| St. Die, (Vosges Mts.) France: Nov. 28, 1944–Mar. 14, 1945 |
| WARNING: This page
contains graphic images of war surgery.
|
|
|
|
| Map by Staff Sgt. Jack Crouse | |
|
St. Die, (Vosges Mts.) France: Nov. 28, 1944–Mar. 14, 1945 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The city of St. Die had been badly damaged by the battle for its capture ... |
 |
|
|
|
| ... however, the 51st set up the hospital on the outskirts of the city in an undamaged caserne, which had previously quartered French troops manning the Maginot Line. |  |
|
As the hospital nearest the front, we were immediately busy. |
|
|
| At the end of December, coinciding with the "Battle of the Bulge" on the western end of the battlefront, the Germans launched "Operation Northwind" against the Allied Seventh Army, and they successfully recrossed the Rhine and gained some of the high ground in the Vosges Mts. The ensuing winter campaign in the Vosges Mts., attempting to push the Germans out of the "Colmar Pocket", was some of the most bitter fighting of the entire war. At times only the most seriously wounded were unloaded from the ambulances at our hospital because of the large number of casualties. |
|
|
|
|
| The remainder were transported further back to the Stanford 59th Evac. and Chicago 23rd Evac. hospitals. | |
|
|
|
| Serious wounds, such as head or maxillo-facial injuries, thoraco-abdominal wounds, compound fractures and multiple shrapnel wounds, required extended operating time, often with multiple surgical teams. This is a photo of Art Wallace and Ken Noyes debriding a shrapnel wound of the thigh with a femoral fracture. | |
 |
|
|
|
| Before and after views of a "G.I." with a severe maxillo-facial wound. |
|
|
| This young German soldier arrived as a sitting patient in an ambulance with a bullet protruding from his eye. On examination, it was discovered that the bullet had gone completely through his head from back to front. [The soldier underwent surgery and survived.] |
|
|
|
|
| Freezing temperatures and snow added to the difficulties of the fighting, and at the 51st it required crews to keep the snow shoveled off the big red cross in our courtyard. | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| In the Colmar Pocket, the veteran 1st, 3rd and 10th U.S. Divisions sustained terrific losses until the conclusion of the Battle of the Bulge, when reinforcements could be brought in to push the Germans back across the Rhine river. |
| As the casualties lessened, we were able to travel up to see the devastation
left by the battle of the Colmar Pocket.
|
|
| The city of Colmar was essentially undamaged ... | |
 |
 |
| ... but the villages in the nearby Vosges Mts. were totally destroyed. | |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Temporary graves were everywhere... |
|
|
|
|
| ... and German prisoners were already repairing the roads. |  |
| At St. Die, I had a brief , but enjoyable surprise visit from Sandy Bill (later Prof. of Pediatric Surgery in Seattle), one of my Medical School classmates. |  |
| As our admissions dwindled, the time for enjoying the beauty of our little corner of France increased. Our trucks provided transportation to visit the spectacular Schloss HochkÖnigsberg ... |  |
 |
... and the beautiful city of Strasbourg. |
| The winter gave way to spring, and borrowed bicycles provided both exercise and sightseeing. | 
|
 |
 |
