Thread: Heroic Medics/Doctors in WW2

Without hopefully coming across as too biased the entire airborne medical services at Arnhem 1944.....I always remember the comment in a letter to me from Colonel J Waddy who in 1944 was a company commander in the 156 Btn who was wounded and spent sevella days seeing what they did at close quarters.....'If the RAMC were ever awarded battle honours Arnhem would be their finest'.....

I remember reading about a medic with an American division in Normandy about a few wierd instances in the way a few guys got hit.

One soldier got shot in the arm, and the bullet went into his bracchial artery there and passed on into his heart, where it stayed inside his right ventricle. He could see the bullet inside the live man's heart on the x-ray.

Another soldier was carrying a swiss army knife in his leg pocket when an artillery shell spattered his leg with shrapnel, sending the knife into the man's leg with it.

Pretty heroic stuff those medics did, though.

James Bradley, one of the flag raisers on Iwo Jima and a navy corpsman, was awarded the Navy Cross for saving a wounded marine from the fire of a hidden Japansese Machine gun. He rushed through the intense wall of bullets and dragged the wounded man about 30 yards to cover. He then worked on the man and saved his life, I believe.

I remember hearing that the scene from a Bridge too Far with Jimmy Caan threaening the doctor was real. If anyone knows which scene I'm relating to, please reply.

#8 Canadian Field Surgical Unit, RCAMC who were with the British Commandos when they went in on Walcheren Island. They established on the beachead. Appendix H Cinderella Army

"...For the first 48 hours the beachead in wich the medical units were established was under constant and heavy shell-fire. THere were no buildings or shelters available of a safe nature to perform major operations and to properly look after the patient after operation. The area was honey-combed with land mined which could not be detected and removed and the tentage was surrounded by large bomb craters and shell holes containing numberous German prisoners, ammunition, petrol and demolition charges. After the first 24 hours a gale sprang up from the North Sea which, at times, reached a velocity of 50 miles per hour and rain was constant, mingled at times with hail.....

In all 54 soldiers wer operated upon, 22 which were major operations and, by some miracle of chance, none of these were abdomens.

...One cannot end a report of this nature without a few words of intese admiration of the work done by #10 FDS in connecton with the #8FSU. Under the most appalling conditions the post-op care of our patients by this unit left nothing to be desired. No patient in this beachead suffered from lack of care if it was humanly possibly by any effort on their part togive it to him. ...The work of these stretcher-bearers in, quickly and efficiently, carrying the patients to and from the operating theatre in the face of a terrible gale, blowing wint, hail, and sand, was one of the brightest of the whole operation from the medical side."

Hero Carries On
Vella Lavella, S. I. – Pharmacist’s Mate 2/c Rex H. Gregor, 21, of Rochester, Minn. (left), recently performed one of the most heroic acts of the war when he climbed aboard a blazing Landing Barge on which ignited ammunition was exploding, helped remove the wounded and then performed a leg amputation on one of the casualties – although Gregor had never seen such an operation. The action occurred during a Japanese air raid on Marine forces on Vella Lavella, in the Central Solomons. Here, Gregor bandages the wrist of Cpl. Kenneth A. McIntyre, USMC, of Minneapolis, Minn., who also helped rescue wounded from the blazing barge. Note sign over tent, (top right), reading, “Kendall’s Butcher Shop.”
Credit: Official Marine Corps photo from ACME