Navy Medicine March-April 1945
Joseph Frechette
Throughout March and April of 1945 the Allies continued to hammer the Axis closer to defeat. The only ray of hope for Germany and Japan in these 2 months was the death of President Roosevelt, but his loss did not cause the Allies to waver.
Germany's situation was particularly bleak. The twisted regime of the Third Reich was clearly in its death throes. That fact was clear to everyone but its mad leader. Hitler still dreamed of eventual victory or, failing that, a legacy of a devastated and thoroughly decimated Germany.
Early in March Anglo-American forces swept aside what remained of the Wehrmacht in the Rhineland and on the 7th captured the famous bridge at Remagen virtually intact.(1) The Rhineland campaign cost the Nazis approximately 250,000 POWs and 60,000 killed or wounded, effectively eliminating the German army in the west. After this defeat the Wehrmacht had insufficient troops to defend the east bank of the Rhine.(2)
Eisenhower's forces advanced quickly after crossing the Rhine and reached the Elbe by the end of April. On 25 April American patrols met Russian detachments near Torgau, the first contact between the Eastern and Western Fronts.(3)
In the east the Soviets, having overrun East Prussia and Poland, advanced along the Oder-Niesse front and reached Berlin on 22 April. Eight days later Hitler shot himself and left his chosen successor, Admiral Doenitz, to face the bleak task of surrendering a completely prostrate nation.
The Japanese position was not yet so grim as that of Germany but it was rapidly deteriorating under Allied pressure. In March and April the Empire of the Sun had to contend with the Allied reconquest of Burma, continuing American operations on Luzon and Iwo Jima, the invasion of Okinawa, the near
elimination of its merchant fleet at the hands of American submarines, the helplessness of what was left of the Imperial Navy, and the B-29 incendiary attacks that were reducing the cities and industry of Japan to ashes.(4)
Continuing Operations on Iwo Jima
By the beginning of March the Marines of the V Amphibious Corps had taken most of the island, pushing the Japanese defenders to the north and securing both airfields. Organized resistance ended on 11 March after American assaults had compressed the Japanese lines into the northeastern corner of the island and Iwo Jima was declared secure. However, resistance on the individual level did not cease entirely and
several weeks of mopping up lay ahead.(5) The fierce Japanese defense resulted in an average casualty rate of about 1,000 per day. Despite the high casualty rates suffered by the landing force, medical personnel were able to maintain efficient and coordinated evacuation procedures. By 24 March sea and air evacuation units had transported 17,677 wounded to safety.(6) APAs received most of the wounded from the surgically equipped LST(H)s that served as evacuation control ships at the beaches. Generally the APAs withdrew out to sea at night, occasionally operating close to shore under the cover of a smoke screen.(7)
The hospital ships stationed at Iwo Jima were Samaritan (AH-10), Solace (AH-5), Bountiful (AH-9). USS Pinkney (APH-2), a transport with advanced medical facilities and USS Ozark (LSV-2) aided in the evacuation. By 21 March they had evacuated 4,879 patients on shuttle trips to Saipan and Guam.(8)
Air evacuation began on 3 March. Transports arrived with whole blood from Guam and returned to the Marianas loaded down with wounded. Originally planned only to handle 350 patients per week, the high
casualty rate and a shortage of space aboard ship intensified operations; as many as 200 patients were evacuated by air each day. Before an evacuation plane left the battle zone, an air evacuation unit consisting of two flight surgeons and several hospital corpsmen screened all patients. At times, aerial transport was the only way off the island due to rough sea and surf conditions or lack of facilities afloat.
Originally a 15-day evacuation policy had been envisioned but was discarded as simply impractical. Heavy casualties and the lack of space for convalescent camps did not permit the segregation of the wounded who could return to duty after 15 days from the more seriously wounded.(9)
Mercifully there were no outbreaks of disease on Iwo Jima. The use of DDT and disposal of the dead as quickly as possible as well as the establishment of well policed latrines and galleys kept the insect
population to a minimum. Additionally all drinking water was either brought ashore or distilled on the beach.(10)
However, the absence of disease does lead to the shocking conclusion that nearly every one of the 24,891 American casualties, including the 6,821 killed, as well as almost the entire 21,000 man Japanese
garrison suffered their injuries at the hands of another human being. These heavy casualties that would have been considered appalling for disease infested jungle campaigns fought in the southern islands of the Pacific were indicative of the increasing ferocity of the war as the desperate Japanese fought viciously and to the death before the onslaught of the advancing Americans.(11) Casualties among medical personnel were no less severe than those of the front line troops on Iwo Jima. Division medical personnel suffered 25 percent
casualties overall and in one division alone casualties exceeded 50 percent in each of six battalions.(12)
Recommendations following the operation included: the removal of medical officers from forward aid stations where they only had time to perform first aid and could be replaced by corpsmen, the training of replacement corpsmen more adequately for the front lines, provision of weasels to be used as ambulances because of their all-terrain capability, the supply of serum albumin increased and that of plasma decreased due to albumin's efficacy and smaller bulk, the replacement of the cumbersome carbines issued the corpsmen with pistols, and an increase in the number of litter bearers. On a somewhat humorous note it was also
recommended that stocks of medicinal brandy be increased sufficiently to provide each man ashore with one bottle each day.(13)
Flight Nurses
On 3 March a young flight nurse, ENS Jane Kendeigh, made history on Iwo Jima. She was aboard the first plane to land for aerial evacuation on the recently secured airfield, becoming the first flight nurse in
history to set foot upon a battlefield.(14)
Before landing, the R-4D transport plane that she was travelling in was forced to circle the airfield for 90 minutes while an offshore bombardment was in progress.(15) Described in a press release as "108 pounds of green eyed charm and efficiency", ENS Kendeigh was also the first flight nurse to land on Okinawa.
ENS Kendeigh was part of the first class of nurses that finished flight indoctrination 22 Jan 1945 at Alameda Naval Air Station, CA. Training lasted approximately 6 weeks and, after some transcontinental flights with wounded, the first nurses went to the Pacific, arriving on Guam in early February. Each flight
team consisted of one nurse and one corpsman. The flight surgeon assigned to each squadron and several pharmacists mates normally set up evacuation clearing stations next to the airfields where patients could be collected, screened, and prepared for flight. Once in the air the nurses was responsible for all patients
aboard, and fed and cared for them with the aid of a corpsman.(16)
Flight nurses generally served on evacuation planes flying from battle areas to forward bases like Guam, from Guam to Pearl Harbor, and finally from Pearl Harbor back to the continental United States. Nurses were rotated between combat and non-combat flights and scheduled so that they did not exceed 100 hours of flight time per month.(17)
Assault on Okinawa
On 1 April, 1945, Easter Sunday, the newly formed Tenth Army under the command of LGEN Simon Bolivar Buckner hit the beach on Okinawa. The landing force included over 1,200 ships and 180,000
soldiers and marines rivaling the size of the Normandy invasion. Only 350 miles southwest of Japan and capable of supporting several airfields as well as the staging grounds for a large number of troops, Okinawa was to be a stepping stone for the envisioned invasion of the Japanese homeland.(18)
The Japanese commander, LGEN Ushijima's strategy precluded defending the beaches in the face of overwhelming American naval gunfire and air support. Instead he allowed the invaders ashore. The bulk of his forces remained entrenched in the south of the island based near the town of Shuri. Ushijima expected that the unprecedented numbers of kamikaze aircraft assembled for the defense of the island would cripple the American fleet and he could then defeat the isolated invasion force in a decisive battle.(19)
By 30 April American forces had secured the northern and central portions of Okinawa as well as
several of the surrounding islands. However they were now up against the incredibly strong Shuri Line in the south. Much hard fighting had to be done before Okinawa was declared secure on 21 June. The cost was frightful, the United States suffered 49,151 casualties of whom 12,520 were killed, 36 ships sunk and 368 damaged. The Japanese had 117,472 casualties the vast majority of whom were killed. They also lost and 7,830 aircraft.(20)
Due to the lack of opposition at the landing beaches and the rapid seizure of airfields, the establishment of medical units ashore and the evacuation of casualties progressed smoothly in the opening weeks of the
campaign. Plans called for the establishment of field hospitals for both the First and Sixth Marine Divisions. The III Amphibious corps received two evacuation hospitals to provide specialist care and assist in casualty evacuation. Eight LST(H)s were equipped as beach evacuation control vessels and six hospital ships, two APAs, and two APHs were on hand to receive casualties.(21)
The First Marine Division converted amphibious tractors into mobile operating rooms. They could be blacked out more easily during the night and allowed the surgeon to work in a well lit, sterile, armored
operating theater.(22)
Evacuation was sometimes complicated by the primitive and bumpy nature of the roads and
amphibious DUKWs and weasels had to be used to transport casualties over difficult terrain. Nevertheless, the Sixth Marine Division reported that transport time to a field hospital never exceeded 5 hours and normally was
only 2 hours.(23)
Air evacuation began in early April. While hospital and transport ships evacuated the majority of the casualties, aerial transport accounted for the evacuation of more than 11,000 casualties ensuring that local
hospitals were not overtaxed.(24)
The U.S. military government directed medical care and evacuation of the civilian population. Forward medical units gave emergency first aid to civilians and sent them to military government installations. There were many cases of self-inflicted and family inflicted wounds, mainly slashes to the throat, among women and children. Many civilians attempted suicide rather than risk torture by American forces. The
merciful attention they received apparently astonished many of the victims.(25)
Throughout the early stages of the campaign Japanese kamikaze attacks inflicted the worst casualties the fleet had experienced in the entire war. The ships of the Fifth Fleet had prepared by dispersing medical supplies and dressing stations throughout individual ships. Moreover entire crews were now trained in
casualty evacuation. However, these preparations could not cope with suicide attacks made directly against small ships. Medical personnel were often forced to render aid when and where they could since often there were no safe areas to establish dressing stations.(26)
Nor were hospital ships immune to attacks by kamikazes. A kamikaze struck the Comfort (AH-6) on 28 April killing 29 killed and wounding 33. On the same day Pinkney (APH-2) was also hit amidships
resulting in 22 killed, 11 wounded, and 19 missing. Despite these attacks the hospital ships continued to carry out their mission and maintained regular shuttle trips to the Marianas.(27)
The Haven Class
On 24 April 1945, Tranquility (AH-14) was commissioned. She was the first of the Haven class which were to be the most modern and well equipped hospital ships the navy had yet acquired. The 15,000-ton ships were the first fully air conditioned ships in the Navy and had a speed of 17 1/2 knots. There was space for
802 patients and a complement of 58 officers, 30 nurses, 24 chief petty officers, 230 crew members, and 238 hospital corpsmen.(28)
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References
1. Esposito V. The West Point Atlas of Foreign Wars. Vol. II, sec. 2, map 65.
2. Ibid., map 66.
3. Ibid., maps 68-71.
4. Van der Vat D. The Pacific Campaign, p 371-389.
5. Ibid., p 380-381.
6. History of the Medical Department of the United States Navy in World War II, Vol. I: A Narrative and Pictorial Volume, p 93-94.
7. Ibid., p 98.
8. Ibid., p 99.
9. Ibid., p 100.
10. U.S. Navy Medical Department Administrative History, 1941-1945,Vol. I: Narrative History, chap.10,p22.
11. Cowdrey A. Fighting for Life, p 214-216.
12. U.S. Navy Medical Department Administrative History, 1941-1945, Vol.I: Narrative History, chap11, p65.
13. Action Report, CT-28, Iwo Jima Operation. Annex King; Action Report, 1st Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division. Annex King; Action Report, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division. Annex King; Action Report, 3rd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division. Annex King.
14. DeWitt G. First Flight Nurse on a Pacific Battlefield, p 1.
15. Ibid., p 3.
16. Army and Navy Nurses in World War II, p 26.
17. Ibid., p 27.
18. Spector R. The Eagle Against the Sun, p 532.
19. Ibid., p 533.
20. Esposito V. The West Point Atlas of Foreign Wars. Vol. II, sec II, map 165.
21. History of the Medical Department of the United States Navy in World War II, Vol. I: A Narrative and Pictoral Volume, p 106.
22. Ibid., p 110.
23. Ibid., p 111.
24. Ibid., p 113.
25. U.S. Navy Medical Department Administrative History, 1941-1945,Vol.I: Narrative History, chap.12, p18.
26. The History of the Medical Department of the United States Navy in World War II, Vol. I: A Narrative and Pictoral Volume, p 108.
27. Ibid., p 109.
28. "Six Hospital Ships to Join Navy Soon," New York Times, April 19, 1945.