Bronze Star Recipient
Capt Jacob Pearl
1/Lt George V Evans
1/Lt Everett C Vogt
101st Airborne WW II
Medal
of Honor Recipients
Lt Col
Robert G Cole
Pfc
Joe E. Mann
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The 326th Medical Company - 101st Airborne Division
Reports (After Action Report) - Captain McKee (Normandy)
After Action Report for the 326th Airborne Medical Company
SOURCE: National Archives and Records
Administration, College Park, MD
Record Group 112, Entry 1015, ETOUSA
Records, Box 5:
326th Airborne Medical Company, [101st Airborne
Division], Report
of Captain McKee.
REPORT OF CAPTAIN WILLIS P. MCKEE, MEDICAL
CORPS
326th AIRBORNE MEDICAL COMPANY,
[101st AIRBORNE DIVISION], APO
472.
Home Address: Eminence,
Kentucky, Medical School: University of Louisville,
Kentucky.
We were
authorized by division to qualify one platoon as a medical company. That
was 50 enlisted men and 6 officers authorized to qualify as paratroopers. Did
not say how they were to be emp1oyed. In plans submitted to Chief of Staff for
the employment of these paratroopers it called for 15 enlisted men and. one
officer to jump with each regiment, with 85 containers full of medical
equipment, which contained everything necessary for doing major surgery. During
the forerunning months we experimented with practically everything that was in
our T/E, ampules, plasma, etc. and carried all dressings and bandages before we
left in canvas bags in which everything was packed and wrapped in oilskin ín
case they dropped into the water. They carry two colman [Coleman] stoves and
sterilization instruments. The plan was originally to jump all our men in one
plane. Just before we left one battalion was given a separate commission so sent
5 enlisted men and one officer with 2nd battalion and 10 men and 1 officer with
rest of the regiment. My own particular experience was the fact that the Air
Corps dropped me where I belonged. I dropped 20 yards from the assembly area at
1.14 a.m. near Hiesville. I had 10 men with me and 5 equipment supplies. At 5
o'clock in the morning all our men had assembled with equipment, and had 15-20
casualties collected. None of own 45 enlisted men were jump casualties. When
daylight came we moved 300 yards to a little French farmhouse, and set up in
there. We were equipped to do much more than we really had occasion to do.
We did many debridements and used a good deal of plaster. Only two patients were
given Pentathol as I was the only doctor there and the enlisted men were not
sufficiently qualified to do this. We stayed at the farmhouse until the
afternoon of D-1 at which time we rejoined the rest of our company, which had
come in by glider and by sea. Most of it was seaborne. The seaborne personnel
got in about 23:00 hrs, but vehicles and equipment did not got in until 09:00
the next morning, D-l. However, most of them came in by glider and they were
doing major surgery at about 10:00 on the morning of D-Day. Therefore if our
airborne medical company had cone in seaborne they would not have been in
operation until the afternoon of D plus 1. We were fired on on the drop and
there was light rifle fire. Some of the German prisoners asked when they came in
why we were 24 hours late, but they were not sure exactly were we were going to
drop.
From our experience we feel it is quite
definitely proven that an airborne company is quite a good thing. Crash
casualties were amazingly low according to statistics and that is amazing in
view of the unfavorable terrain. We had four more glider loads that came in at 9
o'clock on the night of D-day. We were more unfortunate with these than the
early morning landings as they landed in about 250 German troops and quite a
number of them were killed or captured. It was the mission of our regiment to
clear the area between Hiesville and the sea.
Most of
the enlisted men who jumped with us were volunteers from our own medical company
had been with us for some time, but we accepted volunteers from the company and
get a lot of litter bearers and drivers to get our quota. It was a problem to
get these men trained technically when all they been trained in was first aid,
and as litter bearers. The first problem was getting equipment together and
assembling men, which in the darkness took approximately 3 hours. Care of
casualties on drop. Their own medical companies could take care of casualties
from then on. I had 41 casualties. The problem of transportation can always be
taken [care]
2
of. The first transportation we had was a mule cart with a flag. On
4 o'clock in the afternoon of D-day a battery of artillery moved in and they let
me have one of their jeeps. We evacuated casualties through the [4th Infantry
Division] Clearing Station. Casualties were mostly fractures, sprains and glider
casualties from the 82nd division. We were not set up to do major surgery
because of the lack of assistants. We did a great number of debridements and put
plaster on fractures. We had 5 equipment bundles. One was entirely orthopaedic,
set of plaster and splints; one entirely full of plasma; two general treatment
units containing novacain, sterile bandages and dressings of all types and
instruments. In addition, each man carried a set of about 12
instruments.
In the French quarters we were given
plenty of room, and there was running water.
We
rejoined our medical company on the evening of D plus 1. Our installation was
not attacked at all during the day. The assignment of my regiment was to secure
causeways loading up from the beach and take the town of St. Marie du
Mont.
That is the story of myself and my 10
men.
The other doctors who jumped with their regiments
and their group of men were not so lucky as the Air Corps dropped them off their
course. They were to augment medics of other regiments.
The five men who had been previously detached from my company completed
their mission in that they all treated wounded and got to work immediately.
Three of the men landed on the regimental chaplain's location and they had set
up an aid station in a farmhouse, where they treated 50-6O casualties. They ran
out of rations however, so one of the men killed a cow so they could have beef
steak and soup for dinner. There was another instance of three men setting up
station with their chaplain. The Germans came by and left them alone. These are
specific instances that illustrate they really did worthwhile
work.
We had 9 enlisted men and one Medical officer
missing inaction, and these were dropped off their course. All the rest of their
men returned to their company within the first three days, and were all right.
Other groups were not able to assemble and work as a group, as they did not
recover their equipment that had been dropped in bundles. They carried about 30
lbs of medical equipment on their persons, however, which was for emergency
treatment of wounded. This was augmented by the fact that every parachutist,
even combat troops, carry a medical aid kit. They used those kits, but most of
the work was done by aid men, and not by casualties to themselves. There was
just moderate ack-ack fire.
The chateau at Hiesville
which was set up at 10 o'clock on D-day remained there until D plus 3 and that
was bombed the night after they had left. This caused the loss of about 30% of
our equipment. Eleven casualties were either killed outright or since, and there
were about 15 wounded.
The assignment of the 2nd
Regiment: The 501st Bn plus an extra battalion out of my regiment. Their mission
was to secure the bridges leading into Carentan, and the 502nd Bn of the 3rd
Regiment had the mission of securing two other causeways. Two of them were
assigned to the regiment to which I was attached. All of our missions were
completed successfully. The 82nd landed at St. Mere Eglise. I talked to the
Commanding Officer and several of us visited the installation. It was all
glider-borne.
We had quite a struggle in the first
place to get the surgical team airborne due to the fact that our Commanding
Officer and Division Surgeon were definitely not air-minded, and they felt that
they should bring the company in by sea. There is no
3
doubt in my mind, and this is proved from the glider personnel that
came in at 4 o'clock on D-day that all men should come in by plane. I am not as
impressed by the Parachute Platoon Medical Company as Airborne Medical Troops.
It is safer to jump than come in by glider. The first 46-48 hours are the most
important for a medical company to be in because beach units follow up. The
first glider to come in started echelon treatment at least 36 hours earlier than
if the whole company had come in by sea. It is a good morale factor for combat
troops, because wounded immediately start asking for doctors. Word soon got to
them that there was a hospital operating in which they could deal with
everything. Another advantage of airborne medics is that they can carry much
more elaborate equipment than a glider and except for my group the others did
not recover any of their equipment that had been dropped. I definitely think
that if we drop a parachute platoon, it should be dropped with our Division
Headquarters altogether rather than split up with regiments, because then we
should have enough personnel to start operating 2nd echelon medical
care.
I had contact with our Divisional Surgeon who
was with our company throughout the operation. He came in seaborne at 11 o'clock
on D-day. We had roughly 351 of the men who had been with us since activation on
15 August 1942, since when they had been functioning with medical groups. Most
of them were older men, about 32, 33, or 34, and not physically qualified as
parachutists, and that accounts for limited personnel who could be used to jump.
We were all glider outfits until last November when we qualified one platoon.
There were no physical limitations for glider troops. Only about 8-10 men had
any degree of technical training out of 45. One man was a medical technician,
and he was actually skilled. They had more than basic training because they were
trained as soon as we knew we were to come in by parachute.
The functions of the 10 men with whom I jumped: We had broken down our
numbers into two 2-man teams as litter bearers, but that was impossible to
adhere to owing to the nature of the terrain, so 6 or 7 men were litter bearers
and two were in the operating room. 1 was a runner and acted as liaison man with
Regimental and Divisional headquarters, which was about three quarters of a mile
away. Originally we had planned on the basis of 15 men but that came down to 10
as previously described, when 5 of my men were sent down to Carentan. Three of
them joined up with the Chaplain mentioned previously and treated 50-60
casualties, chiefly cleaned up wounds, out on sterile dressings and gave plasma
and morphine when necessary. Each man jumped with two units of plasma on his
person.
The enlisted men carried in their equipment,
among other things: Two units of plasma carried on their right leg in a canvas
bag; modified marine kit; several debridement sets; two sterile hemostats,
sphymanometer, pair of scissors, [scalpels] (each kit contained two or three);
about 100 4"x4" dressings; a can of alcohol; 20 morphine ampules; four wire
splints; tetanus toxoid; 30cc valve; bottle of Novatox (British type of
Novacain); gas gangrene anti-toxin; aspirins; sodium amytl; container full of
sterilized vaseline gause. These are only some of the items carried in their
equipment.
I jumped with 200 lbs of equipment on my
person but did not use any of it due to the fact that we recovered our bundles
which we started using almost immediately. If I had been isolated from my group
and had not recovered my bundle, then I am certain I would have found use for
everything I had. My bundle contained everything that the enlisted men's did,
plus some extra instruments. In addition, I carried records, station logs,
soaps, etc. Except for a package of sterile instruments, all operating
instruments were in the bundle dropped from plane.
4
By D plus 1 all of us were already operating and
we operated continuously four operating tables in the chateau until the night we
were bombed.
I put one man and four litter bearers as
the litter part of the 15 men. Another man in charge of the treatment section.
The treatment section was divided up into two men as orthopedic assistants and
these know something about plaster; two enlisted surgical assistants, one an
anesthetist, one in charge of sterilization, who was to keep all instruments
sterilized around the operating room, two men as sick room attendants to take
care of the casualties.
Our French farmhouse was
typical of that part of the country, built in U-shape with stables, garage,
etc., connecting with the living quarters. We told the family we were going to
start a hospital there and they moved everything out for us, except for their
one bedroom and a living room. They took us [as] a matter of course, but did not
seem particularly overjoyed. We set up operating room in the milkhouse which had
concrete floors, windows which could be easily blacked out, with a pump with
spring water. We set up a litter on two boxes and used that as an operating
table and set up sterilizers and arranged drugs around on shelves. We dropped
one bundle containing four litters. We only treated casualties in the milkhouse.
We used a living room for putting casualties on the floor on parachutes which
were collected by two of our men. They were very warn and are excellent for this
purpose. We used another room in the building which was originally the cider
room. Two other rooms also, which had been used at some time as stables, but not
recently. They had brick floors.
About 8 o'clock on
the afternoon of D-day, the jeep I had acquired from the Artillery company was
used to evacuate casualties. By 4 o'clock the next morning we had cleared out
all of our casualties and we were waiting for transportation to go back and join
our company. We did not rejoin the company, however, as a Division started
landing in a nearby field and there were a lot of casualties
there.
The glider casualties were rather more serious
than our first lot, which had consisted chiefly of fractured ankles and a few
gunshot wounds of the extremities. The glider casualties were mostly skull
fractures, and badly fractured legs and arms, and concussion. One man was dead
when he arrived. He had been picked up about 30 minutes after his injury with a
badly compounded fracture of the leg, but he had bled to death. He was a glider
pilot. Another glider pilot was evacuated to a company and died the following
day. He had a skull fracture.
The general nature of
wounded was small arms fire early on D-day, and after that about 50-50 shrapnel
and bullet wounds. We did not have penicillin in our kit. We would have had use
for it in several cases. It had not been authorized for our unit at all. There
was some available with the company, however, and this was used both locally and
mixed with sulfa powder.
The French people stayed out
of our way and left us alone.
We realized there was a
place for an airborne medical company during the first hours of the
assault.
We were very fortunate in getting the
surgical team we did. They were all volunteers and they were given choice of
82nd or 101st and they chose the latter. We had four men who were definitely
air-minded, and came with the idea of qualifying as parachutists. They were not
allowed to go to jump school so they used glider.
books
R E L A T E D B O O K S
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The Climatic Battle of WW II. 6/93, Simon & Shuster ISBN: 0671673343
Ambrose, Stephen E Band of Brothers:
E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest.
Simon & Schuster, (June 2001) 336 p. ISBN: 0-743-21638-5
Ambrose, Stephen E Citizen Soldiers:
The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944-May 7, 1945.
Simon & Schuster, (Nov 1997) 528 p. ISBN: 0-684-81525-7
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Arnhem 1944:
Operation "Market Garden" (Campaign No.24) 1993
96p. ISBN: 1855323028
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ISBN: 0977911705
Bando, Mark A 101st Airborne: The Screaming Eagles at Normandy. Zenith Press, (Apr 2001) 156 p.
ISBN: 0760308551
Bando, Mark A Vanguard of the Crusade:
The US 101st Airborne Division in WW II. The Aberjona Press, (June 2003) 320 p.
ISBN: 0971765006
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(World War II 50th Anniversary Series). Crestwood House, 48 pp May,1993 ISBN: 0896865681
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With the 101st Airborne from Normandy to Bastogne. Greenhill Books/Lionel Leventhal, (Sept 2001) 256 p. ISBN: 1853674656
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D'Este, Carlo
Patton: A Genius for War 1024 pp ISBN: 0060927623
De Trez, Michel
American Warriors: Pictorial History of the American Paratroopers Prior to Normandy
July, 1998, D-Day Pub, 212 p. ISBN: 2960017609
De Trez, Michel
Cpl Forrest Guth: E Company 506 PIR 101st Airborne Division (WW II American Paratroopers Portrait Series)
March, 2002, D-Day Pub, 56 p. ISBN: 296001765X
De Trez, Michel
Orange is the Color of the Day: Pictorial History of the American Paratroopers in the
Invasion of Holland April, 2004, D-Day Pub, 506 p. ISBN: 2960017633
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Invasion of Normandy 7/98, D-Day Pub, 200 p. ISBN: 2960017617
Devlin, Gerard S
Paratrooper! St Martin's Press, (P) c1976 ISBN: 0312596529
Gavin, James M.
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A Bridge Too Far 670p. ISBN: 0684803305
Webster, David Kenyon
Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D- Day and the Fall of the Third Reich 352p. ISBN: 0385336497
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