That They Shall Not Die

Thousands of U.S. fighting men who would never have come home from World War I or any other past war will come home from the invasion. Thousands more, who in World War I would have been invalided for months or years, this time will be quickly and completely healed.

This mass saving of human life is made possible by the medical service that backs up the invasion. The man who organized that service is Major General Paul Ramsey Hawley, 53. Last week Major General Hawley's medical army moved D-day's wounded so swiftly that many a soldier hit on the Normandy beaches in the morning was recovering from his wounds the same night in a hospital in England.

For the Brave, the Best. Between Pearl Harbor and D-day Major General Hawley had integrated into one tremendous organization the best the U.S. had to send of surgical and medical genius, technique, supplies. He had also supervised the building of huge hospitals which, some Army doctors say, are better than those at home.

In preparing for the invasion's wounded, he and his Chief Surgical Consultant, Harvard's dynamic Dr. Elliott Cutler, insisted on one basic principle: chemotherapy is no substitute for prompt surgery. So they recruited numbers of good surgeons, organized them for front-line work, trained legions of Medical Corpsmen, litter bearers, ambulance drivers, aircraft crews, in expediting the wounded.

As in other battle areas, the invasion wounded are evacuated through a system of echelons, beginning with the single Medical Corpsman who follows each platoon (even if it travels by parachute), the litter bearers and the battalion aid station 1,000 yards from the front, and ending with convalescent hospitals in the U.S. In between come: 1) division clearing stations (usually about eight miles from the front), where the wounded are sorted according to their wounds; 2) mobile evacuation hospitals and field hospitals, 15 to 30 miles behind the lines; 3) station and convalescent hospitals in the rear. Ready for piecemeal hauling across the Channel are huge hospitals made of Nissen huts and bricks. When the beachheads deepen, many of the wounded will be put to bed in France.

Heroism Redundant. Major General Hawley believes that heroism is necessary on the battlefield, but not required of a wounded man. Last week he paced the docks at a South-of-England port, making sure for himself that the wounded were comfortable. He saw how tenderly the litter bearers (many of them Negroes) moved the stretchers from ships to docks, from docks to ambulances, watched the doctors change bandages and give morphine in the open air. He sighed with relief: "Didn't see a single man in pain. Not drugged, mind you--they were smoking cigarets, many of them--but enough [morphine] so that they were comfortable." Said he when someone asked him how he got such a complicated organization working so smoothly: "Give a mouse a shot of hooch and he'll yell, 'Bring on the cats.' "

Fortunately, simple bullet wounds do not hurt much at first. For more severe wounds, Medical Corpsmen are ready on the battlefield with dope. If a wounded man can walk, he is bandaged and told where to go. If he cannot walk, litter bearers are sent for him. He gets some temporary patching at the battalion aid station and more at the clearing station.

There doctors expert in wound diagnosis decide which men, irrespective of rank, need priority in travel and treatment. In general, first priority goes to chest wounds (9% of casualties), abdominal wounds (4%). For desperate cases, General Hawley plans to use a system developed in Russia--many of the evacuation hospitals are specialty hospitals. Thus a touch-&-go casualty may be treated by a top-notch specialist from Johns Hopkins three hours after he is hit. Last week these urgent cases were often operated on in LSTs in mid-Channel--the evacuation hospitals had not yet crossed. Low priorities also go to men wounded in arms & legs--in Africa these comprised 60 to 65% of the wounded.*

In World War I, 61% of those not killed outright eventually returned to duty. In Africa, 64% were fit to fight again in 90 days. About 70% of Russia's wounded return to the front. Hawley's experts cautiously whisper that they hope to do as well during the invasion.

But if & when the invasion front stabilizes a little, General Hawley hopes to save nearly every wounded soldier who lives to reach his hospitals. In Italy only one-half of 1% of battle casualties who reached evacuation hospitals have died.

*A recent widespread rumor has it that many U.S. World War II casualties are "basket cases" (all four limbs amputated). In an editorial in last week's Military Surgeon the Medical Corps flatly contradicted this rumor. There have been no basket cases (to lose all four limbs would be fatal anyway), no cases with three lost limbs. The editorial called the rumor "a deliberate effort to undermine the morale of our people."

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