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NAVY MEDICS WITH THE MARINES,
1917-1919

Lt George C. Strott, Hospital Corps, USN

NEW copy. Battery Press, 2005. Reprint of the very scarce U.S. Navy Department 1947 edition. Tables, 4 maps, 35 photographs, 317 pages. Originally published in 1948 as The Medical Department of the United States Navy with the Army and Marine Corps in France in World War I, this U.S. Navy official history covers the activities of the Navy medical unit assigned to the 4th USMC Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in World War I. It is as much a combat history of the Marines as a naval history. There are chapters on USMC operations at Verdun, Belleau Wood, Soissons, St Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne offensive. It lists the medics killed in action and their citations and awards. There are many rosters of combat medics serving with the Marine Brigade.
COMPLETE TABLE OF CONTENTS AS FOLLOWS:

       "Berlin or Bust!" -- Development and Training. Quantico, Va. -- Philadelphia, Pa. France -- Vosges. Log of a Battalion Surgeon. End of Training.

OPERATIONS:

       Verdun -- Troyon-Toulon Sector; Medical Echelon Scheme -- Brigade Medical Organization -- Hygiene, Sanitation and Morale -- Personality of Medical Troops -- Medical and Surgical Supplies -- Transportation -- Relative Usefulness of Supplies -- Medical Function During Action -- Casualties - Statistics -- Positions on the Verdun Front -- Log of a Battalion Surgeon
       Toward Cantigny
       Belleau Wood -- Aisne-Marne Offensive: Chateau-Thierry Sector -- Excerpts from the Log of a Battalion Surgeon -- Statistics -- Summary of Medico-Military Operations -- Positions on the Belleau Wood Front
       Champagne-Marne Defensive
       Soissons -- Aisne-Marne Offensive -- Battle Log of a Battalion Surgeon -- Positions on the Soissons Front -- Statistics
       Nancy -- Military Uniforms
       Pont-a-Mousson -- Marbache Sector: Statistics -- Positions on the Marbache Sector
       Colombey les Belles: Paper Work -- Readiness for Action and Morale
       St. Mihiel Offensive -- A "Push" for Pershing -- Statistics -- Positions on the St. Mihiel Front
       Toul: "Thanks to the Marines"
       Blanc Mont (Champagne -- Meuse-Argonne Offensive--1) -- Log of a Battalion Surgeon -- Positions on the Champagne Front -- Statistics
       The Leffincourt Back Track (Meuse-Argonne Offensive--2)
       Sommerance-Mouzon (Meuse-Argonne Offensive--3) -- Objective Germany! -- The Armistice -- Positions on the Sommerance-Mouzon Front -- Statistics
       March to the Rhine
       Watch on the Rhine: Medical Routine -- Colors Decorated -- Regiments in Review -- Medical Records -- Routine and Special Assignments -- Celebration -- On the Alert -- Peace -- Letter of Commanding General -- Journey Homeward -- Demobilization
       Length of Service and Replacements

IN ADDITION: over 150 pages of casualty lists, citations & awards, and organization rosters for Navy medics serving with the 4th Brigade.

$48.00

~~ READ EXCERPTS BELOW ~~

EXCERPTS:

       From the Log of a Battalion Surgeon: 16 April (1918): Hygiene, morale, and food. While in trenches, if there is any water available, other than that in the canteen, the old-time Marine takes a bath. He not only cares for the cleanliness of his own body but by example and persuasion, he sees to it that the younger Marines do likewise. The hospital corpsman, even the recruit, has been impressed with the importance of personal hygiene and he takes every opportunity to bathe himself.
       While making a tour of inspection of a forward aid station a front-likne trench was traversed at a point where the trench was dug behind what was once an old railroad embankment. At this point a small stream flows out into No Man's Land. Here I came upon a hospital corpsman attached to the company holding the front and found him stripped and lathered from head to foot. The day was overcast and neither balloon nor airplane could spot his nakedness and provoke a strafing. It was unnecessary to ask how things were going. His radiance answered many questions and delivered a message that explained the high morale of the men up forward. The day was not warm and a sweater under one's coat was comfortable
       The well-shaved state of the men was noticeable. With the usual absence of water except for the daily canteen ration, one marvels how the men accomplish their toilet. The Marine and the bluejacket have ways of doing things without anything to do it with. They may be ragged and vermin-infested and forced to share their quarters and their mess kit with the trench rat, but they manage to shave and perform local or general ablutions whenever it is at all possible. The old Marines are incomparable as soldiers. The hospital corpsmen privileged to serve with them are certain to profit.
       One hospital corpsman here frequently makes solitary pilgrimages into No Man's Land at night to gather rhubarb and dandelion. There is no doubt that this man's initiative and courage in the trench sector has established him as one of the most fearless and resourceful. His physique is slight, his constitution below normal, but he has guts.

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BELLEAU WOOD, 1 June - 5 July 1918, Pt 6

Summary of Medico-Military Operations

It was during this action that the medical organization was developed better than on any front:
      1. Here hospital corpsmen established an aid station at the post command of each company.
      2. An advanced aid station was set up about 100 yards in the rear of the center of the front line of each battalion.
      3. Battalion dressing stations were located about half a kilometer in the rear of the advanced stations.
      4. Proportionate details of litter bearers were stationed at the various company post  commands.
      5. "Hospital apprentice" and "first aid" were two calls most commonly heard on the front line. Hospital corpsmen endeavored to keep near the center of their company in order that they could be easily located by the wounded and give first aid to the greatest number by having to cover the least amount of ground. In answer to this call, hospital corpsmen immediately proceeded to the place of summons to give first aid. When possible they carried the wounded to a protected position. It was often necessary for hospital corpsmen to construct litters of sticks, blankets, and parts of uniforms.
      6. Litter bearers carried the wounded back to the advanced dressing stations or to the battalion dressing stations. To help litter bearers locate wounded who had been dressed by hospital corpsmen during an advance, the wounded mens' guns would be stuck in the ground (with a bayonet) beside them.
      A hospital corpsman's equipment was the same as a Marine's except for the arms. Their pouches (or belts) were equipped with bandages, shell-wound dressings (large and small), tourniquets, Greely units of morphine, and iodine swabs. Bandage scissors were carried in the tops of puttees. There were from 20 to 24 dressings available but whenever possible the first-aid packet on the wounded man's belt was used. Wounded men always call for water. If available it was provided from the canteens of the hospital corpsman, except in cases of wounds of chest or abdomen.
      7. For venous and capillary hemorrhage, wounds were packed with gauze and a secure bandage applied. When necesary to use a tourniquet on an extremity, it was not placed at the point of compression but as close to the wound as possible. This was done as a shock preventive measure and to preserve as much of the limb as possible from gangrenous changes.
      When hospital corpsmen went over the top they were kept busy applying first aid and keeping up with their companies. Often it was impossible for them to care for men from other companies if they were to care for their own, nor were they always able to see that their wounded were picked up by the litter bearers.
      8. Hysterical patients were left alone. This was the best treatment, and by so doing the valuable services of litter bearers were saved. 9. Evacuations were made from forward points to the advanced dressing stations where various types of splints were applied. The wounded continued to the battalion dressing stations for completion of record, tetanus antitoxin and sorting (seriously and slightly wounded and gassed). The evacuations from this point were by ambulance, through the regimental station to the field hospitals. In all, the average time for evacuation from front to field hospitals was about 2 hours. The majority of wounds were caused by high explosive fragments. The proportion of rifle and machine gun injuries was relatively small. It was a noticeable fact that in the cases awaiting evacuation those who were removed to a sheltered place were less likely to develp shock than those left in the open. Shock was less noticeable in the moderately severe cases at the battalion stations than a few hours later, after a trip in ambulances to the field hospitals.



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FROM THE LOG OF A BATTALION SURGEON:

       6 June: The battalion was ordered to make the attack. At 1900 the companies moved out of the ravine and proceeded to the town of Champillon where they went into line northeast of the town at 0345. The battalion immediately attacked, and, soon after, wounded started coming into the battalion station, on the outskirts of the town of Champillon. Champillon has been under continuous heavy bombardment. As soon as the station was established, liason between the regimental and First Battalion aid stations was made. Ambulances of the French sanitary unit came up bringing litters and supplies. Despite heavy shelling ambulances have been able to make the aid station. This simplifies evacuation of wounded.
       Hospital corpsmen went "over" with their companies and perfomed their duties admirably.
       Advance dressing stations established just behind first line where wounded were collected and ambulatory sent to the battalion station. Litter cases transported a distance of about 500 yards. At the battalion station examinations and sorting done. Evacuated from battalion go through regimental aid station where a check on each case is made.
       Returning ambulances bring fresh supplies, litters and blankets, so at no time have we been short of these necessities. Sonme cases of diarrhea developing. Only a few evacuations because of sickness made. The Second Battalion station located in Lucy le Bocage. Their position enabled them to care for all casualties of their battalion in line. Lucy likewise was under heavy shellfire and gas. A direct hit made on this station set the building on fire, necessitating evacuation. A new station soon established in a cellar, and evacuations continued from this point. The Third Battalion, acting as brigade reserve, dug in in the nearby woods.
       During this engagement regiment suffered heavily from shellfire and gas, but forced enemy to give ground. Enemy losses obviously heavier. Enemy wounded and prisoners came through all stations in greater numbers than our own. Everything practicable was done for them. The character of the wounds encountered here fall chiefly into the tearing, lacerating, crushing, and amputating types, accompanied by all degrees of fractures, hemorrhage, and destruction of soft tissue.
       Injuries of the extremities were most common, followed by those of the abdomen and chest. Despite massive injury, shock has not been common. This is probably due to early treatment, given by company hospital corpsmen, and undelayed evacuation through the regiment to field hospitals.
       Great attempts have been made to control hemorrhage, immobilize fractures, secure adequate dressings on all wounds, give morphine, antitetanic serum, hot coffee, cover patients with blankets and promptly evacuate them from the area. Prisoners recently captured were temporarily employed as litter bearers, facilitating treatment and evacuation which otherwise would have been delayed.
       Arrangements were made by the battalion supply officers to get one cooked meal to the first line every night. This meal, with coffee, is brought up under heavy shellfire and rationed out to the men. In addition to this cooked meal, the men receive two iron rations, water details supply the lines with fresh water (chlorinated) as frequently as possible, under the most difficult circumstances. As a whole, the men are standing up under these conditions well
       2-6 June: Repeated attacks by the enemy repulsed. Our men had seen little of active fighting until this time and had not realized the horrors of war. They have played with death during these first days of June. (Lt Strott later adds the following note: They could not have realized the seriousness of the situation. It was not until later that they understood that during these days the fate of Paris and the Allied cause depended on them and that a second Marne, although less bloody but as momentous as that of 1914, was being fought. It was the turning point of the war. From this time until the Armistice, the Germans never went ahead again).
       All medical personnel have been superb in meeting and disposing of the unprecedented tasks with which they have been confronted. Without thought of rest, relief, or restoration, devote themselves wholly to their gruesome labor.
       The Marine brigade has undergone its first real baptism of fire. The heroic acts that numerous hospital corpsmen have perfomed during furious assaults in the open and in the most advanced positions have thrilled the entire command, and, in no small way, contributed to the effort that has so far led to our military success.
       A seriously wounded patient who came through this station told the story of a pharmacist's mate, second class, Frank C Welte, who died today.
       Welte was attached to the Twentieth Company which was holding the first line lying between Le Bois de la Chateau and the town of Lucy le Bocage. His company, with the Forty-fifth and Forty-seventh, was ordered to attack the advancing German forces at 1500 today. The objective lay in a northerly direction, across a wheat field, and involved the southern section of the strongly fortified Bois de Belleau.
       Bois de Belleau is an almost impenetrable tangled forest with rock formations admirably adapted for defense. The surrounding country is dotted with woods and fields of ripening wheat, with red patches of wild poppy. The terrain, which favored the enemy, is generally level except for a few wooded hills. These afforded commanding positions for the enemy to sweep the roads and open country with shell and machine-gun fire.
       The attacking troops, moving across the open wheat field, were subjected to murderous flanking fire from machine guns, and many men went down.
       Welte was swamped with many wounded while in this open field, about 130 yards short of the woods.
       He had dressed four wounded marines, calmly writing their tags, and had started on the fifth man when he was struck in the back and right heel, while kneeling over his patient. Fragments of a bursting high-explosive shell painfully wounded him. He continued dressing his patient and filled in the diagnosis tag when his head was piecrced by a machine-gun bullet. He gave his book of diagnosis tags to his patient, asking him to "turn them over to the chief" when he arived at the battalion station. With the delivery of the tags to the patient, Welte died. To the moment of death he thus carried out the last and most important detail of his duty, with coolness, deliberation, and devotion. Hospital corpsmen have helped maintain the high morale of the troops. When a man's mind is weakened by physical and nervous exhaustion, frequently it is the hospital corpsman who talks it over and boosts the weary one up, so that he can take new hold and continue his unpleasant task. A platoon was charging a machine-gun nest in Belleau Wood. Several unsuccessful attempts to take it had been made, with heavy losses.
       The handful of men left had drawn back prior to making another charge. The company hospital corpsman, with considerable blunt emphasis to add to the forcefulness of his demand, yelled out in the thick of the hand-to-hand fighting, "Get that gun you -------------! I'm here to take care of you!"
       The gun was captured shortly afterward in a deadly grapple.
       A gallant Marine officer, with only a handful of his original platoon, captured the town of Bouresches-- a key position of our front.
       He cited the hospital corpsman attached to his force, and pointing out the effect the hospital corpsman's presence had on the morale of the men during the assault: "At a time when the losses threatened to prevent the success of the operation, the heroic conduct of this man steadied the lines and spurred the attacking platoons on through the barrage."
       In an aid station located in a little stone farmhouse, about midnight, there were a number of wounded lying about on straw or propped up against the walls waiting their turn for dressing and evacuation. The Boche was laying down a barrage between the station and the woods while attempting a counterattack. The orchard in the rear of the building and the courtyard in front were being plowed up by the raining shells. The old structure was swaying, and those laboring unceasingly within over the wounded had a secret conviction that their work would be suddenly concluded at any moment. The medical officer and several hospital corpsmen were setting a compound fracture in a Thomas splint and dressing other multiple wounds. No word was spoken; the closer the shells fell to the building the faster the group toiled under candlelight.
       When morning broke the barrage had lifted. The station was untouched. The night's grist of wounded had been cared for and sent back to field hospitals, Subsequently, the regimental chief pharmacist's mate asked the medical officer if he had been aware of the proximity of the bursting shells during the night and the threatening death to those in the station. The medical offcer replied that he had been acutely conscious of all that had occurred, but more important, he had realized that each hospital corpsman, although he knew the nearness of death, never showed the slightest sign of fear. He had observed them carrying on without hesitation, comforting and quieting the nerve-worn wounded, and the sight had filled him with pride and confidence in their ability.

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Summary of Medico-Military Operations

       On 23 June a battalion of Marines attacked the northwest tip of the Bois de Belleau. The attack was unsuccessful. Two days later our artillery concentrated its fire on the northern part of the woods and at 1700 the same battalion which had attacked 2 days before cleared the woods of Germans.
       On 1 July, when the Ninth Infantry and Twenty-third Infantry attacked Vaux-Bois de la Roche, there was a 12-hour artillery preparation, which permitted the position to be taken without great loss. The brigade was up to full strength before going into battle at Bois de Belleau and had full equipment. The morale was high and all men were eager to get into battle. Their resistance to shock was good, and there were comparatively few men evacuated on account of war neurosis. A number of men were encountered who were in a highly nervous condition.
       Some had lost the power of speech. Such symptoms appeared in the best men of the command. After a night's sleep at the regimental aid station, however, they were returned improved to their organizations with no immediate recurrences.
       Under the changing conditions encountered on this front, and in the rear, the food varied greatly in quality and quantity. It was extremely difficult to get the rations that were available up to the men in line. Two-thirds of the food eaten was the French iron ration without the red wine. At times there was one small cooked meal a day which was at about 2300 because of the exposed position of the front line.
       Generally the main food of the troops in line consisted of French canned Argentine beef, popularly called "monkey meat" (stringy, unchewable & usually rancid), and French hard tack. As a steady diet, even when mixed with onions or potatoes, this meat was unpalatable, but because of great hunger, it was eaten without complaint.
       On one occasion, following a visit of Red Cross field representatives to the headquarters of the regiments, arrangements were made by organization surgeons to have chocolate bars sent into the brigade area from Red Cross headquarters in Paris for ultimate distribution to the men. Two truckloads of chocolate were received at a time when the ration problem was a serious matter, and, although the supply allowed only one bar per man, the effect produced on the morale of the troops was beneficial. Ration details carried the chocolate along with the available daily ration of food up to the men in line from the regimental posts command.
       Because of the nature of conditions attending this action, welfare attempts by attached civil workers was restricted to assisting organization medical personnel and chaplains.
       When the food supply cannot keep pace with rapidly moving troops, some foraging results. The possibility of collecting food by this means does not occur every time the normal military food supply fails, as troops may be operating in parts of the country wheich have been impverished, such as in old trench sectors or other areas over which great offensives have passed. Foraged food can be obtained only in places where the civilian population has just withdrawn, before, or in the wake of, an extensive military advance, having left farms and homes fully stocked.
       The "galleys" of the companies, usually, were located undercover in the near rear area. From there, every evening, the prepared food in French "marmite" cans would be handled by men up to the companies in line.
       Except for the losses that occurred en route, this system worked fairly well, although such cooked foods as beans, rice, and potatoes many times would be soured by the time they reached the men. In the area close to the front, it was often observed, that when large cans of meat from the reserve rations are opened, only about one man's share is eaten and the rest is left to spoil. Canned meats for the reserve ration should be separately put up with just enough in a can for one man's meal. Such a can should be flat, similar to an ordinary sardine can, so that it will fit well in the pack.

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Additional extensive excerpts from this book can be found in the section "Day by Day through France and Germany with the 4th Brigade of Marines, 1917-1919", and at the "Second Battle of the Marne" website.

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For additional background on Lt Strott and his WWI history, see: "Hospital Corps Hero and Historian: George G. Strott", by HMCS(FMF) Mark T. Hacala, USNR, at the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery website. The article has this to say about Strott's book:

      "George Strott showed a great aptitude for detail in recording the events of personnel. He had been commended in World War I, having, 'painstakingly compiled the casualty reports and his services in this respect have been invaluable to the Regiment.' His ability for detail work and his pride in the Hospital Corps led him to commence a project of great magnitude.
       While at the Naval Medical School in 1928, Strott began accumulating data on naval personnel assigned to the AEF in World War I. He continued to research and compile data after leaving the Navy, resuming his efforts with vigor upon his return to BUMED in the 1940s. For 20 years he accessed information from the Navy and War Departments, the Marine Corps, and fellow veterans.
       The fruit of Strott’s labor was NAVMED 1197: The Medical Department of the United States Navy with the Army and Marine Corps in France in World War I. Published by BUMED in June, 1947, this work consisted of a narrative history of Sailors with the Marines in France and data on each individual. Strott’s lists were exhaustingly thorough. Included were every hospital corpsman, doctor, dentist, and chaplain who served, every wound they received, every campaign in which they participated, and every decoration earned by every man."