Contents

CHAPTER XI - CONTINUED

387-394

TABLE 36.-Operating strength of Medical Department units in oversea areas,¹ 30 April 1943-31 August 1945

¹Basic data for April 1943 from Troop Section, Logistics Group, Operations Division, War Department General Staff, Overseas Troop Basis, 1 May 1943: for all other dates from  Troop List for Operations and Supply for dates approximate thereto; all data include non-Medical Department personnel. Data for April 1943 comprise actual strength; data for all other periods comprise "operating strength" which is either table-of-organization strength or strength authorized within the theater. April 1943 data also include non-table-of-organization organizations, and Air Transport Command personnel. Divisional medical units are not included at any time. All rates greater than unity are rounded to the nearest whole number. Rates for April 1943 are per 1,000 troop strength for that date as shown in table 31 and rates for April and August 1945 are per 1,000 adjusted troop strengths shown for these dates in table 31, appendix. Rates for September and December 1944 are based on adjusted strengths, determined in a manner similar to that used in determining April and August 1945 rates, as follows:

395

^aFrom source of area data reported in table 31, footnote 2.
^bFrom source shown in table 31, appendix, footnote 2.
^cFrom "Strength of the Army," for dates approximate to those shown.
^d1.8 percent of Air Transport Command general strength for 30 September 1944. 2.2 percent of Air Transport Command general strength for 31 December 1944.
^eRatio of adjusted medical strength per 1,000 troops of adjusted Army strength.

²Total "Oversea" strength is the aggregate of strengths shown for individual areas.

396

The veterinary care of animals was a more important function of the Medical Department in the China-Burma-India area than elsewhere, but even there it did not increase the proportion more than a few points (table 36). The prevention of disease is one of the major functions of the Medical Department yet, in terms of special personnel for the purpose, it too increased the proportion only slightly in most areas. In certain small theaters, however, it was of considerable significance primarily because of the malaria control and survey teams which were stationed there. This results from the fact that the need for antimalaria personnel is more a matter of geography than of the troop strength to be served.

Besides the organizations directly concerned with hospitalization, most theaters possessed Medical Department units whose functions were accessory to the provision of hospital service. Among such units were dispensaries of various types, ambulance companies, medical depots, medical laboratories, clearing companies, collecting companies, medical gas treatment battalions, and sanitary companies. In the European theater in the latter part of the war, they constituted a substantial element of medical strength which helped to give that area its preeminent position in this respect among the major theaters and its high position among all of them. The European theater utilized more types of Medical Department units (including hospitals) than any other theater (table 37), distributed among air, ground, and service force units.

For the most part, Medical Department personnel in oversea areas were assigned to and served in table-of-organization units. Some medical personnel were in units that had been set up overseas under the non-table-of-organization allotments of the various theaters. Although the maximum number of medical officers who might come under the allotment was fixed by the War Department,

TABLE 37.-Types of Medical Department units in use in the various theaters of operations, by area, 30 September 1944

Source: Troop List for Operations and Supply, 1 Oct. 1944.

397

TABLE 38.-Estimated additions by Air Transport Command to theater medical strength per 1,000 troops, 1944¹

¹For the estimated medical strengths of the Air Transport Command on the dates shown and the adjusted theater strengths on the same date, see table 36, footnote 1.

other types of officers could be substituted. In the case of nurses, no substitutes could be made. In either case, the theater surgeon could make representations concerning the size of these allotments, and this was one of the few opportunities he had to deal directly with strength; that is, strength consisting of individuals rather than strength composed of units. Thus, the chief surgeon of U.S. Army Forces, Far East, dispatched an emissary after V-E Day on a successful mission to obtain a large increase in the overhead allotment of medical officers for the Southwest Pacific.¹⁹ Yet, it does not appear that the theater surgeons materially augmented the medical strength ratios of the areas under their jurisdiction through increases in medical allotments. In the larger theaters, especially, it would have been difficult to do so because of the relatively small role played by overhead in the strength of such theaters.

The medical personnel of the Air Transport Command, the Airways Communication System, and certain other troops under the command of the Army Air Forces were counted as part of the strength of the individual theaters only in the early part of the war. From the limited statistics available, it would appear that they contributed a substantial proportion of the strength in the South Atlantic and Africa-Middle East theaters and to a lesser degree in the North America and China-Burma-India areas. In the major theaters, on the other hand, they were of infinitesimal importance (table 38).²⁰

¹⁹(1) Memorandum, Maj. Gen. G. B. Denit, Surgeon, U.S. Army Forces, Far East, to Colonel Pincoffs, 22 May 1945. (2) Memorandum, Brig. Gen. R. W. Bliss, Assistant Surgeon General, for Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations, 23 June 1945, subject: Revised Authorization of Medical Corps Officers for Army Forces Pacific Overhead. (3) Memorandum, Maj. Gen. B. M. Fitch, Adjutant General, U.S. Army Forces, Pacific, for The Adjutant General, 11 Aug. 1945, subject : Theater Overhead Authorized Grades and Strengths.
²⁰See appendix to table 31 for further discussion of this matter.

398

Distribution of Oversea Strength by Major Commands

At the end of September 1944, approximately 5.7 percent of all oversea medical personnel excluding overhead were serving with the Air Forces, 36.9 percent with the Ground Forces, and 57.8 percent with the Service Forces or in communications zone installations.²¹ The percentage of medical strength actually assigned to the Air Forces but 1 month earlier was 7.74, but this included overhead personnel (table 39). It represented a decline from a higher percentage prevalent in 1943. At all times, however, the percentage was lower than the Air Forces fraction of the worldwide Medical Department strength. The ratio of medical Air Forces strength to total Air Forces strength was always lower than the ratio of medical strength to general Army strength both worldwide and overseas, but because of the lack of Air Forces hospitals abroad, the strength of the Medical Department personnel assigned to Air Forces organizations in oversea areas was always lower proportionately than the like strength in the Zone of Interior.

While the majority of oversea medical personnel served in the Services of Supply or communications zones, the proportionate strength of such personnel fluctuated greatly. For example, in the European theater in September and October 1942, during the buildup for the North African invasion, medical personnel comprised approximately 30 percent of total personnel in the Services of Supply. After the invasion of North Africa, the total Services of Supply strength in the theater declined approximately 20 percent while Medical Department Services of Supply strength increased by nearly 60 percent (table 35). During November, a number of medical units had landed in the United Kingdom because, although they were destined for North Africa, port facilities which would have made possible their debarkation in the Mediterranean area had not yet become available, and were therefore probably counted as part of the European theater strength.²²

As 1943 progressed, however, emphasis was placed on supplying Air Forces and Engineer troops to the British Isles. The result was a decline of the percentage of medical troops in the Services of Supply from the peak attained in February 1943. Despite resumption of shipments of medical units in the latter part of the year, the influx of ground troops in preparation for invasion of the Continent led to a continued decline of the percentage of medical personnel under the Services of Supply.²³ Before the end of the year, it had fallen below 50 percent.

²¹The percentages are based on the strength of Medical Department units shown in table 36 and the strength of attached and divisional medical personnel shown in table 34. These statistics are based on authorized strengths since actual strength figures for oversea areas by major commands are lacking.
²²Information from Col. James B. Mason, 6 Oct. 1942.
²³Ruppenthal, Roland G.: Logistical Support of the Armies, Volume I. United States Army in World War II. The European Theater of Operations. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1953, table 5, p. 232.

399-403

TABLE 39.-Strength of Medical Department personnel assigned to Air Forces,¹ 30 September 1942-31 May 1945

¹No Pharmacy Corps personnel were assigned to Air Forces organizations on any date shown except May 1945, when there were two in the Zone of Interior.
²Worldwide strength from tables 5 and 45. Oversea strength from source shown in table 31, footnote 2.
³Oversea strength from "Officers and Enlisted Men Strength of the Departments and Bases. Recapitulation by Arm or Service. Assigned to Air Corps and Other Than Air Corps" (records of AGO Statistical and Control Branch, Office of The Adjutant General), for all dates shown prior to 1945 or dates approximate thereto; from "Personnel Assigned to Air Forces Organizations by Arms and Services by Command," in "Strength of the Army," 1 June 1945, pp. 24-25, for 31 May 1945. Worldwide strength equals oversea strength plus continental United States strength as shown in "Strength of the Army" for dates listed or dates approximate thereto.
⁴Worldwide strength (including personnel assigned to Veterans' Administration) from tables 1 and 27. Oversea strength from sources stated under this heading in footnote 3.
⁵Oversea strength from sources for oversea strength shown in footnote 3. Worldwide strength equals oversea strength plus continental United States strength as shown in "Strength of the Army" for dates listed or dates approximate thereto.
⁶From sources shown in footnote 5. However, no data on continental United States strength for September 1942 and June 1943 are available. Consequently, it is not possible to state worldwide strengths on these dates.

404-409

After the invasion of Normandy began, however, it was necessary to increase the rear echelon medical support of the campaign and more fixed hospital installations were brought into the theater.²⁴ The percentage ascended somewhat above the 50 percent mark although it may have been held down by the reduction of table-of-organization strength of fixed hospital units. By mid-March of 1945, the Medical Department strength in the communications zone of the European theater was less than 45 percent of the total medical strength in the theater. This was exclusive of headquarters personnel, but it is unlikely that even with such personnel it reached 50 percent.²⁵ By that time, the theater had returned much of its patient load to the Zone of Interior.²⁶ Use of civilians and prisoners of war also may have reduced the proportion of military personnel in the Communications Zone medical service.

COMPOSITION OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OVERSEAS

Army Components

For some time after mobilization began in 1940, the majority of U.S. troops overseas were Regular Army due to the time element necessary to train the other components. At the same time, the proportion of Regulars in the Army as a whole was greater than it was in the Medical Department. This was true overseas in the early part of 1942 although the reverse had been the case in the middle of 1941 (tables 40 and 41). But as the relative strength of the Regular Army declined in the Medical Department overseas, that of every other component increased, at least for a time.

²⁴Data from monthly "Troop Lists for Operations and Supply."
²⁵Computations based upon communications zone strength (122,100) as shown in "Unit Strength-ComZ-ETOUSA. Comparison of Actual and T/O-15 Mar. 1945", in Progress Report, Communications Zone, ETO-USA, 31 March 1945, p. 4. Theater medical strength used here equals the mean of strengths shown in "Strength of the Army" for 1 Mar. and 1 Apr. 1945.
²⁶See footnote 9, p. 382.

TABLE 40.-Strength of Medical Department by Army components, worldwide and overseas, 31 January and 31 August 1942¹ 

410

TABLE 41.-Strength of male personnel by Army components, worldwide and overseas, on 31 July 1941¹

¹Basic data from "Strength of the Army," 31 July 1941.
²Includes approximately 22,000 Army of the United States enlisted men or 1.4 percent of the worldwide Army male strength. See table 12, footnote 18.
³Includes approximately 750 Army of the United States enlisted men or 0.6 percent of the worldwide Medical Department male strength. See table 12, footnote 18.
⁴It is uncertain whether Army of the United States enlisted men are included. Since in January 1942 the number of such enlisted men serving overseas was only 725 (see table 40), the number on 31 July 1941 could not have been large.
⁵It is uncertain whether Army of the United States enlisted men are included. In January 1942, the total oversea strength of such personnel was 25 (see table 40); hence, they could hardly have been more than a handful in July 1941.

The actual size of the components, however, cannot be traced beyond the early part of 1943 except in the case of Regular Army officers. In April 1944, Regular Army officers, numbering 618, constituted 2.01 percent of the male Medical Department officer strength in foreign areas. The corresponding figure for all male officers (6,323) was 2.37 percent.²⁷

It can be said with certainty, however, that by the closing days of the war at least 80 percent of the oversea medical enlisted strength comprised selectees and not less than half of the male Medical Department officers abroad were so-called Army of the United States personnel; that is, neither Regulars, National Guardsmen, nor reservists.

The trend of Army components among nurses probably was the same as that among male officers until about the middle of 1942. At that time, a large reclassification of members of the Army Nurse Corps took place, and many who had been considered reservists were given Regular Army status. Some delay occurred, however, in the reclassification of those nurses who were abroad or at least in the recording of this reclassification. Thus, on 31 August 1942,

²⁷On 30 April 1944, the Regular Army strength of the male Medical Department officer corps overseas and the percentage of Regulars in the total oversea strength of each corps were as follows: Medical Corps, 509 (2.5 percent); Dental Corps, 66 (1.6 percent); Veterinary Corps, 35 (6.5 percent); Pharmacy Corps, 9 (88.8 percent). Basic data are from AG Machine Records Branch, Military Strength of Bases. Recapitulation by Arm or Service by Station, Officers and Enlisted Men, 30 Apr. 1944.

411

the proportion of nurses serving in oversea areas and who were reported to be in the Regular Army was considerably smaller than the corresponding worldwide ratio (table 32). By the end of October, this situation had changed, and by 30 April 1944, the proportion of Regular Army personnel among nurses serving in foreign areas was not much different from the corresponding ratio among other personnel.

Negroes

In the early part of the war, proportionately fewer Negroes were shipped overseas by the Medical Department than whites, partially because of the reluctance of theater authorities to utilize such personnel. Manpower shortages together with the War Department policies to better utilize Negro personnel and to ship abroad personnel that had not seen foreign service reversed the proportion of Negro and white Medical Department personnel overseas.²⁸ For much of the period between October 1944 and the end of hostilities, the number of Medical Department Negroes overseas was proportionately greater than the oversea portion of the Medical Department as a whole. Contributing to this change was a decline in the Medical Department's overall Negro strength, a decline which was relatively greater than the corresponding loss to the Army as a whole.

While every Negro table-of-organization hospital unit organized in the Zone of Interior eventually went overseas,²⁹ the number of such units did not exceed five. The increasing use of Negro medical personnel outside the United States was perhaps primarily manifested in regard to sanitary companies. As late as June 1943, only two of these companies were abroad; one, the 708th, had gone overseas in 1942 and was operating in the North African Theater of Operations, U.S. Army, and the other, 716th, had arrived on Guadalcanal in the spring of 1943. Between August and December 1943, only five more sanitary companies were shipped abroad, three to the European theater and two to the Pacific. In 1944, however, at least 35 medical sanitary companies were moved overseas; in January 1945, one additional company was activated in Hawaii. Thus, if January 1945 be taken as the month marking the peak oversea Negro medical strength (14,150), it may be assumed that at least 5,000, or more than one-third of this oversea strength, were allotted to sanitary companies (tables 31 and 42). Virtually all of the companies were concentrated in the European theater and the Pacific (table 42). These were the areas which were receiving the largest number of personnel of all types and this at a time when the War Department policies to promote oversea use of Negroes were becoming effective.

The sanitary companies were trained primarily for the purposes of malaria control, but even in the Pacific, many were occupied in hospital construction and some were used as pools of Medical Department common labor.³⁰

²⁸Information from Mr. Ulysses G. Lee, Jr., 24 July 1953. 
²⁹See footnote 9, p. 382.
³⁰Quarterly Report, 714th Medical Sanitary Company, 5 July 1944.

412

TABLE 42.-Negro Medical Department units overseas, Pearl Harbor to V-J Day¹

¹Compiled chiefly from copies of unit cards, W.D., A.G.O. Form 016, 1 Feb. 1942.
²A 1944 TOE has been selected, if published in that year. In all other cases, a TOE prior to 1944 was used. In many cases-particularly in the 8-500 series-the T/O was totally changed during the war.
³All units listed in this column were in Liberia.
⁴Certain units saw service in both the Pacific Ocean Areas and in the Southwest Pacific. However, the one station hospital and the three malaria control units served exclusively in the Southwest Pacific and the veterinary animal service detachment operated only in the Pacific Ocean Areas. Some of the other units also may have served in only one of the theaters.
⁵T/O strength times number of units. Totals therefore are merely approximations to actual strength, particularly in view of changing T/O's, the undetermined number of white officers utilized, and overstrengths.
⁶The 168th Station Hospital, with white officers and enlisted men, is not included in the unit tabulation, but the Negro nurses in that unit are counted in the "Authorized strength" column.
⁷The medical battalions were the largest medical units staffed with Negro personnel in World War II. The 318th supported the 93d Infantry Division in the Pacific; the 317th supported the 92d Infantry Division in Italy.
⁸Includes 4 warrant officers.
One Negro veterinary company moved from the North African to the European theater with the invasion of southern France in August 1944.

In the absence of a serious malaria problem in the European theater the personnel of the sanitary companies serving therein, though used principally as litter bearers, were also used to guard prisoners of war occupied as Medical Department labor, to perform elementary carpentry and masonry tasks, to handle mail, and to pack supplies as well as operate small dispensaries and carry out basic sanitary measures in the vicinity of Medical Department units.³¹ Among other Negro Medical Department organizations that served overseas, the most important from a numerical point of view were the motor ambulance companies. Many of these units were employed in the European theater and lesser numbers in the North African theater and in the Southwest Pacific (table 42).

³¹(1) Annual Report, 726th Medical Sanitary Company, 30 June 1945. (2) Periodic Report (1 Apr.-10 May 1945), 274th Medical Sanitary Company, 23 May 1945. (3) Annual Report, Surgeon, Normandy Base Section, European Theater of Operations, U.S. Army, for 1944, dated 31 Jan. 1945. (4) Periodic Report (1 Jan.-30 June 1945), 703d Medical Sanitary Company, 15 Aug. 1945.

413

Distribution by Sex

For much of the period of hostilities, female personnel of the Medical Department serving in oversea areas constituted a larger percentage of total Medical Department strength in such areas than they did of total Medical Department strength worldwide (tables 43 and 44). This situation existed until the threat of a draft brought the Army Nurse Corps up to authorized strength. Furthermore, Medical Department female personnel constituted the large majority by far of military female personnel in oversea areas during World War II. In the Zone of Interior, this ceased to be true as early as January 1943 (table 43).

TABLE 43.-Proportion of Army female personnel in the Medical Department¹