hundreds of casualties there." He performed 47 amputations during the Guam invasion.(21)

Hospitalization

In the northern area, two medical companies established the Third Marine Division field hospital. First, the hospital was set up in a ravine; later it was moved to the pre-war U.S. Naval Hospital at Agana. Medical personnel often took up arms to defend themselves and their patients against enemy attacks. Once, the doctors, corpsmen, and ambulatory patients held off the Japanese until marines arrived to drive them off.

On southern beaches, the Third Corps Medical Battalion landed the afternoon of 23 July. Forced to dig in, they crowded into a small area for 3 nights before establishing a 250-bed field hospital near Agat.(22)

Sanitation

Because Guam had been a U.S. possession prior to the war, Navy medical personnel were familiar with the island's health and sanitation problems. Although free from malaria-bearing mosquitos, Guam was
infested with dengue vectors, house flies, and other pests like crab louse, ticks, and mites. Congested,

fly-infested native dwellings were breeding grounds for tuberculosis, yaws, leprosy, and typhoid. Clean water was also a major concern, for the island lacked natural purification processes and its sewage system was
inadequate.

Disease control personnel, arriving 2 days after the invasion, began instituting sanitary control
measures.(23) As early as 23 July, purification units were in operation, but water for bathing and other
external needs remained scarce.

The Marines announced on 10 August that organized resistance had ceased. Although 11,000 Japanese had been killed, about 9,000 remained in small, isolated pockets scattered throughout the rugged terrain.(24) Some would survive to menace Americans until the end of the war. U.S. casualties totaled about 1,400
and about 7,100 wounded. Of those killed, four were Navy doctors and 40 were hospital corpsmen.(25) Victory in Guam completed the Marianas campaign.

European Theater

In July, Allied troops pressed toward Paris in what proved to be a very difficult and bloody struggle. The fighting in the Norman hedgerow country slowed the advance. One key to the European operation was opening a deep-water port to provide a supply conduit for the Allies. Therefore, on 25 June, British and American battleships arrived off the port of Cherbourg and began shelling German fortifications in support of attacking American ground troops. But in response, enemy shore guns took a toll. USS Texas (BB-35) suffered at least 10 hits with one slamming into her fire control tower killing the helmsman and wounding almost all personnel on the navigation bridge.(26) Similarly, USS O'Brien (DD-725) suffered a direct hit which killed 13 and wounded 19 others.(27) After 3 hours of intense shelling, however, Cherbourg fell, except for a few isolated forts.

Casualty Care

By 5 July (D+29 days), American casualties totaled 23,377.(28) Most of these casualties were
evacuated from the beaches. Subsequently, most casualties were transported via LSTs to medical facilities in England. One facility was U.S. Naval Base Hospital No. 12 in Netley, England, which initially served as a receiving hospital. Doctors and nurses at Netley had worked long hours removing bullets and shrapnel,
performing debridement, and administering life saving drugs like penicillin. The casualty flow to Netley decreased as the Army established medical facilities in France.

Southern France

On 15 August, U.S. Army troops went ashore in the Toulon-Cannes area of the Mediterranean coast. Initial casualties were relatively light.(29) The Army cared for casualties on land and subsequently transferred them to Navy evacuation stations. After rendering first-aid, Navy medical personnel evacuated casualties
to transports and hospital ships which transported them to medical facilities in Naples, Italy, and Oran, Algeria.(30) After 41 days ashore, the Navy had suffered a little over 300 casualties.(31)

Further Back in the War

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Foward in to the War

References

1. U.S. Navy Medical Department Administrative History, 1941-1945, Vol. I: Narrative History, chap. 8, p 28.

2. Ibid., p 41.

3. Ibid., p 42.

4. Ibid., p 41.

5. Ibid., p 42.

6. Ibid., p 47.

7. Ibid., p 49.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid., p 51 & 53.

10. Ibid., p 51.

11. Ibid., p 53.

12. Ibid., p 55.

13. Blassingame W. Medical Corps Heroes of World War II, p 81-82.

14. Ibid., p 82.

15. U.S. Navy Medical Department Administrative History, 1941-1945, Vol. I: Narrative History, chap.8,p51.

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid., p 56.

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid., p 63.

20. Ibid., p 65.

21. De Palma A, CDR, MC, USN. Interview by Jan K. Herman, 24 May 1994. BUMED Archives.

22. U.S. Navy Medical Department Administrative History, 1941-1945, Vol. I: Narrative History, chap8, p 66.

23. Ibid., p 60.

24. Forrestel EP. Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, USN: A Study in Command, p 161.

25. Medical Department United States Navy in World War II, Vol. II: A Compilation of the Killed, Wounded, and Decorated Personnel, p 1-19.

26. Karig W, Burton E, Freeland S. Battle Report: The Atlantic War, p 368. Dictionary of American Fighting Ships, Vol. VII: T-V, p 117.

27. Dictionary of American Fighting Ships, Vol. V: N-Q, p 132.

28. History of the Medical Department of the U.S. Navy in World War II, Vol. I: A Narrative and Pictorial Volume, p 125.

29. Karig W, Burton E, and Freeland, S. Battle Report The Atlantic War, (pictorial), p 366-367.

30. U.S. Navy Medical Department Administrative History, 1941-1945, Vol. I: Narrative History, chap18, p 4.

31. Ibid., p 7.