The 56th Evac. Hospital: Letters of a WWII Army Doctor (War and the Southwest) [Hardcover]

Lawrence D. Collins (Author), Carlo W. D'Este (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Collins's letters to his wife, mother and sister record his experiences with the Army's "Baylor unit," a medical team mobilized out of Baylor Medical School in Dallas during WWII that cared for GIs in the North African and Italian theaters from 1942 to '45. His somewhat bland letters hide from his family the fact that he was in a hot combat zone; for several weeks, his tent hospital was stationed on the Anzio beachhead, from which Collins wrote: "Be reassured that the jerries respect our red crosses and that their marksmanship is good, so we're always safe." The most harrowing passages in the letters have to do with details of surgery performed on wounded men, especially an account of a quadruple amputation. A highlight of Collins's final months of overseas service was an audience with Pope Pius: "He had the personality of a most excellent politician." Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Collins arrived in North Africa in 1943 as a member of the 56th hospital unit, which hailedfrom Baylor Medical College in Dallas, and eventually wound up in Bizerte, Tunisia. His letters to his wife and mother, often accented by wit or irony, first tell about his military and travel experiences and discuss books he is reading. Then the 56th crosses the Mediterranean to Italy and receives its first real combat experience, the most rugged part of it consisting of 73 days at the Anzio beachhead. Shelling and bombing become so intense that several patients go AWOL from the hospital and return to their units on the front line because they feel they will be safer there. Although a physician, Collins has to do a considerable bit of surgery; his work with gas gangrene proves especially interesting. Moreover, his descriptions of a Benedictine monastery above Pompeii and of other sites add interest to his engaging letters. William Beatty

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: University of North Texas Press; 1st edition (May 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0929398831
• ISBN-13: 978-0929398839
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,443,994 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting First Hand Account, December 13, 2005

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El Cutachero (MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The 56th Evac. Hospital: Letters of a WWII Army Doctor (War and the Southwest) (Hardcover)

The University of North Texas State Press has been publishing many interesting works in its War and the Southwest series. A personal connection with the SW and especially Texas is the thread ties these works together, otherwise, they are an eclectic choice.
Some consist of personal narratives based on wartime letters home. This sort of memoir, even though published many years later, still has the "real time" immediacy of officisl action reports, yet also includes personal details, commentaries, and personal attitudes not appropriate in official documents.
I hsve long had an interest in field medicine and care. My collection ranges from the Indian Wars to contemporary times.
There are beaucoup mwmoirs and personal narratives available written by infantrymen,fewer by gunners, medics, tankers. and other smaller unit members. And even less by those in such rare units as Engineer amphibious truck companies. This work fits well in this company of personal narratives. It covers service in the evacuation hospital unit sponsored and raised from the personnel of Baylor University and continually supported by the hospital, this unit was organized in similar fashion to other evacuation (or field) hospitals. Such units were not organic to divisions but were attached to them or to higher levels, the Corps and Armies.
The field and evacuation hospials (as titled) were very similar in their TO&Es and functions; both were located within the combat zone subject to enemy artillery fire. Contrasted with base hospitals sited in permanent structures requisitioned for their use, and which tended to stay put in Theatre once established, field and evacuation hospitals had at least enough organic transport to lift at least half of their personnel and equipment so they were able to move leapfrog fashion keeping up with the advancing armies. Thus they were housed in tentage and portable structures when available.
Field hospitals were the first step to recovery after a clearing station, located immediately behind the lines well within the zonw of enemy artillery, thus quick work was necessary; they performed triage, the process of sorting out the slightly wounded, those who could recover in a few days, weeks, or longer, and those who were mortally wounded. The lstter were given morphine and set aside to await their fate. If a casualty required months of care he was sent further back to a base hospital and if not expected to heal in a limited time or would be permanently crippled, he was sent home on a hospital ship or air evacuated to be cared for in a general or station hospital.
A field or evacuation hospital was equipped for major surgery in order to stablise the wounded; it was not intended for care any longer than necessary for stabilizing the wounded until they could be csrried to the rear for rehabilitation or could be returned to duty if able to heal in s few days.
The US Army in general, is organizwd into the Combat Zone, the Line of Communication, and the Zone of the Interior. The two latter are relatively safe and not subject to attack except by strategic weapons.
Medical personal narratives written by company aid men on up are always of interest. One of the best on service in France in WWI, is Pottle's "Stretchers."