The Surgeon General furnished adequately trained and equipped Army Service Forces Hospital units for the Theaters of Operations, where numbered Station, Field, and General Hospitals became the most important medical installations. Meanwhile new Hospital Units were earmarked for special task forces and deployment to North Africa (Operation “Gymnast”), Northern Ireland (Operation “Magnet”), and England (Operation “Bolero”).īy March 15, 1943, the War Department had already shipped overseas, 140 Station, 27 General, 14 Field, 2 Convalescent, 3 Surgical, and 23 Evacuation Hospitals. Within the War Department, and among some elements of the SOS, such as the Quartermaster Corps and the Medical Department, functions, responsibilities, authority, control, and matters of activation, training, and supply became critical subjects for constant review among AGF and SOS staff, leading to disputes about general planning for Hospitalization and Evacuation! Directives were issued Jcompiling policies and procedures governing H & E, but were only finalized in November of the same year. In March 1942 the reorganization of the War Department, and the creation of three main Commands – Army Air Forces, Army Ground Forces, and Services of Supply (called ASF after March 1943), were to cause several conflicts within the United States Armed Forces. In the fall of 1941, the very first medical units were sent to Iceland.ĭuring the period January - July 1942, inclusive, a large number of Hospital Units moved overseas: 2 Evacuation, 2 Surgical, 4 General, 14 Station Hospitals went to Australia – 2 Evacuation, 2 General, and 2 Station Hospitals were shipped to the South Pacific – 2 Station Hospitals were transferred to the Central Pacific – 1 General and 1 Station Hospital went to Northern Ireland – 1 General Hospital to Iceland – 2 General and 3 Station Hospitals to England – and more later embarked for India and northwest Canada. John’s, Newfoundland in January, and other groups followed to Trinidad and Bermuda in April. Projects to garrison the Atlantic Bases got under way early in 1941 a first medical group was sent to St. The first US Army medical contingents were now about to enter the “European Theater of Operations”…įurnishing hospitalization facilities for overseas areas became another phase of the US War Department plans. on January 24, 1942, another organization was created, the United States Army Northern Ireland Force (USANIF). After the attack against Pearl Harbor, the War Department activated the Headquarters, United States Army Forces in the British Isles (USAFBI), the date was January 8, 1942, Chief Surgeon was Col.
Hawley (MC) was transferred to the United Kingdom to draft and prepare full plans for an American medical build-up and support in Northern Ireland and the British Isles.
Medical and sanitary conditions, hospital distribution, medical organization, evacuation of wounded, preventive medicine, number of beds, medical emergencies, all this information was of utmost importance to the USWD in preparation of medical planning. Anything that was deemed – nice to know, or necessary to know – was investigated, collected, and requested. Chaney (US Air Corps) who headed the delegation formerly designated “Special Observers Group” (SPOBS). The first US Army Military Mission to England set up its Headquarters in London, on May 19, 1941. Their task was to assist the British Ministry of Health in combating outbreaks of paratyphoid, scabies, and other diseases which were a constant threat in the crowded and bomb damaged cities. American medical help had already been sent in the form of a “Contagious Disease Treatment and Control Unit”, officially designated the American Red Cross – Harvard Field Hospital Unit including a laboratory, a 125-bed Hospital, and a number of mobile investigating teams. Bliss) to report on Hospitalization and Evacuation methods. Late 1940, the Medical Department dispatched an official Observer (Col.
US Military Observers were sent to Great Britain to keep abreast of British wartime technical developments and to study the overall British war effort (the United States was not yet at war). The initial objective was to establish Army Forces in the British Isles in order to protect them from a possible enemy invasion another objective was to relieve a number of British troops for operations in the Mediterranean, and to reinforce the Royal Air Force with aircraft and personnel. The European Theater of Operations which was to conduct the US Army’s largest and most complex land campaign of WW2 and complete the destruction of Nazi Germany, had rather modest beginnings! In agreement with its Allies, the United States Government decided to deal with ‘Germany first’ …