North Africa Part 3
North Africa Part 3
  Click
on image to enlarge These two photos show
how the men of the unit were housed at this hotel, four men to a room.
Two in each of the double beds in the room. Notice that we had to put up
with white sheets, this was War!!! The Photo on the right shows yours truly
in uniform. Each room had a sink and a Bidet ( French you know ). The toilet
was down the hall on each floor. |
 Click
on image to enlarge This photo is of "Old Joe " The beggar
who we would pass going to and from the Hospital and our quarters. He made
out very well because many of us would toss him a few coins as we passed. |
 Click
on image to enlarge This photo shows some little girls
dressed up in very colorful costumes for an Arabic celebration. At
that young age they could be seen on the street showing their faces which
was not allowed for adult females. |
 Click
on image to enlarge In this photo the man on the left
is yours truly. I was trying to have a picture taken as though I was walking
the Arab women on my left. But the women caught on and backed away. |
 Click
on image to enlarge This the Hotel Transatlantique where
the Officers and nurses were in quarters. |
  Click
on image to enlarge The picture on the left shows
another photo of a street scene taken from our hotel. The picture on the
right is typical of how Arab women had to dress while out on the
streets. They had to be completely covered from head to foot with only
one eye visible so they could see where they were going. |
  Click
on image to enlarge Our Officers
and Nurses marching in Tlemcen on November 11, 1943, Armistice Day.
Our enlisted men also took part in this celebration and I must add that
it was a great feeling, marching to one
of our American Military bands and our
flag. |
 This was
Lt. Col. Robert O.Y. Warren, Chief of Medical Service. He was a well
liked Officer and from my perspective as an enlisted man I always thought
of him as being a credit to his profession and an excellent example of
an Officer and a gentleman. |
 Click
on image to enlarge Here you see the swimming pool
which was set aside for the enlisted men and operated by the Red Cross.
You can see me as the first guy on the raft or nearest to the camera.
Although we had snow at one time, most of the time the weather was warm
enough for swimming. |
 This
is1st Lt Herman C., Needles who was our registrar the entire time the unit
was operational. The registrar's office of a military hospital had the
job of seeing that all patient data was correctly gathered and reported
to higher headquarters, daily, weekly, and monthly. Our job was to
see that our physicians completed each patient's chart immediately after
discharge according to military regulations. Patients who were hospitalized
for more than 6 weeks were transferred to the hospital detachment of patients
from their unit. We paid these patients, usually with partial payments
and this information was recorded on a temperary service records if we
did not have his unit service record which very often was the case. To
Needles' left you can see the right edge of my desk; we worked closely
together on many responsibilities in this office. Keeping track of
patient records which were forwarded to the Surgeon General, Washington,
D.C. when a patient was discharged. Every day an admission sheet was prepared
by the admission office and a copy was provided to us.which we compared
with our disposition sheet of the day; this would give us the patient count
for the day. Every morning we were required to call higher headquarters,
M.B.S. in Oran, and give them the count broken down by Battle casualties,
common accident injury cases, and diseases. For secuity reasons we
used a coded chart at both ends of the phone line so that this data did
notreach the attention of the enemy.. The registrar' office was required
to have someone of the staff attend autopsies, take notes and later type
them up which was then sent to the commanding Officer. At times we
were called upon to help clean up crash sites. We had a B17
crash almost in our post in trees next to the unit. We were called
upon to "pick up the pieces", body parts, etc., and identify each victum.
I still have the list of names on a sheet I prepared during this job.
There were 17 bodies including the crew. On all seriously ill patients
a letter had to be prepared and sent to the next of kin. On all deaths
a letter of condolence was sent to the next of kin. |
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© 1999 Willard O. Havemeier. All rights reserved.