by Ray Lambert
There were also evacuation hospitals, which received patients in less need of immediate care—often including shock victims and men with severe battle fatigue. Patients here would then go to general hospitals or replacement units, awaiting reassignment.
Care could be rendered at any stage, and it was always directed by members of the medical department who followed procedures developed by that department.
The collecting and clearing stations, the intermediate links in the system, were organized as part of the division itself. A battalion responsible for these stations—generally there would be two collecting and one clearing per division—would have about 460 men, including 34 officers and a chaplain. While called stations, these units and their facilities could and did render care as well as transport. The medical personnel there were part of the medical department, but they were assigned to the division as part of its organic units.
It’s probably a lot more confusing on paper than it was in practice. The system brought treatment closer to the front lines and streamlined the process of getting the wounded to the hospital. The doctors especially seem to have moved around as needed. Overall, there would be roughly a thousand medical people in a division, with half in the assigned unit—technically called the medical battalion—and the other half in the medical detachment. Throughout the war, Ray was part of the latter.
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What did the medical department treat?
Battle wounds get the most attention in histories of the department and the war, and for good reason: the most severe were acute and life threatening. But a good percentage of care involved what we might think of as mundane ailments, everything from a common cold to dysentery.
As Ray explains, trench foot and related diseases were an occupational hazard for troops who made seaborne landings in that era. Malaria and typhus were also a big hazard in combat, especially in the Mediterranean region, where sanitation was not advanced and the warm climate invited all sorts of problems.
Venereal disease was a major concern throughout the army, just as it has been probably since armies were first raised. Part of the treatment was education; the medical department produced numerous pamphlets and movies for the troops on a wide range of health topics. The general reception of these was about what you would expect, though probably no worse than the topics get today in the average high school health class.
There’s no doubt that the medical department saved a lot of lives, far more than would have been expected had it not evolved after World War I and even the start of World War II. There were several primary reasons; medical advances were the most important.
Plasma, though sometimes impractical to administer and in short supply near the front lines, was a major lifesaver. It could be more easily transported and stored than whole blood, therefore allowing more patients to be stabilized or treated near the battlefield. X-ray machines allowed for better and quicker diagnoses. Rapid evacuation to what today we would consider advanced emergency trauma centers and to large surgical facilities improved survival rates as well.
The medical department’s results were also due to increases in the amount of education medics and others received. When Ray first joined the army, medics were being taught little more than rudimentary first aid. His six-month stint in the Denver hospital was a relatively unique and new idea at the time. By war’s end, schooling and training was specialized for medics, just as it was for “regular” infantrymen.
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Soldiers who were wounded in battle weren’t always in dire straits. Most probably didn’t bother to report minor wounds. It was common for medics to shrug off shrapnel wounds that didn’t keep them from doing their jobs, and the same was probably true for most other units.
If you were treated at the battalion aid station and didn’t require hospitalization, there was a good chance that you would simply walk back to your unit. If you were taken for further treatment, though, you might have to be very lucky to make it back to that unit, even if your injuries weren’t severe.
During much of the war, the army used a replacement system that would take soldiers who recovered from minor wounds and use them as replacements wherever they were needed. While from the command’s point of view this made sense, from the soldier’s point of view, it was one of the worst things that could happen. He had left his friends behind and now had to fit in with an entirely different group.
Many in the army railed against the system, including General Allen, who put his objections in writing.
Appendix B:
Battle Fatigue, Psychoneurosis, and PTSD in World War II
We tend to think of post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD as a “modern” ailment, one afflicting soldiers and veterans in our current era, starting with Vietnam. But intense combat has affected warriors probably since the species evolved.
There are plenty of historical and literary accounts describing the effects of prolonged exposure to war. From the Sumerian epic Gilgamesh, written over four thousand years ago, to poems like Wilfred Owen’s “Mental Cases,” written in the middle of World War I, the effects of combat have been recorded, discussed, and debated for millennia. What is now diagnosed as PTSD is the most extreme example, but many soldiers whose symptoms do not rise to that level of diagnosis—which still carries a stigma—have had trouble readjusting to “normal” life after returning home.
In World War II, extreme cases of what were commonly called “battle fatigue” were classified as psychoneuroses by the army. Patients were extremely anxious and became “emotionally incapacitated” under stress. The men George Patton was alleged to have slapped would likely have fallen under such diagnoses.
The army’s standard treatment of all battle fatigue in World War II was a return to techniques used in World War I. Psychiatrists at forward evacuation hospitals met and evaluated the men. The goal was to return them to full combat duty as quickly as possible; this was thought to help them recover. Various statistics show that, depending on the time and place, and the availability of beds, somewhere between 25 and 70 percent were returned.
During and after the war, the army studied psychoneurosis, trying to discover the cause. One of the most interesting findings was that many cases involved experienced NCOs—so many, in fact, that the researchers came to call it the “old sergeant’s syndrome.” An extraordinary number of experienced NCOs had broken down under the stress of continuous combat. While in many cases the symptoms were temporary—trembling during a shelling, being unable to make a decision or even move—the men had to be moved from their posts because they could no longer be counted on. Other symptoms included depression and survivor’s guilt.
The only common factor seemed to be length of service in direct combat; ability or education before the onset of symptoms seemed to be irrelevant.
The studies after the war raised considerable doubts about whether sending the men back into combat really worked. But more advanced study and different treatment procedures lay well in the future. The words “battle fatigue” continued to carry a stigma; lesser cases were hardly ever recognized as a problem.
One factor that most of the early psychological studies may have missed was the effect of head injuries and concussions; to be classified as having such an injury, a man had to have extreme symptoms, including perforated eardrums and a “history of disturbed consciousness” and amnesia. Today, we know traumatic brain injuries often don’t show such evidence.
Meanwhile, many soldiers had difficulty adjusting to civilian life after leaving the army and exhibited behaviors and problems that were surely due, at least in part, to the stress of combat. Ray’s nightmares were typical of veterans who had been in heavy combat for extended periods. It was also common for soldiers to feel that they no longer fit into civilian life, and that America had changed in ways they didn’t like. Veterans often resented civilians for not making what they thought were sufficient sacrifices, and for simply having no idea of what soldiers had been through during the war.
Eighty-one percent of the GIs surveyed by the Army Research Branch in 1945 reported that they had become more “nervous and restless” because of their service in the war. Discharged soldiers coped as well as they could, generally on their own. It was a time when, for the most part, talking about such problems would brand a man as weak. Nor did there seem to be much interest in hearing about the horrors of war.
Books and movies of the time generally glossed over the harsher realities. There were some notable exceptions, though. The Best Years of Our Lives, directed by William Wyler and released in 1946, was a box-office hit and won Wyler an Academy Award. Winning a total of seven Academy Awards, the film depicted the difficulties of three veterans returning from the war. Wyler had served as a major in the army air corps during the war. One of the supporting actors, Harold Russell, was an army veteran who had lost both arms in the war; he remains the only actor to have won two Academy Awards (one of them honorary) for the same performance.
Most veterans coped pretty well in the long run. While it’s become a cliché, the “Greatest Generation” remains a very accurate label when summarizing their accomplishments. Many of its members, including Ray, shrug when asked how they coped with the aftereffects of the war, or accomplished what they did.
“We didn’t know any better,” says Ray. “And we were all in the same boat.”
His nightmares still come occasionally—the German soldier with the bayonet, artillery shells falling on the first aid station. Even seventy-five years after D-Day, the psychological effects of fighting World War II linger.
Ray is proof that a veteran can make a successful transition to civilian life. He thrived in business, raised a loving family, and was an important and giving member of his community. That is true of the overwhelming majority of veterans, from World War II to the present conflicts. But their success does not relieve the debt owed to combat veterans, nor relieve the country from the responsibility of helping that transition.
Appendix C:
Further Reading
One of our goals with this book is to keep interest in the war alive even as its participants pass on. No matter how thrilling, one man’s account can only hint at the great expanse and drama of the historical event. We hope that Ray’s story whets your appetite for more information. Here are a few places you can go to gain a broader perspective:
The First Infantry Division has an excellent museum a little over thirty minutes from Chicago at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Illinois. The First Division Museum covers all of the Big Red One’s history and has a lot of information and artifacts on World War II. More information can be found on its website: https://www.fdmuseum.org/
The Army Medical Department Museum is located at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Check out the website, which includes a video tour: https://ameddmuseum.amedd.army.mil/.
The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, has artifacts, information, and programs on all aspects of the war; it’s especially deep in the area of D-Day. The website: https://www.nationalww2museum.org/.
The National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, is an inspiring memorial to the soldiers who fought on the beaches and often features programs with surviving World War II veterans. Bedford and the surrounding area was the home of many of the members of the 116th Infantry Regiment, a National Guard unit that was part of the 29th Infantry and landed at the same time Ray did. https://www.dday.org/.
The 16th Infantry Regiment Association maintains a website: https://16thinfassn.org/.
Immediately following the war, the U.S. Army produced an official history of operations; currently available online, it remains an accessible and informative introduction for general readers. A general readers’ guide to these volumes and others associated with World War II can be found at this website: https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/11-9/11-9c.htm.
There are countless books, movies, and videos on the war and D-Day in particular.
Rick Atkinson’s Liberation Trilogy follows the American army through the European theater. The first book, An Army at Dawn, details the North Africa campaign. The Day of Battle details Sicily and the fight in Italy. The Guns at Last Light takes the reader through Normandy, France, and into the end of the war in Germany. The Mighty Endeavor by Charles B. MacDonald is an older book that covers the same ground in one volume.
Among the multitude of books meant for general readers on D-Day, Stephen Ambrose’s D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II; Overlord by Max Hastings; and the longer D-Day: The Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor stand out.
Though older than the others, The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan is another great one-volume read. A 1962 film version is considered one of the greatest war films of all time. The more recent Saving Private Ryan, while fictional, includes scenes of the D-Day landings that many veterans consider highly realistic.
The Dead and Those About to Die by John C. McManus details the 1st Infantry Division’s actions on D-Day and is a valuable starting place for learning about the famed unit’s most dramatic World War II battle.
Notes and Sources
General Sources
In addition to interviews and discussions between Ray Lambert and Jim DeFelice over a period of several months, many additional sources provided important background, context, and additional facts and perspective. Among the most significant:
Some years ago, Ray recorded his memories with the help of a neighbor. Some of those transcriptions provided information for questions and background for our interviews.
Those interviews and others were the basis for an account written by Ray with assistance from Colonel (Ret.) Christopher D. Kolenda, Ph.D., which also provided prompts for questions for our interviews.
Over the years, Ray has been the subject of a large number of news stories, both in print and other media; these also were very useful background and helped inform our conversations.
Members of Ray’s family provided additional information.
Additional Sources
Records of the 1st Division, especially after-action reports, and histories of the First Division, the 16th Infantry, and the Medical Department.
Formal and informal interviews with other veterans.
Army Signal Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard original photos and film footage of the war.
Major Charles E. Tegtmeyer, Personal Wartime Memoir Historical Unit, Army Medical Department in 1960, located in the National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 319. Excerpts are available at: https://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwii/Normandy/Tegtmeyer/TegtmeyerNormandy.html.
A number of books provided important background, helping to understand the context of the battles Ray participated in, including all of the works mentioned above in “Further Reading,” Appendix C, plus:
The official U.S. Army history of the war, United States Army in World War II, CMH Publication 11-9, Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 1992. Available online at: https://history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/resmat/ww2eamet.html.
Joseph Balkoski, Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944, Stackpole Books, 2004.
James Jay Garafano, After D-Day: Operation Cobra and the Normandy Breakout, Lynne Rienner Pub., 2000.
Norman Gelb, Desperate Venture: The Story of Operation Torch, William Morrow, 1992.
Kent Roberts Greenfield et al., The Organization of Ground Combat Troops, Historical Division of the Army, 1947.
Orr Kelly, Meeting the Fox: The Allied Invasion of Africa, from Operation Torch to Kasserine Pass to Victory in Tunisia, John Wiley & Sons, 2002.
David M. Kennedy, editor, The Library of Congress World War II Companion, Simon & Schuster, 2007.
Cole C. Kingseed, From Omaha Beach to Dawson’s Ridge: The Combat Journal of Captain Joe Dawson, Naval Institute Press, 2005.
Leo Marriott and Simon Forty, The Normandy Battlefields, Casemate, 2014.
Charles Messenger, The D-Day Atlas: Anatomy of the Normandy Campaig
n, Thames & Hudson, 2014.
Charles Shay, Project Omaha Beach: The Life and Military Service of a Penobscot Indian Elder, Polar Bear & Company, 2012.
Colonel Roy M. Stanley II, The Normandy Invasion, June 1944: Looking Down on War, Pen & Sword Military, 2013.
Flint Whitlock, The Fighting First: The Untold Story of the Big Red One on D-Day (Kindle Edition), Westview Press, 2005.
Additionally, several visits to France, the battlefields and museums there, most recently in October 2018 when Ray’s Rock was dedicated, helped orient the accounts of D-Day and its aftermath. Interviews with museum staff and guides were also extremely helpful.
Notes to Chapters
One
The price of milk is drawn from “Wages During the Depression” by Leo Wolman, published in 1933 by NBER. A pdf version is available on the web at https://www.nber.org/chapters/c2256.
Two
Harmony Church remains part of Fort Benning; it is currently home of the Armor School. The World War II–era barracks were used by soldiers into the twenty-first century.
Declassified documents detailing the 1st Division’s activities during 1941 and 1942 before the deployment to England include the following highlights:
The division “consolidated” or brought together its regiments and other units at Fort Devens during the winter of 1940, adding an antitank battalion (1st Antitank Battalion, which became the 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion).
Large-scale training exercises included landings at Buzzards Bay in Massachusetts, New River, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico.