The Ninth Evac: Experiences in a World War II Tent Hospital in North Africa and Europe

Abstract

Dr Stewart, a resident in surgery at Roosevelt Hospital in New York in 1942, was called to active duty at the Ninth Evacuation Hospital, a reserve unit served by members of the staff of Roosevelt Hospital. He accurately recorded his adventures with the hospital as it mobilized at Camp Blanding, Fla, traveled to Camp Kilmer, NJ, sailed on a troop ship belonging to the Netherlands East India Company, and landed in Scotland. The Ninth Evac was installed in an automobile factory near Oxford, England, where it trained for a month. The hospital, minus equipment, then sailed from Bristol, England, on a New Zealand ship to Oran in French North Africa. On the way past Gibraltar the convoy was attacked by submarines, and the ship carrying the hospital equipment was sunk. After a time new equipment arrived, and the hospital treated the wounded of the American defeat at Kasserine Pass. Future