Navy Medicine November-December 1944
Joseph Frechette
During the closing months of 1944 the Allies continued to tighten their grip on the Axis. The war in the Atlantic was relatively quiet until the end of December when the newer U-boats equipped with snorkels mounted a few raids but none on the scale seen at the height of the Battle for the Atlantic.(1)
In Europe, British and American forces continued to advance on Germany and were only delayed by the last ditch offensive which Hitler opened in the Ardennes on 16 Dec. The attack, later called the Battle of the Bulge, was unsuccessful and cost the Germans men and equipment that were badly needed on the Eastern
Front to slow the Russian advance.(2)
In the Pacific, the Japanese Navy was still reeling from the devastating losses it had suffered in the recent Battle of Leyte Gulf. Meanwhile the fighting for Leyte continued until 10 Dec after an additional
landing on 7 Dec at Ormoc Bay. On 15 Dec Mindoro was occupied in preparation for the liberation of Luzon. In addition, plans were well under way for the coming invasion of Iwo Jima.
Continued Operations at Leyte
During the fighting on Leyte Navy medical care was generally confined to the care of the wounded on the beaches and general evacuation. While on the island the Army units had their own medical personnel and supplies.(3)
The Navy Medical Department also participated in providing civilian care on Leyte wherever possible. Filipinos came to the aid stations in large numbers and were treated for chronic ailments such as coughs,
tropical ulcers, gastrointestinal disturbances, and choleric of infancy as well as injuries resulting from combat. Several pregnancy cases were also reported. One case was sent to an APA for delivery; the chaplain
christened the baby with the ship's name. Planners later decided that in the future separate civilian medical
facilities should be established early in a campaign. However, the care given on Leyte was generally a
considerable improvement over the previous Pacific campaigns.(4)
Throughout the campaign for Leyte kamikaze raids continued to plague the U.S. ships, and the fleet's medical personnel had to meet the challenge of this serious threat. During the Ormoc bay landings on 7 Dec four separate attacks missed USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) while USS Maryland (BB-46) was not so lucky. A plane carrying a 500-pound bomb struck the port side of turret one and penetrated down to the armored second deck wounding all in the area as well as destroying the sick bay. However, such an occurrence had been
anticipated and as a precaution medical supplies had been distributed throughout the ship. In addition, the
junior officers and warrant officers' wardrooms were converted into a new sick bay. The more seriously injured cases were transferred via LST-171 to a hospital ship 15 hours after the crash.(5)
The evacuation of personnel from stricken ships by LSTs became common during the fleet actions around Leyte. USS Mahan (DD-364) was damaged and scuttled during the Ormoc Bay landings and her
casualties were taken to USS Mercy (AH-8) by LST-464. The casualties of USS Hughes (DD-410), hit 10 Dec, were first transferred to USS Laffey (DD-724) and the next day to a hospital ship by LST.(6)
Preparation for Iwo Jima
Plans for the February invasion of Iwo Jima had begun as early as October and continued apace. The U.S. wanted to establish a base on Iwo Jima for fighter planes to escort the B-29 Superfortresses operating from the Marianas on their bombing missions over Japan. Iwo Jima would also provide a way station for returning bombers crippled or low on fuel.(7)
The island's terrain was thought to prohibit tactical surprise, limiting the marines to a frontal assault. Aerial reconnaissance and other intelligence showed that the island was heavily defended by an entrenched garrison. Therefore, planners expected a 20 percent casualty rate as well as a number of enemy
and civilian casualties.
Medical representatives from the Navy, Marine Corps, and participating amphibious units met to discuss tactical and logistical problems in dealing with the expected heavy casualties.(8)
Navy medical personnel formulated evacuation, hospitalization and supply policies and plans. Each medical company and corps battalion would carry the necessary equipment to construct a 144-bed hospital. Approximately 3,600 beds would thus be available ashore, twice the number of the Marianas campaign. The Eighth Field Depot also planned to stock enough cots, tents, blankets, and mess gear to support another 1,500 bed facility.(9)
For evacuation purposes at least one special, medically equipped and staffed LST(H) would be present at each of the four invasion beaches. The medical personnel aboard the LST(H)s would conduct preliminary examinations of the casualties and then transfer them to transports and hospital ships for more definitive
treatment.(10)
Initially, the complement of these LST(H)s was to be 4 surgeons and 27 corpsmen although it was later raised to 5 surgeons and 35 corpsmen. In addition, two hospital ships and a hospital transport were to be in the vicinity to evacuate patients to Saipan and Guam which had 1,500 and 3,500 beds respectively. Air
evacuation would also be used when it became feasible and medical personnel and supplies would be available on each plane.(11)
In preparation for the landin, planners include preventive measures. All personnel were inoculated against typhus, cholera, and plague as well as the usual immunizations. Clothing was impregnated with DDT powder against lice and mites and occupiedareas would be sprayed with DDT by carrier aircraft initially and later by land based planes.(12)
The medical supply plan included an allowance of medical supplies for thirty days as well as plans for emergency resupply by air if necessary. Moreover, with the establishment of the Whole Blood Distribution Center #1 on Guam it was possible to have a blood center available for the first time at the target area. LST(H)-929 was designated to carry the blood bank for distribution to the forces during the early stages of the operation.(13)
The POWs of Bilibid
The plight of the American POWs at Bilibid Prison in Manila had become desperate. Since the fall of the Philippines they had had to cope with inconceivable hardships stemming from malnutrition, disease, and
the brutality of their captors. As the American forces closed, the Japanese sent drafts of prisoners to the home islands to work as forced labor. Demands for more troops had depleted Japanese mines and factories of their
civilian work force. Moreover, because of the devastation U.S. submarines had inflicted on Japanese merchant shipping, the detail of separate ships solely for the transport of POWs had been suspended. POWs were now transported in unmarked cargo vessels, a blatant violation of international agreements regarding the treatment of prisoners of war. This occurred despite the protest of CDR Thomas Hayes, the chief medical officer of Bilibid Prison.(14)
On 13 Dec, 225 men from the Bilibid hospital unit, including CDR Hayes, set out on what would become a nightmarish ordeal. The prisoners were part of a 1,619 man draft being sent to Japan on what became known as the "hell ships". Nearly all the Navy medical personnel of Bilibid were part of this draft but for one physician, one pharmacist, and six hospital corpsmen.(15)
The prisoners occupied the hold of the ship, Oryoku Maru, a Japanese transport under the command command of LT Junsaburo Toshimo who along with his interpreter, Shusuke Wada, had developed a reputation for sadism at the Davao penal colony. Commanding the guards was Kazutane Aihara, nicknamed "Air Raid"
because he would sneak up on prisoners and beating them from behind. The men were horribly overcrowded in the hold. Insufficient food and water, and the lack of oxygen and proper sanitation exacerbated the already wretched condition.(16)
The next day U.S. carrier aircraft strafed the Oryoku Maru's. Hayes and the other members of the medical staff were ordered to care for the wounded Japanese but denied permission to care for the wounded Americans. With its steering gear wrecked the ship ran aground 300 hundred yards off the Olongapo Naval
Station. On 15 Dec the prisoners were ordered to swim for shore. While they were being offloaded, U.S.
flyers unaware the men were POWs, again strafed the ship. The approximately 1,350 prisoners who survived were then taken inland to a tennis court where they were held in the open.(17)
There they were granted a few spoonfuls of raw rice each day and their only supply of water was a single small faucet. Sanitation was wholly insufficient. Many of the men had dysentery and were forced to
wallow in their own filth.
With nothing in the way of medical equipment or supplies, the wounded could be given only the most rudimentary of care. Doctors and corpsmen performed surgery such as the amputation of a marine's arm with knives and razor blades.(18)
During the 20th and 21st of December their captors housed the men in a jail and abandoned moviehouse in San Fernando Pampunga. On Christmas Eve they were transported by rail to San Fernando Del Union. The wounded were forced to ride atop the train cars to discourage air attack.(19)
On the 27th sadistic Japanese guards loaded the surviving POWs upon two ships, Brazil Maru and Enoura Maru to continue the delayed journey to Japan. Food and water were still issued in inhumanely small quantities. Moreover, the men were beginning to feel the effects of the colder weather; they were still clad in
the light clothing they'd worn in the Philippines. PhM2c C.J. Peart recorded the wretched conditions aboard the Brazil Maru in his diary entry for 29 December:
Still underway and obviously going due north, judging from the cold which is increasing. Intermittent naps during the day, otherwise chatting-- yes, about chow. Practically no food at all today, and a very limited amount of water. The rice we get, if and when we get it, usually
consists of the leftovers from our Taiwanese guards' rations, and since we've only got about six Taiwan guards it doesn't go very far among over 300 plus.(20)
The ships put in at Takao, Formosa on 31 Dec for what would be a fateful 12-day break in the voyage. They were the only ships out of a convoy of six to escape destruction at the hands of U.S. subs that prowled these waters. However, the ordeal of these men was far from over and of the 1,619 that began the journey only 165 would survive the war.
Airborne Shipment of Whole Blood
On 16 Nov aerial shipment of whole blood to the Pacific began. The first load consisted of 165 pints and shipments followed daily.(21) The transport of what was to be an average of 1,000 pints daily was made possible by a refrigerated container developed by the Naval Medical Research Institute. This prevented the decomposition of the blood in the air due to high temperatures and rough movement.(22)
Hospital Ships
The hospital ships USS Solace (AH-5) and USS Samaritan (AH-10) were stationed at Ulithi Atoll
during this time serving as base hospitals receiving casualties from the fast carrier groups.(23)
They were later joined by USS Bountiful (AH-9) which had been transporting wounded from Leyte to Hollandia, Manus, and New Guinea.(24) On 1 Nov USS Refuge (AH-11) set sail from New York for duty with the Seventh Fleet. She arrived at San Pedro Bay, Leyte 24 Dec becoming the only hospital ship in the war to rate campaign ribbons from all three theaters of war having previously served in both the Atlantic and Mediterranean.(25)
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References
1. Morison SE. The Atlantic Battle Won, p 325-330.
2. Keegan J. The Second World War, p 440-447.
3. U.S. Navy Medical Department Administrative History, 1941-1945, Vol. I: Narrative History, chap. 10, p 4.
4. Ibid., p 10.
5. Ibid., p 16-17.
6. Ibid., p 17.
7. Ibid., chap. 11, p 1.
8. History of the Medical Department of the United States Navy in WWII, Vol. I: A Narrative and Pictorial Volume, p 89.
9. Ibid.
10. U.S. Navy Medical Department Administrative History, 1941-1945, Vol. I: Narrative History, chap 11,p 4.
11. Ibid., p 5-6.
12. Ibid., p 6.
13. Ibid., p 8.
14. Patton K. Bilibid Account of Captivity at Manila, PI 1942-1945, p 193.
15. Ibid., p 198.
16. Crews J, Hostetter R. "Prisoners' Voyage of Doom," Hospital Corps Quarterly; 1948 21(3), p 21-24.
17. Ibid., p 26-30.
18. Ibid., p 31.
19. Peart C. Bilibid Journal 13 Dec. 1944-19 Oct. 1945, p 5-6.
20. Ibid., p 7.
21. Bumed Newsletter; 1944 4(12), p 24.
22. "Whole Blood and Plasma," Hospital Corps Quarterly; 1945 18(5), p 28.
23. Daly HC. The USS Solace Was There, p 575.
24. Ships Named Henderson, p 6.
25. Wolff CA. Hospital Ship Refuge (AH-11).