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Post by connie on Feb 25, 2009 0:43:32 GMT -5
Following some of the discussions of snow and cold, I found an article on trench foot in the a Stars and Stripes from May of 1944.
(Update: April 2021) The linkI posted to reach this article no longer works. So I removed it)
This article suggests keeping some extra socks above the webbing in your helmet. That idea was one I hadn't heard before. I did of others who kept socks warm in their armpits.
Another site I read said that the Russians had worked the problem by teaming men up and requiring them to give each other foot massages at regular intervals. Anyone whose teammate ended up with trench foot was in trouble...
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Post by connie on Feb 26, 2009 23:32:30 GMT -5
See note today under replies from admin for a veteran's experiences with trench feet.
I'll paste Floyd's note here in case you don't want to go searching:
Hello:
I took my boots & socks off whenever I could. There would be times when a Soldier could do that. When we had time, in real cold weather, we just let them freeze dry. If we were lucky, we had a wood fire & would hang them on a pole close to the fire to dry them.
We had no "extra clothes". We wore the same ones 24/7 for over a month. The Germans really disrupted supply lines during the Bulge. Even our Xmas mail & packages were lost to the Krauts.
I didn't get trench foot, yet my hands & feet were froze more that once. To this day I cnnot take alot of cold; it gets to my hands & feet very soon.
One time, during the Bulge, after a long hike (lasted ca 14 hours) we were ordered to take our boots & socks off for foot inspection. We lost half of our men because of trench foot. Later, quite a few of those men lost part of their feet. The feet would turn black & if circulation didn't come back in about three days toes were amputated; some men lost their feet also.
We didn't get overshoes until March. When we did, I got two for the left foot.
Our troops were not prepared for harsh weather. The winter of 44/45 was the coldest one Europe had in over a hundred years. The Belgian people told us that & I believe them.
The cold was particularly bad for wounded men. They needed help right away, or they would freeze to death. I remember Army Ambulances following combat activity as close as they could; to pick up men who were wounded a fast as pollible.
Floyd,
2nd Btn 424th Infantry, 106th Div.
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Post by floydragsdale on Apr 13, 2009 11:12:16 GMT -5
Hello:
Army Hospitals!
Many of them were near, or, as close to the front lines as possible.
The Army Medics had what they called "collecting stations". That's where all the casualties were taken first; then treated.
From there wounded & the sick would be transfered to another Army Hospital.
Anyway, that's the way the medics handled some of us when we were taken from the battlefield. As we left the collecting station a medic gave me a capsule & cup of water. There must have been a sedative in the capsule; it put me so sleep.
When I woke up I had no idea as to where I was. It took a while to realize that I was in a Hospital. That building had been a warehouse at one time and the Army Medics turned it into a hospital. It was "full" of men lying on stretchers.
The medics treated us, then sent the G.I.'s on to another hospital. It too had been, I believe, used for something else during peace time; such as a private school, I think.
Again, there were no beds; just folding Army Cots. One patient whom I recognized was our Regimental Commander, Col. Alexander Reed; his Army Cot was next to mine. I don't recall if he was wounded, or sick.
More sophisticated hospitals were located in England, or central France and Soldiers were sent there if their wounds were of a more serious nature.
If the Army Medics determined a G.I. was fit for more combat, they got him on his feet as fast as possible and sent him back for more front line duty.
When discharged from the hospital every patient was supposed to get "new clothes"; yet most of us had to put the same clothes on that we wore when admitted. The Germans had disrupted American supply lines that bad.
So, there were no clean clothes to sport when we went back to the front lines.
Floyd,
2nd Btn., 424th Infantry
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Post by connie on Apr 4, 2021 2:02:27 GMT -5
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Post by jrwentz on Feb 6, 2023 7:54:14 GMT -5
If, for example, the time factor is disregarded and the approximately 70,000 cases of cold injury in Europe in 1944-45 are used as basic data, it can be said that the equivalent of almost 5 divisions of 15.000men each was lost to combat. This still, however, does not give a true picture of the situation. Approximately 90 percent of all cold injury casualties were riflemen, of whom about 4,000 were in each infantry division. The loss of effective fighting strength from cold injury thus could be interpreted as more nearly 16 divisions than as 5 divisions. In the light of the facts just cited about the actual military populations at risk, the enormous impact of cold injury losses upon effective fighting strength is apparent. As has already been pointed out, more complete data established by post- war sampling of individual medical records (tables 42 through 47, inclusive) show that wartime reporting was incomplete. The numbers of cases of cold injury by theater are significantly higher when data from all sources are con- solidated and secondary diagnoses of cold injury are included. The total number of cold injury cases of all types during World War 11 approximated 91,000. The total time lost is estimated as 7,514,000 man-days, or 20,586 man- years, an average of 83 days per case. This estimate includes the seriously injured casualties who were returned to the Zone of Interior. These men often required many months of military care, and many of them could never be returned to military duty. collections.nlm.nih.gov/ext/dw/1278004R/PDF/1278004R.pdfCold Injury - Ground Type Report Medical Department, United States Army, Pages 499-500 Note: The British and Canadian armies combined reported only 206 cases of cold injury. |
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