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On December 12, 1941 a surprise attack by Japan struck the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. The reason being that the U.S. stopped supplying Japan with oil, which they use to function. This attack resulted in 2403 Americans killed and 1000 wounded. This attack also led to the U.S. declaring war on Japan, the beginning of World War 2. The attack also had medical attention seeking issues like flash burns from the burning fuel oil, shock, gun wounds, and fractures.

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Midway Atoll, United States Minor Outlying Islands

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The Battle of Midway occurred from June 3-7 of 1932. The Japanese wanted to secure their place in the Pacific by removing the Pacific Fleet. Japan wanted to use Midway as a base to attack Pearl Harbor. The Battle of Midway didn't exactly face medical issues except flash burn that they got from explosions. Although there were also lots of infectious diseases going around like malaria, dysentery, and malnutrition.Though the diseases were resolved by hospital corpsman that provided critical medicare and stabilizing injuries with limited resources.

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PACIFIC ENCOUNTERS:
Island Memories of World War II
© 1987, East-West Center

MEDICINE

In the short term, World War II had obvious deleterious effects on island health; many people were killed, wounded or fell victim to endemic or alien diseases. Nevertheless, the war years were a medical threshhold. As with transportation, communication and other technologies, the modernization of medical practice in the Pacific can be traced in large measure to the war. Large concentrations of troops encouraged the application of public health methods and the development of new medicines to treat tropical afflictions. Tropical diseases such as malaria, filiariasis and yaws were, for the first time, attended to on a large scale, generating wide-scale public health measures not seen before in the islands. The visible effectiveness of new treatments on disfiguring ailments which had long plagued island communities was widely seen as evidence of the superior power of the military newcomers.
Epidemics
The massive contact of alien populations with one another fostered the transmission of diseases in both directions. Villages were large "reservoirs' of mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria or dengue fever which quickly moved through entire troop concentrations; while Islanders were infected with dysentery, measles and chicken pox. Residents of the central highlands of Papua New Guinea were the victims of a dysentery epidemic which swept westward killing perhaps 10,000 people.
Malaria
t was malaria, in particular, which caused military medical care to spill over to Islanders. Early in 1943, Australian and American battle casualties in Papua New Guinea numbered 7,752. Casualties from tropical diseases, however, totaled 37,360, including 27,892 cases of malaria. Troop movements also caused malaria to be introduced into some areas—New Guinea Highlands, for example, where it had not previously existed. Medical officers instituted a number of preventive measures which quickly lowered infection rates. These included the filling and oiling of standing water to destroy mosquito breeding grounds and the mass treatment of troops, workers and neighboring populations with atabrine. Malaria control required the training of Pacific Islanders to assist with the constant work of eliminating standing water or covering it with a film of diesel fuel.

Tatuba, Vanuatu (New Hebrides)
August 1943
A young boy sporting a sailor's hat submits to a dental examination by a military dentist. Many Islanders living near bases benefited from the sudden influx of modern medical care. This youngster's village was just offshore from the Allied Base on Espiritu Santo.

Hospitals and Clinics
In many areas military medical units spent more money improving the health of local populations than the entire annual budget of prewar colonial administrations. Major bases constructed temporary hospitals and clinics and staffed them with trained doctors, nurses and native medical practitioners.

Islander access to medical services varied from region to region. In some places, the military established native clinics specializing in treating yaws, ringworm, hookworm and tropical ulcers. On Tonga, U.S. Army medics conducted first aid and sanitation courses in Tongan villages in order to reduce the case load at the Army's 750 bed hospital.

The war fostered widespread demand for local clinics supplied with modern drugs and staffed with trained personnel. During and immediately after the war, many Islanders received training as medical orderlies, practitioners and dressers. People also acquired knowledge of preventive public health measures, especially those connected with mosquito control. Even though most Pacific Islanders today continue to practice traditional medicine, the war reinforced the desire for access to Western medicine, especially the "needless" used to give injections of antibiotics and other treatments known for their dramatic results.

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War in the Pacific NHP: Pacific Encounters

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PACIFIC ENCOUNTERS: Island Memories of World War II © 1987, East-West Center MEDICINE In the short term, World War II had obvious deleterious effects on island health; many people were killed, wounded or fell victim to endemic or alien diseases. Nevertheless, the war years were a medical threshhold.

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The Battle of Guadalcanal started on August 7, 1942 and went on until February 9, 1943. It was due to the Allied forces they formed against Japan. This hard battle was not only on land but also at sea and in the air. Some medical issues faced during this war were tropical infections. Since they were at war in the islands with hot humid air they came in contact with illnesses and diseases like malaria.

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The Solomon Islands Campaign: Guadalcanal | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

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After the US strategic victories at the Battles of the Coral Sea (May 7–8, 1942) and Midway (June 4–7, 1942), the Japanese Imperial Navy was no longer capable of major offensive campaigns, which permitted the Allies to start their own offensive in the Pacific.

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The battle of leyte gulf happened from October 23 -26, 1944. This had to be the biggest naval battle of World War 2. This battle was important for the U.S to take advantage of the struggling Philippines and secure control of the Pacific. By doing so the U.S is able to control the sea and liberate the Philippines. They had to face multiple medical issues like injuries from ship damage, tropical diseases, and the limited supplies for care.

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Gatsby port of the AMEDD History, Regiment, and Museum sites.

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The battle of Okinawa also known as the Operation Iceberg was the last major battle at sea of World War 2. This battle began April 1 to June 22, 1945. This was enforced so that the U.S could use one of Japan's last major islands. During this battle there were medical issues like injuries, endemic diseases particularly malaria, and starvation if cut from supply lines

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2/1/2023 By: G. Dennis Shanks, MD, MPH (COL [RET], USA)

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Historical Perspective: The Critical Role of Disease and Non-Battle Injuries in Soldiers Isolated on Pacific Islands During the Second World War

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This Historical Perspective discusses catastrophic casualties among U.S. and Japanese forces due to failed supply lines during World War II in the Pacific.

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Anzio, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, Italy

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The battle of Anzio was part of the Italian campaign from January 22 through June 5, 1944. The Allied forces staged this to bypass the strong German defenses and they were victorious. After some time of intense fighting they broke through the German lines. Some severe medical issues soldiers faced were gunshots wounds, malaria, and shock. To treat these conditions they used tourniquets to stop bleeding, medication for malaria, plasma and blood for shock.

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This article is about a reclaimed agricultural area in Italy. For other uses of Pontine, see Pontine (disambiguation).

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D-Day was a battle that lasted from June 6 until August 30, 1944. D-Day is known for marking the beginning of the liberation of western Europe from Nazi control. The Allied forces invaded Germany and this was considered the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany. This had to be the most significant war of World War 2. Although they defeated them there were some major medical issues. There was a large number of wounded soldiers with penetrating wounds, burns, fractures, and blast injuries. Treatments were treated by hospital corpsman as best as they could with the supplies they had.

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On the morning of June 6, 1944, Navy physician Lt. (j.g.) Frank Ramsey, Jr., and Pharmacist's Mate Third Class Byron Dary landed on Omaha Beach with the 6th Naval Beach Battalion.

Upon hitting the beachhead, the physician and hospital corpsman rushed to the aid of wounded Army personnel lying near a burning half-track. In minutes, the vehicle exploded spraying shrapnel across the battlefield and taking Ramsey out of the fight. With little protection against this onslaught, Dary dragged Ramsey to a foxhole and administered first aid. He then ran through machinegun and shellfire to aide a severely wounded Army colonel, all while being targeted by an enemy sniper.

Lt (j.g.) Frank Hall, of the 7th Naval Beach Battalion, was part of the initial assault on Omaha Beach when his landing craft was sunk three miles from the beachhead. Salvaging what medical supplies he could, Hall then swam through the cold ocean water to the distant shore. Despite extreme exhaustion and facing relentless enemy fire, Hall "resolutely" assumed command of the "medical work," leading the triage and attending to numerous casualties until they could be evacuated.

The dedication and devotion of these Navy medical providers stand out, but they were far from alone at the Battle for Normandy. From D-Day of June 6th, 1944 to the end of the battle on August 30, 1944, Navy Medicine played an unsung but vital role in what Gen. Dwight Eisenhower termed the "Great Crusade." Our physicians, hospital corpsmen, dentists, pharmacists could be found on ship and shore-serving aboard landing craft bringing the Army V Corps to the fight; aboard battleships, cruisers, and destroyers that pounded German fortifications and cleared the way into the beaches; and embedded with the 2nd, 6th and 7th Naval Beach Battalions on the fabled Omaha and Utah Beaches.

Frank Snyder, a hospital corpsman with the 6th Beach Battalion later remembered that the Navy's mission was simple: "Treat the casualties and get them wherever we could find safe cover for them."

This was not always an easy task under the extreme conditions of an active battlefield. These highly trained medical personnel were frontline medical support attending to an assortment of penetrating wounds to the head, face, neck, and extremities, and fractures, burns and blast injuries and serving as the crucial link to evacuation ships offshore-all under the barrage of high velocity small arms, and artillery fire. Armed with litters and unit medical kits, hospital corpsmen of the beach battalions administered first aid-battle dressing, tourniquets, morphine injections, applying casualty tags-and then moved the wounded down to the water's edge so they could be evacuated aboard landing craft heading back out to the transports. When that was not feasible, they sought shelter and set up aid stations above the high tide line.

"Sometimes we'd have four or five [casualties] stacked up along the sand there waiting for a landing craft that would come in and would take them," remembered Snyder. "By the afternoon of D plus 1 we weren't having too much of a problem anymore. The artillery fire was not being directed at them. It was being directed at the larger vessels."

"The biggest problem we had was a lot of casualties on the beach and trying to get them out of the way to keep track vehicles, and bulldozers, and tanks and trucks from running over the bodies that were laying up on the high-water mark," recalled Dr. Lee Parker, a physician with the 6th Naval Beach Battalion.

Once the battalions loaded the wounded aboard landing craft, they were transferred to specially equipped LSTs (landing ship, tanks) and APAs (attack transports) staffed by physicians and hospital corpsmen. Each LST had special brackets to accommodate up to 147 litters arranged in tiers three high on their tank decks. Here the casualties received emergency treatment after these ships unloaded their tanks and troops.

At Normandy, as in the Pacific Theater, LSTs were used heavily by Navy Medicine. Navy-led surgical teams could be found on some 16 LSTs specially designated as "emergency hospitals" off the coast of Normandy. Navy medical personnel could also be found aboard the 103 LSTs as ship's crew, helping to stabilize and evacuate over 41,000 casualties from Normandy's beaches to facilities in England.

Seventeen days after the initial landings at Normandy, the casualty evacuation system was working so smoothly that the naval beach battalions returned to England. Navy medical personnel would continue serving offshore in supporting role until August 1944.

In the end, Normandy was a successful military operation that came with great cost of life. It is estimated that over 29,000 U.S. service personnel were killed at Normandy. These numbers also included four Navy physicians, one dentist and 23 hospital corpsmen attached to LSTs, support ships and the beach battalions.

Navy Medical personnel at Normandy were awarded two Navy Crosses (including Dr. Frank Hall), five Silver Stars (including Pharmacist's Mate Third Class Byron Dary), 12 Legions of Merit (two physicians and 12 corpsmen) and 23 Bronze Stars (16 physicians and seven corpsmen).

In 2012, Frank Ramsey, the physician severely injured by flying debris on Omaha Beach, was awarded the Bronze Star in a ceremony aboard USS New Jersey. He was 96 years old at the time and would go on to live to the age of 103.

Throughout the operation, Navy Medicine did what it always has and always will-provide frontline medical care and support to our warfighters during the most trying moments. And few moments in our history were ever as big as Normandy.

"Hall of Valor." Military Times. Retrieved from: www.militarytimes.com
--Byron Dary Silver Star Citation. Retrieved from: https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/3961
--Frank Hall Navy Cross Citation. Retrieved from: https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/19206

Herman, JK. Battle Station Sick Bay: Navy Medicine in World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1997.

The History of the Medical Department of the United States Navy in World War II. Navmed P-5021. Volume 2. Washington, DC: GPO, 1953.

"Normandy Invasion." U.S. Navy Medical Department Administrative History, 1941-1945. Volume I. Narrative History Chapters IX-XVIII. (Unpublished, 1946).

Parker, Lee (1999, September 10). Interview conducted by J.K. Herman. BUMED Oral History Collection.

Snyder, Frank (1999, September 29). Interview conducted by J.K. Herman. BUMED Oral History Collection.

Story originally posted on DVIDS: Navy Medicine at D-Day: Stories of Valor and Sacrifice

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Navy Medicine at D-Day: Stories of Valor and Sacrifice

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On the morning of June 6, 1944, Navy physician Lt. (j.g.) Frank Ramsey, Jr., and Pharmacist's Mate Third Class Byron Dary landed on Omaha Beach with the 6th Naval Beach Battalion.Upon hitting the beachhead, the physician and hospital corpsman rushed to the,

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The battle of Hurtgen Forest first began on September 19, 1944 and ended on February 10, 1945. This war occurred because the U.S army wanted to secure the Roer River dams and continue their advance into Germany. Although the Germans made it a tough battle the U.S concluded with an Allied victory after many casualties on both sides. Though some medical issues the soldiers had to go through were conditions exacerbated by the environment, trench foot, combat fatigue, and nasopharyngitis. Treatment focused on immediate evacuation, field treatment, and later on outside treatment.

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Gatsby port of the AMEDD History, Regiment, and Museum sites.

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The battle of Bulge took place on December 16, 1944 through January 25, 1945. This happened due to the Germans launching a massive attack on the Allied Forces in Belgium during World War 2. Although the battle ended in victory for the Allied Forces there were some medical issues. During the war there were combat wounds which were treated by using available medical supplies, trench foot and frostbite which were also treated by removal of the frostbite to prevent further damage and Dankins solution.

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'That was our Fight-to Keep them Alive': Battle of the Bulge on its 80th Anniversary

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Retired U.S. Army Lt. Katherine Nolan, a frontline nurse with the Army's 53rd Field Hospital in Europe in WW II, gives an eyewitness account of her recollections of the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and Luxembourg between Dec. 16, 1944, and Jan. 25, 1945.

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Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 

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Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 

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The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki began August 6 through the August 9, 1945. This all occured due to the U.S bombing both Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War 2. There were immediate medical issues such as burns, radiation sickness that were treated with limited resources. Medical care was overwhelmed with the amount of people who needed medical attention.

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International Committee of the Red Cross

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70 Years on Red Cross Hospitals still treat Thousands of Atomic Bomb Survivors

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Prepared by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in cooperation with the Japanese Red Cross Society