Hospital at War

The army's 95th Evac, one of 107 evacuation hospitals that fought tirelessly to save soldiers maimed from battle or ravaged by disease, arrived in Casablanca in April 1943 with seven thousand troops, thirty doctors, and forty nurses. It eventually became the first American hospital to penetrate Nazi-occupied Europe. Records show that the 95th Evac treated more than forty-two thousand Americans in nearly every critical battle of the European theater. In Hospital at War, Zachary Priedenberg, a young surgeon fresh out of his internship at the time, provides an insider's account of how these men and women of the 95th worked day by day, under trying conditions, to salvage lives. In doing so, they adjusted to each other, to the foreign countries in which they had to work, and to climates ranging from the extreme heat of North Africa to the frigid winters of the Rhineland. Like the troops it cared for, the hospital often endured shelling and bombing. By the end of its two-year tour of duty, the 95th Evac was superbly efficient, and 99 percent of casualities who arrived at this hospital survived. For anyone who wants to know how so many of our boys made it home despite horrific injuries, this book provides part of the answer.