What's wrong doctor? Pictures of German doctors, paramedics, nurses and hospitals.

[TabsTabs1964]

A little further away from the front, we found the field hospitals, organized by the Division's two medical companies (one motorized and the other horse mobile).


TABSTABS collection
The sign doesn't read too well, but you can see the red crosses.
Verwundeten Bunker Sanitäter



To transport the wounded, each Division initially had two columns of ambulances, each with between 30 and 35 ambulances, and from 1943 a single ambulance company. These ambulances could be used to transport the wounded from the rear.



Thus began the long journey home to the most fortunate

[TabsTabs1964]

The means of transport par excellence were ambulances (motor vehicle), although countless wheeled vehicles and horse-drawn sledges were used for this purpose during the Russian winters.



From the factory to the front. An ambulance transported by train to the east.



A curiosity not too used.



The well-known sleigh pulled by a panje horse.

This photograph is of a German doctor in which he describes that on a thick layer of straw and blankets there are one or two wounded lying down covered by another thick layer of straw and more blankets and quilts covering everything, especially the feet of the wounded.

About 6 - 10 km behind the front, often near a command post of the regiment were the Hauptverbandplatz, established by the medical companies of the divisions. Larger operations could be performed here under general anesthesia.

Hauptverbandplatz had two operating groups. A surgical group could treat about 25 seriously injured, 60 moderately injured or 120 slightly injured patients per day.

The next step was the Feldlazarett or Division field hospitals. An average of 20 - 25 km behind the front out of range of the enemy heavy artillery.

A field hospital had a capacity of 200 beds and, if necessary, up to 300 injured or sick patients.
They had the services of a hospital: specialist doctors, X-rays, dentists, pharmacies. Soldiers were treated in these field hospitals, and could be restored in no time.



It was time for ambulance drivers

[TabsTabs1964]

Despite the training there was always the possibility of having a car accident.



Both in the rear and in the front.











Phaenomen Granit



Steyr 440 Krankenwagen



Sometimes they got it for very little.



Other times you had to run away leaving the vehicle behind

[TabsTabs1964]

Drivers aren't just driving ambulances, as medical units had other light vehicles (many captured in western campaigns) in addition to trucks.


In a Chevrolet in France 1940.










TABSTABS collection






With this photo came these other two. Working in the operating room of this field hospital





But before we continue on to other hospitals, let's see what paramedics and doctors were taking to do their job.

[TabsTabs1964]

I can't find the right English word to name these boxes and chests of medical and surgical supplies. In German I have sometimes seen them described as "SanitäterKoffer" or "Arztkoffer" maybe something like "paramedic kit" and "doctor kit".

[TabsTabs1964]

I think it is a good time to remember that this is not the thread of an expert, but that I simply want to share images collected over the years, but presented as a story.
Please, the experts on the subject forgive my mistakes and freely correct as much as you think necessary.

[TabsTabs1964]

Before continuing the story, two images of German doctors treating a Russian boy the first (is quite well known), and an injured soldier, the second.





From the Feldlazarett, the wounded could be transported to reserve hospitals outside the war zone.
We must remember that It was a transit place from which the wounded were immediately moved further to the rear, to maintain their capacity. Those wounded after their operations and as soon as they could be transferred by ambulance, were evacuated west on "Lazarettzug" hospital trains that took them to places such as Vilnius, Riga, Königsberg, Lemberg, Lublin, Krakow, Warsaw……
There were also air evacuations from those feldlazarett near airfields, mainly using the eternal Ju 52, popularly known by German soldiers as Tante Ju (aunt Ju)

Let's start with the air evacuation. Although we all know the story of the desperate evacuation of the wounded from the airfields of the Stalingrad siege. It was a system that was used on the eastern front throughout the war.

[TabsTabs1964]

Now we will talk a little about the Hospital trains (Lazarettzug). In addition to the destinations that we have already mentioned, of course, their destination could also be any of the hospitals spread throughout the territory of the Reich, whose function was the convalescence of the wounded, until their recovery to return to the front, or be definitively declared discharged from the service when they become incapacitated for the service and are licensed.


Stretchers lined up in front of a hospital train

The Smolensk train station was very important in this matter, since for more than two years it was the starting point for hospital trains that evacuated tens and tens of thousands of wounded into the Reich.



A train arrivas at Smolensk Hauptbahnhof



Ambulances at smolensk train station



Smolensk.
In this image the stretcher bearers unload the wounded from the ambulances that bring them from the station. comes from a war front hospital. Almost certainly it is the hospital in front of the tank square with the signs and the Smolensk Hotel.



Another image of a wounded man arriving by ambulance from the train station to a hospital in this city.

[TabsTabs1964]

An average hospital train had twenty-two Wagons. The first six for lightly wounded, who could travel seated, six men for each compartment. Then another with the kitchens and dining cars and accommodation for the convoy staff; another of material and operations; and then nine for the seriously injured with ten bunks of three heights. The most seriously wounded were in the middle bunk, to make it easier (and less painful) to unload them. The official capacity of the train was 450 soldiers, but in emergency situations they could carry up to 1,500 on each trip.


A "full equiped" Lazarettzug

In each ten-bunk car, thirty wounded travel a paramedic, who changes the bandages, distributes the medication and puts and removes the wedgie potties or accompanies those who can get up to the toilet. Brakes and rattles that go unnoticed by a healthy traveler, here are accompanied by the moans of pain of the seriously wounded who feel every movement in the sutures of their wounds.


The Surgeon-in-Chief of the 606 hospital train speaks to an injured soldier.

Few operations are performed in the operating room car, only in emergency cases. When an injured person dies, his body wrapped in a sheet is taken to the material wagon, where he travels to the next stop on the route.
Each round trip lasts weeks and its route is several thousand kilometers, the routes vary greatly with the advances and reversals of the front.

In any case, and despite the pain and suffering of the wounded, the general feeling on the train is one of relief, since everyone knows that the war is over for them, they have survived and it will be months before their bodies heal from their wounds and are in a position to return to the front, or may not even have to return. It is a journey full of hope.

[TabsTabs1964]

One more clarification. From time to time, especially when I come to the topic of nurses, I will occasionally go to the movies and TV series that, in short, are part of our popular culture of knowledge of WWII. I hope you enjoy.
So I will start now.



Ed Harris, Major Konig lowers his curtain as his train stops at the level of a hospital train full of wounded, on his journey to Stalingrad (Enemy at the Gates, 2001)

The complete scene here:

YouTube